A Day in the Life

6:00 am: Awake to the sounds of the boyfriend and Tootie getting ready for their day.

6:30 am: Awake fully after the boyfriend leaves, at which time my dog attacks my face and forces me out of bed. (Which is good, best alarm clock ever.)

6:45 am: Check email and placate dog with treats while mentally preparing to walk her in 17 degree weather.

7:00 am: Walk the dog. Terrorize squirrels.

7:20 am: Browse newly updated local blogs and email news director with an assortment of headlines gleaned from them.

7:40 am: Skim both daily newspapers.

8:00 am: Shower. Play endless game of In and Out with the dog. Dress.

8:20 am: Make-up and teeth brushing and lunch making. Feed and water the mutt.

8:40 am: Leave for work. If I’m lucky.

9:02 am: Arrive at work having heard tail end of NPR. Buy Diet Coke from break room machine.

9:05 am: Check email and blog posts made since early morning. Listen in on morning editorial meeting. Make notes on possible posts for later, especially if the story is intriguing to me but isn’t covered by a videojournalist. Check Dooce.com, Electrolicious.com and DefectiveYeti.com. Then Gawker and Defamer and Egotastic and Go Fug Yourself and The Superficial. (Don’t tell the boss.)

9:45 am: Update scrolling banner ad for WKRN.com and other sites. Check the wires for new and blogworthy material.

10:00 am: Open Bloglines and begin visiting recently updated weblogs. I like to visit each site rather than read from within Bloglines. Weird, I know. I use the shit out of the tabs in the Firefox browser. I really do get carried away. I often times crash my computer doing that crap. But I have this mountain of blogs to scour every day, I feel like if I open a bunch at once I’ve gotten a lot done. Then I start clicking them closed. Blogs about dreams or post of just song lyrics or just reprinted news stories get shut immediately. I post about things sometimes off the cuff, and other times I let posts simmer, adding more and revising before publishing. Many are, frankly, cut and paste jobs. I want people to read those posts, but not every link requires my commentary. Besides, by the end of the day my brain is so fried from reading sometimes I simply cannot work. Words swim together and stringing together even a single sentence seems daunting. That’s when you call in the coffee.

12 noon: Update scrolling banner with any new or breaking news. Consider lunch. Read Fark.

12:30 pm: Continue blogging.

5:15 pm: Put the brakes on the blogging. I’m often very ready to go by this time.

5:25 pm: I clean up links and misspellings (if I catch them). I return emails and watch the newcast from behind.

5:45 pm: Hit rush hour traffic toward East Nashville. Attempt NPR but am overloaded by news by then. I usually opt silence. Blaring phones and televisions and reporters are in my ear all day, so by this time I’m ready for the blissful sound of nothing.

6:15 pm: Enjoy my dog and the boyfriend and maybe a glass of wine.

9:00 pm: Out. Stone cold sleeping.