Busy and gleeful
I've been ridiculously busy with loads of stuff since about Sunday, and I couldn't be happier. Well, except for the fact that my schoolwork seems to be piling up a bit more than I'd like.
The big key to this week is that my feature on men's gymnastics injuries, and the way the guys just compete through them constantly, is coming out on Thursday. On Sunday, I decided it was time to bother Jack again, and this time it WORKED! Apparently, the magic words were those that distinguished my long-ass feature from a traditional backpage (more like lots of chunks that make sense together but aren't really a coherent whole). Once Jack found out that I had a huge feature just like he'd been begging for, things started happening really fast. He immediately started talking to the design and ad staff, telling them he needed at least most of a page, with ads flat across the bottom (no staircase), or better yet, a full blank page. Then he sent me over to photo and design. I'd already contacted photo about this a week earlier (which made them quite happy). Mike dug me up a bunch of photos of my five guys, and I picked out one of Jamie doing the iron cross on rings (exactly the type of photo I'd been dreaming about) and another really nice one of Joe doing flares on pommel horse. Crotch shots were quickly eliminated from contention; I've heard enough complaints about those. The design kids told me we'd work on this during the week, since the Monday paper is a very busy time (and done on Sunday).
Monday, I realized that that was the only day I could attend practice this week, since on Wednesday there's a Freep recruiter at the Daily and on Friday I have to do laundry and prep for Movie Night (Miracle!!!). So I very quickly got all my immediate work done in the space of time between my last class and the start of practice, and just showed up. (Kurt told me it was fine if I came to a practice a week. His exact words: "We'd love to have you!") I may need to normalize my schedule there, though, because it turns out the event schedule changes every week. So they were doing all the same stuff on Monday as they did on Friday. Which was wondrous nonetheless. I got to watch the guys attack Elk and hold him down for some stomach-whacking (apparently a birthday tradition, and one I hope they don't repeat on me on MY birthday!). I didn't get to stay and schmooze as long as usual afterwards because I had to hurry to the Daily and start my big feature rolling. I ended up getting three reads on it instead of the usual two, and stayed there a good three hours. I was so ridiculously high from all of it. To my happiness, after my very first read, Kevin said it was an okay lead, but it would be better if I just started right in with the focus on Joe. Which is how I originally wrote it. Heehee. Jack really liked it--it was cool getting his feedback, cause usually I don't see the changes he makes until it appears in the paper. The layouts weren't in for Thursday, so I couldn't do much with photo and design.
Yesterday was another whirlwind. Right after class I headed out to Ocker Field for field hockey interviews--I did a midweek on Beth Riley. I came home, banged that out, and headed for the Daily again. After getting reads and everything on that, I worked with design on the feature page. It's going to look SO cool!!!! Both photos are going to be cutouts, with the text hugging the outlines of the guys, and we got a full blank page!!! It's going to be the first page of the sports section, from what I understand!! Lisa said we'll do something really cool with the headline too. I'm thinking GYM WARRIORS. Unfortunately I can't think of a sub headline so maybe we just won't have one. That's what I'm hoping. Anyways, right before I left the Daily to go get dinner, I found out that for the recruiter the next day I was going to need a resume, 6 clips, a cover letter, references, and an essay about how I got into journalism/my influences/my plans. So after dinner I came home and did all that instead of my homework. And then the kids were over at U Towers so I hung out with them until 2:30 even though I had a class at nine this morning. This going going going all the time though. . . it's kind of fun!
Today after classes are done, I've got to get a little homework done, but after that I've got an appointment with Joe Grimm, the recruiter, at 4:40. And after that, I get to lay out the feature! FINALLY!!!! I can't wait to see how it looks. It's going to be so marvelous. I'm going to get up early tomorrow to grab about 30 copies or so, and I told Karl to save me another 10. I'm going to take a huge stack over to the boys at practice after British History. Oh yeah, that's another thing I've got on my plate: I found out Kent is the LEAD ILLUSTRATOR for WeRead, a group on campus that publishes children's books written, illustrated, and edited entirely by Michigan students. Since Jack is looking for more features, and I can't think of anything I'd rather do than get more coverage on the gymasts, I'm going to try for a feature on Kent. So Thursday I'm supposed to chat with him more about that. And who knows, maybe on Thursday the Tigers will clinch the division!!!! They won again last night, 4-3, and reduced their magic number to four. Placido Polanco is such a valuable part of this team. It is ridiculous how much better we are with him than without him. The A's clinched last night, AND the Stros inched a game closer to the faltering Cardinals. Brings to mind happy memories of (I believe) 2001, when the mantra on Bradfans was TANK, CARDS, TANK! and they did!
