10.30.2008 Thursday: Spooky or Just Creepy

Picture of: me performing for the Halloween party at the social center on the other side of town. This is a screen-grab of the story I am posting Friday for Halloween. Details Friday.

Today I: drove daughter #1 waaay across town for her volunteer time with the dog agility show and drove back; picked up the rental car; post officed; banked; re did the set list for tonight; washed clothes; packed equipment; messed around with new cell phone insurance company sent me...it is broken, too. sheesh; drove waaay across town during rush hour, along with daughter #3 as my roadie; set up and performed a 50 minute storytelling set for the senior center (Hi Lisa!); lost my keys, daughter found them; as I was leaving the grounds, one Senior woman on the way back to her apartment said to me, "I am surprised that none of your daughters have run away from home when you tell stories like that. This was some experience." hehe; daughter #3 responded to me in the car that it is because of my stories that she would not run away; ate Wendy's dinner in the car while I waited for my fibro flare to pass; drove back across desert; looked at the video quickly; twittered; calling it a night.

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

10.29.2008 Wednesday: Updating Things

Picture of: me, interpreted as a "South Park" character (he's too skinny, tho). Pic courtesy of this website. My cellphone is missing, so I had to use something else today for the pic.

Today I: paid the co-pay and ordered my replacement phone from the insurance company; updated a number of directory pages at storyteller.net with the CD's of several tellers; got a nice Email from Antonio Sacre reading, "It was such an honor to perform with you..." from the Mesa Storytelling Festival; secured rental car for this weekend's engagements; talked with sponsor for Thursday night's storytelling show; twittered; was felled for a few hours by a fibro migraine; worked on a few audio and video files for publication on Friday; set up an appointment with a storytelling-coaching client for next week; post officed; traced down some order problems from the old store.

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

09.21.2008 Sunday. Cramped, Missing Travel.

Picture of: gate 8 at the Knoxville airport

Today I: slept in; checked Email; packed up my bags and boxes for the trip home; drove to the airport from Gatlinburg- freeways closed for construction- many detours; returned rental car; checked in bags and did the security thing; loaded on first tiny, small, little plane which pulled back from the gate just a few minutes late only to go get parked on the tarmac for a 30 minute air-traffic-control-hold. Umm, you couldn't NOT load us up after the traffic delay instead of making us wait on this cramped plane?; plane arrived late and I did not make my connection to Phoenix- bumped to flight two hours later; ate dinner in the airport and worked in the USAirways club for a while; boarded flight out to Phoenix and had uneventful four hours across the US; family met me in airport and youngest daughter ran to greet me as kind of a silly joke- older couple sitting in seats in waiting area were very touched by her gesture- giggle; drove home with stop for quick food; copying VHS video of corporate storytelling presentation this weekend to DVD's so I can edit it during down time over next few days; washing clothes now, repacking for trip in the morning and blogging to you
::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

09.16.2008 Tuesday: Travel Bug(ging me)

Picture of: the plane parked at Gate 20 that would carry us from Austin, TX to Phoenix, AZ

Today I: slept in a bit after yesterday's long coaching and corporate storytelling day; worked on Emails to clients back in Phoenix; packed up my belongings in my hotel room; cleaned up meself and checked out of hotel; had lunch at the local "casual dining" location; gassed up the rental car; drove to airport in Austin and turned in the car; wanted to poke AVIS in the eye for this crazy "automatic" charge of $14 if you drive less than 75 miles in your rental. They charge your card (holding that money) and *then* ask you if you bought gas so they can refund the $14 to you; checked in, did the TSA shuffle and hurried-up-and-waited at the gate; got bumped up to first-class; took the 2.5 hour flight back to Phoenix; wife and daughter #4 met me there and drove on back home; worked on a problem with delivery of an audio kit; did not respond to more echo-chambering storytelling stuff; ate dinner at home and took my family out for dessert; unpacked suitcase and found large, live beetle bug in my case- musta wanted to leave Texas; calling it a night.
::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

05.22.2008 Thursday: Catching Up

Picture of: front of thank you card my eldest daughter got from the owner when said daughter found wallet in parking lot at work and turned it in. Owner was, apparently, profoundly happy to have her wallet back.



Today I:In the last few days I: have missed updating you; had a bad FMS day and fell behind a bit; Twittered; wrote blog posts; bought airlines tickets to multiple destinations; talked with sponsors on the phone; booked school shows; didn't book other shows; started an outline for the next book; had lunch with a person who might be able to do a cool workshop with me; had a huge, historic-type storm in AZ today; booked hotel reservations; booked rental car reservations; talked at length with other national storytellers; called the A/C guy to come fix my air conditioner; chased my kid's rats out of my office (you didn't expect that one); drove around parking lots with learning-to-drive learner's permitted child; ordered pizza; re-evaluated and made some tough decisions and started to move forward; thanks for being with me on this blog-more to come; happy birthday to my brother Mike.

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com

05.11.2008 Sunday: Mother's Day FlyOver

Picture of: the sign at the gate of the Austin airport. The flight was actually delayed about 30 minutes, but hey, who is counting?

Today I: took in a few extra winks of sleep; packed up my things and checked out of the hotel; ate lunch at Denny's next door with many families celebrating Mother's Day; returned the rental car; hurried up and waited for the plane to take me home; flew across the southwest, collected my things and made my way home; hung out for a few moments at my mother's house for the tail end of the family party; sent and email to a corporate storytelling client; took a nap; wrote an article for Storytelling Magazine; chatted with Dianne on one of them late night phone calls; made a huge giant commitment to a new program that will open up new horizons, I believe; happy Mom's day to the mother of my children and also to my mother. I love you both.

