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It's interesting being a journalist sometimes. I get the oddest sort of interactions, and I get to do things as a journalist I don't get to do as an average Jimmy. Conversely, as a journalist, I have to refrain from some things I'd do as an ordinary human being.

In three separate interactions with school age kids, I've been "adopted" as an uncle, group hugged by a drama class (yesterday) and had an entire class say thank you for an article I wrote about them. I've also had people try to sway me into writing stories about them, or sway me to write about them in a certain way.

I've also gotten very kind, and heartfelt, handwritten notes about articles I've written - two of those notes came when I wrote narrative obituaries about a couple of people. Those were among the most touching, particularly the one from a soldier's mother. He had died in Afghanistan. I wrote about him, his family and his time of service. After the articles I wrote about the soldier (three for one issue), I had people I barely talked to tell me how those articles had moved them to tears.

When that happens, I feel as if I'm just God's conduit for telling a story, and that He gives me the means to be more eloquent than I could possibly be by speaking. Just ask my wife or anyone who listens to me talk; I'm not that eloquent.

I get bogged down in the routine, day-to-day, meeting stories, but I love finding the personal stories, the offbeat stories, the ones that go against what everyone else is writing about - the one about the black cemetery that's getting moved to build a truck climbing lane, pay phones that won't quite fade away - or interesting stories I can tell fairly well, like the effect of high gas prices on truck drivers and the residual effects they have, or the ongoing plans for a city's redevelopment, or trying to bring a sports team to help that process.

Many days I wish I could stay in bed; it's too long a drive to work, and speaking of gas prices, my wife and I spend more per month in gas than we do in rent. How's that for sick? But some days it's not too bad. Some people say a kind word about your writing, even when it's undeserved, or your wife reads your wedding vows to you over the phone (our first wedding anniversary is coming up at the end of the month).

So I think about these things as I go to collect my first-ever awards in journalism this coming Saturday. I know I've gotten one first place award, and perhaps a few more, though I don't know in what category or whether I finished first, second or third. Awards aren't supposed to be important; they're subjective mostly. But even with the few pats on the back I've described, they're long in coming sometimes, and sometimes it's just nice to win something.

But I know I'm a first place winner where it counts - in the heart and soul of the woman I wake up to everyday, the woman I'll always love and treasure. Beyond that, praise and accolades are nice, but nothing, and no one, compares to her.

have to use links on someone else's blog to find your own because you haven't posted in so long.

That's the case with me.

It's been a crazy time.

Since I last left off, I've taken a new job at a daily newspaper. Ask and I'll send you a link to it. I must be a sucker for long drives because I'm making a 70 minute one-way drive everyday.

I really like the drive, and I work with some cool people, but I can certainly tell the difference working at a daily versus working at a weekly like I did before.

Since this is only a sketch of my recent life, here's more.

My wife and I flew to Michigan over the holidays; she got dripped on and United lost our bags while we were delayed in Chicago due to weather. Needless to say, some family didn't get their Christmas gifts on time. Oh, and both of us got colds.

My wife and I also celebrated nine months being married on Dec. 31, and the day after that, celebrated two years to the day since we first met.

Not sure what 2008 holds, but I hope to write more here, and post some pictures too.

But right now a warm bed is calling, and I'm feeling too much of a draft from the window next to me. A nice, warm beach sounds really good right about now.

Well, we're likely on the move again.

I got a new job. After a year at a small weekly newspaper, I'm stepping up to a small daily newspaper, and I'm excited by the opportunity.

It's about an hour from where we live now. It's in another scenic area surrounded by mountains. I'll be covering a city beat. The city has about 20,000 people in it. It means, though, that my wife and I are looking for a new place, just months after we moved into a new one.

For me it'll be my fourth move in the last year; for her, it'll be four as well, but counting college and post-graduation until now, it's much higher than that. It's hard to put down roots, that's for sure.

Just when I was getting used to telling people I was from one place, I start to hedge, because I don't know where I am, and then ultimately, I hesitantly tell them I'm from the new place, and then, slowly, over time, I tell them with more confidence that I'm from the new place. But by the time I do that, we could well be on the move again.

That's how I feel about not writing here since August -- about a month-and-a-half.

I've been writing 5-7 stories a week (I'm the only full time news reporter now; our editor is having to do everything but actually write now; we have an intern who does a feature every week or two, and takes pictures at community events; we have a stringer assigned to one of the towns; we have a sports editor and a person to type up the community/religion listings). Now I'm having to fill in answering phones and doing other odd office jobs for various reasons.

I'm tired all the time. I like the compliments I receive, but I could do without the evil media cracks I get every once in awhile (then have the person say that he/she wasn't talking about me). I got one such comment last night saying we don't get our facts straight on stories; it was from a school board member).

Funny thing, I interviewed the chairman of the school board today, and he told me he had been meaning to compliment me on my stories about the school system; he thought they were well-written, that I was even-handed in my approach to the stories and that I had my facts right.

