Living vicariously through myself

Today (Christmas Day) marks about one month I've been in Indianapolis. Becuse I'm the newest member of the staff, I'm on call this weekend. Consequently, the family is 200 miles away in Oak Park. I've gotten calls from my mother and my grandmother and spoke the other day to Matt, Dan, Greg, Brittany and Mel as they were all at IHOP. I'm hoping I get to go home next weekend. Really there's nothing stopping me, per se. It's more that I don't want to make the drive if the roads continue to be hard to move on. At least I'm not heading south where they've had 30 inches of snow in some places.

It's a little lonely from time to time. Today particularly so. It's the first holiday in a long time where I haven't been home -- maybe among the first ever. My hope is this is a one-year thing and someone else will be on call next year so I can go home for Christmas. My fear is that I'll still be the newest (people rarely leave Emmis) and since I'm the one primarily in charge of the wire, it'll still be my duty. Rest assured I'll raise a stink if that happens.

I need to get myself more situated here. I need to find friends to go hang out with and to play sports with. Once all the DPU people go their separate ways, it'll be harder to get away for a weekend. I need to get into some kind of sports league so that I can have at least once a week where I'm out with people and meeting new folks.

To be totally honest, I'm not sure where to meet women in Indianapolis. I've never really been one to search women out -- I'd rather happen upon a friendship and work from there. I know there are clubs and bars and the like that I could go to, and maybe I'll do that some time. But I'd rather go some place where I feel comfortable and hope to meet someone that feels comfortable there, as well, if for no other reason than a little common ground on which to start.

So Merry Christmas to everyone. Back to watching basketball and playing it on X-Box.

This sort of got lost in the shuffle, and I don't want it to:

Post any question of me you want answered. I don't care what it is. I'll answer it. My life is pretty much an open book, so ask away, no restrictions. But do not be surprised if the answer seems out of left field or is one you might not want to hear. I'll be brutally honest.

Amanda asks: "What is one thing you regret/wish you could change about your life (it has to be something that would have been within your power... putting "having a dad who isn't a weirdo" doesn't count)"

Well, I'll preface this by saying I don't like the idea of regrets, but...

If I had to change one thing, I think it would be something I've been criticized for relentlessly my whole life: never having a childhood. Now, I'm not sure whose fault this is. I just always assumed I should be serious about my studies and about being a straigh-laced guy who towed the line and never had this crazy wanderlust that a lot of people I know have had. I always tried to do the thing that made the most sense, even if it was at the expense of fun. I was taught to respect money, not spend it foolishly just because I wanted something and that hard work could solve most any problem or get you almost anything you wanted. By and large this has been true, and it's produced something interesting: I'm sorta having my childhood retroactively and doing all the things now I would have wanted way back when. Now I'm traveling to visit friends in New York and Colorado, I'm buying X-Boxes and I'm enjoying the people around me. Not a bad study in projection -- projecting one's childhood into one's mid-twenties.

I had a pretty good day today. I got to play racquetball for a little bit, played three games of You Don't Know Jack: Movies and went ice skating with Brittany (until both of our ankles couldn't take any more -- about 40 minutes worth) then came back and played Texas Hold' Em and pop culture Trivial Pursuit with Brittany and her friend Jeff. I had gone to their place to play Trivial Pursuit with them yesterday night. According to Brittany, Jeff has professed for some time how he could trounce anyone at Jeopardy / Trivial Pursuit. I'd be happy to give him a re-match. Seriously, though, he's a good guy and I'd be cool with hanging out with them again. And hey, I won $10 playing poker from the two of them, so they can't be all bad. The first time I've ever won money playing cards, I think.

Also finally put away the rest of my clothes today. Now my dresser feels useful again. I may have to do laundry tomorrow and one of these days I have to figure out which boxes from the move and from products I bought after it I will be keeping and which will go to the dumpster.

Tomorrow marks the return of MP3 Sports Talk, presented by Infoble. After a three month hiatus, Jonah and I will be back starting this week. We're both looking forward to it as a good getaway from our news-intensive jobs. Plus it's good to have a little more money. It means my annual salary goes from $25,000 per year to $28,600. I can handle that.

I'm also debating putting up $10-$20 to get into an online poker tournament. It stands to reason there are a lot more bad players out there than there are good players. And hey, if you play smart and conservative, you can just plain outlast a lot of people, I think. Even if I made my money back, I'd say it was a win. It'd be a lot of fun to do for some time, anyway.

Well, I'm more or less moved in here in Indianapolis. The place is not huge, but it seemed smaller without stuff in it, oddly enough. Now that it's populated with electronics, furniture and kitchen gadgets, it feels more like a place to live and less like a place I only know from pictures on my computer.

The schedule at work has gotten steadily more difficult each day. Still, I'm getting used to the technology and I really like the people. The only real difficult part is having to be very regimented about how long I speak. I have to speak exactly one minute at a time and be right on, or affiliates cut me off. We are the news department for many of them. So every day at 10:30 and 11:30, I'm on the air across most of the state of Indiana -- about 70 different affiliates.

It's a place I could see myself staying for 5-10 years. It's a good situation and an opportunity to grow and practice.