I've been away.....

Before you get all mad, I had a good reasons to be away for so long. I have been losing focus.

Since last Wednesday, I have been hyped. We have a date for the arrival of baby. Between last Wednesday until tomorrow, 1 week later, my wife could have gone into labor at any time. With every vibration of my 2 BlackBerrys I sat on the edge. Was this going to be the phone call, text, instant message that will mark the arrival of labor pains, or a goodbye to my wife's water. All of these things would warrant my immediate departure from work.

These things never came. My mind was elsewhere at work. My sales goals are untouched. Out of the huge goal I have sitting in front of me, I have barely made a dent in them. I haven't tried. My mind was pre-occupied. Understandably, but it doesn't help. It was on Friday when I butted heads with a manager I usually have a good relationship with. That's when I really freaked out. It was 4 days into the month, I had almost all zeros on the board when he looked at me and said, "you are better than this". He had a look of disgust on his face. His #1 sales guy, was in the crapper. I have lost focus. My drive was gone. My ambition was gone. I was ready to see my new child.

My managers are pretty understanding. They didn't hassle me too much, so I unplugged from the blog, I unplugged from twitter [not cutting myself from that too much, but reduced my input], and unplugged from full time Facebooking. I needed to focus on my family and career choice.

This is the reason for me being a recluse from my blog.

I have a ton on my brain as a result. I am in the process of scheduling out some posts because I'm pretty sure I will not have time to do blogging for the rest of the week.

While I was away, some great things happened. I won some stuff and got fan mail.

What I won:
Not sure if you remember, but I won a Cleveland's a Plum t-shirt from Alexa from Cleveland's a Plum. I am forever grateful for this! Thanks again Alexa.

But there is something going on in the blog world that 2 bloggers from Cleveland were recipients of. Brand About Town selected 2 of my favorite Cleveland bloggers to be Gap Brand Enthusiasts. That basically means they get a bunch of free shit from Gap and get to throw a party to give it all away. Sometimes they send you so much stuff, that the awesome bloggers they are get to give stuff away to their readers who didn't get invited to the party.

For a long time I have been following Chef's Widow, who is the wife of Cleveland chef Jonathon Sawyer of the Greenhouse Tavern. Her blog has become one of my stops in my daily routine blog reading. Her adventures of moving have been hilarious, and her insight of what her husband's success in the culinary world by being named Bon Appetite's top 10 Restaurants in America. When she got her free stuff from Gap to give away, she threw a party for her restaurant. She gave all the stuff to her staff. She thanked them for being there for her.

So when she had a ton of left overs, she gave it away to us, the readers.

I am glad to say that I won!! I won a pair of Gap Jeans! First a t-shirt, now some jeans. How awesome!

So thank you Chef's Widow can't wait to try them on!

Don't worry, I will get photos of my Cleveland blogger prize pack!

What I got from a Fan:
Well a good friend of mine who is NOT a fan of blogs, but IS a fan of my podcast recently visited me at my day job. He walked in and gave me a package. I quickly opened it and out came a t-shirt.

George is the drummer of a Cleveland metal band Morality Check. They will be making an appearance on the podcast soon. George and I go way back. He went to high school with my older brother and he and I have stayed in touch throughout the years. I have been to his house many a night rocking to Guitar Hero with a bunch of other friends. My avatar is awesome.

So when I saw George that day in my store handing me a package with a t-shirt, I was interested as to what would be on the shirt. He often makes fun of me for blogging as much as I do, but not in a malicious way, just in jest.

I laughed when I saw the shirt.
How awesome is that?! Thanks George! Can't wait to have the band on my show!

If you haven't already, make sure you get your times in for tomorrow's side bet on the baby pool. Make sure you read the comments and see what everyone else has said! Also, if you would like to stay updated, I will be twittering I'm sure during the labor. Follow me on Twitter to keep in the loop.