Happy Sunday!
I’m back in NYC and have been here since Thursday night after a hectic week. I left Birmingham on Sunday afternoon and arrived at LaGuardia only to be picked up by my buddy Tyler. He swung by as if he was a veteran Uber driver and we headed from Queens into the East Village. We found him a reasonable $50 parking spot and headed into my apartment.
After I gave him the 8 second tour we popped out for a slice of pizza and a beer at my local spot, Two Boots Pizza. It was so great to show someone around my neighbourhood and after we grabbed a couple beers at some more local stops, it was time for bed. Ty was a champ and accepted the air mattress ( I still have no couch) like a champion, and we both got a reasonable night’s sleep.
Monday morning we woke up early, grabbed some coffees, then Ty was off for his meetings in Jersey and Rhode Island (aka tons of stressful driving and important pitch meetings in between). If you ever want to learn about successful entrepreneurship, how to build a business while being a great family man, or how to skate extremely fast, I suggest you talk to Tyler Derraugh.
After Ty left I worked from home (my bed doesn’t make the greatest desk) before heading back to LaGuardia for my flight to Atlanta in the evening. This week our team gathered at the firm’s office in Atlanta just in case big things happened during the massive launch of this project (on May 1st) which was two years in the making! Everything went pretty smoothly so we were able to enjoy our evenings: one at Top Golf Atlanta (I won our team’s game), and one at a larger team dinner at a fancy steakhouse (I ordered a baked potato and mushrooms).
I’m still learning a ton about the project, especially about the dynamics of all of the people involved. Between the client, the vendor, other consultants, and consultants from my firm it can be a bit of a challenge. Thankfully my team is awesome and after having every meal with me all week, they’ve nicknamed me Tofu Mike. You can’t make this stuff up. Luckily I was able to squeeze in a couple runs in Atlanta’s Piedmont Park which is nice and close to our hotel.
This weekend was amazing. A work happy hour on Friday setup an early bedtime for me which was more than welcomed after the week of travel. Saturday I met up with some Winnipeggers for a Yankees game which was amazing as it was such a beautiful day and we had sun-basked seats in the outfield bleachers. Although the Yankees lost, we had a couple beers then headed to their rooftop in the FInancial District which had amazing views, before watching the Kentucky Derby and grabbing dinner. I was VERY happy to head home around 9:30 for an early Saturday night.
Sunday I got some work and chores done before heading to Brooklyn on the subway to meet up with a friend. We were supposed to head to Prospect Park but it was very rainy so naturally we hit up Threes Brewing and had a really fun time sampling a couple pints. Now I’m back home and packed up for a busy two weeks of travel and work ahead.
I’m back to Atlanta tomorrow on the 6am flight until Wednesday when I fly to Dallas for training. Our firm has a training centre outside of Dallas which is supposed to be wicked so I’m looking forward to hanging out with people I don’t get to see regularly, learning lots, and enjoying good food.
Friday, instead of flying back to NYC, I’ll be flying to Winnipeg for an unexpected funeral of my late second-mum Betty-Anne. Really sad to hear of her passing, but I’m looking forward to celebrating her life among people who were impacted by her as much as I was.
After Winnipeg, I’m not sure where I’ll be flying, but likely back to Atlanta or somewhere in Texas. Not only is this a busy time for the project, but a girl on our team is out on vacation for two weeks and I’m picking up lots of her responsibiloties so I need to be on my game.
Time for sleep. Thanks for reading.
Mike