The Week Past, and Week Ahead

This past issue (Sept 14) was a lot of fun, and we are gearing up for another jam-packed issue on the 21st!

Dika is covering two stories, as is Pat, and I am contributing a few as well, and rolling out a new project which is positive in nature, community oriented, and participation based.

In other news, there's a dizzying amount of things happening right now in the neighborhood, and we're coming to terms with the fact that we can't be everywhere, so the theme for the future of the e-newsletter will be to "work smarter, not harder" as the cliche goes. The pace that I've been going at for the past 70-plus weeks could likely only be described as unhealthy, and while I might have been serving readers, I've neglected my health in the process too.

On Saturday morning at 10 AM at Lazo's (a place that I've been at many times late on a Saturday, but never on an a.m.!), former 1st Ward Alderman Manny Flores, who left office on a favorable and positive note, at least among most of the folks I know, will be making an announcement, per this e-update. Word on the street is that he will be officially putting his hat into the growing pot full of mayoral contenders.

As much as I'd like to be there to cover the news for the Pipeline, it's also Yom Kipper, which is the holiest day of the Jewish New Year. It's been really different being on my own these days vs. working for someone else, especially when it comes to the holidays. For whatever reason, I was always self conscious asking a boss to take the days off, and then was wracked with guilt over missing a few days of work, as if the world would end if I weren't sitting in a cubicle.

Oddly, this time around I am doing what I truly love, but I am 100% willing to abandon the neighborhood news circuit for a few days and take time to reflect and to atone. I've said and written many things I regret expressing this past year, and I haven't been as honest with myself about what I really want out of life, or where I think I'm going. Half the time I don't know the answer to that question, but this time I know where I'm going on Saturday a.m. and it's not to Lazo's. But I do wish Flores and all contenders good luck.

It is time for a changing of the guard, and as one reader wrote in yesterday-- after he chided me about going back on my policy of not discussing politics in the e-newsletter- these are exciting times.