Hello I'm Rich Brown and this is my personal website and blog. I'm just your simple, average, down to earth, professional, out gay man and aspiring circuit boy, living in Phoenix, Arizona with a few things to say while trying to find my place among all the scary, conservative, religious nuts in this sick and twisted world.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Still Recovering
I haven't posted in a few days because frankly I've been recovering from San Diego. Yes, it's taken me this long to recover. As much fun as we always have, these world-wind party weekends just completely wipe me out for days afterwards. I'm finally starting to feel normal again and have almost gotten back into a regular sleep schedule, if that's really possible.
While I've always provided many photos and given a little detail around the events of our party weekends I've never really touched on why they are so draining for us. It's probably pretty obvious that when you dance for hours upon hours you're going to be tired, but there's actually a little more to it then that. It's not really the physical activity so much that wipes us out, but rather the lack of sleep.
Typically Justin and I try to do as much as possible which usually means VIP passes, After-Hours parties, and relatively little sleep if any throughout the weekend. Now you might ask yourself why we would put ourselves through this but it's really a simple answer. We don't want to feel like we're missing out on anything. I always tell everyone "You can sleep when you're dead!" If we travel somewhere for a party, then we're damn well going to get every penny's worth. Be it the White Party Palm Springs, Black & Blue in Montreal, One Mighty Weekend in Orlando, or San Diego Pride, Justin and I always try to make the most of every weekend and attend nearly every event. While the rest of our friends stopped subscribing to our insanity a while ago, they usually participate as much as possible but tend to head home well before we're finished.
In the case of San Diego Pride and the parties our weekend went something like this ...
Friday night was the Harbor Dance Cruise where we stayed from 9 PM until around 2 AM on Saturday morning. We went back to Tony's got some sleep and got up around 9 AM on Saturday morning for the pride parade. We went to the parade, walked to the pride festival, hung out at the festival and then walked back to Tony's around 6 PM. We cleaned up, got ready and headed over to the Sports Arena for Circuit Daze at 10 PM where stayed until it ended at 6 AM. Following Circuit Daze Justin and I then headed over to the Bacchus House for After-Hours until 10 AM. We walked back to Tony's and by that time everyone was already starting to get up. We had some food, chatted and then got ready for the Zoo Party. We headed over to the Zoo Party around 4 PM where we stayed until 11 PM. We went back to Tony's to change and then headed to the closing party at 4th & B where we remained until 7 AM on Monday morning. Following the closing party we headed over to another friend's place where we hung out until around 11 AM before heading back to Tony's. Once we got to Tony's around noon, everyone was getting up and getting ready to head home. We chatted at bit, packed up and then headed out on our 5 hour drive back to Phoenix around 6 PM. We arrived at home in Phoenix around Midnight on Monday night.
So basically from the point we we got up on Saturday morning, we did not get to sleep again until Monday night. While many of you think this is probably pretty crazy, it's actually not too difficult to do with an hour power-nap here and there throughout the weekend, and it really makes a single weekend feel like almost a full week. But the downside to spending a weekend with very little sleep is that it usually takes almost a full week to fully recover once we're back home.
So what that said, our next event is going to be a weekend in New York in September, and then on to 7-days for our Atlantis Mexican Riviera Cruise in October. This year is going to be remembered as one of the most jam packed party years that we've ever had and honestly, I'm loving every minute of it. Cheers.
You're going to have to let your readers in on how you can afford all this travel money and/or time-wise!
Me and my bf are lucky if we can go on one "real" vacation + one long weekend vacation a year. We can afford it money-wise, but time away from work is more the issue. He has limited vacation time and while I'm self-employed, it is a real ordeal for either of us to be away from work more than a couple of times per year.
So what's the secret? Not into the ciruit party thing, but still jealous with all these getaways! Haha.
|______________________________________________________________________ posted by zachary @ Thursday, August 02, 2007 12:49:00 PM
Well Zachary, good point here, perhaps I should write a post about this. My friends and I are all fortunate enough to be very successful in our careers which make it financially easier for us to be able to travel and attend these events. It also helps that we’re all geographically separated and someone either lives in a city we’re going too or knows someone with whom we can stay. When we do have to stay in a hotel we usually have a few of us to share a room, which makes the cost minimal for everyone.
As for the time off, most of us are also lucky enough to have the ability to take time off with our jobs. Jerry, Bernard and I are all self-employed so while we have to mind the needs of our clients it's easy for us to plan for time off because if we take time off we just don't bill and/or get paid. It requires a little advance planning and saving, but it’s certainly feasible. As for Justin and Philip, well they both have great corporate jobs, which give them a ridiculous amount of vacation and paid time off. It's actually easier for Justin to take time off then me because he gets paid for it.
The other perk for Jerry and I is that we can work virtually from anywhere, so if we do choose to go away or take a few days off we can take our laptops and work for our clients remotely.
My Mother reminds me that while I say I always feel like I’m bored and not doing anything, I do travel quite a bit and take a lot of small trips. I know we're all more fortunate than most people to be able to afford these events and have the ability to take time off for them but the reality of it is that most of our trips don’t involve a lot of money and are only long, usually holiday, weekends which span from Friday to Monday and don't require us to take very much time away. We do take a week or two away for other longer trips and events, but that’s not as common as our weekend getaways.
Sometimes I personally miss the 5 weeks of vacation, 10 holidays, and 10 personal days I received while working as a Vice President at Bank of America, but I gladly gave all that up for the flexibility, freedom and lack of stress I have today being self employed. I wanted to be self employed so I could have my own schedule and do the things I wanted like travel and live life.
I can understand if you don’t get much time off with your job, but if I was in the situation I would probably find another job. Life is too short for only 2 weeks of vacation a year. I really think Americans take work too seriously and let it run their lives. The Europeans have it right; they take time off, travel and enjoy life. We work to live, not the other way around and I wish people would remember that before it’s too late. As Americans, we bog ourselves down and think that our companies won’t function without us, which is simply not true. Nothing is too important that it won't still be on your desk after returning from a few days off. Technology offered the promise of simplifying our lives and making things easier for everyone, but it’s really only proved to make us feel connected 24/7 and believe that things cannot run without us.
I personally used to be a work-a-holic until my father died from cancer in 2000 at the age of 58. I realized then that all my father did was work his whole life and just when he was about to retire and enjoy life with my Mother it was all over. I swore at that point I was going to change the way I lived my life and enjoy it, so I did.
I believe that if you really want to travel and take vacation time, you can find both the means and way to do it. Remember, we only live once so we better make the best of it while we can right? Cheers!
|______________________________________________________________________ posted by Rich Brown @ Thursday, August 02, 2007 3:26:00 PM
