Withdrawal

"I'm not running away, no, don't say that - don't say that...
I've got to protect my life, running away
And I don't want to live with no strife, running away"
--Running Away, Bob Marley

I like writing, I really do, but it's becoming harder and harder to justify spending half an hour or so on a work morning just blogging, providing material that's largely irrelevant for the benefit of a small handful of readers, as opposed to work that's quite relevant, for the immediate benefit of a few dozen co-workers and for the eventual benefit (hopefully) of the legions of Fox Sports Net viewers across the land. Last Monday I saw the disadvantage of losing my entire morning of preparation, as I didn't make it into the office until 9:15, and I was playing catch-up all day. There's a little back story there, by the way.

So I wake up on Sunday morning, lounge around a little bit and eat breakfast, then head down to the garage to take my car into work, a standard 8:30 departure on Sunday morning. Roommate Jason's Mustang was sitting behind the 'Turn, and no keys were in sight. I went back upstairs, knocked and then opened his door to reveal no roommate and, again, no keys. I called his cell phone, which went straight to voicemail, and quickly realized I was in a bit of a bind. So after calling a Fox friend in the neighborhood (he was actually in Vegas) and one of our Associate Directors (he was already well on his way), brother man came to the rescue, turning around and heading all the way back from Fox to pick a brother up. So we were both late, which was fine, but the car deal had yet to be resolved. After returning home from church with no sign of the roommate, I called again, and found him--in Mexico. Yeah, kinda tough to move a car in Manhattan Beach when you're in Mexico. So after our game (a routine win, lots of missed layups for me), I had to make alternate arrangements for travel to and from work on Monday. Thankfully, the South Bay is home to numerous Best Damn employees, and I had several options--Joel, who had returned from Vegas (shooting Leeann Tweeden at a Bullriding competition--she was talking about it, not in it) was gracious enough to oblige, so that was no problem. Got home fine, and the problem was solved by the next morning, so no further worry, thankfully...

So there's work that's fun, there's work that's really fun, and then there's spending a weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia with Leeann Tweeden. Wow. Probably the greatest experience of my Best Damn career to date, and it turned into a pretty good piece, I must say. Hanging out at the Georgia Tech-Virginia game on Saturday, with all the tailgating and festivities and whatnot, trying to accurately convey how much fun it is to be at a college football game (especially when you're with Leeann), trying to sell Mitsubishi cars (sponsor money rules all) and doing all this while managing what was essentially my first solo field shoot. Good times, for sure. And if it wasn't enough to enjoy the whole weekend, I got a text messagwe Tuesday asking how "our piece" turned out. Exchanged a few messages throughout the day (she gets to hang out with Will Ferrell on the set of his new movie this week--he's a NASCAR driver, and she does work for the Speed Channel, so it makes sense), and it looks like I have myself a new friend. So I suppose there are occasional perks to this job, huh?

This is where the blog gets a little bit sappy today, so I apologize in advance. By the way, it's a dark day and my day-long edit session doesn't start until 9, so there's a little bit of writing time before I start on the soundbites of the year (I have a feeling that T-O and Drew Rosenrosen will be prominently represented). So I think you can measure the importance of something by the amount you're willing to sacrifice on its behalf, if that makes sense. My job is important enough to me that I've been willing to sacrifice a lot of free time and a lot of social life to be here, to put in the 12- and 13-hour days, to work six-day weeks almost all year-round, and it's worth it. Church on Sunday nights is worth forsaking another several hours of free time (since my weekends don't otherwise possess much at all), "24" will be worth less sleep on Monday nights when it returns in January--you get the idea. So it's been a long time since a girl has really been worth that sort of sacrifice to me--my free time, my sleep, my eating habits, my work schedule--and it seems like I might have arrived to a point where I'm willing to start giving things up. It's only been a few weeks here with the lovely Miss K, but already I've been sleeping way less (probably the reason I'm sick right now, frankly), I'm becoming inclined to leave work a little early some days (she lives like two miles from Fox), and my highly-valued alone time doesn't hold quite the same esteem as it once did. I'm wary of sudden, drastic changes, ones that would represent infatuation and an unhealthy start to things, but I'm balancing my gut with my head, keeping logic as involved as possible with emotion. So things are good, and getting better, and I continue to be as cryptic as ever in this space, but I'm okay with that. Sappy section over...

Hopefully some more writing time will present itself over the next few weeks--no new shows until the 28th, so my work days have a lot more flexibility in them, and when I'm here, I'm not necessarily under the gun all day, as I normally might be. It'll be a nice change of pace (especially when there's somewhere else I'd like to be spending a lot of my time). Peace.