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2001-04-27 - 2:04 a.m.

The terrible, wonderful, no good, not-so-bad day

Today was wonderful and horrible.

Wonderful: I slept in until 12:30, not caring about what I had to do or what I should do. I knew I needed some sleep, a good night's rest. With the varying temperatures, I felt the hint of an oncoming cold, not something I want in April. So I made sure I got my rest.

Horrible: I woke up at 12:30, and still felt miserable. Aching and not rested, I went from bed to the couch to wake up slowly. I guess I overslept. After an hour, I was rejuvenated and ready to eat, but I felt like I was an hour behind on my already short day.

Wonderful: The West Wing. I watched the tape from Wednesday night, and after The Sopranos, it's undeniably the best show on television. It's really a toss-up in my mind, because they're both so good, so clever, so witty, so funny, so poignant, so well-written and well-acted. Then I went out to see my high school alma mater, Red Bank, play Rumson, one of our rivals, in baseball. I'd been out to Monday's game, and taken some pictures of the son of family friends, and had a desire to take more. The first ones were pretty good, but a litle overexposed � just a little to bright and light, too washed out, so I needed to try again. We'll see tomorrow.

Horrible: I went to work. I should've been heading down to the ballpark, but for reasons I'm paranoid to get into in a public online diary, I won't go into more detail. It's the same story in businesses all over America: budget cuts and reduced staff. And it will continue over the coming weeks.

Wonderful: One of the nicer guys at work brought in Open, the new Cowboy Junkies CD that's not available in stores until May 15. He found it in the used bin at a local store that got it from someone who received an advanced copy and turned around and sold it. Probably someone from a college radio station. I knew people like that in college. So as I sat there in the office, coding up baseball box scores and horse racing results for Friday's paper, I had the pleasant melodies of Margo Timmins and her brother's great music in my ears.

Horrible: I went in to talk to my boss, and stood there for 45 minutes hearing his view on why I'm not at the ballpark every night the way I should be. It actually did help to hear it from his side, to know that he'd like to be able to send me there, but his hands are tied. That all lead to ...

Wonderful: Having my ego stroked. I don't like the way that sounds, but that's what happened. I was told how well I write, how much potential I have, how far I can go in this business. As bad as all the other stuff was, it was good to hear that, to be reminded of that, to know my editor's really on my side, though it can so often seem like he's not.

Horrible: Mets lost, Devils lost.

Wonderful: Yankees lost, Knicks lost, Braves lost, Phillies lost.

Horrible: It's now just past 2:30 a.m., and I'm up, writing here and watching the tape of Survivor. I like the show, but I'm glad it's over next week. I need a break from it, one less show to tape and watch.


So that's the day. Tomorrow I plan on starting a new routine, something aimed to get me into a rhythm, to get me into a position to do my job better, to have it come to me easier, despite the limitations of following this team day-to-day from afar for half the season.

Here's the plan (for days I don't go to the ballpark; I'll figure that one out later), written out here in part so that I'll have a way to find it to check back when I deviate from it. That will probably be next week. Saturdays and Sunday will be exempt, mainly because I do work in sports, and sports often happen during the day on the weekends.

� 8-9 a.m. Wake up. This will vary depending on when I come in the night before because of work. I know I should try something like always have myself in bed by 1:30 � entirely possible � but I don't want to restrict myself that much. Yet.

� Wakeup-9:30 a.m. Eat, watch news, whatever.

� 9:30-10:30 a.m. Surf the 'net. I'll check e-mail and � most importantly � go through the minor league recaps from the night before. If I'm going to cover minor league baseball in New Jersey, I want to know what's going on with the other teams and players in the league. I want people to pick up the Sunday paper and expect news from around the leagues, not just the same old stuff on the teams in their backyards.

� 10:30-11:30 a.m. Exercise. I've neglected that over the past few months. I know I shouldn't use the cold as an excuse, but I just couldn't get myself running � or Tae-Boing � or anything over the winter. That's going to change. Running, biking, blading, Billy Blanksing, whatever it takes.

� 11:30-noon. Cool down/recovery.

� Noon-1 p.m. Lunch, TV.

� 1-3 p.m. Free time. This will vary. A nap, if needed, watching taped television shows from the night before.

� 3-3:30 p.m. Shower. I don't really need half an hour, but it's just easier to round it off to 30 minutes.

� 3:30-4:30 p.m. Read. The newspaper, my magazines, my book of the moment.

� 4:30-5 p.m. Leave for work.

I don't know if this will even work, but it's a start.

We'll see where I end up.

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