Where in the world am I today?: St. Thomas -> Newark, NY -> Toronto, ON -> Vancouver, BC!

No two ways about it… Today will be a very long day of travel for me. Up to clear customs and Immigration in St. Thomas around 7:00 am. Time for some breakfast, then the short jaunt from the EMERALD Princess to the Airport in St. Thomas. Continental Flight 1883 from St. Thomas to Newark, New York. Air Canada Flight 771 from Newark to Toronto and finally Air Canada Flight 151 from Toronto to Vancouver. I’m ‘scheduled’ to arrive at 00:47 am on Friday morning. And lets not forget that there’s a three hour time change which will make that 00:47 am feel more like 3:47 am when I arrive… Hmmm… Fun! Then clear immigration in Vancouver, grab my bags (hopefully they’ll all arrive) and the cab ride home… If I get home by 2:00 am I’ll be doing well making it about a twenty-two hour commute…

I’ve gotten pretty good at going into ‘travel mode’ and living through days like these. I can usually get some sleep on the flights which I’m very thankful for. I’ll often stubble across a free wifi connection at an airport that I can tap into for a quick email-check. I’ll also look after the admin-type paperwork that I do after every gig – a thank you letter to the cruise line for the opportunity, the reimbursement form to go along with the excess baggage charges that I can never see to avoid, along with a thank you to my agent for the gig in the first place. I always have my iPod on hand to listen too and am slowly working through a series of podcasts by Alan Cross called ‘The Ongoing History of New Music‘ which are great.

I view these travel days as a chance to shift gears as well because my reality when I’m on a cruise ship is significantly different than my existence when I get home. This trip in particular for a variety of reasons will have me hitting the ground running upon my return. Birthdays, and wedding anniversaries, and prep for Christmas etc… There’ll be no shortage of things to keep me hopping upon my return.

I had a couple of great conversations with hypnotist/mentalist Joshua Seth and his wife Suzie while I was aboard the EMERALD Princess… They were nice enough to come and watch a couple of my shows in the Piazza over the run and seemed to have a long list of questions about how to make it all work when balancing a family and a performance career. It was funny to be considered some sort of authority on the subject, but I think really all they were after was a performer’s perspective because they’re talking about starting a family and wanted to get a bit of a sense of what they were getting into… I didn’t really have a simple answer beyond… This statement…

“Somehow it all works.”

• Is it ideal to leave my family for three weeks to do a couple of cruise ship contracts? – No.
• Could I stay in Vancouver and still survive as a performer? – Maybe.
• Am I able to keep things fairly balanced between family and career? – I hope so…

Life tends to be messy and there are no absolutely right answers to questions like the ones above, but I work reasonably hard to craft a scenario that works reasonably well for all of the parties involved – Me, my wife and my kids. Being away allows me to make a decent enough living so that the home team is well provided for. When I am home I try to be there for my wife and kids and save up work on various projects (when possible) to do while I’m away. It’s not perfect, but I try to approach all aspects of this imperfect reality with a positive outlook and an enthusiasm which seems to smooth any rough edges reasonably well…

So… A twenty-two hour commute today. Not necessarily the way I’d most like to spend the day, but after three weeks away from Emiko, Koji and Owen, I’m very much looking forward to getting back to the happy chaos that is life at home!