So that's my insane and delightful week so far. I find that keeping busy makes me more stressed but also more happy. Weird, eh?
The big key to this week is that my feature on men's gymnastics injuries, and the way the guys just compete through them constantly, is coming out on Thursday. On Sunday, I decided it was time to bother Jack again, and this time it WORKED! Apparently, the magic words were those that distinguished my long-ass feature from a traditional backpage (more like lots of chunks that make sense together but aren't really a coherent whole). Once Jack found out that I had a huge feature just like he'd been begging for, things started happening really fast. He immediately started talking to the design and ad staff, telling them he needed at least most of a page, with ads flat across the bottom (no staircase), or better yet, a full blank page. Then he sent me over to photo and design. I'd already contacted photo about this a week earlier (which made them quite happy). Mike dug me up a bunch of photos of my five guys, and I picked out one of Jamie doing the iron cross on rings (exactly the type of photo I'd been dreaming about) and another really nice one of Joe doing flares on pommel horse. Crotch shots were quickly eliminated from contention; I've heard enough complaints about those. The design kids told me we'd work on this during the week, since the Monday paper is a very busy time (and done on Sunday).
Monday, I realized that that was the only day I could attend practice this week, since on Wednesday there's a Freep recruiter at the Daily and on Friday I have to do laundry and prep for Movie Night (Miracle!!!). So I very quickly got all my immediate work done in the space of time between my last class and the start of practice, and just showed up. (Kurt told me it was fine if I came to a practice a week. His exact words: "We'd love to have you!") I may need to normalize my schedule there, though, because it turns out the event schedule changes every week. So they were doing all the same stuff on Monday as they did on Friday. Which was wondrous nonetheless. I got to watch the guys attack Elk and hold him down for some stomach-whacking (apparently a birthday tradition, and one I hope they don't repeat on me on MY birthday!). I didn't get to stay and schmooze as long as usual afterwards because I had to hurry to the Daily and start my big feature rolling. I ended up getting three reads on it instead of the usual two, and stayed there a good three hours. I was so ridiculously high from all of it. To my happiness, after my very first read, Kevin said it was an okay lead, but it would be better if I just started right in with the focus on Joe. Which is how I originally wrote it. Heehee. Jack really liked it--it was cool getting his feedback, cause usually I don't see the changes he makes until it appears in the paper. The layouts weren't in for Thursday, so I couldn't do much with photo and design.
Yesterday was another whirlwind. Right after class I headed out to Ocker Field for field hockey interviews--I did a midweek on Beth Riley. I came home, banged that out, and headed for the Daily again. After getting reads and everything on that, I worked with design on the feature page. It's going to look SO cool!!!! Both photos are going to be cutouts, with the text hugging the outlines of the guys, and we got a full blank page!!! It's going to be the first page of the sports section, from what I understand!! Lisa said we'll do something really cool with the headline too. I'm thinking GYM WARRIORS. Unfortunately I can't think of a sub headline so maybe we just won't have one. That's what I'm hoping. Anyways, right before I left the Daily to go get dinner, I found out that for the recruiter the next day I was going to need a resume, 6 clips, a cover letter, references, and an essay about how I got into journalism/my influences/my plans. So after dinner I came home and did all that instead of my homework. And then the kids were over at U Towers so I hung out with them until 2:30 even though I had a class at nine this morning. This going going going all the time though. . . it's kind of fun!
Today after classes are done, I've got to get a little homework done, but after that I've got an appointment with Joe Grimm, the recruiter, at 4:40. And after that, I get to lay out the feature! FINALLY!!!! I can't wait to see how it looks. It's going to be so marvelous. I'm going to get up early tomorrow to grab about 30 copies or so, and I told Karl to save me another 10. I'm going to take a huge stack over to the boys at practice after British History. Oh yeah, that's another thing I've got on my plate: I found out Kent is the LEAD ILLUSTRATOR for WeRead, a group on campus that publishes children's books written, illustrated, and edited entirely by Michigan students. Since Jack is looking for more features, and I can't think of anything I'd rather do than get more coverage on the gymasts, I'm going to try for a feature on Kent. So Thursday I'm supposed to chat with him more about that. And who knows, maybe on Thursday the Tigers will clinch the division!!!! They won again last night, 4-3, and reduced their magic number to four. Placido Polanco is such a valuable part of this team. It is ridiculous how much better we are with him than without him. The A's clinched last night, AND the Stros inched a game closer to the faltering Cardinals. Brings to mind happy memories of (I believe) 2001, when the mantra on Bradfans was TANK, CARDS, TANK! and they did!
So that's my insane and delightful week so far. I find that keeping busy makes me more stressed but also more happy. Weird, eh?