I came into work around 10a this day also. When I got into the office, Derek briefly stopped me as I passed by his desk. He said that he wasn’t going to send me to Luling for the watermelon story after all. The gay marriage ruling had happened, so they were going to be running other stories and have other things for me to do. He said that he would be by in a little bit to get with me on a story to cover.

I have to admit, I was a bit relieved. The watermelon story sounded very interesting, but I had a very difficult time sleeping the night before and was completely exhausted. I was at the beginning of a raging sinus infection that had kept me awake the night before, so I wasn’t feeling too up to walking around with the public. Also, my AC is still broken, and that meant a 15 minute drive in the heat with the windows down aggravating my sinuses.

Jessica was sitting at my desk talking on the phone. I didn’t want to disturb her, so I went to the break room. Usually I’d buy a soda and some cookies from the gas station that’s next to the Taco Cabana in Seguin, but I didn’t have time to this morning. There’s some kind of charity thing going on in the break room though. The room is filled with various types of soda in cans and a bunch of delicious snacks. You can take a can/treat and put money in this little piggy bank on one of the tables near the door.

I wanted a Dr. Pepper, but there weren’t any cold ones in the fridge so I settled on a Coca-Cola. I also grabbed some M&Ms. As I was putting money in the piggy bank, Derek came up to me. I told him, “I needed some caffeine.” And he laughed and said that he was wired up on coffee from the morning. He told me about my next assignment: someone had emailed him about a short film they were making and to call them back and do a short story on it. He also asked me to try to get a hold of the New Life people. I told him about how I thought they may not hold service until Saturday, so they might call back then, so he said that if they did do that then he would take over the story. I didn’t word it like I was trying to pass off the story, just gave Derek a heads up in case I couldn’t get a hold of them still.

When I went back to my desk, Jessica was still on my phone. I put my bag on my desk and then sat down at Felicia’s and observed the things that she had on hers. I didn’t touch anything, just looked at what she had sitting out in the open. It was really just cords and some old various issues of the Gazette.

After Jessica finished her phone call, she apologized for being at my desk. I told her it wasn’t at problem at all, it really wasn’t! I didn’t mind, I knew that the day would likely be very slow so I wasn’t in any kind of hurry.

After I settled in, I looked over an email that Derek had sent me about the short film. It didn’t list a lot of information, so I decided to do some research. I like to know as much about a story as I can before I go in, even if I have the source explain to me about it anyway. Going in knowing a bit about the subject at hand means you have a better shot at asking the questions that need to  be asked.

In particular I was looking for a Go Fund Me page about the movie. It was tough to find though. Google wasn’t being very successful, nor was the GoFunMe’s internal search. So I started getting creative. I figured out the production company that was handling it and started searching for them. I finally found them through their Facebook page, where they shared a link to the project.

It was a short film about a guy who enjoyed a spring break with friends at his parent’s house, but something went wrong and all of this friends were killed. Then, he had to figure out what happened that night, and was the prime suspect. It sounds pretty interesting!

So once I had a better grasp of the story, I gave the source who had contacted us about it a call. I got her voicemail though, so I left a message. After, I tried contacting the New Life lady again, but just got her voicemail as well.

It was mostly a waiting game, but the newsroom was a bit entertaining. Derek and Jeff were talking about how to handle the gay marriage news. Derek wanted to write an opinion column about supporting it. Jeff was very hesitant to let him do that. He said that in a town like Seguin (with a lot of older, religious folks), doing that could alienate almost half their readers. Jeff decided that the newspaper should remain neutral and not take a stand on right or wrong. Instead, Derek’s column would focus on how right or wrong, it is now the law and must be followed, which is more of a neutral take.

I guess in a lot of ways I agree with Jeff’s decision. Personally, I am extremely happy that gay marriage is now legal. I feel like it is a fundamental human rights issue, and gay people should have the right to marry. However, I’ve always respected the view that newspapers and journalists remain neutral in coverage and not take a side. Journalists should report the news, not comment about it. This is why I’m very private about my personal views on social media. You will never find me ever mentioning religion or my support or being against this issue or that. If you were to ask me in person though, I would gladly talk about the issue or my personal views on things, as I do have my own beliefs and thoughts. So, I really respected Jeff’s decision.

Around 1p-ish, it had been a couple of hours, so I tried calling the short film source again. The interview went okay, but I had to dig at the source to get them to talk a bit. It was a bit odd to me. They were the writer/director of the film, but they didn’t reallly give much info on the plot or about making the film without me poking. I was able to get the info though, so after the interview I set out and wrote up the story.

The lead on this story was tough. I decided to make the logline of the movie the lead. When I emailed the story to Derek I explained that I thought it made the story more engaging, but that if it was too casual that I could rewrite it to be more newsy. He emailed back though “Good stuff,” so I think he liked it.

After this I decided to give the New Life source another call. I finally got a hold of the person! But, they told me their husband had a heart attack and was recovering. They wanted to do the story, but it wasn’t a good time. They asked if they could call back Monday, so I told them that would be okay. I figured that Derek wanted this story asap, if he was willing to do the interview on Saturday himself. I told the lady that I wished her husband well and then let her go.

I told Derek about the New Life lady. He passed the story onto Ron. I wrote up some notes about the story and the lady from my research, in case it would help him. Then, I proofed some pages.

After proofing the pages, I waited around for about 30 minutes. I was honestly done for the day, and I didn’t really want to wait around like I did yesterday. So, I went up do Derek and asked if he had anything else he would like me to do. He said that if I was done for the day that I could go home. It was early, not quite 3p, but man was I happy. I felt very crummy because of the sinus infection and looked forward to getting home early.

I got at 10am, since Derek asked me to come in earlier the week before. I wondered what the day would hold. With Felicia on vacation, would I be running more stories? Yes and no, I suppose. It was a rather slow news day.

Derek came by and asked me to do a story on Discover What’s Swimming. It’s an event for pre-kinder to 4th graders and their families. The Gazette accidentally got the date wrong with publishing an upcoming events sidebar and listed their date as being July 27 instead of June 27. A lady connected to the event apparently called Derek and chewed him out. It’s understandable though, it’s a pretty big error. Derek wanted to do an advance story on their event in the paper to give them coverage about the correct date, to try to make it right. So he asked me to do the story.

I set out on making guideline questions and researched a little about the event so that I was knowledgable about it when I talked to someone. After, I called the number for the event that was listed in the paper. The guy that answered though said that he wasn’t as involved in it, only took the RSVPs, but he gave me the contact information for someone who was running it. I called that number but got a voicemail and left a message.

