I just talked to Zoe on the phone. I call her every night I’m on the road to say goodnight to her. Tonight, talking about how she felt when she was missing me today, she said:

“It feels like you’re not a part of my heart.”

Ouch.

Because I’m in Akron and because I’m bored and because I feel like it, here’s a rundown of my activities this evening.

1. Dinner with co-workers at a restaurant next door to the hotel, “Damians” or something like that. I had a prime rib sandwich that wasn’t very prime, although it at least was juicy after I drowned it with A1 steak sauce.

2. Shopping at Wal-Mart. Items purchased include:

• One pair cheap-ass sneakers, because I melted my last pair in the firepit during a barbeque at my place over the weekend
• 2 pair boxer briefs, because I didn’t get quite enough laundry done before I had to leave for this trip
• 1 12-pack Diet Pepsi, because there’s a mini-fridge in my room and the hotel vending machine wants $1.50 a freakin’ can
• 1 box Ritz Bits Sandwiches made with Real Cheese for serious, hard-core in-room late-night snacking
• 1 Steno notebook, because all day today at work I’d go charging down the hall to check with someone about something or other and I’d get there and forget what I was checking on, so clearly I need to take notes on my own damned thoughts
• 1 yellow legal pad, because damn it I’m going to start working on a screenplay this week if it kills me
• 1 toenail clipper, because I can’t find any one of the three or four we have at home and my toes are starting to scare me
• 1 Sunbeam Home Haircutting Kit, because my beardtrimmer at home keeps cutting out in mid-trim and ripping out huge chunks of my goatee, which makes me scream like a girl, and this one was only eight bucks
• 1 box Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Cookies, because they were there and dear God I love them so

3. Write this entry.

Yes, kids, Akron is a seething hotbed of activity. You have to pace yourself here, you really do.

And finally, because I have it and nobody asked, here’s a shot of the view from my hotel room window in Salt Lake City last month:

Click it for full-size SLC-ness

I’m here in one of the fabulous Hilton hotels in the Akron area, and it’s so fabulous here that I just had to share. So here’s the fabulous view from my fabulous window:

(Click on the thumbnail for the full-size fabulousness.)

This is mine, all mine, for the next 8 nights. It’s like a dream come true… only not so much.

It was eight years ago today that Beth and I were married. In those eight years my life has changed in ways I never thought possible and I have grown in ways I never thought necessary. I’m living the dream I never knew I had.

Thanks for marrying me, honey. I love you very much.