NotesFromtheVoices

It is official. I am now on vacation. The plan has changed. I am headed to South Carolina to spend a few days there with my son. I need to get away from RR. The last few weeks have been rough. I just want to get away and have a change of scenery.  And thanks to my cool new phone, I will be able to do post and photos from it. So I will keep everyone updated on the fun that my son and I will have. I am going to enjoy my time off and cherish it. All work and no play has made Jackie a cranky person. I hope everyone has a Happy Easter.  I know I will. DAILY DOSE 1. I'm on vacation for the next 10 days. 2. No alarm clocks! 3. Spending time with my son!

When you are a reporter, your schedule really isn't your schedule. It depends on what is happening. This was my weekend to work and I had to cover a professional wrestling event. I am tired today but I actually had a good time Saturday night. Plus, they gave me a lanyard tag that allowed me to go anywhere in the theatre. If  I had wanted, I could have gotten in the ring. I felt all powerful with my camera and notebook. But seriously, I had a good time. It was TNA wrestling. I don't know a thing about wrestling or who is popular right now but I enjoyed the energy of the crowd and the fans.  For the first time in weeks, I remembered why I like writing so much--the chance to tell someone else's story. I met some really cool people who had been looking forward to this event for weeks. I met a 10-year-old who had received tickets for his birthday. He was waiting patiently to  meet his idol Jeff Hardy for a few seconds. I felt honored to be able to share his story with the ...

I don’t like change. I am a creature of habit. For me, change has to happen gradually.  Otherwise, I can get pretty freaked out. One of my favorite co-workers is leaving the newspaper for a better opportunity. I am not jealous and I wish him much success.  But the selfish part of me is going to miss him a lot. He is just an all around nice person. We have worked together many nights talking about life and sports. There are very few things of late that make it worth coming to work. Because honestly, the paycheck is no longer a motivator.  Having him around made the place a little more ok. And we are good friends so I will still get to hang with him but I will miss having him in the trenches. I need to start figuring out my swan song for RR. The writing is on the wall. I don’t like change but if I can plan for it, I’ll be okay. DAILY DOSE 1. Getting closer and closer to SPRING BREAK with JJ. 2. Having a new experience this Saturday night and semi-dat...

This has been a hard week. If my mother was alive Saturday, she would be 56 years old. It is hard to believe it has been more than two years since her death. There are so many times I want to pick up the phone and call her. Josephine Lowery Her number is still in my phone. After her death, I would call it and listen to her voice.  With all of the uncertainty at the newspaper and other issues in my life, I just miss her voice and her words of wisdom. So when I am having trouble, I think about what she would say. And it helps me get through the day. When things are really bad, I will dream about her. The dream is usually some incident that happened when I was younger but it always makes me feel better. Growing up, I will admit I didn’t appreciate her like I should have. In fact, from my senior year of high school and for seven years after that, we didn’t really talk. Well, we did in 30 minute increments. This was how long we could hold a conversation without fight...

When you work at a newspaper, you never know what the day will be like. You could come in expecting to take photos of 100 day of school event and end of covering a bank robbery. I never know. My goals each day are to have two stories done and getting home at a decent time. On Thursday, I went to a school to cover the Cat in the Hat making an appearance at a local middle school. Simple assignment. Instead as I sat in the audience surrounded by students waiting for the assembly, I watch the principal and other school personnel rush onstage. The principal announces to the students that they need to go to the football field. No one asked questions. They just cleared the building. As the principal rushed pass, I asked her what was going on. She told me that someone had called 911 and said there was a bomb in the school.  Now let's be honest for a second. My thought is to run. I don't want to be hurt but my second is that this could make that day's newspaper as a story...