Weekend Decompress
It was an awesome weekend. I met some old friends of Sarah Irene’s, got to spend time with some old friends of mine, saw Transformers (again!), Got to go to Downtown Disney and eat at T-Rex , I spent some time with Sarah, and had a great day at Common Ground.
Of course the weekend was also a little kooky. I had to drive back and forth from Tampa to Orlando twice, I got very little sleep, I had to redo all the Announcement slides for Common Ground (3 times and they STILL did not work on time), and I bumped into some old friends who I had rather not seen.
So if you’d like to find out the REST of the story…
FRIDAY
- Sid and I drove over to Orlando to pick up some of her old friends who were in town for a conference.
- We picked, them (Mom + Dad + 2 kids) up and headed to Downtown Disney to eat at the T-Rex Cafe.
- After an hour wait (which included a stop at LEGO Imagination Center and the Disney Store) it was time to experience T-Rex.
- If you haven’t visited T-Rex Cafe …it’s amazing. Animatronic dinosaurs and some amazing staging and lighting.
- Every 20 minutes there was a meteor shower…CRAZY!
- The food was good, although a little pricey. Worth a once in a lifetime try…but McDonald’s is next door and a better value for Disney.
- After dinner we walked around a little, visited the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company, got our free sample, and then headed back to the hotel.
- We dropped off Sarah’s friends and then headed back to Tampa ourselves.
SATURDAY
- Sarah and I both got up early to clean up the house a little, because we had a friend coming over to take care of the puppies for us.
- Afterwords, Sid went to her weekend job, and I headed BACK to Orlando for breakfast at the home of some old friends of mine and Sid’s: Jim and Pam Fenoff.
- I’ve said this before: Jim Fenoff taught (and still teaches me) everything I know about video editing, and the world would be a much better place is they had a friend like Pam Fenoff…her cheesecake has supernatural healing powers!
- Breakfast was nice and then Jim and headed over to see Transformers 2 in IMAX. Was it worth the extra $$? Yes and No. It was BIGGER, but it wasn’t as amazing as I had expected…but still very, very, very cool.
- After the movie, Jim took me to his studio and spent about an hour showing me how to use Adobe Premier Pro…I’m having to start using it to edit. It truly is amazing.
- We finished the tutorials and it was time for me to head home.
- I’ve been listening to 20,00 Leagues Under the Sea, so I have enjoyed all the drive time.
- Sarah came home a little late and then we both crashed hard!
SUNDAY
- Morning came REALLY early…really!
- I went over to pick up Dave and then we headed to church…and I am SO glad I got there early.
- Part of my responsibilities is to make sure that the sound, lights, and video are up and running before anyone gets to church. Usually not an issue. The lights, sound, and video projectors were spot on. Then I opened PowerPoint to adjust the slides…
- And all I saw were big white boxes with a red ‘x’ in them. And that means trouble.
- Apparently, there is a problem somewhere, and the Announcement slides were compromised. So they had to be rebuilt.
- After 2 1/2 hours, it was time for church, and the slides were STILL not done. So, we launched the service with what we had. And then I discovered that whatever was affecting the PowerPoint was ALSO affecting the MediaShout.
- So, as the church service progressed, I fixed what I could and tried to stay ahead of the service. It was CRAZY!
- Once we got to the pastor’s message, I had time to put the finishing touches on the PowerPoint slides. And then put the announcement slides at the end of the service.
- I can honestly say that I had not had a service that difficult in well over a year! but then again, I have almost been out of church work for a year, so I guess it all works the same.
- After church, I came home and immediately fell asleep on the couch. My brain was FRIED. When I say that I rebuilt the PowerPoint slides, I mean ‘from scratch’. I had to FIND the pictures, DOCTOR them in PhotoShop, and then PLACE them into PowerPoint. I was over stimulated and my brain was frazzled…so I crashed.
- Sid came home and then we went to the Sunday Night Grocery Store Run and grabbed a little dinner.
- We came home and after a could hours of TV, crawled into be for the night.
- I slept like a rock!
