Hello from Brooklyn

Hi all, it's labor day morning, so quiet around here. Liz is still sleeping and the kids are in New Jersey with their dads, soaking in a last few moments of summer and the big New Jersey attraction, the drive-in, which I think is Jonah's favorite thing in the world right now. The threat of not getting to go actually got him to clean up the toy room.

I've been back at work about a week and a half. Some things about it are fun -- I love my colleagues and some of them were so happy to see me I got huge hugs upon my return. (Of course, some people don't even know I left, like the woman from finance I ran into in the bathroom who looked at me, surprised, and said, "did you get a new haircut?")

It's kind of a kick to be working on such a big story. It's also strange, since the candidates are spending all their time in New Hampshire and Iowa (and California!) and just about none in New York. So even though I'm in the thick of it I feel strangely out of it. Guess I'll be travelling myself soon.

And then there's all the bad stuff about WNYC, which I conveniently surpressed while I was gone -- like the inability to make decisions, or at least decisions about the newsroom. My job is supposed to be director of political coverage, which I'm doing, but I haven't got sign-off on new title or salary yet, which is frustrating.

Also, we were supposed to move to some nice new studios while I was gone, but the whole move has been delayed about a year, so we're still in the decrepid municipal building in Lower Manhattan, where we are practically hanging from the rafters theres so little room. It's about as far from Stanford as you could be.

And then work, a schedule, yuck. I'm really missing the Santa Cruz mountains, the Avery aquatic center, the main quad, and of course all of you right about now. Don't know how I can face Monday nights with no back stories.