This is what happens when it's warm out and I don't want to be productive

So the last few days have been pretty good, but also kind of uneventful. It's been nice outside, which means I don't want to do much of anything. Ugghhh.

Saturday was spent on the couch reading Harry Potter (for the 100th time, or so, because I'm a nerd) and then attempting to do some research work.

Sunday, my family went up to Maine for the day, just because we could. Dad bought a Jeep Wrangler so we all like riding around in it. It was warm out, and a very good day for a road trip. Then I did a few hours of research... fun.

Today, I went to visit a friend, Sarah, and we got ice cream (I had peppermint...YUM) and then went back to her apartment so I could give her a henna tattoo on her foot. Then we looked at her wedding albums, which was very very fun. I love looking at pictures like that. I also mailed in some of the research work I've been doing, so I suppose you could say today was semi-productive. Sort of.

Tomorrow I get to go into the Worcester office of The Landmark to see the production process and do a little copy-editing. I know for you non-journalism people that must sound soooo exciting, but I actually really like editing things. I know, weird. But true.

Hopefully it'll be fun - although I still don't know how to get there... my editor hasn't sent me directions yet. Uh oh... Cross your fingers!

The picture, p.s., is a flower growing outside in my front yard. Can you tell it's summer? :)

Front page! And other news...

Sam and I made the front page of the Landmark this week! Our story about Marilyn Hyson, the woman who lost her memory, is front and center! Check it out online or get a copy: http://www.thelandmark.com/ I think it's pretty cool! :)

We wrote our karate piece today and handed everything in. We're both going back in for a bit on Friday, so that'll be good, too.

Today I went to a retirement party for a woman who lives in Paxton and worked as a school nurse in both Paxton and Holden. She spent 21 years as a school nurse - pretty cool. I got to talk to her husband before it started, and I have to say they are quite possibly the cutest couple I've met. He bought her roses (with a story behind the number and color) and they've been together 47 years. Gahh. He cried when he gave her the flowers. So so cute.

Not much else is going on now - just writing up the retirement story and sending it in along with the pictures I took. Tomorrow I'm gonna do a little more research and try to get in touch with people for the next stories. We'll see what happens, because so far this hasn't been the greatest week for stories actually panning out. Cross your fingers!

I'm watching Grey's anatomy while I write this and the article... my guilty pleasure. It's raining here, so I can't go outside or do much, but I'm trying to stay busy. I'm also going to a tattoo place tomorrow night because I'm meeting with the artist to talk about me working for him as the henna girl. Yay! It'll be really awesome if this works out, because I love doing henna tattoos and I love tattoo places, too, so... AHH! :)

I think my muscles are falling off

So yesterday Sam and I got to go to our first ever karate class at Grimm's Family Martial Arts in Holden. We're writing a piece about it tomorrow, and it should hopefully be published next week. I think it'll be pretty cool, since karate itself was awesome!

We learned some blocks and kicks and stuff - super fun! And we are now officially white belts! Haha... It was great. I'm sore today, though. I've been trying to run again the last few days and doing some ab stuff, so that plus karate last night means my back hurts and I just want to lay in bed for a few hours... but I'm up and being productive today!

Tomorrow is an office day, so I'll go in and write with Sam for a while, then go out to a retirement thing to take pictures - which apparently is not a surprise after all :( I was kind of excited about that... but I guess it'll still be pretty cool.

Nothing else is really going on - just work, work, eat, run, work, eat. So fun. I do want to show you what happened earlier, though, when I went in my room to scan some things to my computer: Bella, my mini dachshund, decided it would be fun to climb up in my bed and make a nest. So cute. Just look at this:

:)

Learning how to punch more accurately? Yes, please.

So I had two articles in the paper this week. Yay! And I'm working on three more right now, with the help of my fellow intern at the Landmark, Sam. We covered a small senior center event on Friday afternoon, took some pictures, y'know, the usual stuff. Then one lady got up and told us all about how she lost her memory once and has been gaining it back for 40 years. Wow. So we went up to her at the end and she agreed to let us help tell her story. We're writing it together right now, through email. I think it'll come out really interesting at the end - this woman's had a crazy life.

Sam and I are also going to a martial arts school tomorrow night to get some info about their programs and take a sample course. We get to learn the basics of how to kick butt, and then write about it. Awesome. :) We're both really excited about this - I feel like a little kid. I get to learn how to punch things and kick. Woooooop :)

I can't tell you about the third story yet, because I'm covering a secret surprise party for someone so I don't want to say anything just in case. Shhhhhh. I'll tell you about it after I cover it and take pretty pretty pictures and things like that. I think it's going to be really cute, though. ;)

Nothing else is happening here, really. I spent my day lounging around and walking outside in the sun. I also did some cleaning (finally) just so I could feel sort of accomplished. But that's it... so exciting, I know.

