Day 4: Follow-up Pecan, Sensitive story

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.