Week 14: Exhaustion

Well, I'm exhausted! This past week has to be one of the most draining weeks I have had, both physically and emotionally. Dividing up my time between my internship and school is always a balancing act but throwing in hiring for the Daily next semester, the last two days threw me for a loop.

I started this week going to the 15th anniversary of the Alfred P. Murrah Building bombing. It was very somber and while I think I was too young to understand the significance of that day as a child, I developed a better understanding of that day.

During the ceremony and throughout the day when I walked through the museum for the first time, I cried at least three times: first during the reading of the names by family members of the victims, the my initial response to the museum and how they used the news reels of that day that I vaguely remember and when I read my friend's article in The Oklahoma Daily about a family's journey moving on.

It's these events I wish and hope that I find the right words to tell the story.

The next Wednesday, I was able to cover Bill Clinton coming to Oklahoma City to accept an award from the museum's foundation. The event was good, but at that point in the day, I was spent. Click here to read my story.

After that, I worked on school work and interviewed applicants. I can't tell you how glad I am it is the weekend and how excited I am to sleep and catch a few awesome bands at the Norman Music Festival! :)

Week 13: Craziness

This week was a bit different than normal weeks in that I wrote mostly life and arts type stories. I wrote a feature on the Oklahoma City Arts Festival, a mini-feature on the band Gentle Ghost and wrote the normal floaters for every week (Ugh, floaters). I did write one brief thing for news but this is a first time in a while that I have not written anything newsy or political.

Next week, though, I'm jumping back into the news with the remembrance of the OKC Bombing Monday and Wednesday is the day I cover a dinner with Bill Clinton. I'm excited. :)

I have three weeks left of my internship after today. That's insane. And it is sad for me. I really like my internship and the people that I work with.

Week 12: Reporting and writing

I know I have said this more times that I can count but I really love my career choice. I continually do what I really like to do.

This week, I covered a town hall meeting in Guthrie with U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R- Oklahoma, where he was very gracious to those on the other side of the floor. I unfortunately missed out on the famous one in OKC but the Guthrie one was basically the same.

My cover story came out. It was good. I loved the cover art for it. Click here to read the longer version online.

The best part of my week though was when I got to interview two really respected journalists, former CNN and NBC News correspondent Mike Boettcher and Editor-at-Large of TIME Magazine Mark Halperin. I would give my right arm to be working at TIME Magazine by the way. :)

Now, if you read either one of these guys' biographies you would be amazed at their careers. While both are extremely impressive, Boettcher, who considers Oklahoma City his hometown, has become one of my heroes. I am hoping he will be teaching at OU again next year because I would love to have a class with him!

I would honestly give a vital organ to have half the career of either one of these men. They have the careers I aspire to have. It's speaking to these people that reaffirms my love for what I do and makes me want to give it my all and do what I can to make me want to become a better journalist.

Week 11: Stress!

This week, I wrote a story for the Gazette.

Not too much different from what I usually do every week, correct? Well, this week is different mostly because this week's story is scheduled to be a cover story for the Gazette.

A COVER STORY!

You can use the words of Joe Biden when President Obama signed the health care bill into law to describe how I feel about it.

It's about the top ten delinquent taxpayers in the state. Let me tell you, no one was very happy to talk to me, sadly enough.

I had nightmares about this story for three days. It was all the same, I was trying to finish my story and somehow, somewhere down the road, I couldn't finish for deadline and then I look at the paper the next day and The Oklahoman wrote my story. I would wake up in a cold sweat every time and was too agitated to go back to sleep.

Well, unlike what my subconscious was so afraid of, I did make deadline and my story is in the process of going through its third review of fact checking.

Pick up a copy of next week's Gazette. It should have my name on the cover of it. :)

Week 9 & 10: Spring break and history

So, I was lame and decided to go into the office last week because I had almost absolutely no spring break plans to speak of and I'm accomodating to my poor status. It was a really off week for everyone, mostly because Rob and a majority of the staff was gone for most of the week. I mostly did what I was supposed to do but was completely unhappy with my sources because apparently, they too believed they deserved a vacation.

This week, on the other hand, was insane! As most would know, unless you have been living under a rock for the past week, the U.S. House passed national health care Sunday night.

Game over, Republicans. Wrong.

Monday, the Republican leadership of the state legislature came out and called for the Attorney General to sue the federal government. Click here to view my story on Monday's press conference.

Well, that was only the start of it. Attorney General Drew Edmondson, Democrat and governor candidate, issued a statement that he would look into it and that it was just to early to sue. U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin, Republican and governor candidate, started accusing Edmondson of being disloyal to what Oklahomans want. The health care opt out bills got voted on at warped speed. A few lone Democrats spoke out against the majority. Sen. Randy Brogden, Republican and yet another governor candidate, got accused of being racist.

My head is spinning just writing this down.

Now, try putting that into a big story to come out next Wednesday. Yeah, you're head is spinning a little bit too now, huh?

Keep an eye out for next week's Gazette and read what these people had to say.

Week 8: Halfway through!

Wow. I honestly cannot believe it's going to be spring break next week, meaning this semester is halfway over. If you have been reading this blog, you know that I had the worst time trying to understand what I was writing about, thinking I put out one of the worst stories I have in the Gazette.

Well, that might be so, but I think that it also got the someone important to do something about it.

Click here to view the story.

The Oklahoma Gazette goes out on stands every Wednesday. My story was first viewed by readers Wednesday and by Wednesday late afternoon, Corporate Commissioner Dana Murphy came out and openly criticized this plan by the telecommunications staff and told them to stop.

Now, I'm not sure if my story did something or if it was just coicidence, I'm just glad that I was able to wonder if my story did make an impact on the community.

Week 7: Jargon

After a whirlwind week that was last week (writing one big story for the book and two small stories for the Web as well the regular floaters), I was preoccupied with things going on with my bank statements.

During our editorial planning meeting Tuesday morning, Rob Collins, the editor, gave me a story about a new proposal by the Oklahoma Corporate Commission's staff to have a new fee for each phone number to make all calls in the state toll-free.

As I started to look into it, I started confused. As I'm writing the story, I'm even more confused. Why? Since it is a proposal, nothing is final. It's actually a living draft that may or may not come together. Then talking to the people involved, I got more confused. Why? Because of the telecommunications jargon.

I honestly hope that my story this week makes sense and that whatever is ailing my bank statement will be fought away.