THE LAST FIVE ...

Closing up shop
- Wednesday, Aug. 02, 2006

It may be time for a change
- Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Entry in the air
- Friday, April 21, 2006

Still here
- Thursday, April 20, 2006

Music of the moment
- Wednesday, March 1, 2006

Or ... BE RANDOM!


GOOD READS

101 in 1001
American Road Trip, 1998


OTHER PEOPLE

Chupatintas
Dancing Brave
Fugging It Up
Kitty Sandwich
Mister Zero
Sideways Rain
Ultratart
Velcrometer


THE BASICS

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Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 5:58 p.m.

It's not too much

I refuse to give in. I refuse to admit that maybe, just maybe, I've loaded too much on my plate.

I can do it! I can enjoy it all!!

I'm starting to get more responsibilities at work. I'm starting to write more, and I'm cringing at it less and less. (There are only so many times you can take publicists blowing you off. But they don't always do it, and those that do make it all the more sweet when you actually get somewhere with them.) I'm starting to do interviews and go out in the field. Yesterday, I was sent to New York to stalk a certain diva at her hotel, so I spent two hours wandering the spa on the top floor and sitting at each of the two bars, enjoying a $12 vodka tonic and a $15 apple martini and chatting up the bartenders. It didn't result in any useful info, or a chance meeting with the diva herself, but it got me out of the office and onto an expense account. Tomorrow afternoon, I interview Lionel Richie on the phone and next Tuesday I just may be sitting down in a hotel suite or some other room with Dick Clark -- the ageless rock-n-roll lover, not the frustrated former government stooge.

But outside of the office, I have no shortage of diversions. I am backed up on reading (I know I'm in trouble when the next issue of Outside comes before I've finished the previous month's) and I could spend every hour from when I get home (usually by 6:30, the start of the first of two back-to-back Simpsons) watching TV. There's also the Xbox and my seven games from which to choose. So with all of this, what do I do? I go ahead and order the Extra Innings baseball package from Sports InDemand. I now have more than 60 out-of-market baseball games to choose from each week with the exception of Sunday nights and Saturday afternoons when ESPN and Fox, respectively, have exclusive contracts to broadcast "games of the week." So when the Mets are down 8-1 or the Yankees are up 6-0, or either team is off of in a rain delay, I can switch over to listen to Vin Scully call the Dodgers and Padres or watch the Diamondbacks in Colorado or catch Alfonso Soriano's first home run as a Ranger in a game against the Athletics. I plan on catching as many of Curt Schilling's starts for the Red Sox as I can, and I'll enjoy seeing the friendly ivy confines of Wrigley Field more often.

I'll have less time for all that -- except, perhaps, the reading -- when the weather truly turns and I'm at more baseball games or the beach or traveling. There will be nights out in the city, weddings, Kentucky Derby parties (OK, just one of those) and other adventures.

What bothers me the most is that, for the time being, the writing is taking a hit. I haven't been inspired, and I think I need to relax and not force it. I wouldn't want to subject you to a below-average effort. But at the same time, I want to do more creative stuff. I want to make myself a better writer. I want to try to elevate myself and complete some projects I've been dreaming of doing. I have a memoir I'd like to explore, and I've gotten nowhere on that.

In any case, things are looking up. Spring is creeping in, baseball season's begun, work is getting more exciting, prospects are blooming and looming.

And 6 p.m. means quittin' time.

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