'Put the Cronkette-ster on yet another plane back to Cali last night, after a weekend together in Chi-town. I took no pleasure in doing it. In fact, it gets tougher every time. Her departure coincides with the arrival of probably the most hellish week of the quarter - the week where all our crap is due at the same time, the "Thanksgiving crunch," if you will. Actually, that's just a euphemism for our profs' last desperate attempt to break us.

Well...maybe not that desperate.

Lo, my heart is heavy. Behold, I am filled with a great despair.

Cronkette and I had a good visit, though. I showed her a lot of the city, the pinnacle being the Signature Lounge, located on the 95th floor of the Hancock Tower. We were lucky enough to snag a table right on the south window, overlooking the loop - a breathtaking aerial view with which to enjoy a few martinis.

That's right - don't ever say I don't show the ladies a good time.

But in this mullet we call life, the party is to my back. Unfortunately, now all I'm left with is the business to the front.

So this week we're all faced with this mad scramble of scheduling sources and secondary sources and final projects and final papers and meeting stories and profiles and stats-and-trends stories and god-knows-what-else. All due. By Thanksgiving.

That's right - they're making us fight for our Thanksgivings. And that which does not kill us...

...well, actually, let's just leave it at, "it's gonna kill us." Period.

They may take ourrr lives, but they'll never take, our FREEEDOOOOM!!!!

...OK, maybe they will.


Anyways, a couple lessons learned in the last couple of days.

1.) God, it must be terrible to be homeless in this city. Back home, if you're homeless, sure - it sucks: You've got no place to go, you haven't had a shower in months (if even that), your clothes are falling apart, nobody wants to sit next to you, and the last time you took the proper medication was during the Reagan administration. But hey - at least you get a great tan. Out here, scratch the tan part and add: "If you stay out at night, you'll be frozen to death by the morning." Ouch!

Seriously, how does homelessness even work out here? I need to know. Why? Um...just curious.

2.) Lessons on how Woodward & Bernstein took down the President of the United States: They did it incrementally. They wrote stories that gradually chipped-away and uncovered more pieces of the puzzle little-by-little, instead of trying to bring down the curtain all at once. Hm, guess how I'm planning to approach Hell Week...

*Bonus question: Guess what we talked about in class today... (I'll give you a hint: It was actually something exciting, for once...)

(BTW, another critical factor helping the dynamic duo of journalism? They were both divorced. By age 30. This does not bode well...)

3.) When at a Japanese restaurant and desperately craving sushi: If there's a long wait and they keep waiting to call parties of two all at the same time, do NOT, I repeat, do NOT assume you're getting your own table. Listen to that nagging voice of suspicion in the back of your mind. Be sure to actually look inside the restaurant, instead of just drinking at the bar, and notice if it's one of those stupid Benihana-type places that scrunches you all in a booth together and pretends like you're old friends with the strange guy sitting next to you.

The steely-eyed Samurai-chef will then grow very angry when you inform him that all you wanted was sushi, and that he does not get to amaze you with his deft chopping-and-dicing skills. In fact, you can almost see him picturing himself chopping and dicing you on the grill instead.

(OK, I threw this last one in just for mine and Cronkette's benefit...)

4.) Be at the right place at the right time, that's just as important as skill: I learned this one from our visit to the Signature Lounge. There was this ridiculous line for the elevator going out the building - it didn't look good for us, but we persisted. Sure enough, we snagged arguably the best table in the house, among at least a couple hundred people up there. As we were leaving, the line just to get a table - any table - was horrendous. Right place, right time.

I need to remember this when graduation starts looming near. I need to tell myself this stupid little inspirational anecdote the next time I hear about a J-school grad who's now a banker. Like the one I heard about on Friday. In addition to Frosty's three PR friends down at the Clerk's office. (*Sigh*)

Two mice fell into a bucket of cream... (Say this with your best Christopher Walken accent: "Two-mice. Fell. Into-a-bucket. Of-cream.")

Anyways, I gotta hop to it.

And remember: If you're reading a post here, it's a safe bet there was work that required some serious procrastination on my part. But if I get through the week, I'll be more relieved than OJ at a criminal verdict reading.