popular thinking

My ex left a simple comment on my MySpace page yesterday. It read: "How are you?" Yep. Simple enough. Don't think she knew the timing of her question hit home with me, coming as it did on June 22. I've made some major life decisions right around the Summer Solstice.

1993: Midway through a post-graduation cross-country road trip with a few of my college friends, I fell in love with the West and vowed to start my journalism career somewhere out there -- not thinking it'd be Twin Falls, Idaho, at the time, but who really sets out thinking they'd like to end up in Twin Falls, Idaho?

1998: First day at work at The Sun newspaper in lovely downtown Bremerton, Wash. -- the day my career shifted once (and for all?) from the seriousness of city halls, county courthouses and police stations to entertainment and pop culture.

2001: Final day at work at The Sun newspaper in lovely downtown Bremerton, Wash. -- the day I left my solid and steady footing for a six-week temporary contract at my first major metro paper, The Arizona Republic. I was chasing my not-yet-ex, whom already had, for all intents and purposes, moved there. My temp job turned into a full-time job and a weekly column, but I lost the girl.

2006: ?

Everything seems so uncertain. So stressful. And yet...I just met writer/director Kevin Smith and had a fun and effortless interview with him...I'm about to hang out with hot women who rock (Hell's Belles, check them out at a gig near you!)...I've already seen Superman Returns (it's good) and will see it a second time (IMAX! 3-D!) before most Americans have even seen it once...so things are good. Right? Right. But I feel more changes a-coming this summer. Actually, I know more changes are in store for me -- for one thing, I'm planning to move before Labor Day.

And not just because Mark Jurkowitz said so in this week's Boston Phoenix, in which he suggests more cutbacks in my already depleted department. This marked the first time he indirectly mentions me, methinks, with this line: "(The Herald might be willing to sacrifice some arts reporting, but it has made a pretty serious investment in pop-culture coverage.)"

That sounds like I'm safe, right? Right.