[The snipers have passed out in the bushes again]
I've taken to sleeping with earplugs again. The last time I did that was my freshman year when my roommate snored and moaned while she slept, leaving me perpetually awake in my bunk. I would drive around Murfreesboro at 3 a.m. trying to lull myself to sleep like an infant. I got the bright idea to try earplugs when nothing else would work. You can't really ask someone not to snore, after all. I would lie there and listen to her saw logs, and get fed up and yell a staccato word ("Hey!" or "Jesus!") that would wake her and she would mumble, "Wha?" and I would pretend to be asleep. Then she'd fall back into her pattern and I'd do it all over again.
Like clockwork, the birds woke me again at 5. They are burrowing their way back toward my bed, gaining in audacity and volume the whole way. I woke and plugged up my ears, but couldn't fall back asleep because I was already too pissed that I was having to use earplugs to sleep in my own goddamn apartment. I don't know why the maintenance people haven't relocated them yet, but I left a friendly reminder along with my rent check on the front desk in case that's what they were waiting on.
Work has been better these past couple of days. Yesterday was hectic and stressful because the entire nation/world section was on my shoulders and we had a 9:30 deadline instead of the usual 11:30. Obituaries were late coming in, which put me behind, and my wire editor had to go do stocks, so I ended up having to find art and make the three stories, which ran short, fit the gaping newshole. And as I was hurrying to do that, suddenly people started handing me all these proofed pages with corrections to make, including a correction on an AP graphic, which I had never made before or been told how to make. So I had to juggle all this crap and I didn't realize I had to go back to the graphics people and approve the new graphic before they would send it to me. So I didn't and I waited as long as I could until I had to send that page. Long story sorta short, a slightly messed up graphic printed and about 50 people pointed it out to me. It became a funny office joke, like, "Hey, there's a problem with this graphic," "I believe you need to check that graphic," and "Hey, someone's on the phone and they want to know what's wrong with this graphic!" When someone finally explained to me that I had to haul ass to the art department and say "OK" to get the new one, I did, and two seconds later pulled the corrected one onto the second edition papers. So the mess-up only reached some readers and I learned a valuable lesson. Now isn't that what this is all about? Hmmm?
Today I get to work in the Money section, possibly doing the section front. Sweet.
I finally got paid, whick rocks, but more than $100 (a quarter of my check) was taken out for taxes. I've spent all this time lusting for a state income tax in Tennessee, and now that I'm in a state with one, I hate it. Maybe it would be better if I lived here permanently and reaped the benefits of the tax. But I don't, so I'm going to go throw a brick through the state capitol building window.
I've taken to sleeping with earplugs again. The last time I did that was my freshman year when my roommate snored and moaned while she slept, leaving me perpetually awake in my bunk. I would drive around Murfreesboro at 3 a.m. trying to lull myself to sleep like an infant. I got the bright idea to try earplugs when nothing else would work. You can't really ask someone not to snore, after all. I would lie there and listen to her saw logs, and get fed up and yell a staccato word ("Hey!" or "Jesus!") that would wake her and she would mumble, "Wha?" and I would pretend to be asleep. Then she'd fall back into her pattern and I'd do it all over again.
Like clockwork, the birds woke me again at 5. They are burrowing their way back toward my bed, gaining in audacity and volume the whole way. I woke and plugged up my ears, but couldn't fall back asleep because I was already too pissed that I was having to use earplugs to sleep in my own goddamn apartment. I don't know why the maintenance people haven't relocated them yet, but I left a friendly reminder along with my rent check on the front desk in case that's what they were waiting on.
Work has been better these past couple of days. Yesterday was hectic and stressful because the entire nation/world section was on my shoulders and we had a 9:30 deadline instead of the usual 11:30. Obituaries were late coming in, which put me behind, and my wire editor had to go do stocks, so I ended up having to find art and make the three stories, which ran short, fit the gaping newshole. And as I was hurrying to do that, suddenly people started handing me all these proofed pages with corrections to make, including a correction on an AP graphic, which I had never made before or been told how to make. So I had to juggle all this crap and I didn't realize I had to go back to the graphics people and approve the new graphic before they would send it to me. So I didn't and I waited as long as I could until I had to send that page. Long story sorta short, a slightly messed up graphic printed and about 50 people pointed it out to me. It became a funny office joke, like, "Hey, there's a problem with this graphic," "I believe you need to check that graphic," and "Hey, someone's on the phone and they want to know what's wrong with this graphic!" When someone finally explained to me that I had to haul ass to the art department and say "OK" to get the new one, I did, and two seconds later pulled the corrected one onto the second edition papers. So the mess-up only reached some readers and I learned a valuable lesson. Now isn't that what this is all about? Hmmm?
Today I get to work in the Money section, possibly doing the section front. Sweet.
I finally got paid, whick rocks, but more than $100 (a quarter of my check) was taken out for taxes. I've spent all this time lusting for a state income tax in Tennessee, and now that I'm in a state with one, I hate it. Maybe it would be better if I lived here permanently and reaped the benefits of the tax. But I don't, so I'm going to go throw a brick through the state capitol building window.
posted by theogeo | 6/04/2004 07:55:00 AM
1 Comments:
Sounds like you are learning some really good stuff! Glad everything got done yesterday. Will you get to claim any of those taxes and get them back at the end of the year? Thanks for visiting my blog!
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