We had my going away thing last night. It was at a bar near where I lived till two weeks ago and was very fun. Since my boss and I got there quite early, I had more to drink than I realized. Add to that the fact that I haven't been to a bar in weeks, when I got home I realized I was pretty far gone.

But it was a good time. Afterward some of us went to a pizza place down the street. I looked at my watch and was a little embarrassed to be drunk in a restaurant... at 9:30. Isn't that supposed to happen at 4am at Perkins? If I remember correctly, there's leftover pizza in my refrigerator. Mmmm... breakfast.

I even came away with a present. They got me a pair of Teva running sandals. They're very nice. Here's the deal: I want to be able to go running but I don't want to lug around hiking boots, sandals and running shoes. So if Teva's telling the truth, these are sandals with the support and tread to run in. And... they're a dark greenish-grey color so I hope they won't stand out like garish running shoes can. That was very nice of them. I didn't take my camera... dammit.

"But when you're standing on the edge of the bridge..."
Last night I described these last days at work as kinda like the last moments before bungee jumping or riding a big roller coaster. The decision to do it was easy... "Oh, that'd be so much fun!" But when you're standing on the edge of the bridge or in the front car creeping up the tracks... you start to realize the impact of what you've done. But you do it anyway, trusting that a few minutes from now you'll be so glad you did. That's totally where I am right now. Perhaps those feelings will fade when I'm sitting on a warm beach in wintertime.

I got so many hits on Friday. NewsBlues.com did a thing on me and I got over 200 hits in 24 hours. And I got emails from a lot of old friends I'd lost touch with. I'm in Shoptalk this weekend, so maybe I'll hear from even more people by Monday.

"Maybe I'll completely freak and stare blankly into the camera."
Oh... in the television event of a generation, I make my return to the air this Friday. One of our morning news anchors asked me to do an interview on the show. I think it'll be fun. If you're in Cincinnati, it's WLWT Channel 5 on Friday November 22. I'll be on shortly after 6:30am. If you miss it, I plan to digitize it and post it on here somewhere... probably under "Movies" after you click on Photos. Ya know, in three years on the air I never completely got over the nervousness of live TV. I loved it, but always got butterflies before going on. Maybe after six years off the air I'll completely freak and stare blankly into the camera Friday morning. Could be entertaining. Better tune in.

And along those lines, I did the interview with the reporter from the Cincinnati Post a few days ago. She was very cool. As a TV reporter, I always envied newspaper people for being able to do such simple interviews. TV's always such a production with lights and cameras and all. No word on exactly when it will run but she said she hopes to do it before I leave on Friday. If you miss it, I'll definitely post that one on here.

"Six versions later, it still sucks."
In closing can I just say once more for the record that AOL completely sucks. After moving out of my apartment I was left without internet access here in the temporary place. So I signed up with NetZero. That worked fine till my ten hours ran out Thursday. (That's probably why I haven't answered your email.) Friday I had the bright idea of using a few of AOL's "1025 free hours." I started asking if anybody had an AOL cd laying around. Of course, the second person I asked had one. Now I'm back on AO-hell for the first time since 1995. Six versions later, it still sucks. In the words of a great Earthlink spot, "Eight-point-oh? Eight-point-this!"