My Journal

I made the decision to write an autobiography when I started my professional journalism career in upstate New York.

Don't worry it will not be published until I get married (or until I retire...which ever comes first). I started keeping a journal to record my deep thoughts about work, life, dating and everything else that comes into my mind.

My first entry was July 2, 2003 and I'm still going strong today! The journal will help me pick out the relevant parts of my life that I will describe in my future autobiography. It is tough keeping a journal a secret from people in your life and I nearly slipped up a couple of times over the last few years.

Here are some examples:

1) My ex-girlfriend had ample opportunities to find my journal if she was the nosy type that went through a boyfriend's stuff. She promised me that she never went through my stuff...so I have to take her word for it. She visited me a lot when I live in upstate New York between July 2003 and June 2004 and would often stay over at my place. My journal was buried in one of my dresser draws and sometimes I hid it in my car just to be safe. I took my journal with me when I visited her in Boston and it was always in my black backpack. There are some things she would love to read in it and there are some things she would kill me if she ever knew were in it!

2) I took my journal with me to the NABJ convention in early August. I ran out of notebooks to record stuff on and somehow started using my journal as a regular notebook. On Friday, August 5th, I lost my journal between 4:30 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. I was sitting in a closed-door session for the voting for the 2005 NABJ elections. I was there on behalf of my candidate Mashaun Simon to contest the results on his behalf. As I'm sitting in the room, John Hanson, NABJ elections chairman, started to tell us some numbers. Like any good reporter, I searched for a pen (which I found) and a notebook (which I couldn't find) to record this information down.

Shit!

I had left my journal somewhere in the Hyatt Regency Hotel prior to coming into the election room. I could not leave the election room until the final results had been certified. I got to the NABJ elections room at 5 p.m. and we didn't get the final results (Mashaun won 109-38) until 6:15 p.m. As soon as Hanson said we were free to go, I bursted out of that room like a horse coming out of the gate at the Kentucky Derby. I ran at full stride to the last place I could remember resting my NABJ bag (the lounge area near the registration area). My journal was sitting there by itself like a piece of debris. I quickly flipped through the pages and everything seemed to be there! So, unless someone had a camera and took pictures of every page, my secrets are safe!

3) I've left my journal sitting on my desk at work...several times between September 2004 and June 2005 (I stopped bringing it to work after that). During the high school season, I go through so many notebooks that I lose track of which one is the one that I'm currently using. When I'm not at work, the part-timers sometime sit at my desk, too! Who knows if any of the part-timers have thought that my journal was any other notebook and picked it up to use it. I haven't received any death threats at work, my tires are still fully inflated and my car has escaped any random acts of vandalism. So, I guess I'm safe. For the most part, I've been kind to my co-workers in my journal but I have blasted a few in some profanity-laced tirades on the white-lined pages of my steno pad.