Frantic, hectic, high-strung

There's sheer craziness in the news room right now... a two day killing spree has reporters running around the office shouting..."What was so and so's age?"... "Did we call the hospital yet about so and so's condition?"... "Where are those court documents?"...

And I'm smack dab in the middle of the bustle with not much to do -- nobdoy needs archive footage when there's so much new news -- but feeling stressed just because everyone else is.

Yesterday I listened to the police and fire scanners sound relentlessly for nine hours straight. You know how you still feel like you're rolling over waves after spending all day on a boat... I still felt like I was listening to the scanner as I went to bed last night... a horrifying drone of brutal murder and fatal car accidents and dozens of fires.

How do you stay up-beat and optomistic about the world in the face of all this? It was easy to make statements about "having faith in the world" and seeing "how amazing and beautiful people, places and things" are when I was daily being invited by so-called strangers to share a good meal, or maybe just a laugh.

But this...this frantic, hectic, high-strung news room... what is this...