When I rolled out the blog well over a year ago, my hope was to provide updates on my various writing gigs, while also giving more context as to why I write what I write – regardless if it is on the Portland Trail Blazers or the league in general

My other plan was to present a look at what goes into this job – being a freelance writer who covers the NBA – particularly considering my situation as a stay-at-home Dad. Faithful readers from the start know I did more of this when the blog first rolled out. Not so much lately.

So allow me to catch you up to speed, starting with my Monday, as my wife returned to work after three months of maternity leave. This left me alone with two little girls: a rambunctious two-and-half year old (Piper) and 12 week old (Stella).

Talk about a game of two on one....

7:00 am – You should know I’m typically up around 6 am, but after an initial 4:30 wake-up call by Stella, we both went back to sleep.  Scary when “sleeping in” consists of waking up at 7 o’clock. As for Stella, she was out until a little after 8.

7:15 am – Sent an email to Dwight Jaynes asking why some people who leave comments on articles feel the need to berate you as a writer. I just don’t get it.

7:30 am – After a half hour of checking emails and the news, Piper is up and at ‘em. Seriously, the girl wakes up like she just chugged a bottle of Red Bull.

9:30 am – Breakfast with Piper - and then Stella – quickly leads to a trip to the gym so the girls can play (Piper) and lounge (Stella), and I can get some work done.  I workout a couple times a week – typically finding a pick-up game or shooting around – but I also use gym time to write or catch-up on emails in the cafe'. Tough to beat a free hour to work right now.

9:30 am – A couple friends from back East pile on about the Red Sox being swept by the Yankees over the weekend via Facebook. I didn’t find it very funny. Now I know how Yankee fan felt after Boston beat New York in seven-straight games earlier in the season.

9:45 am - Wrote a quick blog post about the job Kevin Pritchard has done this offseason, this based off a story I did for HOOPSWORLD about Minnesota Timberwolves President David Kahn. Still catching heat about that story.

10:00 am – Called and spoke with a Blazers coach about working on a story together breaking down his offseason. More to come on that later.

10:05 am – Swapped emails with a fellow baseball writer Bill Cornett – he of Portland State fame - about finding a literary agent for our book. Made a good contact we hope to milk. May have to take a hiatus from covering the league in order to get this bad boy done.

12:15 pm – Home. Lunch. Both girls down for naps. Stella is sleeping. Piper is not.

12:30 pm – One on one call with HOOPSWORLD editor to discuss job performance, expectations for next season and the economic landscape. Translation: less pay more work. Attempted to brainstorm ways to increase pageviews while coming to realize this job has become more about “Clicks Per Minute” than your actual work as a reporter. Sad but true. That call was pretty much depressing in some ways, motivating in others.

1:15 pm – Received an email from prospective editor from an area newspaper informing me his freelance budget has been officially eliminated. Just perfect.

1:30 pm – Piper decided not to take a nap. Even more perfect.

2:30 pm – Stella is awake and joins the party. I’m ready for a nap myself.

3:30 pm – Load girls into the car for a trip to Northwest Portland to fetch payment from the Northwest Examiner. Check is late by a good week after editor mailed it to the wrong address.

9:00 pm – Had a nice dinner with the family earlier, and now the girls are in bed. Not a peep since they both went down at 8 o’clock. Heaven.

9:15 pm - Hoping to get some work done, regardless if that means researching some story/interview ideas, or touching base with editors about freelance work. For now, that means writing a quick blog post about my manic Monday. Best get some sleep before too long – 6 am will be here before I know it…..hopefully it’s not 4:30 am again.

pic via: leftparents

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