Three story day.

When it rains it pours, the saying goes.

I go in to the station and start to work on my story. I wind up falling asleep on the floor of the newsroom -- poor Elaine -- I freaked her out when she walked in this morning and saw what looked like a dead body laid out on the floor. Thank gawd she turned on the awful fluorescent lights -- that is the only thing that woke me up, and got me into the newsbooth to finally finish my river sampling story, just in time to air. It aired this morning.

Then I go home to sleep.

At two, I've got a press conference with Heather Wilson about SCHIP. Wonkish and scripted. Practically *begging* to be made into a gawd-awful story that no one listens to. I record the press conference and head back to the station.

Steve wants to do a "two-way" on it. I'm game. I've never done it, but why not? That means he sits down with me on mic and basically asks *me* questions, and I play some soundclips that I've gathered. It's *very* conversational. Even *fun* to listen to. I'm not scripting things out and elocuting them into a microphone. I'm sitting with another human being telling him just what I saw happen. And then we throw in a little analysis, a little commentary, and bingo: great radio, from a story that would otherwise have been as dry as dust. About the issues, too -- not about the personalities or window-dressing. (All the TV cameras got was Heather Wilson "dancing" with a lineup of insurance company executives and PR people.)

Then finally that's over and I ask if there's anything else I can do. Steve hands me a pre-written story about medical marijuana and says he's got a minute -- can I leave the first paragraph for an intro, and then read from there to the end, and sign off with my usual tagline? Sure. It takes me a minute to record and maybe two minutes to edit, and it "breaks up" the newscast just enough so it's not all one person's voice.

So in listeners' ears, I did three different stories today -- from River Sampling, to national legislative maneuvering, to medical marijuana at the state level.

I can't imagine what they think of me. If anyone's called to complain, I haven't heard of it.