I then tried calling secret source again because Derek asked me to. I really don’t think they’re calling back. This person is either on vacation or something, or they’re just ignoring my calls…

At this point it was a waiting game. I didn’t have anything else to do, so I looked through my emails in BobcatMail. Then Derek came out and asked me if I could work until 5:30p on Saturday and could cover a watermelon event in Luling. I said I had to work at 4p unfortunately. But then Derek realized it was on Friday, not Saturday, which is a day that is completely free for the internship, so I said that I could cover it. The event is a watermelon spitting contest for families and children, so it sounds like it will be fun to cover.

While I was waiting for the Swimming source to contact me back, I researched more about the watermelon event and wrote up sample questions to ask parents, children (with the parent’s permission, of course) and event organizers. It seems like a pretty popular and interesting event, I’m excited to cover it.

After coming up with my questions, I tried calling the Swimming source again. I got them! But they said they were going to lunch and would call me back after, so I had to wait to interview them. I looked up the email for the secret source and was able to find it, and I sent them an email. But that was a waiting game as well.

About this time, Ron also got a call from someone about a church that experienced extensive flood damage and wasn’t given FEMA assistance. They were looking for help. Derek asked me if I could do a story on them. I called one of the pastors and left a voicemail. Then I researched them and found an email, so I sent them an email as well. But it was also a waiting game to see if they would contact me back.

I waited for a good couple of hours with not a lot to do, just waiting on three sources to call me from three different stories. In the meantime, I worked on my blog for the internship, it gave me something to do instead of sitting around while I waited.

Around 2p-ish, I still hadn’t gotten a call from the water source, so I tried calling them again. This time I got the source’s wife. She said that he was in rehersal for the event and wouldn’t be in until about 3:30p or 4p, but she did give me his cell phone to try to reach him sooner. I called him on his cell and got him as well. However, it wasn’t a good time to talk, so he asked if he could call me when he got home, which would be between 3:30p and 4p. I wanted to have the story done asap so it could be laid into the paper, and it was for an event that was happening the next day after it was printing, so it couldn’t be delayed, but Derek said that it would be okay.

I had a little bit of time to kill, so Derek asked me to go down to the New Life Church to see if I could get anyone there. I didn’t say anything, but I didn’t really expect anyone to be there. I admittedly haven’t been to church since…early high school? That was like 9-10 years ago? I used to go to this non-denominational one occasionally with my older sister who was a devout Christian. Anyway, from what I remember about it, the building was only really used on times when service was held. I looked up New Life’s service schedule and they wouldn’t have another meet until Saturday, which was a couple of days away, so I didn’t really think there would be anyone there. But it was worth a shot, and I didn’t have anything else to do but wait. Who knows, maybe I would get lucky?

The trip to the church took embarrassingly longer than I had planned thanks to my stupid GPS. For starters, I sat in the car in the Gazette’s parking lot for awhile trying to get the unit to recognize New Life’s address. I checked my phone GPS and there was a discrepancy: Unit GPS said it was 10 miles away, but Phone GPS said it was 8 miles away. Someone was two miles off. The place was off of South Highway 123 though, so I decided to just head out in that direction and pay attention when I got close. I made the mistake though of following the Unit GPS over the Phone GPS and watched as I passed the place up. That part of Hwy 123 is kind of scary to turn around on, there weren’t very many side streets, mostly just gated driveways. I had to drive about five minutes past to get to a business with a decent lot that I felt safe turning around on. So I turned around and made my way back to New Life, this time following the instructions of my phone’s GPS to know when I was close by.

When I got to New Life’s driveway…it was gated and locked. I pulled into it, but just looking out it was evident there wasn’t anyone there. It sat by itself with a large gravel parking lot in front of it, but there weren’t any cars there except for an empty bus parked to the side of the building. So I headed back to the office, embarrassed at taking so long to get out there and back. I’m still learning Seguin though, so it’s a bit understandable I suppose.

When I got back to the office, Derek told me that swimming source had called. So I gave swimming source a call back. I decided to make the call from the Gazette’s phone. I also realized an important tool that I have to interview with: my laptop. My laptop has a far better keyboard than the intern desktop that the Gazette supplies. That’s not meant as a diss…I bought my new laptop recently with the idea that I’ll have it for the next few years and could be working as a journalist, so I needed something powerful and comfortable to use. (And plus I wanted something to game with for my long night shifts at Texas State, some of those shifts I’ll get one call the whole night). My laptop is a great tool when I can’t record because I type faster than I can write on pen and paper. Pen and paper I struggle to get quotes, keyboards just make everything easier.

So I interviewed swimming source and took notes on my laptop. The interview went really well and I got a lot of great information about it. It ended up being an interesting little story. On Saturday, one of the new journalists at the Gazette (she is replacing Ron), named Jessica, she will cover the story, so I guess Derek thought it was a very interesting event to have us cover.

After I turned in my story to Derek, it was a waiting game still on the other sources to call me back. About thirty minutes later, I heard Derek ask Ron about a place I mentioned in my story. I referred to it as Walnut Creek because that is what the source called it, and I didn’t verify that was the correct name. It turns out it is actually called Walnut Ranch, even though it is a creek. I had this happen with another location and story before, I referred to Seguin Guadalupe-Coliseum as just Seguin Coliseum. After the Walnut Creek mixup though, it was definitely a learning experience. I need to check location names every time. I’m not from Seguin and so I when people refer to a certain place I don’t know if that’s the correct term or not.

After the story was turned in, I attempted to call the New Life source again, but just got voicemail. I proofed a few pages to mostly end out the day. After the pages were proofed, I really didn’t have anything to do. I waited around for about an hour or so, but around 5:30p I asked Derek if there were any other pages to proof. This has become my signal for “can I go home?”. He told me that there weren’t any, but if I wanted to head out it would be okay. So off I went.

By day 6, I settled into the routine of starting my morning in the newsroom. As soon as I got in, I checked my email to see if Derek had sent out another budget, but I didn’t see it in there. I did see a few emails from my job at Texas State, but it was just people saying they would be in late or not coming in.

I wasn’t quite sure what the day would hold. I knew that I had to get a hold of the secret story source again, but I had a feeling I wouldn’t be very successful at that. The sources for this story weren’t calling back after four days of multiple calls by me, so I wasn’t really sure if this would go anywhere. Other than that, I had finished my pecan story and the job fair one the previous day, and I didn’t have any other stories assigned to me, so it was a waiting game to see what Derek would give me.

He did come by my desk and asked if I could contact the Ag Agent again for another story about how the weather affected other crops beyond pecans. My Pecan story was going on the front-page, and this second story would be a sidebar. I told Derek that I would get on it, and also try to contact the secret source again.

I wrote up guideline questions for the pecan sidebar story and reviewed the ones for the secret source as well. I decided to try the Ag Agent first, as I felt more confident about actually getting a hold of the person.

