Now that I’m home again, people keep asking me, “Where’s your next trip?” I honestly don’t know. After four months of the last five in Europe, it’s simply good to be done traveling for a while. (I hope you enjoyed traveling with Cameron via this blog the last couple of weeks as much as I did. Thanks, Cameron, for packing us along.)
I’m overdue for a blog entry. Why the delay? I’ll blame my email taskmaster. As my friends and family know, if you want me to do something, give it to me in an email. My inbox is my taskmaster. For example, here’s a few of the tasks that fill my inbox and assure me I’ll have something to do tomorrow morning at work:
1. My radio and Web staff sent me the list of audio files deconstructed from our radio show archive, which we’ll design into our vision of “tour guide radio.” We’ll offer the various interviews from our radio programs in country-by-country “playlists” for listeners’ enjoyment on the road. I need to write the file titles and descriptions.
2. We’re producing a new public television pledge special. Its working title: “Mediterranean Hopscotch.” (I like the name because it sounds fun and we’ll hopscotch from Barcelona to Istanbul, but some of my staff thinks it sounds too much like Scotland.)
3. The production cost from our presenting station seems high, and we need to haggle a bit on that.
4. I’m giving a talk next month in Fort Smith, Arkansas. My travel agent assures me a 50-minute connection in Dallas between here and there is safe. (I’m nervous, but you have to rely on the airlines, and they have yet to let me down — thank Wilbur, Orville, and God).
5. I have a newspaper article due in two days (a weekly chore) and my staff has submitted the raw material from my recent Frankfurt trip with past writing on the city from which to distill the 750 word piece.
6. I’m giving a talk about “community in Europe” for a fundraiser breakfast supporting the adult day care program. A script for the Elder Health video that I’ll read is ready to review.
7. Alison of the ACLU, who met with Obama’s drug czar (former Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske) and our congressman (Jay Inslee), shares the letter the ACLU gave them explaining why they believe we should treat drug abuse more as a medical problem and less as a criminal one.
8. I’m giving a talk at our state legislature in Olympia in a couple of days sharing with our legislators how European drug policy compares with America’s. The ACLU sent me some PowerPoint slides referring to the law being discussed in Washington State to incorporate into my presentation.
9. I want to have a single DVD packed with general budget travel material in a simple cardboard package that we can spread around liberally. An email explains the extra cost for a four-hour disk rather than a standard three-hour one.
10. Ab Walet, my favorite guide in Amsterdam, has confirmed that he’ll meet some friends rain or shine for a city tour (by bike if they like) at their downtown Amsterdam apartment. They’re taking our Spain/Portugal tour next month and overnighting in Amsterdam for a crazy finale. It’s their first time there — and I want to be sure they max out on the experience given their limited time. So no museums…just Ab, bikes, and four hours exploring the city capped by a big Indonesian dinner.
11. Sayed, our guide from Iran, emailed me saying, “I hope some better days come up so you can bring tours to Iran.”
12. Class sign-ups for our teach-a-thon this weekend at the Edmonds Theater are looking good. I always push to overbook by about a third, which makes my events director nervous. But we almost always have no-shows, causing empty seats. My new classes: a general “What’s New Review After 2009 Travels,” and much-improved shows on Spain and Scandinavia after the fun I had there this year.
13. Another email gives me the files for class handouts listing all the places covered in the talks, which need to be updated accordingly.
It’s a lot of work. But I’m so endlessly entertained by it all. That’s why I have such a cozy relationship with my sweet Taskmaster Inbox.
Rick when you come to Ft. Smith if you have time see “The Hanging Judge’s” museum. Back in the 1880’s when bad guys roamed the Oklahoma territory they were brought over to Ft Smith to the Hanging Judge Parker’s court who was not afraid to hang them. The newspapers started calling him that. He was actually very just toward the outlaws and tried to help the victims. He has certainly gone down in history.
Dang. I’m tired just reading all the things you have to do.
Ok ,as a unpaid blogger, I would call the show “Mediterranean Meanderings” – Cheesey yes. But to the point. Anyone else have any ideas?
What about “Mediterranean Odyssey”?
Just reading your list of to do’s is exhausting. I don’t know how you keep it up. And how you and Anne spend time together when you are both on opposite vacation schedules! Good Luck!
Rick: When do you find time to get stoned?
Oh, my! Such a list. Where to start. I’d just want to sit down and cry. Maybe someone would give me everything for free and cheap then, so I don’t have to save money and pay for anything. I’m so loved and cute. It hurts others, but I don’t care.
Play nice Larry. Different folks have different types of stress.
Rick is so lucky to have in-house managers like Deanna to run the week-to-week business. She has one of those 3 name sequences I always mix up: Deanna Russell Woodruff or Woodruff Russell.
Rick Steves, slacking off as usual.
I like to use my inbox in the same way! I even send emails to myself so that things get in my “to-do list”! :)
Rick. . My wife and I have made innumerable trips to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Poland. Indeed we are making another this Christmas! We would no more thinking of going abroad without your advice and guidebooks tucked under our arms than we would leave without clean underwear! We live in Fort SMith, and if there is a chance to hear you live, even meet you, the I will move heaven and earth to be there. Tell me where and when, and I will pray that I have not missed it yet! We have so much to thank you for!