Still swingin'

Halloween

Not so good. Kayleigh's friend abandoned her at 4:50. Too short notice to find someone else to trick-or-treat with. So she went with Kelsey and her friends. Joy. She bugged out early, only to find someone had stolen all the candy off the front porch. Lots of people around here do that--put the candy out and hope that people are honest. We won't be so naive again.


Growing pains

So, as the mom, it's hard for me not to want to cause great bodily harm to anyone who hurts my baby. I know 12 is a crappy age for kids. So many changes can be just mean to suffer through. Kayleigh sat on the floor, stuffing her face with chocolate bars, and asked, "Why does chocolate make you feel better? And why does it wear off so fast?" We got into talks of drugs and endorphins and depression and exercise and facing what's bothering you and turning to your family for help and...the questions she asked made me worry. She seemed to be finding comfort in the idea of drug use. That is a sad, scary road I hope she never goes down. The girl needs love and success.


St. Louis

Some members of my newspaper staff and I went to St. Louis last week for the ACP/CMA convention. I went to some cool sessions where I didn't learn much, but I had a good time. I also went to some kind of boring ones. Ah, well. I was hoping to learn a bit about lead-writing, headlines, and cutlines.

There was another one that sounded cool--The Myth of Objectivity. The speaker was good, but we didn't talk much about objectivity. Much of the time was spent just introducing ourselves. That was OK. It was interesting hearing where people came from. He went at the girl from Calvin College a little, wondering whether she was even allowed to be objective. I thought he would be a hoot at a party. He seemed like he had a lot to offer, but needed a lot of time to offer it in. Professors.

Anyway, we came home with seven awards. We took 2nd place, best of show for our category of newspaper, honorable mention best of show for our special Halloween issue (I was a cereal killer--the photographer never understood it and kept telling me I should have blood-red around my lips, not a milk mustache), honorable mention for our online newspaper, which is a freakin' joke, honorable mention for staffer Melissa Stelter (they spelled her name wrong) for Story of the Year, editorial, and Pacemaker Finalist. We got two CMA design awards; 5th place for an ad, 2nd place for sports page design.


The World Series

We were lucky to be in the nation's most dangerous city for the World Series. My advisor got into the 4th game for $80, the big bastard. (Taste me, I'm bitter.) The final game went for around $1800. It was incredible to be there when they won and everyone was so excited. We got into the stadium after the game. I called home from behind home plate. I talked with a lot of people. My trusty reporter Mikk will likely have a good story for the sports page. I gave him my notes. I'm a little bummed not to be writing the feature, but that's the way it goes. I had other stories to write.

Anyway, I went out the next morning, and the previous night's revelry was scarcely apparent. A little bit of broken glass on one street, and that was it. Around here, they'd've cut down trees, broken store windows, and set cars on fire. It was so great to go out the next morning and not have to dodge piles of drying puke.

I found St. Louis to be a very friendly, welcoming city. Even street people asked us if we were enjoying our time in St. Louis.

The biggest bonus was that I got to see my niece Sarah and her fiance, Dan. We had a nice evening together watching the game on the giant screen, wandering the streets, and having a light, late dinner. My advisor, who doesn't want to meet families on trips but was present when Sarah arrived, said she was very nice and liked her a lot. He even hung out for a while--before going off to game four for $80, the bloody bastard...OK, covered that already, deep breath. Row 18, even! (inhale...exhale...)


The family

They survived without me, but barely. Eric was sick the whole time. Turns out his meds were way hosed but the doctor called the wrong number to leave the message that said, "Go to the pharmacy now! We've upped your thyroid dose!" (Insert further swearing of your choice.)


Back in the saddle

Now I'm back. Craparama. I'm waaayyyy behind in my school work. I was given an extension in my mass communications class, but this week's work is dependent on last week's, and he offered no extension for this week, so I can plead, or I can just suck it up and do too much and have it all be crap. Crappish, anyway.

UPDATE: My teacher gave me an extension for both weeks, so I get the same amount of time to work on it as everyone else. Phew!

It's nice to be with my family, though. School work, be damned. I missed 'em.