Being that the sidebar story hinged on extensive info from a single source, in this case that Ag Agent, I decided that I wanted the interview recorded. I think I’ve decided that if I have the ability to do so and it’s practical for the story or source that I’m interviewing, then I’d like to use my phone for interviews to record them. I feel like my phone is one of my tools of being a journalist, just like my digital recorder is, and it’s just the way I do journalism, so if I’m able to use it, I’d really like to. There are some cases where I realize having contacts call me on the cell won’t be practical. The secret source is a great example of that. Secret source could call back in the beginning of the week when I am not there, and if they do then they will likely end up speaking with Felicia. So that is one of the cases where it is more practical to give the office call back number.

So I called the Ag Agent, and surprisingly got him right on the first call, no voicemail. I re-introduced myself and asked if I could interview him for the new story. He said it was okay, and that if I wanted to interview him then and there that would be okay too. The interview went really well, the Ag Agent gave great info for my story. The interview didn’t last as long as I thought it would, but I got plenty of info for a decent length sidebar.

After his interview I called the secret source, but as expected, got their voicemail and left a message. There wasn’t anything else that I could do but wait, so I set out on writing my sidebar story.

I wondered at first if a sidebar was a story or something like an info graphic or bulleted breakdown list. My lack of newspaper experience means that I had never written a “sidebar” before, so I wasn’t really sure what that meant. I decided to write it like a regular story though. I figured that if it was a bulleted list or something that it wouldn’t be too hard to breakdown a written article, since all the info would be pretty much organized.

The story came out pretty well. It wasn’t super long. It’s hard to put a word count on it, because I write the articles in TextEdit, so I can’t really see that, but if I had to ballpark it, maybe about 350-ish words. It seemed decent to me for a sidebar, if it’s supposed to compliment another story.

Although there was a Sunday folder on the Editorial Drive, I wasn’t entirely sure if I did the sidebar correctly, so I just emailed Derek the story. I also told him about how I tried to contact the secret source again and that hopefully they get back to me soon.

About this time, it was maybe 2p. There were a few pages for me to proof, so I started proofing them. I found quite a few AP style errors and marked those. I think a lot of those errors were from guest columns,  but they still have to be converted to AP style. One of the journalists at the paper, Ron, praised my knack for catching AP errors, which made me feel good.

We heard a call over the radio for a 1080 major, which meant a car accident with major injuries. I was pretty much done for the day, so I tagged along with Felicia to go check it out. She made sure to give me a reflective vest before we left. I’m not sure if it’s like this everywhere, but in Seguin at least the responding officers can throw you out of a scene if you aren’t wearing one. Felicia said there’s only one officer that actually enforces it, so it’s important to bring it along just in case it does get enforced.

I’m going to admit…Felicia’s driving scared me a little. She rounded corners fast. She told me that she’s from Seguin and knows the streets like the back of her hand. Sometimes she gets to the accidents before the officers respond. So while her driving was kind of scary, I’m sure she had a very comfortable feel for the roads in this town, so I trust her. I’m the same way with driving roads in Austin too.

When we got to the accident…it was just a minor fender bender and no one was hurt. Well, possibly someone’s feelings I suppose, because getting in a fender bender isn’t a fun experience for anyone, but it wasn’t really newsworthy so we headed back to the office.

On the way back I got a chance to talk to Felica more about her experiences. Felicia graduated from Texas State and remembered some of the professors like Dr. Nolan and Kym Fox. We talked about some of the same classes that we had both taken. I admitted that I had never written for the Star, and it made me feel good because Felicia said that she hadn’t either. Felicia seemed a bit disappointed though about not doing an internship herself. During her time in college, she worked at the Gazette instead of for the Star. She said that the Managing Editor at the time (not Derek) had talked her out of doing an internship for National Geographic, she seemed like she regretted that. I told her that I thought it was really awesome getting to write for your hometown paper. I don’t know where my future will be in news writing, but I wouldn’t mind eventually ending up at the Austin Statesman or an Austin based paper. All of my family lives in Austin, so it would mean doing something that I love and not having to move away from them.

When we got back to the office everyone asked us about the wreck, to which we explained that it was a dud. Ron also showed me an AP error that I missed in the headline. The title cut off, “It looked like–“, it looked like that. It was a fantastic learning experience. I realized that up to that point I had been only reading the body text and skipping headlines. I guess I never really thought about headlines having major errors in them since they’re so short, but they’re probably one of the most important places to look for errors. Errors in the body text are bad, but errors in a headline standout to a cringe worthy extent. So now in the future I will be looking at headlines first to make sure they are error free as well.

There really wasn’t much else to do. Derek had sent me an email praising my pecan sidebar, so it was in the correct format as a story. I may have proofed another page or two, but I was pretty much done for the day. Before I left, Derek called me into his office. Felicia would be going on vacation the next week and he wanted to see if I could come in earlier at 10p instead of the usual between 10:30a and 11a (usually I’d get in around 10:45a-ish). I said that would be okay. He had also wanted to see if I could work Saturday, but I told him that I had to work. I’d be okay with coming in before, but I worked from 4p to midnight at Texas State, so I’d have to leave by 3:30p to be on the safe-side. Derek said that he didn’t want me to be working the entire day because that sounded grueling, but that he’d let me know the next week if they needed to use me for a morning story. After settling the schedule for the next week with Derek, I was done for the day and headed home. Thus concluded day number six at the Seguin Gazette.

Two nights before day five, I decided to stay up until 7:00am playing video games. A friend of mine and co-worker at the ETC Center at Texas State, got me hooked on World of Warcraft. I’ve heard this game can be addictive, and it’s because it’s such a vast universe with so much stuff to do. Anyway, although I didn’t stay up late playing games the night before day five, I had inevitably thrown my sleeping schedule off so I couldn’t fall asleep until about 4am. If there is ever a lesson in all of this it is that I will not be doing that again! Although I felt like I functioned okay and still put out solid work, it just wasn’t fun running interviews and remaining alert in my sleep deprived state.

When I got into the office and settled in, I immediately started going over my notes while I waited for Derek to come tell me what he wanted me to do or cover for the day. I knew that I needed to get a hold of the Agricultural Extension Agent to finish up my pecan story. Remember how I had mentioned in the previous post about contacting him on Monday, outside of the internship? Well, I decided to just wait. I didn’t want to get in trouble for working off of the clock, since there is a time-clock thingymajig that we use. I also knew that I needed to see about getting a hold of the contact for the sensitive story again.

Derek and I were on the same page, because he walked by and asked me about the contacts for both of those stories and to try to get a hold of them. I called the Ag Extension Agent, but he wasn’t in a position to talk, so I gave him my office number to call me back when he was free, which he had said would be around lunch-time (it was around 11am-ish, so an hour or two away).

Derek came by and asked if I could cover a story about a job fair going on right then at the Seguin Coliseum. He was going to be the photographer so he would be coming along too. I told him that the Ag Agent wouldn’t be calling back for a little bit, so we could go ahead and knock that story out now. So we prepared to head out.

I texted the Ag Agent my cell phone number and told him that I would be out of the office if he could call that one, just in case he called before I got back.

