I've been busy

Actually, no. I've just been tired.

I feel like I did like two trials non-stop last month. I didn't. But the one I did do was a doozy that my newsroom was having wet dreams over so it was causing me much angst. First day of testimony, they're like, give me 175-190 lines.

'scuse me? That's like 25 to 30 inches, sir. People seem to think a bunch of stuff happens during a day of testimony, like it does on TV. They lie. This is how testimony goes in real life.

Prosecutor: What's your name?
Witness: Joe Smith.
P: Where are you employed?
W: Widgets and Stuff.
P: What do yo do there?
W: I'm a janitor
P: How long have you been there?
W: 15 years
P: Do you have a family?
W: Yes.
P: Are you married?
W: Yes.
P: To whom?
W: Sally Smith.
P: How long have you been married?
W: 25 years.
P: Did you have chance to be working on March 23, 2005?
W: yes I did.
P: And how did you start that day?
W: I cleaned the trash cans and picked my nose and read people's mail like I always do. ....

But it takes a lot longer than it took you to read that. Trust me. And cats don't want to believe me when I tell them that

Pause for the cause.

I think Dan Barry just walked into my newsroom. Ahh, I think he's speaking (or spoke) at a journalism class taught by one of my colleagues. Apparently he's got local ties. From wiki: Dan Barry is a reporter for The New York Times. His column, "About New York", appeared on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the NY Region section of the paper. While working for the Providence Journal-Bulletin in 1994, Barry won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting after exposing corruption in the Rhode Island court system. Well, dang.

Back to our regularly scheduled post.

So anyway, they want me to pull 30 inches of crap out of my neck when they don't understand that the first few witnesses aren't necessarily the juicy ones. Like, they have to set scene and establish all these things before they get to the juicy stuff. Let ME -- the person who sat in court all day -- tell you how much I can pull out of my neck, please.

But I wrote it anyway. Here it is. I got in trouble for not having enough attribution. I complied in later stories.

So after that, I started writing this other story that keeps getting held. Shoot, actually two stories. I know it's the nature of the beast, it just is MAD irritating. Because they keep coming to me with stuff that's in the story asking me about it. And I fix it, or bring their point up higher in the story and the joints still haven't run. Someone kill me.

Beyond that, training has been beating me. And I'm lazy. I did do 30 minutes of core strengthening yoga this afternoon followed by a 45 minute run/walk that covers the 3.1 miles I'll be running on May 2. I was proud because I got further than I had been before I stopped to walk, but still kinda discouraged because I had to stop. I'm building up slowly, so I figured it best to at least get used to the distance, even if I didn't run it the entire time. I ran in intervals. So I guess that's improvement, huh?

I'm hungry and I'm about to go to a Town Council budget workshop session. Joy.

This is what I get for trying new foods

I've been on a salad kick lately.

Not making them myself -- just buying them when I go out to restaurants. I've been finding that when I get ready to eat, it's not so much beef or chicken that I want, but rather fresh fruits and veggies.

So I try to listen to my body.

Sometimes it works out wonderfully. Like the honey chicken salad at Unos. It has vermicelli pasta and warm chicken tenders. mmmmm. or this new salad with Craisins, pears and nuts, also at Unos.

Well, at work today, I got a little hungry and didn't want the fried goodness of Wendy's. So I stopped at Cheesecake Factory with the full intention of getting an appetizer. (In addition to being on a salad kick, my stomach shrunk recently or something. I can't eat grown-up portions for some reason.) But the salads caught my eye.

I saw a veggie salad with cheddar, cucumbers, asparagus, green beans, edamame, beets, chicken and radicchio and I figured I'd give it a shot. I'm not a huge fan of beets, but I figured i could eat around them if I found them horrid in the salad.

I'm very sorry I decided to take a chance.

Everything was chopped and in cubes, for one. I'm a big fan of presentation. And I know I got takeout, but can you slice some cucumbers? Even the cheese was in blocks! What kind of mess is that? YET, the chicken was sliced so thinly, I'm positive they cut half a chicken breast in half and sliced it horizontally to give me these slivers of chicken.

Bastards.

In addition, something just doesn't taste right. There's a slightly bitter taste to some of the food. (By the way, I'm no fan of the Cheesecake factory house vinaigrette) I'm blaming it on the radicchio, but I've eaten radicchio before and it's never tasted so blech.

My face is scrunched up and I'm sad because I just spent like $11 on this monstrosity.. I should have just gotten some buffalo wings.

What? You think I'm too nice?

I asked for it. V wants to know what things Really, Honestly, and Completely Tick You Off.

Ummm. Hm. That's a toughy. I don't get mad that often. But I guess, if I had to make a list -- and I do -- I'd say:

People who won't let me (or any other person with only a few items to buy)

go in front of them at the grocery store

People telling me what (they think) I am incapable of

People questioning my logic when it makes sense, but it just different than theirs

Self-righteous, overly militant people who tell me I'm a sellout because I'm not buying the "white man is the devil" blahdiblah they're pushing.

Female Genital Mutilation. Random, I know.

Being taking advantage of

Watching someone else being taken advantage of

Teachers who don't press children for greatness and the dead looks in the eyes of a child that has lost hope (I just spoke to a group of elementary kids, sue me.)

People parking in MY assigned space at my apartment complex. There are visitor spots and a whole other parking lot for non-residents to use. I pay rent here. I GET to park near the door.

You don't.

The bad rap HBCU's and HBCU grads get

Being questioned by an organization I'm in when I choose to do something outside of my normal routine. I can take a vacation/have a day off/sleep in/do-whatever-I-want-because-I'm-grown you know.

Rude drivers who refuse to let me over to get off at the exit even though I have my blinker on and they can't go anywhere until I get out of the lane. Bastards.

Oh, and bad grammar on Web sites or in e-mails.