Middle schools smell like braces and low self-esteem

I spent last night at Chocksett Middle School in Sterling, MA, at their International Night. I took a bunch of pictures and sent them to my editor this morning, so cross your fingers that they'll end up in the paper.

It was an interesting night... For one thing, most of the little middle schoolers weren't actually so little. I was wearing heels and I still felt short :(

It was super hot in there, too, and I swear to God it smelled like braces. Maybe that was only a flashback to my middle school years, but I could smell the rubber bands the orthodontist makes you wear to move your teeth along faster. Ugh. Not a good flashback. I'd rather not remember middle school... Not only was I the girl with braces and frizzy hair, but I had a back brace, too. Hoorah for scoliosis! Needless to say, middle school passed in a haze of self-loathing.

So now we move on to other things.

I burned my hand last night, very badly. We got a new microwave and I was trying to heat up a mug of water. I did it all the time with the old microwave, and if I left the mug in for two minutes the water would come out perfect. I only put this one in for a minute and a half, and when I reached in to grab it - BAM. Ouch. I dropped it all over the floor and the mug cracked and now I have what might be second degree burns on my right hand. It hurts to move my hand too much, and I have to hold it a weird way to type. I can't stretch it out. :(

Any ideas on how to treat burns? I've been looking online and I don't know what to do. Can I put lotion or anything on it? Gahhhh.

Here we go, another week

Happy Monday!

So I finished another article, about the new summer art program for kids in 5-8th grade in Sterling. Hopefully it will be in the paper soon, but I don't know if it will be this week, because my supervisor just got back from his honeymoon so I can imagine the number of emails and things he has to look through now. I don't know if he's edited it yet. He hasn't answered any of my emails, so I'm not getting my hopes up yet.

Tuesday, tomorrow, I'm going back to the middle school in Sterling again for their International Night. I'm going to take a bunch of pictures and hopefully some will also end up in the paper or at least online. Wish me luck!

In other news, I think I had a 24 hour bug or something, because last night I started to feel really crappy before bed, and then I woke up at 2:45 and got sick :( ew. I really hate throwing up so it was a night full of gagging and crying and shivering and ginger ale.

I feel better now, though, so that means back to work with article searching and fun things like that. I also really need to actually start writing my paper for the internship credit, about social media and newspapers. I was productive this morning, though, and I did some coding for my research job with a professor on campus. I got two hours of work done, so that was good. I got to watch a bunch of old Sarah Palin interviews and laugh... I found this picture of her on the Huffington Post. Isn't it scary?

I'm getting hungry now, so I'm gonna go eat something and then get back to work looking for article ideas and things like that. Any suggestions?

Why are phones so unreliable?

I'm working on a new story today - I found a program in Sterling MA that's new, an arts program for children.

The problem is getting in touch with the two women who run it. There is no contact info on the website, so I tried the town clerk... but that didn't work.

So then she patched me through to someone else, who suggested calling the middle school, where I've been disconnected three times already. I know the women work there, though, so at least I'm close. But the secretaries probably think I'm nuts because I keep calling asking for the same people and then I either get cut off or transferred to the wrong room. Yayyyy.

I really hope this works out, because it's getting annoying.

In other news... I ran again today and so far have been able to resist the cupcake temptation. But probably not for long. I want sugar.

I'll let you know if I finally get in touch with these women... cross your fingers!



image c/o google images

I wrote a story today... yayyy

So yesterday I got to interview two men who are running a RAD (Rape Aggression Defense) program in Sterling, MA. It's pretty cool, because it's only $50 to go to the class and they teach you basic defense techniques.

The guys were super nice and seem genuinely excited about teaching women how to defend themselves. I'd really like to try it out, so I think I'm going to go to the class once it starts - I want to learn to kick some butt! If anyone wants to join me...

I finished up that article, so now it's time to start hunting around for a new topic. I'm not sure what to look for yet, but I guess I'll figure it out.

I also need to work on my paper for this internship credit stuff - I have to write an eight page paper about the effects of social media on newspapers. I have most of my sources already, it's just a matter of organizing everything and then actually writing it... but I have zero motivation. It's super hot outside today, so I pretty much have no motivation to do anything.

Although - I did go for a run this morning, because it was kind of nice out when I got up. I felt so proud of myself, but then I ate a cupcake :( I'm so weak. But I mean, come on, who could resist these beauties?

Ugh, okay, time to get back to work, so I will post again later!

NCCWSL continued - with photos!!

I added this picture in because I just love this quote... Okay, moving on:


Day Three:
Day Three was spent mostly in workshops about leadership and women's rights - there was pretty much a conference for any interest.