Derek and I took separate cars because Derek’s house is near the Seguin Coliseum and he wanted to grab lunch at his house after, so we would be splitting ways after the job fair. I followed behind him to the Coliseum.

When we made it and got inside, Derek introduced us to people at a booth and asked if we could talk to the people in charge of the Fair. We were directed inside to a large room about the size of a high school gym, and stopped at the first booth on the left. Here, Derek and I split ways. I met with the showrunner, Ashlynn, and her and I went outside the room into a hallway for an interview. Derek went off to get photos.

The interview went really well. It wasn’t a very long interview, but Ashlynn gave some great answers and a lot of info about the event. Afterwards we talked for a few minutes. She was a recently graduated mass communications major and journalism minor, I don’t think at Texas State, but she said that she always gets excited about meeting other mass comm and journalism people. I told her about how I was interning at the Gazette and really liked it. After our short chat, I thanked her for letting me interview her and headed back into the gym/room.

There weren’t a lot of attendees, maybe somewhere between 8 to 10 people. They all looked busy talking to people at the various booths, so I patiently waited near a small group for someone to finish. The first person to finish was a very serious looking lady. I introduced myself and asked if I could interview her for my story and she said yes. Her interview didn’t really go that well, although I handled it pretty well. She gave very short one to four word answers and wouldn’t elaborate on anything. Her interview only lasted a minute or two before I decided to wrap it up and move on.

Everyone else was busy, so I went over to a construction company booth that didn’t have anyone visiting them at that moment and decided to talk to the booth people to get their take. Their interview went really well. I spoke to one lady while another talked to an attendee who came over shortly after I did.

After them, I found two people to talk to who were just looking at the booths and not engaging quite yet.

They were from San Marcos, I believe Gary Job Corps, and help graduating students find jobs. They were there to build contacts and come out to fairs frequently. Their interview went well.

After their interview, I went over to another booth and had a fantastic interview with the guy behind the booth about his company being at the fair and people applying, I believe the place was called Loves (it is a truck stop place).

Derek was pretty much finished at this point, and I had five interviews finished, which was way more than I needed for the story, so we decided to head out.

After we walked out, Derek said he had some trouble getting photos because people kept stopping to look at the camera, even after Derek had told them to act natural and ignore him. I chuckled and told him about the first lady I interviewed hardly giving me anything. But both of us eventually got some solid stuff.

After we reached our cars, Derek headed off his way and I prepared to leave the Coliseum. I pulled out my GPS and set it for the office. I’m still not familiar with Seguin, so I didn’t know how to navigate myself back there, but the GPS could do it. My GPS was acting a little wonky though and at first put me in the wrong direction. After I turned back to the correct way, it navigated me correctly to the Gazette’s office.

Back at the office, I poured into my interview recordings and notes and set out on writing my story. I had it mostly finished around 2p-ish. The story came out well, but there were some learning points with it as well. Things that I won’t forget next time. For starters, although I remembered to get everyone’s name and have them spell it, I didn’t ask where they were from. The story was okay without it, but I think it would have been way stronger if I could have said they were Seguin residents or from San Antonio or where ever they came from. In the story, I just referred to them as attendees. Nobody at the paper said anything about it, but I just feel it would have been better. Any future stories that I write, I will be sure to ask that info.

Also, I wished that I had talked to more attendees. I wanted a voice of someone actually being there looking for a job, but the only person I really had doing that was the serious lady with short answers. The people from Gary Job Corps were definitely included in the story, but they themselves weren’t looking for jobs. I ended up having to go with the serious lady and use a quote from her that was very short, “I’m just looking for a job.” It worked, but I really don’t like including quotes that short. Derek and the others didn’t say anything though, so I think they were okay with it too.

After I finished writing the story, I noticed that it was past 2p and I was getting worried because the Ag Agent still hadn’t called me. I wondered if he forgot or if he was just taking a very late lunch. I started writing a text to send him that I would be free the entire day if he wanted to call me later, if it would be better for him. But before I could finish I got the call from him.

The call came in on my cell phone and I had the choice of recording it. As I’ve said previously, one thing that I would like to become proficient at is interviewing over the phone without recording, because the other journalists at the Seguin Gazette do just that. It was tough, but I did furiously write down info that he gave. I don’t think the quotes were as good as when I record them though. I can’t write as fast as some people speak and so most of the quotes I could catch were way shorter than I normally include.

After the interview, I set on finishing up the pecan story. I finished it around 3p. I emailed it to Derek and put the Job Fair one in the Friday folder on the editorial drive. There weren’t any pages to proof, so I sat there for a few minutes waiting for Felicia to finish a phone call. When Felicia finished, I asked her about the sensitive story. She said that the contact did call her back earlier in the week but gave her the number to someone else. She tried to find the number in her notebook, but couldn’t locate it, so she gave me the number to an office and told me to ask them about who to talk to for it, and that should get me to who I needed to speak with. I did just that and was eventually lead to the director of (redacted). I left a message for Director and gave them my contact info, not much more I could do for that.

There wasn’t really anything else to do at this point but wait for the pages that needed proofing. I probably waited around for a solid hour or hour and a half, just sitting at my desk re-reading the same Budget email that Derek had sent out. I wish there was something I could help with in the office, but the problem is that everybody has their own work, like stories they are writing and such, so there’s no way to really help with that.

Around 4 or 4:30p ish, I got a lot of pages to proof. I found some AP and GSP errors and marked them. After I was done, Derek said that if I had finished everything that it was okay if I went home. So off I went! Thus concluded day five.

The drive to Seguin was rather eventful. Unfortunately, my A/C has been broken the last couple of weeks, so I’ve been driving around with the windows rolled down. As I was cruising along I-35, near San Marcos, this HUGE yellow and black bug with a striped butt jumped onto my dashboard and started walking around. I nearly had a heart attack thinking it was some humungo wasp. It took me a couple of seconds to register that it was a humungo grasshopper.

Humungo grasshoper was a bit upset about being in the car with me. He noticed I was there and turned and just started staring at me. I started arguing with him, “I know exactly what you’re thinking of doing, and don’t you dare! You just keep your little butt over there and we’ll get along just fine, buddy. I’ll let you out in Seguin.”

But he started walking toward me.

“Don’t you even think about it! Don’t you even–!”

*Fling* He jumped right at me! I started squirming around like one of those giant paper wind people that the car dealerships put in front of their businesses. And I let out a panicked yell that sounded like a freaked out Xena Warrior Princess scream. Mind you, I have my windows rolled down, so I must have looked and sounded like a maniac to the San Marcos people.

I realized, I had no idea where the grasshopper went, but I looked down and he was in my lap. Which let out a round two of squirming and freaked out Xena call, before I flicked him away. When I got to a light on Highway 123, I quickly tucked my pant legs into my socks because I was so paranoid that the Grasshopper was going to crawl up my legs.

