a spare couple of minutes

well, not exactly. since this morning marked my first official commute from down south to burlington, i decided to give myself some extra time. breathing room, if you will. however, i gave myself so much breathing room that i stolled into the newsroom, coffee in hand (bless you, java gods), a full hour before i was scheduled to arrive.

whoops. c'est la vie - gives me time to enjoy my coffee, pour through today's issue of the paper and organize my thoughts and assignments before systematically tackling them (i'm being optimistic here. "systematically tackling them" is vickie jargon for "making calls, waiting for people to call back and then sorting through my notes for each story so i pull up the right ones for the right calls." but i thought the jargon sounded better.)

anyhoo. i drove home last night and enjoyed a little down time at the house, seeing my parents and playing around online to write email and whatnot. i also had the opportunity to return to mraz-mania to slowly read his journal entries, as the reading experience at work consisted more of skimming and shaking my head in disbelief at his skill.

having read the entries again, i continue to be impressed, but also thank his management for scheduling a nice break from touring. the guy sounds exhausted and overwhelmed, capable a job of handling it all he is doing. the entry about the dvd shoot ... damn. i guess the nerves and pressure hit everyone. it was odd - i won't say that i felt badly that people want to see him perform, that people want to meet him. because really, whether he responds enthusiastically each day to that or not, that's what he wanted and what he's been working to do. but it does feel as if this has come suddenly - and i think he's still wondering when the hell this all happened. he came close to it before and he backed away for a bit ... now here it is again. inevitable, considering how talented he is.

i suppose i just felt compassion for him as i was reading. my schedule might be nuts, i might be running or driving up and down the state and figuring out what i'm doing, but at least i had those few hours last night to do whatever - to talk and laugh with family, write email, curl up with "the da vinci code" (which i'm enjoying at the moment, for the record). and i didn't have to worry about being seen or answering question after question ... i had some peace.

i think the month or however long he's taking off will be good for him - as i hope he is able to find some peace as well.

on a less dramatic note - the bit about howie in montana rocked. i'm still bitter about being in dc when mraz opened for howie at higher ground back in ... what was it, december of last year? that would be a dream show - only i'd switch the billing. howie open for mraz. sorry, hd.

anyway. time to return to my copy of the paper and laugh as i read sally's story (love it), prepare to call the police and go from there. tonight takes me to st. mike's to see "prometheus bound," tomorrow finds me at groovy uv for "metamorphoses" - otherwise known as "the pool play."

two plays in two nights?

i can deal with this, thank you!