A very emotional week

We are sad to leave, but happy to be moving on to other great experiences.

Jackie will be moving to a fantastic city filled with great news, Emily will be working for the Congressional Quarterly this summer, Heather will be reporting for the Lansing State Journal, Caitlyn is going to Ohio to write a book, Megan says she will find a paying reporting position in California, and I will go back to Texas to work for the San Antonio Express News.. It just so happens that it is the third largest newspaper in Texas in terms of circulation. (just thought I would throw that in)

According to my good friend David Rauf, my duties will include listening to the scanners all day long..

That basically means you'll be driving the Crime Jeep to breaking news all over the city -- shootings, stabbings, fatal car crashes, fires, etc. You'll have to get used to listening to those radios. That shit can be tough.

Granted - this is all the experience he had and mine might completely different from his. I will be at the Criminal Justice desk (where Rauf used to work) and the Digital News Desk, where the mantra is "online first." I'm an unpaid for credit intern, so they may not have me doing the really demanding stuff - but I'll still ask for it.

There'll be lots of emphasis on taking the laptop into the field and filing short stories for the Web almost instantly (like 15-25 minutes after police give you the official line). You'll also give Web editors dictation over the phone on occasion if there's something super breaking. That's basically the standard. You'll learn it and find yourself pumping out content like never before.

I can't wait. The summer will be tough.. but I can't wait. He says "it will be a real experience," and I believe him. I am working on a final video project for the semester. It will be posted on the wire for all prospective applicants. I'm trying to finish today. The countdown to London: 5 days.

Soggy protesters make thier voices heard

I must admit, I really enjoy the amount of attention (five youtube comments) this short video has been getting.

Watch it and try not to give me the Peabody Award for excellence in Journalism.



Ok, so it isn't perfect. I have tons of criticisms: the places the people are from are not consistent, there is block of the video without audio, some of the video is unidentifiable (the man throwing tea bags on the ground), some name bars block out faces and there is no mention of Scripps Howard in the credit.

I still like it and I'm going to milk this for as long as I can. Read the story Emily Stephenson wrote.

I will stop being annoying once the number on the "times watched" bar stops growing. My current count is 59 views. I expect that to grow, what with my narcissistic self posting it on facebook. Ive created a monster. A monster who loves herself for creating OK videos with free software.

Someone stop me!

playing catchup

I can't remember what I have done since I last blogged.. To those of you keeping up: THANK YOU

The past few weeks have been a combination of busy and lonely.. Most of the time I was too busy to be lonely or just plain lonely.

After Mark left back to London, I realized that I needed to get in gear if I wanted to accomplish everything I set out to.

But before I could get a three stories out, we were whisked off to New York for the College Media Advisers convention. It was three days of incredible, talented (and some not-so-talented) people sharing their smarts with us. Jackie and I (mischief incarnated) started off very well-behaved the first day until we decided we were in New York city - in the center of it all - Times Square.

We skated in Rockefeller Center, watched stand up at Comic Strip Live, strolled Central Park, bought extremely cheap souvenirs, met strangers on the Subway and went to Staten Island at midnight. We perused the shops and bartered like crazy.. We were the queens of New York City. Everything we wanted - we had.

It was a great trip.. everything we wanted it to be.. Ill post photos when Jickie gets back from New York.

I got some more Texas stories published in Wichita, Abilene and San Angelo. Is it wrong that I don't keep track of them? I just send them away and hope they will get where they need to be.. I also wrote for El Paso Inc this last week in a project that made me want to pull out my hair. I'm pretty excited about the video I got though.. I might make a cool slide show movie to go with it.

Today I went to the National Aquarium.. it was a snore aside from the octopus and the seahorse exhibits..

I miss home.. mostly because my small niece is growing up with out me.

Stay tuned for new videos..

A week and a half later...

and I'm that much closer to seeing my boyfriend for 9 days of uninterrupted mushiness. Get ready Washington.

I think his surprise visit last weekend for Valentine's Day merits extra obnoxious mushiness. This photo was taken at the moment of surprise. Thanks Megan for taking it - and further disorienting me. :)

My eye is almost completely healed now!

I just got the news that we would be attending Obama's address to Congress tomorrow night! We will be observing the speech from the House Press Gallery and therefore will be able to hear the speech but not watch him speak.

Nominees for best original song are great. You may have to create a log in.. but its free - why not?

Working on: getting a hold of two Air Force Firefighters who rescued a baby camel while on tour in Iraq, and a profile on a Congressional intern from Texas.

And I want to know who's writing my profile.. !

yep thats Charlie Gibson and seven lovely Scripps Howard Foundation ladies.

Details will posted later.

just a few hints: Britney spears jazz band, Gibson's pretty face and Scripps representing on the dance floor.

oh my..

Cornelius- My eye's more attractive cousin

Ive got the "my eye 'aint my eye no mo" blues.

I've let something horrible happen. It must have been something in the air at the Chinatown movie theater, or the gratuitous amount of sappy girl scenes in He's Just Not That Into You that did it..

Because Saturday I woke up with an ulcer in my right eye.. It's small and unnoticeable to the interns/Washingtonians, but to me the ulcer (a small round white dot on my iris) looks like an extra appendage.

Please don't image google corneal ulcer. That is a terrible idea. I did it only because I was curious to see people like me.. Needless to say, I didn't find any and it was generally a bad experience. But this cheered me up..

My eye is healing up fine now. My strict eye drop schedule is working and my eye is hardly red anymore. :)

In totally unrelated health news: I have some version of the man flu. I'll be okay.. more than okay - now that I have an excuse to sleep and eat all day.

I also have a new story up! My favorite part of the week was researching the effect Asian Carp have had on the Illinois Waterway System. My second favorite part of the week was watching this video - over and over again.

"Mercy sakes alive!"- Bill Dance

"They grow so dog gone fast!" (I don't know the proper spelling of dog gone)

Quick update: the doctor put me on some milky white eye drops.. she said that im getting better but "not outa the woods yet."

Happy Monday!

H.R.34.IH

is the Midnight Rule Act and the 26th House Bill introduced this year. It ensures a "delay [in] the implementation of agency rules adopted within the final 90 days of the final term a President serves."

I'm writing a story about the last 100 House and Senate bills. Its interesting to see who proposed what compared to the last congress . (Do not be fooled by the title of the page 'Bills introduced in the 111th congress'.. I suspect that is a mistake.. and it should be titled 110th congress. This is what happens when you have a copious amount of time)

I think Emily deserves recognition for her blog.. In case you wonder where I live, please refer to her photos. (our apartment is nearly the same, only better.)