I got into Seguin closer to 11a. I have no idea where the grasshopper went, and I never found him after searching my car. But with that debacle over, I turned my sights onto my internship and headed inside from the parking lot. I wondered if it would be as slow of a day as it was the previous Friday. I guess for the most part, it did end up being very slow.

As soon as I got in and got settled, I started working on the Pecan story. I rewrote some of what I had written and reviewed my notes and interview transcript. Around 11:30a-ish, Derek called me into the office and asked me to close the door. I wondered if I had done something wrong. It turns out, it was just a sensitive story that he wanted me to cover, that could turn into something big. In hindsight, I don’t know what the purpose was in closing the door, Megan was the only one with a desk in earshot, and everyone there is working for the newspaper, so I don’t know why they would say or do anything.

Being that the story was a bit sensitive, I don’t want to give a lot of details about it here, so I’m going to be a bit vague. The newsroom had been tipped off that the SISD might be overpaying on something that isn’t being fully utilized and it could be costing tax payers A LOT of money. Derek explained the details to me and said that he would email me the name of a person to contact to find out more information. He also asked me to get with Felicia, because she could explain more and help me with the story.

I went back to working on my pecan story for a little bit, until Felicia was able to talk to me. Then we went into another room and she explained in more detail. However, we didn’t know the full extent or if there was any truth, so before stirring anything up, she wanted me to talk to one person that was connected to the ordeal to find out more information. I went back to my desk and made the call, but I got a voicemail with a strangely vague and robotic voicemail. I left a message, but then Googled the number to ensure it was connected to the organization that I was calling, but they did show up in the search results so I knew it was correct. At that point, there wasn’t anything else that I could do but wait.

I continued working on my Pecan story for awhile. I tried calling the Agricultural Extension Office, and they told me that the person to talk to was a guy named Travis, but he was on lunch and to call back. They forwarded me to his mailbox as well and so I left a message. I worked on my Pecan story for another couple of hours and pretty much finished it, I just needed that second voice in there because it sounded very monotonous with only John Pape’s voice/side of the story.

I tried calling the Agricultural Extension Office again, but they told me that Travis was out in the field and should be back within thirty minutes. While I waited, I tried calling the contact from the sensitive story again, but just got the voicemail, so I left another message. I looked up more about the…thing I was looking into (sorry for vagueness)…and found another person related to the thing. I didn’t want to call anyone without running it by Felicia though, so I waited for her to return to her desk from the other room and asked. She seemed extremely alarmed and worried that I had tried to call them, to which I reassured her that I did not try and wanted to ask her first. She told me that I have to speak to the original contact before anyone else. Derek made it seem like this was an urgent story, which is why I was trying to think of other people to contact for it. I honestly do not think the other person is going to contact us back, unfortunately.

I went back to working on the pecan story. It was mostly finished though, so I was just editing for grammar and spelling mistakes.

Derek brought over a couple of pages to proof. I found some AP style errors, such as U.S. being spelled US. Minor things,  but still AP errors. While I was proofing, the emergency blotter/radio thing said an 18-wheeler had overturned on some road. Felicia asked if anyone wanted to come. I wanted to, but I had to wait on my call for the pecan guy so I stayed. Her and Derek left to check it out.

When they came back, I had finished the editing on the two pages. I tried calling Travis again, but he still hadn’t made it back. The lady I spoke to decided to give me his cell phone. Derek had said that they’ll likely push the pecan story back, so it was okay if I wanted to go ahead and go home. He mentioned pushing it back to Wednesday, but I don’t work again until Thursday, so it could be even farther than that. I gave Travis a call on his cellphone, left a voicemail, and waited fifteen minutes to see if he would call back. He didn’t though so I packed up and headed out.

I arrived back in Austin around 5p and saw I had a missed call/voicemail from him. Before, I had called from my cell phone, because the front desk lady recommended I text him too to let him know who I was. Even though I won’t be on the clock Monday, I’m thinking about calling him to get that interview. It would only take about 15 minutes, and then I could finish the story on Thursday and it can make either the Fri, Sat, or Sun paper, instead of being pushed further back to the following week.

Earlier in the week, Derek emailed the weekly budget. A budget shows what stories plan to run on which days. He had me down for a Friday story about pecan farming, so I had a feeling I would be investigating that story when I got in on Thursday. If it was due the next day, I wondered if I could turn the story that fast– what if the people couldn’t talk to me until the following week? Derek was listed as the photographer for the story, so I knew he would probably be coming along with me. I thought about trying to contact Pape Pecan Co earlier in the week when I wasn’t at the internship (they were mentioned in the budget), to get something set-up immediately for Thursday, but then I didn’t want to mess Derek up if he had planned to set this up himself, so I opted to just wait and see what happened when I got in Thursday.

So Thursday, June 11, rolls around, and I make it into the office around 10:30a. I greet everyone and settle into my desk. Derek told me that the guy from the parvo story that I wrote the week before praised the article and might be calling to thank me. Ron and Jeff also said it was very well written, that made me feel really good. Although, I managed to annoy some Seguin residents with it. The newspaper put a link to the online story on their Facebook, but their articles are behind a paywall so readers can only read the first two paragraphs unless they subscribe. It was a feature, so I gave it a more story-like opening with a slight teaser as my lead. The Facebook readers who didn’t have a subscription complained about how they should be able to read the rest and not have to pay. On one hand, it felt a little depressing having people argue in the comments on a story I wrote, but on the other hand, I was happy that they were at least very interested in wanting to read the rest of something that I had written.

After a few minutes after settling in, Derek brought by a flier and asked if I could write a short advance type story on something called the Girls State, which is this week-long program where high-school girls create a mock legislature, pass bills, enforce laws and such. It sounds pretty cool! Some of the schools in Seguin were participating, which is why we were covering it. I called the program director and interviewed her over the phone.

After her interview, Derek had mentioned about contacting the Pape Pecan guy to see if we could come by for an interview and photos. I set up a 1p interview for us. It gave me about an hour and a half of “free” time, so I used it to write up my story on Girls State. I had a couple of follow-up questions for the director, but I think she might have accidentally muted her phone when she finished talking to me. I tried calling from my office phone and my cell phone, but both times as soon as I was transferred to her all I heard was “Hello? Hello? Helloooo?” She couldn’t hear me responding back. I was disappointed that I couldn’t get the extra info for my story, as it would have made it stronger, but my story was okay without it.

1p rolls around and Derek and I head out to the pecan guy. Derek seemed a bit embarrassed about his truck and asked if we could take my car. He mentioned that his truck’s AC was broken. I told him that I was totally cool with going in my car…but my AC was broken too. So we had to drive with the windows down.

