I heard the story as I was about to get on the Metro, my wife sighing beside me, "And you told them about living in your parents' basement, too?" Teresa does not believe in wearing your neuroses -- or their consequences -- on your sleeve. I could quibble with some phrasing, but it's really hard to condense 30 years of life into a sentence or two. As much as possible, Allison tried to let Stephanie and me do the talking in the report. Of course, I am used to having 100% control over content in this medium.

When I was a journalist in Peru, I used to do radio news reporting and hated it. I was self-conscious about how my voice sounded, about the spontaneity and quick reactions to news stories, about the inability to correct wording a story once it was phoned in. And I never did it enough to get a handle on it, meaning my angst meter was moving into red whenever I had to do a story. This latest experience reminded me of those days with a tape record and alligator clips.