elk poop day

This was found on the photographer's desk. I took a picture. Emergency water! Water for your emergencies. It's like the juice packs of childhood camping trips field trips zoo trips and other lunches.

We've arrived at "Dollars & Cents" (Radiohead, "Amnesiac") when the last time I was conscious we were still on "We're All Mad Here" (Tom Waits, "Alice"), 13 tracks ago. I balance the lap top on my lap and stretch onto my back. Its always nice to feel your organs and spine realign after two hours of writing.

Oh the many days I've spent in low-lit rooms, just the computer, me and iTunes, battling away at sentences after a long day of being sure I could never get to this point of being done with whatever it was I had to write: paper, article, info hell extravaganza. But here I am again and wherever I begin, two hours later I'm always at a different point, something is either past or beginning. That's what I like about time.

Di told me that when she first came to the US, she would tell herself, "In two months it will be different" and she'd count down the days. Not in hopes of when she'd leave, but in hopes of the day when we all wake up and realize we are comfortable with where we have arrived.

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"Hunting Bears" is my favorite track.

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The elk poop story is done. I'm letting it air out for a bit then I'll edit it ruthlessly and travel to the newsroom and turn it in. I feel peaceful about it as of 8:29 p.m. Peaceful is good. It was a fun story to report and it turned out to be fun to write, which is rarely the case for me. I get so worried and I'm a perfectionist. I don't want to write a bad piece and then, crippled by my fear, I do. So I've mostly given up on good-writing. I'll settle for this peaceful feeling instead, some inward goon approves of what I've done.

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If you're not reading The New Yorker, you really should. Such interesting pieces and such good writing. We were talking about it in the break room this afternoon in a rare all-reporter break room rendezvous--always unplanned, always wonderful.

I recommend the Clint Eastwood article and the Paul Krugman one too.