Don't call it a comeback.

Much like LL Cool J, I've been here for years. But where have I been?

Well, unsurprisingly, running a news website is a bit more work than being a general assignment reporter. I mean, especially with the stuff I was doing, which was mostly court beat and Friday night emergency coverage – Unless something was blowing up, I generally had five to 10 free hours a week at “work.” Yay for journalism!

Now that I am the boss again, and more importantly on salary, the dynamic changes a bit. There is more of an incentive for me to do things quickly and correctly, especially since I work for an online news site. (In case you're unawares: Narragansett Patch. It's an AOL venture, and now in 22 states; you can see if one is near you by clicking here. If you want to help me out, feel free to randomly click on a bunch of stories all over the place - Relax, I won't tattle.)

The first couple months have been ones of adjustment – Both from the perspective that I suddenly have more work to do, and from the perspective that the company I work for is still young and trying new things out. It's pretty exciting, and I can honestly say I haven't been this psyched about a job since I ran my college newspaper. (Then again, one of my friends dubbed my Patch site Version 2.0 of our college paper, since half the staff are people I knew from college. Hey, gotta network.)

So, I have been looking to restart this blog for a couple weeks now. At first, my plan was to do so on or about January 1, but life interfered. Likewise, I thought February 1 was a splendid day, but unfortunately, I've alternated between chills, sweats, fever and flu. Also, I did finally get a Playstation 3, so I've been picking away at Final Fantasy XIII for the past month or so. (General impressions: Like the game, especially like story.)

Consider this my “welcome back to blogging” post. Thanks for all of you who have gently and not-so-gently needled me into this – It's nice to see I wasn't completely forgotten. (Somewhat sad note though: My average hits per day increased by 50 percent ever since I left. Go figure.) I will be dropping down in post frequency and length, from seven days a week to just three – Monday, Wednesday and Friday. However, more posts will be time-delayed and queued up, so I should be better with sticking to the 7 p.m. EST schedule. (We'll see!)

The photo comes from this site, and you can buy it on a shirt! Awesome!

Getting a new job

So, as I was saying about my new job...

Oh wait, that's right, I haven't written about it at all. I've never had to leave one job for another in the past, so I'm not sure what the proper etiquette is for it. (Hopefully, Miss Manners or Dear Prudence is reading this and will chime on.) I've known that the job is mine since two weeks ago, but because I was still employed by The Westerly Sun, I've been holding off on announcing it.

Since I'm no longer The Sun's employee, I suppose there is no harm in saying that I've been hired by Patch.com to be a local editor for Narragansett, Rhode Island. It's a small, coastal and college community in Eastern Rhode Island, and I've lived there twice in the past. I'm about 15 minutes away. Although my site isn't up yet and won't be for a bit, the Newport and Portsmouth and Middletown sites are, and they look pretty nifty. There might also be one in your area already, depending on where you're reading this from; you can see the full list here.

It's Internet journalism, but I'll essentially be a conventional editor slash reporter. I'll be writing a lot myself, but I'll also have a freelance budget and (hopefully) be able to hire interns. It is a lot more work and responsibility, which I'm not exactly shy of at this point in my career as a 26-year-old in a new apartment.

The financial commitment that AOL is putting out there also makes me confident that they think this can work. They also sent me a Macbook, a Sony Cybershot, a Blackberry and a police scanner, all of which is sparkly and new and wonderful. (What can I say? Much like Kaylee from Firefly and Serenity, I like shiny new things. Although, I feel like I'm about 60 because I'm having trouble using the Blackberry like a human being.)

Also, as part of the whole hiring process, I get to travel a bit. Sunday afternoon, I'm taking the train from rustic Kingston, Rhode Island to New York City. I'm staying in (I've been told) a swanky hotel for a night, getting training Monday morning, and then taking another train to Boston for another hotel Monday night. After another training session Tuesday morning, I'm back to Rhode Island on Tuesday night.

The timing is actually ridiculously convenient. My car's inspection sticker expires on the last day of August, and I've also been putting off several other needed repairs - the check engine light is on, it's about 3,000 miles overdue for an oil change, the brakes / rotors make a grinding noise under 30 m.p.h., and the front driver's side headlight and a back brake light are both in need of repair. And oh, as I actually write this post at 8 a.m. Saturday, I'm sitting in the lobby of Safelite as they replace my windshield, which had a deep gash across the entire surface of the glass, like I was in some god damn horror movie.

Sooooo. It's probably for the best that I'm off the roads until at least Wednesday morning, since it will probably take them a couple days to completely repair my car anyway. (Another plus of the job? I can work from home most days, meaning I can actually plan reasonable times for car repairs now.)

Anyway, if you have any questions about my new gig, feel free to ask. As of now, I don't think it will affect my output here, except for the immediate future. Because I probably won't have time to write on Monday and Tuesday, and possibly Sunday, I'll be cuing up some Baggage reviews for those days. I trust this won't be that distressing to most of you reading this, since they tend to be fairly popular in terms of page views.

Note: On the rare chance that one of you out there does want to, like, meet me in NYC, and you're not a weirdo, I am game for going out for a quick drink Saturday night. Same goes for Boston on Monday, assuming I don't have some work-related schmoozing to do. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail if that's the case - sgre6768@gmail.com.

Working and stuff.

Unfortunately for you folks, I have to type an article today about a basketball game I covered, so I don't really have anything prepared for this space. Hey, it's the weekend - You should be out and about and doing stuff anyway, not reading my blog!

I might write something later tonight, but I doubt it. If you're looking for a decent restaurant in South County though, I do recommend Rhody Joe's, a.k.a. the former Chelo's in South Kingstown / Wakefield / Narragansett. Good burgers, and some very, very big mugs of beer. In fact, I believe I will go take a nap right now, and I feel old typing that.