We make it to the Pape Pecan’s office, and I meet the manager, John Pape. He led us through this huge nutcracker shop to get to a conference room. There must have been over a thousand different nutcrackers, all different shapes, sizes, costumes, it was incredible! The conference room was very cozy too. It had a big plastic table in the middle of the room, and along the walls were these wooden benches with large pillow-y cushions. Hung on the wall were various clippings of stories the Seguin Gazette and other newspapers had done on them over the years. The strangest thing though was a giant flat-screen TV that was mounted on the wall and played ballet recordings. John was this older, farmer type, it just seemed to contrast oddly with him.

I was slightly worried that the ballet music would overtake my recorder that I brought, but I had faith in it. My little recorder picks up sound exceptionally well, one time I ran an interview with one of those giant rideable lawn mowers going on right behind me and the person, and their sound came out flawless. I just pushed it closer to John to make sure it captured his voice better.

The interview went really well. John told me and Derek about the effects that the wet weather had on his crop and explained to us about pecan farming. It was a really interesting thing to learn about. I never knew there were so many different kinds of pecans, but apparently there’s hundreds of varieties. All of the variety trees are also specially created by nursery men, because all seeds become natural pecan trees on their own. For the most part, Derek let me lead the interview, but he did ask a few questions himself.

After the interview, we followed John in his truck to the Pape Pecan Ranch, which is where their farm was. On the way there, Derek asked me how I was liking the internship. I told him that I was really enjoying it and learning a lot. He praised my writing and said that it was very clean of errors. He mentioned that he thought I would be good at copy-writing and that later in the summer they’ll get me going on getting experience with that too. That was pretty exciting!

He said that they were looking to hire another journalist, because Ron would be leaving. Ron had worked for the newspaper for years, but came back to help out. It was only supposed to be temporary, but he ended up back there for a year. He was ready to leave again, and so Derek was trying to find a replacement. He mentioned that they had a lot of applicants from Texas Lutheran University, but their cover letters were full of errors and just plain terrible. I mentioned to him that he may want to look at Texas State to see if anyone is interested, because we have a lot of really good writers that just graduated or would be graduating. We talked about me possibly staying on after the summer too for another internship, and I said that I was interested. Although (and I didn’t tell him this), I’m not really sure yet if I can, I really would love to though. The only days I’ll have off next semester are Tuesday and Thursday, so I don’t know how much help that would be. I’d have to stay working at Texas State even if I did, because the university pays me $12/hr and I’d need to make that to make my bills, especially commuting from Austin to San Marcos and Seguin. I couldn’t make it on an intern salary of $7.25/hr alone. So, while I’m extremely interested, I just don’t know if it’s logistically possible. And yet, I desperately need the experience, so I’d really love to find a way to make it work.

Back on track…

We drove into the gated ranch and parked our cars in a clearing. Ahead of us looked a bit like a park with a bunch of tall trees everywhere. It took Derek and I a minute to realize we were there next to the pecan trees. I guess we thought the trees would look lined up, but they were scattered everywhere. Derek took a few pictures of the pecans and John. Then John talked some more about the trees and the effects of the weather. He told us that the rain makes the grass and weeds grow, which causes more work because they have to keep it trimmed. If they don’t, then animals, especially wild hogs, get brave and start walking around near the trees and rutting the ground, making it hard for John’s machines to harvest the trees. The hogs won’t come out into the clearing when the grass is cut short. While we were there, we spotted a fawn in the distance, it was so cute!

We thanked John, and then headed out and back to the office.

Back at the office, I finished up my story for the Girls State, mostly just polishing it for errors. Then I put it in the editorial drive and let Derek know. Derek looked it over and I heard him tell Megan, “Girls State is in,” which I think meant it was ready for her to lay it into the paper.

I called John back to get a number from him for another Pecan farmer, Charlie Willmann. I needed at least one other voice for my story. The number that John gave me had a strange area code, but he confirmed that it was the number that he had. I looked it up and it was for some company out in Oklahoma. I did a Google search for Charlie, and found a local Seguin number for him. I tried calling that one and the one in Oklahoma and left messages, so it was just a waiting game.

I was given a couple of pages to proof. I found a few errors and then handed them off to Derek. Derek asked how it was going with the Pecan story, so I explained that I didn’t think the number was right. He recommended that I try the Agricultural Extension Office for my other source, because they would probably know. It was nearing 5:00p at this point, and I had spent the last couple of hours transcribing the audio from John’s interview into a TextEdit page. I started writing the article, but my brain was turning to mush at this point and it was tough to keep focused. Derek had said that it was okay to go home, so I packed up and this ended my third day at Seguin Gazette.

The day before, Derek had told me that I could come in between 10:30a and 11a this day. The other journalists didn’t get in until this time either, so coming in earlier would mean just sitting around for an hour and a half. I was super relieved to get to sleep later. Driving from Austin, it meant I could leave around 9a (and sleep until about 8a), so that was super awesome.

Even though the first day had gone extremely well, I was even more nervous than I had been the previous day. On my way out of Austin, I stopped by the Sonic in Southpark Meadows and got a sweet tea and a grilled cheese with fries (I know it’s not breakfast food, but I was feelin’ a grilled cheese and fries). Or atleast, my brain was feeling a grilled cheese and fries. My stomach was too nauseous from the sheer terror I was feeling to consume anything other than the tea. So I sadly had no breakfast this morning.

I got to the office about 10:40am-ish. I greeted Derek and told him I was headed to my desk. It was a bit of an awkward exchange. I can be a very awkward person normally, but especially when I’m chalked full of nerves. So instead of telling him, I had asked if I should go to my desk, which was kind of stupid. He said, “yes”, so I said, “okay, I will be at my desk.” I felt so awkward, *facepalm* *facedesk* *keyboard teeth* or whatever the phrase is haha.

I said hello to Felicia and Megan, who were at their desks. Ron still hadn’t made it in yet. I sat down and settled in. After the awkward exchange, I calmed down a bit. I quickly realized it was a very slow news day for Seguin Gazette. Felicia was writing up a story she had already gathered everything for, and Megan was laying out the paper.

Megan had questions about the best way to lay some element of the newspaper out in InDesign, and Felicia came over to help. I had nothing to do, so I asked if I could watch. They said ‘yes,’ so I pulled over a chair and just observed. A little bit later, Felicia remembered that they needed to get the list of names for couples that had been married from one of the courthouses (I think it was a courthouse). She asked Megan and I if we wanted to come along for the ride, so we said ‘sure’!

On the way out, Felicia showed me a dry erase board with our names on it. She wrote in, “courthouse” in each of our boxes and explained that Derek wanted us writing where we were leaving to if we had to go somewhere for a story or something. We all piled into Felicia’s car and off we drove.

The drive to the courthouse gave me a chance to see more of Seguin. There’s this really cool amusement park that we passed by, with a tall roller coaster. I thought that was awesome! Felicia said that the people who own it built the place so that their kids had something to do. She said it was also open year-round. I would love to check this place out sometime, it looks fun!

