random bits of happiness

This note on my pen holder on my desk.



Visiting cemeteries with my little brother.



My weekly water routine with the horses.

who would do that?!

Who would sit on the back deck?

Me!

Who would sit on the back deck with a cup of coffee?

Me!

Who would sit on the back deck with a cup of coffee, laptop, and a stack of work?

Me!

Who would sit on the back deck in their pajamas, braless with a cup of coffee, laptop and a stack of work?

Me!

Who would sit on the back deck in their pajamas, braless with a cup of coffee, laptop and a stack of work, and happy as a clam that their two dogs were on either side?

You guessed it, ME!

And of all things, who would sit on the back deck in their pajamas, braless with a cup of coffee, laptop and a stack of work, and happy as a clam that their two dogs were on either side and photograph them?!

I'll let you off the hook on this one...it was me.

I'm a girl. And I genuinely like football

I go crazy over football. I can make calls before the ref does, and sometimes when I'm in public I silently fist pump in victory or grab my head in defeat. I record games and then watch them, after sending out a text/Facebook blast to NOT tell me the score, which has definitely happened.

I don my team's shirt and drag my little brother to dinner with me - in front of a TV and we sit there for four hours and watch the game.

We play "name that quarterback" and sometimes I win. When I find out that a major trade or contract has been renewed/denied, I text my brother and we gossip about it. I read the sports page of our paper.

I think it's cool that I like football, that I understand the game.

But it's not cool for every girl.

I'm talking about the girl who's not really a fan of the sport, but pretends to be so that some unsuspecting fool will think he can spend every Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday indulging in his favorite pasttime with her at his side. But it's fake. The cute little Victoria's Secret jersey is fake. The eye paint is fake. The ribbon in the hair is fake. The hoodie is not real. It's bait. And when you bite, she's going to take it away.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

But maybe you're one of the lucky ones. One of the guys who actually gets the genuine football fan girlfriend/wife.

The one who thinks that going kidless to live sporting events is a date, and that her team-emblemed blanket is the best birthday present.

I'm glad I have cool football-freakish girlfriends who fit the latter category. Let's talk some football.

too long for a Facebook status

There's a blog coming soon about emotions, work, stress (you know, all the fun things in life), but for now I will tell you a story.

I needed peanut M&Ms so I went to the breakroom to get some out of the vending machine.

A man was sitting eating dinner. I said hello, as I always do to random people in my breakroom.

I vended my M&Ms and they got stuck.

I gingerly tilted the small vending machine towards me but they wouldn't budge.

A quandry.

"My M&Ms are stuck," I said.

"Do you need help?" he asked, already out of his seat to assist me.

"No, I just didn't want to come across as too violent."

He laughed, backed up with his hands in the air, and I pounded the vending machine forward and back until it released my prize.

moments of peace

Sometimes managing a newsroom is much like balancing gravity on your fingertips.
It's crushing.

There are two moments, among many, that I especially enjoy.

One, when the sun's streaming through the blinds onto my desk and computer, creating a glare off the thin layer of dust on my monitor, and the room is either empty or mostly silent.



I get my first look at the day's paper, a second and third glance at what the next day's paper is going to look like, I drink my coffee that I've purchased on my route to work, and if it's a normal morning I eat my oatmeal at approximately 9:15. I check my email, log into Facebook, Twitter and start browsing the TV websites.

At the other end of the day, there is a similar image except in reverse. The sun's lingering light casts a shadow over my workspace and I've edited copy for the next day's paper and "nurtured" (as I like to call it) the news budget for the next few days.



The next morning it will start all over again in a rhythm of sameness and yet predictable unpredictability.

And greeting me every morning will be these...

working and waiting

It is no secret that I am a multitasker. Case in point, I have five windows open in my Internet browser right now. My email, work Twitter, Facebook, Blogspot, and a Google search on the anatomy of a wildfire. I am also remoted into my work desktop and have three windows open there.

But when I needed inspiration yesterday to write the final installment of a travel series for my paper, I headed to the place I was writing about. In tow was my dog, my brother and sister and a picnic lunch. While they frolicked in the lake, I was hammering out my article, but it wasn't quite fast enough for their liking.



My back is sunburned from staying in this position too long.

happy birthday! and stuff

In the last five days, I:

- turned 28
- painfully sent in my old phone in exchange for a new one
- loved exploring my new Kindle
- played copious amounts of Yahtzee with my willing little sister
- watched a lot of college football
- edited stories
- wrote stories on a lake shoreline
- explored a cemetery with my little brother
- played with the horses and my dog in the water hose
- yelled at my little brother
- cooked
- hugged lots of people
- went braless until 7:30 tonight
- monitored wildfires in my coverage area
- saddened to hear of the significant loss suffered by so many as a result of fires
- loved opening the windows today
- loved the reprieve from 108 degree heat
- made plans for homecoming this weekend (it's fun to have younger siblings in school)
- cleaned my car