Eating in the car, feeling like a real journalist

A funny post is going around headlined "15 Things You Have to Do Before You Can Call Yourself a 'Real' Journalist," and one of them is Eat in Your Car More Often Than You do at a Table, accompanied by the photo here. When I wrote for the newspaper, my diet was not as bad as the junk shown here, but my car was a mess from even eating things like salads while driving to and from assignments.

Well, it is feast or famine in the freelance business, and at this point I am feasting, working on three stories at once: one for HCC, one for Vassar and one for Smith. I like being this busy.

My car, never the neatest, is showing signs of having been snacked in too many times. I thought about this yesterday after eating a Kind bar in my car. A healthy enough choice but too crumbly. I was on my way to tennis from attending a class that I covered at HCC. It is one of the school's interesting Integrative Learning programs team taught by professors in different disciplines, in this case English and Science.

The class ended at a perfect time for me to get down to tennis, actually a little late, which is better for me at this point because as I discovered on Monday, a whole hour and a half is too much on my foot.

I thought I had caught all the crumbs by placing a newspaper on my lap, but little pieces of chocolate and nuts had fallen through and gotten mushed into my pants. Luckily last night it all came out in the wash.

Today I will bring an apple when I drive to Northampton to cover a Women's Leadership Conference at Smith.

This weekend, maybe clean out the car (and hopefully get the chocolate off the seat). Then I can start all over again. But perhaps no more Kind bars.