[Callers] Question for traveling and/or busy callers

[Kalia Kliban]

I've just finished a full summer camp season, with 4 week-long camps in 
just under 8 weeks and some home-town gigs in between.  I feel pretty 
wrung out.  I've also had seasons when I overbooked and had a big 
concentration of local gigs (11 gigs and a weekend, plus a pile of 
performance rehearsals, in 8 weeks) that left me similarly pooped.  I've 
carefully booked the upcoming season to leave myself more down time, and 
it's helping a lot.  No more than one gig a weekend, with occasion 
weeknights.

My question is for the other callers who call a lot, especially if you 
travel to do it.  What sorts of things to you do to take care of 
yourself when your schedule is really intense?  How do you keep your 
calling fresh, and your attitude good?  Do you have any personal 
routines that help you focus?  Aside from the fact that what we're doing 
is mountains of fun, it's also a lot of work and takes careful 
concentration and preparation.  There's a local square dance caller who 
does something like 320 gigs a year.  I need to ask him sometime how he 
does it, but he's always moving too fast to engage in conversation.

Maybe this is one of those questions that falls too far toward the 
"advanced" end of the discussion spectrum.  I don't know.  But it's one 
I'd love to hear from other hard-working callers about.

Kalia