Sunday, April 26, 2009
Halfway There
I finally hit the 15-pound mark today, which puts me halfway to my goal. If I keep up at this rate, I may be at my goal weight by the end of July, before our girls' trip to Hilton Head. So nobody give me chocolate!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Missing It
I have a confession. A HUGE confession, for those of you who know me well.
I realized something this week. I miss IT. And by IT I mean journalism, specifically working for a newspaper. I inexplicably visited the N.C. Press Association's website yesterday, and saw an opening that caught my eye. I don't know why I was even looking, but then I started considering actually applying, and by the end of the day I had decided I was going to send in my resume. I must have lost my mind.
Again, those of you who know me well, know the love-hate relationship. My first newspaper experience was my senior year of high school. I hated it. For about six weeks, until I started to love it. And then my first semester at Wingate University, I signed on with The Weekly Triangle, mainly for something to do and a way to meet people. By my second semester I had switched majors and was officially in the journalism program. Half of my college memories were formed in the Triangle office. By my senior year, I was Editor in Chief.
After I graduated, I went straight into a job with The Index-Journal, a daily paper in Greenwood, S.C. Things didn't go so well there at the end, thanks to some management changes that resulted in some very biased journalism, but when I started, I was aiming for a Pulitzer. The hours were bad. The pay was bad. The stress was constant. And I loved it. There were some great moments and great stories while I was there. The changes that were made eventually led me to look for something else, and while I interviewed with a couple other papers, I ended up deciding I was a little burnt out and needed a break.
It's been a long break--five years--and after getting a taste of a 9-5, Monday-Friday schedule, I had pretty much decided I was never going back. And then I did that unexplainable thing yesterday, and pointed my browser to the N.C. Press site. I don't think I was in full control of my faculties.
So tonight, I am sitting here pouring over old clips, with memories flooding back, and realizing--I miss it. So much that I feel like going out and doing an interview right now. What exactly it is that I miss is hard to say. It's a mixture of many things that adds up to the magic elixir that is journalism--being in the middle of everything, meeting fascinating and extraordinary people, having the privilege of sharing their story with the world, finding just the right word or turn of phrase to convey exactly the thought or emotion you are looking for, and, yes, even just the ego boost of seeing your name in print.
I miss it.
I realized something this week. I miss IT. And by IT I mean journalism, specifically working for a newspaper. I inexplicably visited the N.C. Press Association's website yesterday, and saw an opening that caught my eye. I don't know why I was even looking, but then I started considering actually applying, and by the end of the day I had decided I was going to send in my resume. I must have lost my mind.
Again, those of you who know me well, know the love-hate relationship. My first newspaper experience was my senior year of high school. I hated it. For about six weeks, until I started to love it. And then my first semester at Wingate University, I signed on with The Weekly Triangle, mainly for something to do and a way to meet people. By my second semester I had switched majors and was officially in the journalism program. Half of my college memories were formed in the Triangle office. By my senior year, I was Editor in Chief.
After I graduated, I went straight into a job with The Index-Journal, a daily paper in Greenwood, S.C. Things didn't go so well there at the end, thanks to some management changes that resulted in some very biased journalism, but when I started, I was aiming for a Pulitzer. The hours were bad. The pay was bad. The stress was constant. And I loved it. There were some great moments and great stories while I was there. The changes that were made eventually led me to look for something else, and while I interviewed with a couple other papers, I ended up deciding I was a little burnt out and needed a break.
It's been a long break--five years--and after getting a taste of a 9-5, Monday-Friday schedule, I had pretty much decided I was never going back. And then I did that unexplainable thing yesterday, and pointed my browser to the N.C. Press site. I don't think I was in full control of my faculties.
So tonight, I am sitting here pouring over old clips, with memories flooding back, and realizing--I miss it. So much that I feel like going out and doing an interview right now. What exactly it is that I miss is hard to say. It's a mixture of many things that adds up to the magic elixir that is journalism--being in the middle of everything, meeting fascinating and extraordinary people, having the privilege of sharing their story with the world, finding just the right word or turn of phrase to convey exactly the thought or emotion you are looking for, and, yes, even just the ego boost of seeing your name in print.
I miss it.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
By the Numbers
Forgive me for stealing a well-used sports column format to relay my moving experience this weekend...
24: Foot-length of the moving truck we used, which was almost two and half times the length we had reserved. Kevin had lots of fun pulling that into a very tight driveway, from a busy road near downtown.
10: Number of pounds I've lost since early February. This isn't directly related to the move, except that apparently all the heavy lifting gave me the extra push I needed to lose the last pound I needed to hit that mark, despite all the fast food I ate (see below). 10 down, 20 to go...
7: Number of bruises I have discovered so far.
6: Number of fast food meals I have had since Saturday, since all the cooking stuff was in transit. I am soooo unpacking the pots, pans, etc. tonight.
3: Additional trips made to the old house after we loaded up the truck--not because stuff wouldn't fit in the cavernous truck, just for stuff we didn't want to take in the truck, like TVs, computers, etc. Two more trips to go--one tonight to meet someone who might buy our old furniture and one tomorrow to take a couple bulk trash items out to the curb (if we took them out this weekend, we'd be fined for having them out more than a day before pickup).
2: Pieces of brand new furniture sitting in the new place, a couch and a loveseat. Anew bed I bought last spring was my first piece of new, never owned by anyone else, furniture that cost more than a hundred bucks. These two are the second and third. And they're great. Next on the list--a washer and dryer, although those probably won't be new.
2: Besides being the number of new pieces of furniture, it's also the number of ecstactic dogs who love all the extra space and have been using the house as their own personal wrestling ring. They are also big fans of the yard. And they have taken it as personal challenge to see how much fur they can rub onto the aforementioned new furniture.
1: Times I would like to have to move again in my life, and that will be into a house I buy. And then I'm staying put and never moving again, because moving is the hardest thing in the world!
24: Foot-length of the moving truck we used, which was almost two and half times the length we had reserved. Kevin had lots of fun pulling that into a very tight driveway, from a busy road near downtown.
10: Number of pounds I've lost since early February. This isn't directly related to the move, except that apparently all the heavy lifting gave me the extra push I needed to lose the last pound I needed to hit that mark, despite all the fast food I ate (see below). 10 down, 20 to go...
7: Number of bruises I have discovered so far.
6: Number of fast food meals I have had since Saturday, since all the cooking stuff was in transit. I am soooo unpacking the pots, pans, etc. tonight.
3: Additional trips made to the old house after we loaded up the truck--not because stuff wouldn't fit in the cavernous truck, just for stuff we didn't want to take in the truck, like TVs, computers, etc. Two more trips to go--one tonight to meet someone who might buy our old furniture and one tomorrow to take a couple bulk trash items out to the curb (if we took them out this weekend, we'd be fined for having them out more than a day before pickup).
2: Pieces of brand new furniture sitting in the new place, a couch and a loveseat. Anew bed I bought last spring was my first piece of new, never owned by anyone else, furniture that cost more than a hundred bucks. These two are the second and third. And they're great. Next on the list--a washer and dryer, although those probably won't be new.
2: Besides being the number of new pieces of furniture, it's also the number of ecstactic dogs who love all the extra space and have been using the house as their own personal wrestling ring. They are also big fans of the yard. And they have taken it as personal challenge to see how much fur they can rub onto the aforementioned new furniture.
1: Times I would like to have to move again in my life, and that will be into a house I buy. And then I'm staying put and never moving again, because moving is the hardest thing in the world!
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