Like Riding A Bicycle...

Well, there I was this morning... back in the newsroom at WMAL, doing the exact same job I was doing nine months ago (almost to the exact day) when I was let go. I was not sitting at the same desk, because I had bequeathed it to my friend and protege, Jen Richer, when I was dispatched the first time around. But all in all, it felt pretty much the same.

Most of the equipment that didn't work then still doesn't work now. The same people who had crappy attitudes then still have crappy attitudes today. (And THEY still have jobs! HA!) I can still finish the sentences of the people who still work there. All in all, it felt comfortable and familiar.

All of the routines that I had carefully developed over 25 years came back like muscle memory...

As usual, I woke up at 2:35am - Five minutes before the alarm went off, because it rarely ever woke me up. Last night was no exception, but I will confess to a night of tossing and turning... You'll have to excuse me for a fitful sleep the night before going back to my old job - this blog entry comes to you courtesy of a STRONG midday cup of Starbucks Verona blend coffee!

I was at Seven-Eleven by 3:15... WOW - they put in big new coffee urns to replace the old dirty pots since I was last there! As usual, I appropriated as many "International Delight" creamers as I could for my friend, Bill Thompson, who, as it turns out, switched to black coffee months ago after I stopped bringing him creamers! Well, Bill, we have four days to restock your desk drawers! The guy behind the counter saw me and said (in his best clipped Indian accent), "It's been a long time, sir!" When the guy at the 7-11 in the middle of the night remembers you, you know you'd been doing something for a while!

I headed down Connecticut Avenue pretty much by myself, as usual, except that a motorcycle cop whizzed past me by the speed cameras in Chevy Chase, thereby setting off the flashes... not that he'e ever going to be paying any fines.

I brought in a beautiful and tasty coffee cake from Costco, and I set it down on the counter to be shared before I went into the studio to do my 10 am newscast. By the time I got out of the news booth 10 minutes later, it was already 2/3rds consumed...

Yep. Nothing much has changed!