Here are the ones I went to:
-CEO of Your Life: Leading with an Entrepreneurial Spirit
-Media, Stereotypes, and Powerful Women
-Ditch Your Inner Perfectionist: Chutzpah Served Sisterhood Style
-Hey Shorty! Ending Gender-Based Violence in Schools and on the Streets

They were all very interesting, but my favorite was definitely the Chutzpah one. It was all about how to stop being a perfectionist and realizing when you are stretching yourself too thin - when you need to relax and take time for you - and how to stop worrying about making everything perfect.

After all of the workshops, the buses came back to take us into D.C. again for a dinner on our own and some sightseeing. I went with a few girls - Katy, Jill, Jasmine, and Donna. They were all super nice, and we got dinner together at an Irish place, and then walked to the Capitol building, where we ran into the U.S. Army Band, and then to the Washington monument. It started to get late and we were all getting pretty tired, so we headed back to the buses and drove back to campus for the night.

Day Four:
The last morning of the conference, I got breakfast with Olivia, Lilian, and Megan (which was in itself an ordeal, because we couldn't find anywhere that was open and ended up walking back and forth across campus for over half an hour - but it was worth it when we found food!). Then we went to the closing speeches, which were pretty cool, and then it was all over! We all split up and made our way home. I managed to find my way around the airport all by myself and got home safely! :)

So that was my NCCWSL trip - it was great, and I met some wonderful women!

NCCWSL: Days One and Two --With Pictures!!!

Alright, so I finally found that silly cord, and got all of my pictures onto my computer from the NCCWSL conference. (Ps, people said it like "nick-whistle," which I found pretty cool).

Here we go - my D.C. and Maryland experience, with photos.

Day One:
The first night I got to Maryland was pretty laid back. We all got together in one of the dorms on the University of Maryland campus and had a little "getting-to-know-you" kind of night. We hung out, shared stories, and had little ice-breaker games. It was nice, and I met some cool girls. Then I went with three girls - Mara, Randy and Ericka (all from Minnesota) to wander around town in search of noodles. Seriously. We went to Noodles & Co. and talked for a while. Then I passed out back in my dorm room with Cruz, my roommate, also from Oswego.

Day Two:
We got up super early, with a ton of groaning and grumbling, and caught the bus to the Newseum in downtown D.C. One sleepy bus ride later, and we met up in a room in the ground floor for a little talk about the First Amendment, and then they let us walk around for about two hours. Cruz and I tried to see everything, but there was just sooooo much. We started on the top floor, on the terrace that has a spectacular view of the Capitol building and Pennsylvania Ave. Next, we saw the Hurricane Katrina exhibit - all front pages documenting the hurricane and its aftermath. It was pretty powerful - except for the middle schoolers running around it and trying to find their home states' papers... lots of screeching and pushing - so we kept walking.

The exhibits I was most excited to see were the 9/11 and Pulitzer Prize winning photos. We ended up seeing both, which was great. The 9/11 exhibit was very very powerful, with an antenna from one of the towers in the middle. It was all twisted and broken, and that against the front pages of papers showing the towers on fire was just... well, you get it.

The Pulitzer photos still remain my favorite, though. I could have spent all day just walking around and looking at them all. Ahhhh.
I wish I could have just stayed in there. Seriously, I want all of them in my house. I even tried to get the book the Newseum sells of copies of all of the photos but it was too expensive :(

When we got back to the campus, we went to opening speeches and things like that. They were all pretty interesting, and I met even more cool ladies. Then it was time for the Women of Distinction Awards ceremony and reception.
Connie Chung, Lisa Jackson, Marsha Guenzler-Stevens, Natalie Randolph, and Swanee Hunt were the winners this year, so we got to hear them all give really great speeches.

Then we had a little meet-and-greet with these fabulous women, so I got to talk to/shake hands with Connie Chung! Ahhhh, so cool. It was a great moment. I got a little shunted back and forth when I was trying to go up to her - because 500 college women in high heels all determined to touch Connie Chung can be a little vicious. But eventually I got up to her and my new friend Katy from NH and Alabama was kind enough to take a few pictures for me.

NCCWSL part one

I just got back last night from the University of Maryland, where I got to spend four days hanging out with awesome and powerful women :)

NCCWSL is the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders. It's an annual conference with workshops and speeches and things, so it was pretty cool.

I can't find the cord for my camera so I can't upload any pictures yet, but I promise I will! Especially because (this was the highlight of my trip) I got to meet Connie Chung! AHHH. It was super cool - I took a picture with her and got to talk to her for a second. It literally was only a second because there were over 500 college women at this conference and only one Connie Chung to go around.

We also went into D.C. twice - once to visit the Newseum, which rocked, and once at night for dinner and a little sight-seeing. It really was a fun time, and I met a ton of nice ladies from all over the country. We had every single state represented, and even some international students. Very cool.

I want to wait until I can upload pictures to go into a lot of detail, because I think some of the pictures will speak for themselves. So I promise to keep looking for that elusive cord and I will upload very very soon!