I wish I could share more of my stories with the few people that know me away from where I live, but our webpage isn't any good, and what articles it does post only stays on the site for a week and then it disappears.

If any of you are still around and reading, ask and I'll send some articles your way.

I feel like I've written some good stuff. My paper emphasizes a narrative approach to writing and reporting, and I think I'm good at it. But I can't get to all the stories I'd like to simply because I don't have the time. I also compete against a daily and another weekly, so I have to come up with another approach to the same story. Often that means we might not run stories on newsworthy events just because it's "already been covered" by the daily paper.

I'm not sure if our superiors understand what a crunch we're under, and the faulty equipment we have. I had to help explain today that my paper's editor has to handle all the photos for myself and the intern because our computers can't handle the software required to do it (the sports editor's computer can, though). I have to borrow time on someone else's computer just to look up information or to check e-mail, and that won't be as easy soon when our new graphic designer starts.

I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining; it just means longer days and nights, and Fridays where I have to fudge my timesheet because our company doesn't pay overtime past 40 hours. And it's not like I make a lot. I know teens that flip hamburgers (nothing wrong with that) who make more than I do.

My wife and I are doing well. We went away to Assateague Island a few weeks ago, and we went to D.C. to go to the book festival on the Mall. We made a day of it in the city, going to the waterfront for fresh seafood and then to a soccer game. She really got into the game; it didn't hurt that 25,000 people were there and she got the full effect of chanting, singing, drums, smoke bombs and really good goals, especially in the second half. We also chaperoned a homecoming dance last week -- one of the perks of being a teacher's husband. It actually went fairly well. We went apple picking the next day, but we both were wishing it had felt more like fall.

Enough for now.

I love you all...

I'm thinking about the next step in my journalism career. I'm in a general assignment position now with a large side helping of photography.

My first love is sports, though, and I'm not sure when I'm going to get back to it as long as I stay where I am.

Then again, sports positions anywhere are few, and the good ones that open up have over 100 applicants for every opening.

I'm flexible enough that I can write about many things, but they don't always enthuse me. Even the photo assignment I had today didn't enthuse me. It was just to find random people and take pictures of them -- whatever they were doing.

We're doing more of those kinds of photos because the bosses on high think it'll boost circulation by having local names and faces in the paper. I'm not so sure.

With us being short-staffed, I don't have time to do depth pieces. Someone else is assigned to what I want to do, and the other thing is that most positions I'm looking at involve a level of layout -- the one thing I'm not doing here.

So where do I go? Am I being led in a different direction? I've thought about most of the options. Continuing to pursue sports jobs, specializing in another subject matter (agriculture, religion, education, travel, whatever), photography. I like the idea of storytelling, and I'm trying to read some of the current storytelling geniuses to get an idea if I can do that.

I feel like I've gotten a late start on all this (it's not an excuse, but I feel like I need to make faster progress than I am).

Listening to: October Came Late by Mainstay on Pandora Radio.

Thoughts of the song: Never heard it, but love it! I love the mood of it.

My wife is asleep now. She's getting in her school routine. She had a very good first day at her new job today, and I'm so happy for her. Even with a long drive, it's a much better place for her to be.

Now if I can find where I should be -- career-wise.

I'm at a location going through a bit of turbulence.

Everyone, including the people that hired me, said this would likely be a stepping-stone for me. One of them told me that if I was still there in two years -- meaning that I hadn't advanced beyond a small weekly newspaper -- something would be wrong.

Well, I'm not going to say I've done everything I need to do to move up, but I'm confident enough in my abilities to know that I can. I'm trying to decide what level is an appropriate next-step. Also, at the moment, I can't just look for anything, because we're locked into a lease that goes until next June, and my wife will have to work a year at this job. There are a few places I could move to that are within an hour of where I live, but most are owned by the same company I work for now. I'm not saying I wouldn't make such a move, but I'm just trying to make steady improvements and see how that goes.

I may offer up some of the work I've done and get some thoughts from the few of you that read this.

I apologize for being so sporadic in writing. I've had lots to say, but little time to say it. Plus, when I'm writing almost all of the A-section news hole, and taking numerous pictures every week, it's hard to rest from the work.

Plus, outside of my wife, I don't have real friends around here. It's not to say that I won't, but it's hard. Plus, I miss soccer. I don't get to go to nearly as many games or even watch as many. I'm almost two hours from the nearest professional team. I went almost five years without missing a home game for two teams (three if you count the three years the women's professional league existed), and now it's a game here, a game there. I'm missing Beckham at RFK in DC tomorrow to cover a school board meeting, and I'm hoping I'll be finished with the photo assignment in time to drive to a game Saturday.

There's a lot of job stuff I need to sort through, so I hope to write more.

Here's a wedding photo my good friend Ernestine took of my wife and I during our wedding. Then there are pictures of the church, and of some people in our wedding party, including one of my wife's bridesmaids and my best man and woman.