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Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Internet is back up again and it's 11 o'clock at night. I just got home from the "cop shop," which is basically a newspaper/media office located in the downtown police station. That's where the reporters camp out at computers and next to phones getting info from various sources. Anyhoo, it was my first night shift training session and it was boring at first, but then it picked up for the last few hours. Picture this...
At 8:30 we get a call about an officer-involved shooting. We get the address and I follow the other reporter in my car. It's raining. The air has that musty smell, but it's the unique smell of the desert during a rainstorm..can't really explain it, but you know what I'm talking about. The PIO gave us the wrong address, so we spend 10 minutes circling the block to no avail. Raining more.
We finally get the right address, get to the scene, only to find out that we won't hear anything for a while. I check my trunk and for the first time in I don't know how long, I hear myself blurt out "Thank God!" at the sight of my bright red umbrella. Was that a praise or was that in vain? I don't know, maybe a mixture of both...
We go back to the station, all the while Eric is calling a highway patrol person getting info on a serious rollover accident on the West Side. Man was apparently drunk, ejected from his vehicle which subsequently rolled over him. He has massive head injuries, and from what we can tell, he's not expected to recover.
Is it wrong to get a thrill out of the news? My heart just aches like no other when I hear these things, yet the journalist inside of me is jumping out of my skin from the adrenaline rush. I'm still nervous, very nervous in fact, to cover a shift by myself. I found out today that my first one will be this Friday from 9am to 2 pm. Alone. What are they thinking???
Anyway, go figure, I write all day long and then I come home and I sit and write some more. I suppose that just shows my love for communicating.
Aside from that, I've been working on an article for the last week and finally sat down and spent a good 5 hours writing it yesterday. My editor loves the lede, which is definitely the most important thing to me. There's nothing more frustrating than having to change your lede because it feels like you're having to do plastic surgery on your baby. Well, maybe not, but it's not fun. So I'm happy she liked it. The rest of the story just needs some more organizational tweaking here and there and it'll be good to go. Meanwhile I have another story in the works that I'm not thrilled with, only because it's outdated news that my editors are just scrapping together at the last moment to fill space. Who do they get to write it? The intern. But I'm not complaining, really. I'd rather have SOMETHING to do rather than NOTHING.
Okay, so I should probably stop blabbing on and on, but I'll leave you with my poem I wanted to post last night before I discovered that my Internet was down.

Always There 6/22/04

You ask me to follow you,
Yet I pick my own path,
You ask me to listen,
And I shrug off your wrath.
Daughter of a king,
Blessed with it all,
I often times take it for granted,
So often betray you in ways so small.
But no matter how I dismiss it,
No matter how I try,
I always end up at your feet,
Groveling and apologizing as I cry.
Red-rimmed eyes, shining with tears,
You cup my face in your hands, scars in all,
And tell me no sin is ever small.
It's so easy to categorize,
To compare my deeds to my brother,
Deemphasize what I've done and instead focus on him,
Take the focus away from me and put it on another.

But you see me,
You see into my heart,
You know the deeds I've done,
You've been there from the start.
You knit me in my mother's womb,
You lovingly placed me in their arms,
You taught me how to love,
And how to watch for the world's charms.
You've always been my daddy,
My Creator and my friend,
Though I've not always been faithful,
You're faithful to the end.

I promise that come high waters or storms,
You will always be the one to whom I cling,
Help me now to learn how to serve you,
To invest time into our relationship rather than just a meaningless fling.
You're in it for the long haul,
Forever traveling with me,
No matter where I go,
It's me you'll always see.
I can try to hide in the garden,
I can try to escape by ship,
But you'll always know,
Every time that I slip.
And every time that I do,
You'll be right there,
Helping me off of my knees,
While I'm shaking, raw and bare.

Toodles from Tucson!

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