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These days it feels as if every day is hard. Some are just harder than others. Yesterday was one of those days.

I woke up in the morning to a flurry of emails. Knock on wood, we've been busy. The problem with booking jobs is you have to actually produce them. It seems as if every job we are bidding or is in production has some major issue that needs to be addressed.

At 6:30 am I furiously responded to emails. Finished them by 7am. I then proofread my morning blog post. Thought for a moment whether to publish it. I did. Tweeted about it. Jumped in the shower. It was now 7:30am. My youngest daughter, Ruby, waited patiently outside my bedroom door. Last night I promised I would take her to breakfast before I drove her and her sister Eliza to camp.

We went to breakfast at the local diner. Ruby insisted upon sitting at the counter. Halfway through the meal a creepy looking homeless guy sat right next to her. After one pancake she had enough. We went home to pick up Eliza and Augie, our dog. It was my day to bring him to work. On the drive to camp my phone kept ringing. I'll spare you the sordid details. Let's say one call was about adding a shoot day at Epoch's expense.

9:10am. Walked the kids into camp with the dog in tow. Signed them in confident I'd make my 9:30 meeting. As I began to leave Ruby showed me her gum was bleeding. Her bottom tooth was hanging by a thread.

"Will you pull it out now" she asked.

"Can't I do it tonight? I'm sure it will last the day". She looked sadly up at me with her big brown eyes. "Fine. Let's go to the bathroom".

I speed walked her across the camp to the public facilities. I dragged the dog along. He wanted to stay on the playground with the kids. We walked into the ladies room. Luckily it was empty. I dropped the dog's leash. He sniffed around while Ruby played with her tooth. As I grabbed a paper towel, I got a text. It was from a producer on a job we were recommended on 3 days ago. Since then none of my phones calls or emails have been returned. The text read:  "Can you call me ASAP! Need your help!".

It had to wait. I had an extraction to perform. I began to manipulate Ruby's tooth. As I began to twist it she closed her eyes and began screaming at the top of her lungs. The dog freaked and began running around the bathroom furiously. Just as the tooth came out, the dog jumped on top of me and it fell out of my hand. Have you ever tried to find a baby tooth on a white tiled floor?

"Where did it go, Dad?"

I went down to the floor searching desperately for the tooth. The dog continued to run feverishly around the bathroom. Ruby is on the verge of tears. I get another text. "Are you going to call me?!". I looked at my watch. 9:25.

From my knees I see a 7 year old on the edge. Fighting back the tears "I need the tooth, Dad. The tooth fairy won't give me any money without it".

I scour the floor. The tooth was nowhere to be found. Exasperated and desperate I reverted to some good parenting. "The tooth fairy will feel so bad that you lost your tooth, she will give you double"

Ruby perked up. "For real?"

"I can guarantee it". A smile came across her face. FulI disclosure. She knows I'm the tooth fairy. The kid can sense when she's in a position to make a great deal. I grabbed the leash and we exited the bathroom.

I dropped Ruby off with her counselor and called back the text crazed producer while rushing off to my 9:30 meeting.

"Hello."

"Hi. It's Jerry. Got your text. What's up?"

"Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner...the celeb is in. Now, I need to know if you can produce not only the four spots we sent but they added a new fifteen, three web films and a some performance stuff of her against green. We are going to use this for banner ads."

"Did you send me all the new creative?"

"Still working on it. Also, there is a film I'd like to see if Dandelion could do. Was hoping you could kind throw that in."

"How many days again do you have the celeb?"

"Three ten hour days"

"That's not much. I can't really commit to anything without seeing the all the scripts"

"I'm sure WE can find a creative way to shoot everything?"

"It's not a creative problem. Or a production problem. It's a math problem. We only have the celebrity for so many hours and she is in every frame of every film"

"Totally get it...Make sense...I don't mean to rush you but the client meeting is in half an hour. I need assurances you can do all of this."

I was running late, overpaying for a lost tooth and was being to asked to commit to multiple deliverables without the benefit of seeing approved creative. I had to think fast.

"What did you say the budget was?"

It was 9:35 am. The day had just begun. I was late for my meeting. I hate being late. I had a sinking feeling these incidents were going to be the days high points. And I was right. 

Thank goodness I'm going away this weekend with my wife sans kids. On Sunday night I head to Detroit for three meetings in 24 hours. The fun never stops.