the navel times and observer

Lately I've felt oddly Ohio-sick. It's strange because, after all, I've spent only a summer and, beyond that, just a few hours in Ohio in the course of my entire life.

I think I really got lucky last summer when I got a job in Toledo. I sent out 40 applications for internships last year and I got only one non-negative response. Lots of letters, but not even a phone call beyond the one where the Blade, without an interview, signed me on to a job without so much as an interview.

Really, outside of specific circumstances, I had no connection to most of the places where I had even applied. But I got lucky in the former swamplands of northwest Ohio because a very close friend lived only an hour and a half south of Toledo. And once again our close friendship got even closer. I also got to see the home of Wilson footballs, while not being a football fan, there is only one Wilson plant where they're made.

So even though my summer professionally was a wash and I realised just how remarkable my faults were (oh, and sometimes it seems are) as a journalist it was still in the end a really good summer. I made some new friends, had some amazing conversations, learned plenty. Maybe I'm a sucker for summer, so long as the weather's reasonable and not unbearably hot, but I tend to reminisce about them more often than other seasons.

To those of you who read this far I apologize, it seems again I've failed to stay on topic or even find one, what I guess I will say is the job here is going ok. My editors have been remarkably generous, particularly in the sense that my beat at the newspaper has been dry as toast lately (only three stinking bylines for the whole stinking week and while my editors have told me i'm doing fine and the newspaper doesn't keep track of bylines i still feel like the slow pony, inately setting high standards, i guess). I also prove consistently that I have reams of things to learn about designing pages, though I am learning.

On a positive note, I'm making deliberate efforts to get my butt back up on the treadmill and shed some of this miserable girth. It's also a lot healthier outlet for the anger and frustration of not meeting your own standards.

And a word those leaving for the summer and, in some cases, longer (i'll miss you) I'm coming back up to Columbia next weekend (wee hours of May 7 through May 8 or really really early morning, fivish, May 9). Call me. It is also likely to be the last time I'll see many of you before my birthday (May 16, turning 24), though I'm not sure what time there may be for a celebratory drink with finals schedules and all.

Cheers.

My man won his City Council seat against what I would have thought would have been rather long odds tonight. He was a write-in candidate, a former mayor who only served two years and he just helped to drag the whole town through the media mud by getting into a brawl with the current mayor after a city council meeting.

He writes fiery letters against the present mayor and he advocates impeaching the mayor everywhere he goes with a yard sign in the windshield of his pick up truck. He also seems to honestly want his seat of power back and I believe really feels like the mayor is ruining the city with his policies.

Is he really fit to lead? Probably not. City council members in Jasper seem to be incompetent as a rule of thumb anyway. Recent audits from the last couple years show gross violation of city codes, including allowing two council members to be paid as city employees for a full year. Granted they only earned $22,000 between them that year but it's a conflict of interest just the same. The last audit before that included dozens of bank accounts with no records and purchases people just plumb forgot about or at least didn't write into any book.

In other news, I am, despite leaving my job in three days, still anxious about failing to have gotten a story written and shipped out that the tv news technically beat us to. I learned late Friday about the result of a lawsuit between one of my towns and a couple other parties. I put it on my reporter's budget for Wednesday because I knew today was going to be largely devoted to elections and late tonight (I presume after attending the actual city council meeting) the tv news had it broadcasted about the result. So we write it a day after the news tomorrow and it will run 8 days after the damn thing was decided.

I put it on my budget, but didn't mention it today to an editor and didn't mention it before this weekend and because I wasn't here Monday I didn't mention it then either. Now we're a day late even though we knew about it almost a full week ago. Why does that still bug me???? After all what difference does it really make when I'm leaving Friday???? I don't know but I think I'm tired and just too damn tightly wound.

Anyway I have a forwarding address for Lebanon now. E-mail, call or instant message me if you want it.