Archived Newsletter 2/22/2022

February Newsletter

Happy Winter Weather! Or is it Spring?

I don't know but it's raining heavily, my power was out this morning, and my yard has become little more than a mud pit.

Oh, the joys of the Midwest! LOL!

Oh, where am I right now? At home in the Chicagoland area, although I just arrived back from visiting my parents in Florida yesterday and am flying to Omaha this afternoon. (No rest for the wicked, right?)

Due to having multiple sinus infections, then a bad allergic reaction and my father's health issues, many of my Winter visits were cancelled & postponed.

I did manage to keep my Tennessee dates.

I typically fly in to either Knoxville or Nashville then drive from one city to the next; it's a beautiful stretch!

It always seems to rain when I drive between these cities, but I still enjoy it.

Unfortunately, I don't plan to make that drive again.

At least, not in the foreseeable future, that is.

I'm definitely dropping Nashville from my regular rotation.

I might give it a chance again in a year or two but we shall see.

Knoxville? I hope to return sooner but that remains to be seen

To my Georgia friends, I am uncertain what the future may hold.

Last time I was there, multiple gentlemen in both Augusta and Savannah had handguns on them when they visited me.

I understand the whole "gun culture" is far different there than in my hometown of Chicago, but this alarms me.

To those who had a handgun on your person: No, I didn't say anything about it at the time because, you know.... YOU'VE GOT A GUN.

Sadly, this was not the only problem...

Someone in Savannah who posted about me on a message board on the day he saw me, gave the name and location of my hotel.

This brought a suspicious person to my hotel, attempting to get face-to-face with me.

I'm 100% certain it was LE. I'm not going into details here, but unless someone also gave out my room number, that's who it was.

Luckily, I'd already left.

So I'm very wary now. If I return, I'll stay in a different area.

Everyone: please please please be discreet.

Do not share my hotel info publicly OR privately.

I'm sure you can understand that I only want my actual clients whom I'm meeting to have that information, for both safety and discretion.

Oh, and don't bring firearms. Thank you.

Lately, I've been receiving quite a few requests to "stop" at cities which appear to be on my route from one week's tour to the next.

So to clarify: I do not stay on the road on weekends or my weeks off.

I go home (or, nowadays, fly to visit my parents in Florida) on my non-working days.

I also fly, rather than drive, to quite a few of my destinations.

This brings me to overshare some personal news: my father has both end-stage COPD and Stage 4 bone cancer.

This past December, the specialists said he had maybe 6 months left.

My mother has limited mobility but is attempting to be his caregiver for in-home hospice.

I'm visiting them as often as possible and, come April, plan to make that area my home-base on off days. So if anyone has a Tampa-area property available for rent, please let me know. :)

I freely admit I'm super stressed from the travel and coordinating with everyone on my parents' behalf.

My amazing assistant Jean has been handling all my booking, communications, and screening.

She's frazzled too so please, be nice to her.

I've barely been able to keep up with placing ads & booking all my work-related travel (on top of everything for FL) so please.... have patience with me.

I've recently made very stupid mistakes (I accidentally booked an Omaha to Chicago flight for 3/25 instead of 2/25 and a hotel for Duluth, GA rather than MN so now I'm trying to fix these lol).

I have been unable to respond to messages needing my personal attention but please know I AM trying.

Dates* below include all currently-planned tours.

Because I cannot plan my destinations as far in advance as usual, there aren't many here; some are already on my website.

My hours for some of these cities may be flexible and might even change so please, if you need earlier or later, ask Jean and she will coordinate with me to see what is possible.

Thank you all so much for your patience and understanding during all this! XOXOXO

*Tour dates have been removed from archived version.