Day 9: Fireworks and Closures Stories

When I got in, it was time for a new punch card. As I was getting my name on a new one and punching in, I was greeted by Felicia from across the room. She told me that I had a new desk. Jessica would be taking over my desk and I would be getting Ron’s old desk. Ron’s last day was the day before.

I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get to say goodbye. I think Ron is a fantastic journalist and I really have a lot of respect for him. As weird as this might sound, I felt a little honored to be taking his desk. I had quite the shoes to fill!! Okay, I’m still just an intern haha and all that changed was my desk location, but I still liked it.

I actually really liked the new desk and location. The desk is at the very back of the room with my back facing the wall, but me able to view everything going on. I have a pet-peeve about people peering over my shoulder to see my computer screen, so I like the privacy too. The only downside is that I’ve tended to get way into writing my stories or researching and zone out.

My chair was upgraded too! The chair at my old desk was slightly broken and wobbly. Felicia realized it before Jessica had come in. I offered to trade the chair because the old desk was shaped like an L and it was frustrating before when I used it and was not able to wheel between both sides of the desk. My new desk faces one direction, so I don’t really need to wheel around. However, Felicia said that it was okay, so she left the wobbly chair for Jessica. My guess is that they’ll probably replace it either way.

As I settled into my new desk, Derek came by and told me that he emailed me the budget. He mentioned that there were a couple of stories for me to do and that Felicia had the contact numbers. Felicia was busy at the copy-layout desk, but she said that she would get them to me shortly. I told her that there wasn’t a rush. I was still settling into the desk and wanted to look over the budget anyway.

My two stories would be pretty easy this day: one on closure of government offices for the holidays and an advance on the fireworks show that Seguin does, neither would need photos so they would be short stories with over-the-phone interviews.

Maybe about 15 or 20 minutes after Derek came by, Felicia gave me the contacts. She gave me Seguin’s public information officer’s number, and a number to contact for a Guadalupe County judge. She said that the judge could likely point me in the right direction on who to contact for county closures. As for the fireworks, I was given the number for a parks and rec director in Seguin.

Once I had my contacts, I set out to writing my questions and researching. It took maybe 20 or 30 minutes to do. Felicia also emailed me the press release about the closures from the public information officer contact. I looked over the press release. It seemed to already go over everything that I was planning to ask, so I wondered if I really needed to call them. I asked Derek and he said I might give them a call if I want fresh quotes.

I decided to call the fireworks contact first. However, I was told that he was out of the office and in meetings all day, but given his email. The officials in Seguin have it to where all emails go directly to their phones, so he would be able to see it. I then sent out an email to him and asked if he could call me before 5 p.m.

Next, I set out to the closures contacts. After I called the number that Felicia gave me and navigated the automated email, I realized that it was a number for a county judge. I wasn’t sure if that was correct, so I did some research. I came up with a directory of numbers for Guadalupe County and saw that it was indeed for a county judge. At the bottom of the list, however, was the county information desk. I asked Felicia about it. She said that I could try that, but she wasn’t sure who I would be talking to.

I gave it a try. I got an operator. I explained who I was and asked if she knew who I could talk to or if there was a public information officer for Guadalupe County. She said that there wasn’t, but she could send me to the assistant to the commissioner judge or something of that sort named Doreen. I got Doreen’s voicemail though and left a message.

Then I tried the number Felicia gave me for the county judge and left a voicemail for him as well.

Not long after, Doreen called back. I had a quick interview with her. She seemed a bit uncomfortable giving me her name, but I got it from her. With the interview in hand, I set out to write the story.

It didn’t take very long to write; it was super short. Doreen had mentioned calling the Sheriff’s office for emergencies. I knew that 911 would of course be available as well so I included it too. I didn’t think anyone would think they could only call the Sheriff’s office for help, but I decided to err on the side of caution and basic common sense and include the 911 bit. When the story was finished I emailed it to Derek.

It was the waiting point of the day. I didn’t know how long it would take Jack Jones with the Parks Rec to get back to me. I knew he was in meetings all day, but there was just no telling. So, I opened up my laptop and started working on my internship blog. This exact entry in-fact.

A little while later, Derek emailed me back the story and asked me to put the contact info for the public information officer in there. I modified the story and then it went back to him.

He also asked me how the Fireworks story was going. I told him I was still waiting to hear back from Jack Jones. Felicia gave me another number for a Parks Rec contact, but she seemed like Jack Jones would be a strong source because he was the Director. I tried that source, but also got an office worker. She said that the second source was at the wavepool. I’m not really sure what that is, but she said that she would give her my callback information and let her know that I called. I also looked up second source’s email address and sent her an email too. I figured she might get it sooner if her email is connected to her phone too.

While I waited for the potential two sources for the one story to call back, I took the time to work on the blog some more. Then I checked up on my financial aid appeal. I went over on the maximum hours that you can take by one or two hours after the spring (max hours is 45 for a second bachelors, after the spring I was at 47 hours), so my aid was denied for the fall. Someone in the SJMC office told me that I had to declare a minor when I was filling out the paperwork to declare myself a full-major, but I don’t think they realized I was a post-baccalaureate. Anyway, by the time I realized, it was too late and I wasted about 9 hours on a minor I didn’t need before I finally went to an adviser and dropped it. Those 9 hours I guess would have  been my final fall semester here for aid.

Anyway, the denial of the appeal was disappointing to see. I was hoping with only one more semester left that I would be approved. It means I have to drop a class for sure, unfortunately. I’ll probably only be at 6 hours next semester, as that’s the minimum hours I have to maintain to be eligible for employment with the ETC.

I was calmly, but in-my-head frantically, freaking out to make sure that my Sallie Mae loan application that I had submitted earlier this year was enough to cover tuition for 6 hours (although just barely, it was thank goodness). Derek brought me over a page to edit, so I gladly shift focus to that and got to editing. I found a few AP style errors and noted them.

Around 2:45 p.m.-ish, I asked Felicia about another contact on the Parks and Rec contact list on their website. She said that it was worth a shot, but that person tended to pass you off to the other two that I had already tried. I decided to wait 30 minutes to give the other two sources a little more time to contact me. When 3:15 p.m. finally rolled around, I called the Parks and Rec office again. I asked for the third source and they transferred me, but the Director Jack Jones picked up! He was the first source that I was trying to contact. I interviewed him, wrote up the story and sent it off to Derek.

The day was mostly done, but I decided to wait around in case there were more pages to proof. Megan was out of the office, I think on maternity leave, so Derek was doing the page layout today. I wasn’t sure if he might need help. So while I waited, I worked on my blog some more.

I waited around another thirty minutes or so, just to be sure there weren’t any other story edits or pages that needed to be proofed. Then I asked Derek if there were anymore pages. He said that if I wanted to I could head home. He also said that if I wanted to take the next day (Friday, July 3rd) off, that I could. I told him that I was okay with taking it off. All offices in Seguin were going to be closed the next day, so there really wasn’t a story ready for me to cover. I was really excited for it though. I was getting Saturday, July 4th off from ETC, so that meant two days off in a row, a Fri and Sat! It was like a mini-vacation in the middle of the summer.

Anyway, so I wished everyone a good 4th of July and headed off. Thus concluded week five and day nine of my internship adventure.