After we parked at the courthouse, we went inside and went through a metal detector. It beeped on me, probably because of my belt, but the guy just waved me through. He seemed to know Felicia pretty well, they were joking with each other. After the metal detector, we rounded the corner and went over to a desk area. Felicia told the receptionist that she was from the Seguin Gazette and that we were there for the marriages. The receptionist disappeared for a minute and then came back with a binder.

Felicia looked for a dot that she had made next to someone’s name the last time she was there. It marked her place in the binder of names, so she knew which were the new ones. She took photos on her phone of the pages of names that came after the dot. After we got the names, we headed back to the car. On the way back, Megan mentioned needing to type them up. Felicia offered to do it instead. Then I told them that I actually didn’t have anything to do and would be happy to help and type them up. They both seemed happy about that, and Felicia said that it was settled that I would do it.

When we got back, Felicia put the photos on the shared editorial drive and showed me how to get them on my iMac. She also explained to me how to format the document. I mentioned that the computer didn’t have Word, to which I learned that they don’t use word. They use TextEdit to keep the formatting clean, as Word can thrown in a bunch of jumbly-ness when transferring it to other programs like InDesign. I do some web design work, so that makes perfect sense to me. I loaded up TextEdit and started the process of typing up the entries.

About 10 or 15 minutes into typing them up, Derek came over and handed me a flier. He asked if I could write a promotional story based on the flier and interview Jeff. The flier was offering a $10 discount on a one-year subscriptions to Seguin Gazette if people donated needed items. I finished up the marriage names first, that way Megan could go ahead and get them into the paper that she was working on. Once I finished that then I started on my story. It wasn’t too tough to write.

Jeff had joked with Ron about writing the quotes for him, since he has a very eloquent way of wording things. I wasn’t sure if they were serious, so once I finished my article minus the quotes, I asked Derek if I send it to Ron or interview Jeff. Derek said to send it to Ron. Felicia showed me where to put it in the drive, and then Ron grabbed it. This story would be published in the upcoming Sunday paper. Derek said for Megan to give me a byline, so it would be the first time that I’ve officially been published. I’m super excited about that. The dog-parking-lot story that goes out next week is my first real story that will be published, so I’m excited for that one too.

At this point in the day, it was probably sometime around 2:00pm. Not just wanting to sit around and be useless, I asked if there were any pages to proof. Felicia handed me a couple, so I got started on those. After that, Megan had a third page that she had just finished and sent to the printer. Felicia showed me were the printer was to get it. Unfortunately, “Dino,” as the printer was named, was having some problems. Derek was trying to print out 40 pages at the same time as us of the Sizzle, a yearly summer magazine that the Gazette puts out. Only for some reason the printer was struggling with the last half of it.

Derek cancelled his print job and asked Megan to go ahead and print her page. While I was waiting at the printer with Derek, I offered to look over the Sizzle pages. He gave me the first half that had printed successfully and told me to look for anything that doesn’t look right graphically: headlines with the font off, pages that cut off and such. He also told me that he read over my story and thought it sounded good.

I sat down at my desk with the first half of the Sizzle and page three of Sunday’s paper, and set to reviewing them. I didn’t find any errors on page three. As I was finishing the Sizzle’s first half, Derek brought me over the second half, which finally printed. I only found a couple of issues throughout the whole magazine. I brought the pages over to Derek and showed him. He then told me that if there weren’t any more pages to proof at that time that it was okay if I wanted to go ahead and go home.

I checked with Megan, but there weren’t any. So, I packed up, told everyone goodbye and clocked out. I felt way more confident at the end of this day than I did when I started it, both days went extremely well. My first week at Seguin Gazette was done!

I left my house at 7:15am with the intention of being in Seguin by 8:30am. I had intended to leave about 15 minutes earlier, but nerves from the night before meant I had trouble sleeping that night. While I didn’t necessarily oversleep, I slept longer than I wanted. Nonetheless, off I was to start my new journey at Seguin Gazette.

I arrived with about 15 minutes to spare. I didn’t want to go inside too early and I didn’t want to just wait around in the parking lot, so I went over to a Taco Cabana right around the corner. I have a feeling me and this Taco Cabana will get to know each other very well over the summer haha. I was hungry, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat much because of nerves, so I just got one bean and cheese taco and a Dr. Pepper. After I ate it, it was about time to head over, so off I went.

When I got inside, I introduced myself to the clerks behind the front desk. They welcomed me and lead me over to a couch area in the newsroom. The newsroom is an open area with a set of four desks/work stations with the couches a few feet away. Derek, the managing editor, has an office with windows connected to the newsroom, and Jeff, the…I don’t really know what he does truthfully. I think I’ve heard Jeff called the publisher? It’s the top position above Derek. Anyway, his office entrance is further down from Derek’s.

When I arrived at the couches, I could see that Derek was on the phone, so I waved to him and he waved back. I made myself comfortable while I waited and looked through some of the booklets they had on a little coffee table. One of the booklets had information on Seguin so I was particularly interested in that one.

After about 20 minutes or so, Derek came out of the office and said hello. He showed me which of the desks would be mine. The desk had an older iMac, but was mostly empty. After I settled in, Derek and one of the administrators came over and showed me how to use the time clock cards. It was very old fashioned, which I found fascinating. I learned how to work the machine thing to clock in and clock out, and where to store the cards.

After they showed me that, it was about 9:30a. Derek said that I could wait at my desk until the other journalists came in, which would be about 10:30a-ish, so I had some time to kill. I decided to use the free time to research more about Seguin. I visited the Seguin city website and the Seguin Gazette’s site and read older articles to learn more about the city and its people.

About 15 minutes into my research session, Derek came by and asked if I could write a feature story on the dangers of buying pets out of parking lots. He asked me to contact a guy about coming in for an interview. The guy had bought a puppy from a Wal-Mart lot that was carrying the parvo virus and gave it to his other dog. I called the guy and got the interview set-up. The guy asked if it was okay to bring his dog inside, and I said yes. The guy was set to come by around 11:00am.

After I got off the phone with him, I worried if I made the right call about him bringing his dog inside. Derek had told me that the guy would be bringing his dog by, and that one of the journalists, Felicia, would photograph it, so I had assumed that’s what they had wanted. But then I was worried, what if they don’t want a dog in here? What if someone has allergies? But then I remembered that Derek had mentioned that I could interview the guy at my desk, so that calmed my nerves down a bit.

I killed more time by writing my interview questions and researching Parvo. Around 10:30am-ish, the journalists started trickling in. I think that first was Felicia. Her desk is in front of mine. This lady is fascinating to watch. She has a very go-get-the-story type style. When she got in, she started what I assume is a typical routine of finding new news for the day. She started calling connections in various departments of the city and asking if they had anything new for her. She had a very friendly relationship with them and each person seemed to joke around. I can’t recall if she got any new stories this way, but it did seem like a good way to get the scoop on new things happening in Seguin.