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

04.26.2008: The Family That Parties Together...

Picture of: the table at a family party today.

Today I: returned the rental car; participated in a family party; got beat over the head with my FMS; watched the Depp "Sweeney Todd-" much better than I had hoped for; not a good storytelling business day, but these days are okay, too, considering I will be 24/7 Monday-Wednesday.




::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

04.25.2008 Friday: Hot Dog

Picture of: the "world's most wanted wiener" cup.

Today I: picked up a rental car for a few projects; had an early lunch with daughters #3 and #4- daughter #4, who we have nicknamed Miss Adventure, was fascinated to find out there were fast-food places that specialized in just hot dogs-hilarity ensued; had a coaching session with a corporate storytelling client helping him to fine-tune his story of his business success so far followed by lunch with same client. Great session with a client who really understands how corporate storytelling works. Coaching people is both "drawing out" and "adding in" if the two are that different; waded through Emails; worked on itinerary changes for next week's trip; listened to some of the huge stack of CD's I need to go through; late dinner with family.

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

04.17.2008 Thursday: There and Back Again.

Picture of: my visitor pass for my wandering around the halls of the middle school.

Today I: engaged again in the "ruouching our" to arrive at my school shows; got to the school way earlier than I planned on; at fast-food breakfast while killing an extra hour before going to the school; presented one classroom event for the 8th grade boys; second show was postponed until Monday for the 6th graders- communication error at the school so I will do two combined groups (250 kids) instead of the split group today; worked on invoice for another sponsor; went to the post office; took one of my kids out to buy shakes for two of my kids at the gas station- the shakes at the gast station not my kids at the gas station; poured more money into the gas tank of my car; reflected on the next book I am going to write; extended the "great purge" of old Storyteller.net directory pages to next weekend; realized I need to responed to the emails I am getting about my silences;

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

04.15.2008 Tuesday: Earn. Tax. Spend

Picture of: the school sign outside the school where I am working a few days over the next week.

Today: got up to engage in what some people call "roush our" to drive to the above mentioned school along with more cars than I usually see; misjudged my time to leave and ended up really really early to the school; went to Star$s for coffee and making lists; went to the school and was the guest storyteller, worked with 8th grade boys (13-14 years) and then with mixed group of 6th graders (11-12 years)- will rinse and repeat several times on Thursday and next Monday; had lunch with teacher who booked me; came home and sent note to my Uncle Samuel to send me some of my money back; researched stories for upcoming shows; prepared contract for another sponsor; took cold medicine to burn away this cold that's coming; am planning on sleeping through the rest of this evening
::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

04.14.2008 Monday: Guest Storyteller Speaker

Picture of: the campus at Glendale Community College, AZ where I was filling in as a guest speaker for a Storytelling 101 class.

Today I: made copies of workshop materials; had a staff meeting; picked up the rental car (I am at the highest super-duper First preferred service with Avis); ran said copies to Kinko's for more copying; worked with wife #1 to make handout packages; travelled to and did a guest speaker/sub teacher visit for a community college storytelling (read that "humanities credit") class; read with great interest the postings on the wall of elementary school teachers-to-be- I hope you aren't burned out of your enthusiasm in less than a year, my friends; dealt with a temperamental Internet connection at home; did the post office run; decided to take an extension on my 1040; researched for reminding some Greek myths; worked with my wife to pick up 8 brooms for the storytelling classes this week; missed the Arizona Storytelling Guild meeting; printed out maps and GPS for the school(s) I am working with this week; Twittered; picked up meds from the drugstore. Glad they are open at 10PM.

:C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

04.11.2008 Friday: In. Voice.

Picture of: some returned mail, with those nifty yellow address updates that the post office provides.

Today I: spoke with clients on the phone; arranged billing for a client; sent purge letters to storyteller.net basic page members; post office run; updated my mailing list- do you know the three major divisions you need in your mailing lists? I do.; talked Robert Frost with another student in my degree program; packed up some storytellingproducts.com orders; booked a rental car; transported kids around; chased a "scary" bug out of daughter #3's room; sent a contract to a client; answered a lot of email; watched BSG.

::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::

04.01.2008 Tuesday: Moving On

Picture of: my friend Gina who is very excited about the cookie she is going to eat.

Today I: returned the rental car I had to use this weekend; worked on a new mailing to western states; met for lunch with Gina- a young woman who was in one of my youth groups many many years ago and is now moving on to exciting new out of state adventures with her husband (best of luck Gina- this is exciting); reviewed Emails from a corporate storytelling sponsor and ran them through my "interpret, express, integrate" process to create a basic proposal idea for them; went to the bank and the post office; took daughter #1 to work and back again; found my GTD notebook and began a fresh new mind sweep; created new voiceover scripts for David Ian Davies to record for the upcoming podcast beds- David does BRILLIANT audiobooks of Sherlock Holmes stories; spoke on the phone with the sponsor for Wednesday's school shows; didn't send out expiration notices to Storyteller.net members as I was afraid they'd take it as an April Fools jokes; reviewed all of my 2008pics.com postings and realized I have so far met my goal of # of postings- yay me.
::C2008. Picture blog for storyteller Sean Buvala ( www.seantells.com). My written blog is at www.seanblogs.com::