Quiet Sunday

It's 9:18am and I'm awake. It's amazing what working during the day, getting older, and changing sleeping patterns do to you. A mere 5 months ago, 9:18am would have seemed like the earliest time of day. And the thought of getting up at 7am would be terrifying. Now I can barely stay awake past 11pm and getting up at 8:30am is not too horrible (that's on the weekends mind you). *grins*

Electioneering

Matt and I went door-to-door with my boss yesterday. It was hot, sunny and muggy. I actually got sunburned on my face and probably a little sun on my arms. I think that's funny only because we're into September now. As if the temperature is not allowed to exceed 75 degrees once you pass the first of the month. Me and my funny weather rules!

The campaigning experience wasn't bad. I got to see some streets in Jamestown I had never been down before. We really only ran into 2 people that were not enthused to see us on their doorstep and only one of them was rude. I don't know when or if we'll be doing door-to-door again, but I can assure you that "lit" AKA literature drops are somewhere in the future.

My Job

After sleeping off some dehydration and grouchiness, we went to Applebee's last night for grub. While we were there we saw a police care with lights flashing go by, followed by a fire rescue car, then an ambulance, and then a firetruck. I was just itching to get up and follow them. I joked to Matt that I could go grab a tape recorder from the radio station (WJTN) and do some quick free-lancing pro bono. We talked about that a little. It's other people's misery that made reporting fun. I know that sounds awful. But until you experience the adrenaline of being on site of a fire or accident or any other type of thing, it's hard to explain. Not that I want anyone to be hurt, not that I enjoy the thought that someone may be homeless after a fire or that a business may have to shut down, but there's just the energy of everyone running around.. trying to fix the situation. It's exciting. Probably one of my best experiences at WJTN was covering the Jamestown Powder Coating Company fire. That was a disaster. Four people had to be rescued, the owner of the company had to be arrested for crossing the fire line to save his computers, and this fire would not quit. I was lucky enough to interview the fire chief before he went up in the Sherrif's helicoptor to assess the situation. This coup led to me being interviewed by Buffalo TV stations about what the Chief said.. and then being shown on the 6 o'clock news (while I was doing my own 6 o'clock news on the radio) across Western New York. That blew my mind. It also reaffirmed that I did love my job... at least for a few more months. I wouldn't say I'm a glory-seeker or spot-light seeker. It just felt good.. like I was being recognized for the job I did even though it was just giving some details about a fire. At that time I wasn't getting much positive reinforcement or feedback at the station. The previous month had been hell with only Terry and I working (since Matt had left to work for the Mayor and our "news director" took off back to Buffalo) and then I got bitched out by our "news consultant" (the former news director) for essentially acting stressed out. Just remembering that makes me glad not to be working there anymore. It's amazing how the people you work with can make you happy you don't work in a field that you love.

May I say again how Mark is a great boss? I can't complain. This is a great job!

Cartoons

I'm so glad I can get my daily fix of "For Better or For Worse" and "Brenda Starr" and "Luann." I remember being in college and trying to find comics on the web, but no one was really set up to do that yet. You still had to go buy the paper (not that I have anything against that since I want the artists of the strips to earn a good wage). But it's just so cool to be caught up again on all the strips I've been reading since 3rd grade (and some are more recent like "Luann" and "Zits."). You gotta love the kid in me.