Another interesting thing about Felicia, is that she has an emergency radio/blotter thingy by her desk. So all day we hear the various 911 calls. I had a hard time understanding what was going on in some of them, but she seemed to be able to discern what was important and what wasn’t. A few times she shushed Derek when he was trying to talk to her, because there could have been a serious call. One of them I remember was a structure fire call that was right around the corner from us, so she took off to go check it out.

I can’t remember who came in next, Megan or Ron, but they both came in around the same time as Felicia.

Megan is Seguin Gazette’s News Editor. She was hired around the same time as me, so she is fairly new as well. She graduated from Texas Lutheran University, which is a small private school in Seguin. From the time Megan got in to when she left, she laid-out the copy for the newspaper in InDesign.

Ron is the other journalist at Seguin Gazette. He is a beautiful writer and definitely has quite a way with words. I really admire his style, so I hope to become half as good of a writer as him one day. Although he has been on staff at the Gazette for a very long time, I’m not sure that he will be with them much longer. He seemed really stressed with the work load. On this day, Derek asked if he could cover another story and Ron snapped. He listed off the other stories that he was covering and said that he didn’t have time to sqeeze another in. He said that he didn’t get paid enough to be treated like that and threatened to quit. Derek seems like a really nice person though, so he empathized with him and said that they would figure out a way to move things around so there isn’t as big of a workload.

I don’t mind taking on whatever story it was that he was trying to give Ron, but I think Derek wanted to start me out slow this week. Hopefully my interning at the Gazette helps take some of that load off of Ron.

Around 10:45am, my source called and said he’d be a little late. He ended up coming around 11:15am. From my desk I could hear some “awws” coming from the administrative desk around the corner, so I knew that they were there. I walked over and greeted them and escorted them back to my desk.

The guy said that he had never been interviewed before and didn’t know what to do, so I told him to just think of it as a conversation, which seemed to calm him a bit. We jumped right into the interview, and it went really well! It started dragging on a bit though and I was worried that I was annoying Megan, so I wrapped it up. I asked if we could photograph his dog, which was Felicia’s cue. She came over and took photos and I helped get the dogs attention behind her so that he would look in the direction of the camera, instead of turning his head back to his owner.

After all was done, I walked the guy outside and thanked him for coming by. He said that I was the first reporter that he had ever met, which was very humbling. It was the first time that I had ever been seen as a professional. Running stories for my classes, I tell sources that I’m a journalism student at Texas State or student journalist, so I think sometimes the sources see me more as student and they’re helping with a project- ya know? I’ve never written for Texas State’s school paper, the University Star or our radio station, KTSW, either (I know, weird for a journalism major I guess haha), so I’ve never had any kind of authoritative or professional type position when running stories. I just thought that was really cool to be viewed that way.

When I returned to my desk, I looked at two of the cards that the dog guy had given me for two Seguin animal hospitals that he had taken each of his dogs to. I needed an authoritative voice for my story to explain what parvo was and why you shouldn’t buy dogs from parking lots. I tried to call both animal hospitals, but couldn’t reach any of the vets at either. Felicia recommended I try animal services, but the animal officers were on lunch and so the call kept routing me to the police station. A fourth source I also got from the dog guy was for a Chihuahua rescue that he had spoken to for assistance about what to do with the puppy he got, as it was a Chihuahua puppy, so I tried calling her but got voicemail and left a message.

I figured all my sources were probably at lunch, because it was around 12:30pm around this point, so I thought that I should go to lunch too. I poked my head into Jeff’s office and let him know, used the punch-out card thing and then off I was to Taco Cabana.

Taco Cabana was insanely busy inside. It took most of my lunch time to get my one steak fajita taco, but I didn’t mind the wait, it killed time. The lady who brought me my order recognized me from the morning. I have a feeling me and her will get to know each other quite well at this Taco Cabana over the summer. 🙂

Once I got my taco, I was starving, but still so full of nerves that I could barely eat. It was strange, I wanted to eat it so bad; I was so hungry! I felt slightly nauseous so I just picked at it until it was time to go back.

When I got back to my desk, I tried making the round of calls again, but I guess the sources were all still at lunch, so I decided to wait until 2:00pm. In the meantime, I reviewed my audio recording of my interview with the dog guy. He had wanted me to include that his neighbor helped him, but he didn’t know how to spell her name. He gave me her number to interview her. I debated whether to call her or not. Her interview wouldn’t tell me anything more than he already told me, so I would just be calling for her name. I didn’t want to be rude and interview her only for her name to appear in the article, or just tell her that I needed her name and disappoint her, so I decided to just refer to her as Mrs. Debbie, which is what the dog guy called her. She was only mentioned once in the article and it was very minor, so I felt that it was okay.

Derek didn’t say anything about it when he reviewed my article so I think he was okay with it. In hindsight though, I wish I had called her and interviewed her. Even if I didn’t use what she said, It could have built another relationship with a Seguin resident, and who knows, maybe she could have had something else to add. This was a learning experience, and I think in the future I will explore all sources, even if I may not use their interviews.

Close to 2:00pm, I looked at my phone and saw I had a voicemail from the Chihuahua rescue lady. I called her back and interviewed her on the spot. It was a really good interview too and I got a lot of information about parvo, why you shouldn’t buy dogs from parking lots, where people should buy dogs and such. After her interview, I had all the info that I needed to write my story.

Felicia had seen me interviewing on my cell phone so she brought over a landline phone for me to use and hooked it up. The other journalists had them on their desks and used them for calls. I thanked her for setting it up for me. Truthfully though, I’m a bit worried about it. I like to record all of my interviews, because I’m not good at catching quotes and information while people are talking. I have an app on my iPhone that lets me record phone interviews, so that’s why I like using my cellphone for them. I can’t do that on the landline. I totally get why it’s a good idea though. I don’t really want to give my number out to a million sources, and some people might be reluctant to call me back because my area code is 512 while Seguin’s is 830.

I see it as a challenge I am determined to figure out though. If the other journalists at Seguin Gazette can interview over the phone without recording, then so can I. It’s just a skill I will need to further develop, that’s why it’s an internship I suppose.

After I wrote my article, I emailed it to Derek to review. He was super busy though, so it would be awhile, which was totally understandable. The story won’t publish until Wednesday or Thursday, so it wasn’t very high priority. After sending it to Derek, it was a waiting game. I just researched more about Seguin at my desk until it was time to proof papers.

At the end of the day, copies of the paper were printed out and cycled around the room. Each person read the pages and edited it for GSP or AP style errors. I found a few and circled them. When everything else was done, Derick said that it was okay to go home. So I packed up and told everyone that I’d see them tomorrow. I punched out and headed back to my car. It was time to go back to Austin, my first day at Seguin Gazette was done!