mcarp-in-the-box

Ms. HRP suggested today that I seem to have deliberately put myself 'in a box' as far as how I live my daily life.

I absolutely agreed.

I've said before that I know some other people perceive me as boring. I am basically OK with that, if the alternative is to turn my life upside-down again. I had all the excitement I needed working in television (about which I had another strange dream night before last).

Blogblah! can probably relate some to what I'm talking about. A reporter's life is filled with sudden and disruptive events. Even if you're just working in humdrum local news, you may find yourself as I once did stuck at a gas station at 4 am in a small town 150 miles away, trying to put together enough material to file a story for a 6 am newscast.

Or you may get tapped twenty minutes before your shift ends to jump in a car and drive at break-neck speed halfway across a neighboring state to follow up what turns out to be an incorrect report by one of your competitors.

A reporter's life is also filled with sudden and disruptive craziness, personal drama and corporate recklessness. You may have a boss call you up at home at 3 am, rip-roaring drunk, and screaming at you incoherently for reasons you can't begin to comprehend, and which your boss won't even remember after he/she sobers up.

Or you may find yourself flying with a copter pilot who is desperately trying to find a safe place to land out in the middle of nowhere after an eager-beaver assignment editor lied to him about weather conditions and tricked him into flying straight into a severe thunderstorm in the hope of 'getting great video.'

Or, if you're like one of my coworkers, you may find yourself permanently disabled after being directly instructed by a supervisor to ignore basic safety precautions at a hazardous live remote.

Or you may work for a boss who, beset by poor ratings and increasing pressure from senior management, starts bringing a shotgun to work every day and leaving it propped up against his desk.

That was pretty much my daily life for 25 years, and even though I've been away from it for a decade, a decade is not enough. I revel in knowing I don't have to venture more than two miles from my home. I'm greatly relieved to be able to just walk away from crazy people, instead of having to work for them.

And I plan on staying in my box for at least a few more years.