ANNOUNCING EL GRAND FINAL 10/10/07

YOU MADE IT!!!!!!!!! To my blog!!

If you’re reading this then you’ve made it to the TommyT Freedom Tour Blog, and thanks for coming.

I appreciate the feedback and engagement I've received since my sabbatical and accompanying update write-up's commenced over one year ago, and I hate to see it come NEAR an end, so I am prolonging it some more. My one year anniversary was 9/12/07, and it looks like my plans will tie me up till mid-December, so those of you interested in discussing my work plans in the credit markets please allow a little more patience and know that a REFRESHED, RENEWED, REJUVINATED (not that I needed any), REVIVED, REVITALIZED, REGENERATED candidate for employment is coming your way!!!! That's right, another way of saying I'm on sabbatical is "UNEMPLOYED". I use sabbatical, my kids use RETIRED, and MY WIFE uses UNEMPLOYED!!!!!!!

Well, not for LONG. But a little LONGER. So I returned home from Baja Cali in one piece, and my injured knee seems to have healed pretty well, and I realized that one of these days I would commence searching for the next new thing professionally. I didn't know where or what, I just knew it was a lot closer than it was on 9/13/06.
BUT, I also knew that I had something more to do in order to truly finish this fine sabbatical time in my life.

AND THEN IT HIT ME!!!!! Bruce was going on tour and I would be a roadie!!!!! Nah, that would be too cool and I'm not that cool and my wife wouldn't want to fly to every city in the country for three months, so that was out. No working "MAGIC" for me!!!

AND THEN IT HIT ME AGAIN--- I would go join the JVC, the Jesuit Volunteer Corp, in South America for a month. So I dutifully applied my good knowledge of Jesuits and was told it's a ONE YEAR, not ONE MONTH, commitment!!!!!!! Well, I actually have a year to give, but not without my wife, my kids, my dogs, and WOW; my life's slightly more complicated than I thought! ----AND I'm NOT WORKING!!!!!!!!! Okay, so not right now for that.

SO, I played Golf with a great friend who I never, ever see. He's a great friend because he's a great person, quite simply. The fact that we had a connection professionally 25 years ago has continued to connect us, as happens on Wall Street and Main Street when "trying to be good" people (me) meet GREAT people. So I was playing golf (quite poorly, mind you) with this friend and he shared with me the story of his daughter's recent trip to Spain. WHAT? WHERE? HOW? were among the questions I peppered off at him in rapid fire. And three minutes later I was done---I was going to Spain with a backpack and not much else!!!!!

And now, a little over two months after that golf round, I am on my way to Spain to my El Grand Final!!!!

George Martin has his walk (a worthy walk it is, a 3200 mile, 6 month cross country trek raising money for the 9/11 workers), Bruce has a new song called "A Long Walk Home", and now I'm crashing the party by going to Spain and backpacking the "Camino de Santiago”, the 500+ mile path known as the "Way of St. James" in Northern Spain. Just a walk, but one people have been doing for over 1200 years.

Why, Tom, are you going to Spain to backpack and sleep in hostels and basically be alone (many people walk this path every year, but most do it in the summer)?
Well, I can't really give you a good answer except for I think I can do it, and I have the time, and I wouldn't mind finding a few things on the road less traveled!!!!!
What? those things are I have no idea.

I was at Bruce last night (10/10, yes I was there the 9th too but this happened on the 10th) in the Meadowlands, and he started playing "Sandy", and I looked up at this crowd of 20k+ and just wondered if anyone else in the building would be walking the Camino de Santiago next week????!!!!! Probably not, I thought!!! Anyone on my email list ever do it???? Anyone on my email list ever HEARD OF IT?? Heck, maybe, since I was suppose to know it as it's a "famous Catholic Pilgrimage", but I never heard of it either. Till now, that is. I guess that is what has attracted me to this trek!!!! It sound's exciting, independent, and adventurous, and I didn't know anyone who'd ever did it. I know plenty of people who’ve run marathons, so when I did the New York Marathon it was fun despite the fact that 20,000 out of the 35,000 beat me (but NOT YOU, CHARLIE C!!!!). I know a few people who have bicycled the cross-country route!!!!! These are great, exhilarating events. As I see it, the Camino cannot be described, it's a personal journey and each individual journey cannot to be replicated by any other human being on the planet. EVER~~~~!!!!! And that is what excites and entices me to walk the Camino.

So, I have my backpack all packed with my sleeping bag, my two sets of clothes, my Spanish dictionary, and my flight through Dublin to Biarritz booked for Monday, 10/15th (my flight back is open but don't tell my wife!!!!--She expects me home for Thanksgiving --as do I), and yes, I'll be missing most of Bruce's US tour, and no I don’t’ have a portable Sirius radio to get the E Street Channel, and I will be just returning to the US when he gets to Spain (or will I???)

And I'm off---and this is it, El Grand Final. I don't know what to expect, but I am excited and anxious to get started and commence my journey. I have a great guidebook to tell me where to go, and the path is well marked, so that shouldn't be a problem. But, I remember taking a wrong turn riding a 100 mile bike ride around Green Lake in Wisconsin once in the 90's and the extra 20 miles wasn't fun, especially with how slow I go. So, I'll do my best to take the right path, knowing that on a journey like this one you kinda have to let it just GO----and Go where it leads. And that is what I will do.

INSTRUCTIONS--for the reader
#1) subscribe
I can't promise I will be moved to write or not, but given the history of the last year I'm sure somewhere on the path something will come to me to want to share with you.
If that happens, you'll be updated that I've posted if you "SUBSCRIBE" to the blog feed
A) GO TO THE BLOG (YOUR HERE IF YOU'RE READING THIS)
B) HIT ALT C (FAVORITES MENU COMES UP)
C) FEEDS BUTTON---FIND THE SUBSCRIBE TO FEED AND HIT IT!!!!!!

I will not have email so post to the blog if you want to say something to me--- I should be near an internet café every three or four days so I’ll check the blog then. If you really need me –REALLy, call my wife Liz.

#2) I'll have some time, so if you have a special request for me on my journey feel free to share it with me---or just say "special request" and I'll put it on my list of things to think of and reflect on during my travels.

No, I'm not fundraising or anything so if you're so moved and very disappointed that you don't have to pledge $1 a mile feel free to make a donation to your favorite charity!!! better yet, go down there and ask them what your hands can do to help (that was my January request!!!- hope you did it)---

Okay, the end of the least exciting email I’ve written in a year, but on the verge of the trip that I know will be exceptional and special, even if it is in a very simple way.

WALK ON
PEACE
TT