Things I Have Learned So Far

I have lived here so far for a little over a week, and I have learned a lot. It's not that the big city is as foreign to me as it is to others, but Buffalo is very different from the places that I have lived. These are the things I have learned so far.

1.) Don't walk down Niagara St. at night, or wait for the bus there. Just walk home.

2.) Don't ever walk down Busti or Lakeview either

3.) Sometimes, you don't need an extensive amount of books to be a library.

4.) On that note, you can get free movie rentals at libraries if the library you go to applies to Lesson 3.

5.) Don't try to say hi to people. If you accidentally caught their attention, just nod your head.

6.) Don't give a cigarette to a guy you just saw get a cigarette from somebody else.

7.) NEVER shop at Rite-Aid, CVS, or Walgreens unless you go for perscriptions. Find a Family Dollar instead so you don't have to pay $9 for razors.

8.) Get a Bonus Card at the grocery store you go to. YOU'LL NEED IT!

9.) Get a bus schedule if you're riding the bus so you don't wait an hour to pay a $1.75 fair to ride a full, stinky bus for 3 blocks.

9.) a On that note, don't even take the bus to the grocery store. But apply Lesson 1.

10.) You will NEVER get the stink out of your apartment that it came with, no matter how much Febreze you spray.

11.) When registering for school, don't wear skinny jeans, and bring something to do. You'll be there for a while.

12.) Take the smoke alarm down before making bacon at 7:30 am.

13.) Teach your boyfriend to cook. It's ok if he ruins your last pound of hamburger trying to make Hamburger Helper; he'll learn.

15.) Don't trust the sweet looking old lady that looks like a man next door. She will someday push her way into your apartment and scope out all the nice things you have.

15.) Naps are really nice. Take as many of them as you can.

Jenny Goes to Court

I went to district court today for a little learning experience. I learned a bit about how the court system worked and whos who in the county office. I am sort of disappointed in myself for not being more interested but... I got the grasp enough to write an article on county/city politics in the future.

Learning Experience for today; Don't drink and drive, don't get stuck in the system, and don't try to learn the entire system on 7 hours of sleep.

My First Community Meeting.

Today my editor had me attend a community input session titled "Charting a Course for Harrisville." It was held at the harbor, the livelihood of our county, at 7pm.


I was very nervous prior to this. Sometimes when I get nervous about doing interviews or such, I think "I don't want to be a journalist!" It's usually screamed inside my head in a voice that one would have as they are being dragged into a never ending pit. But I put on my silky red polka dot shirt, skinny jeans, and high heels anyways and show up and I do alright.


My problem was that everyone who attended this meeting was between the ages of 45-60 years old and they are highly involved in the community. The mayor was there, a Gauthier was there [The Gauthiers are like royalty in Alcona because there's so many of them and they're all rich and into communal politics], and a woman who's grandfather bought the factory that kept money in Harrisville. All these people who know so much about Harrisville and I've only lived here for two years, I was surprised that they were putting in new water lines which I guess has been in the process of being done for about a year.


I was greatful that my editor Cheryl was there. I felt a little bit more comfortable having someone there with me, especially my boss. There were a few times where I just seemed like a young, naive stupid kid who didn't know much about what was going on, which I can't deny the fact that that's exactly what I am. I am unfortunently too outspoken to keep quiet, even if I don't know what I'm talking about. For some reason I can't sit there quietly and not participate. But I was smart enough to keep my useless input to a minimum.


I listened as all the elders of Harrisville complained about sidewalks and the DNR refusing to cut down overgrown weeds around the harbor. It actually got pretty heated in there a couple times, especially since almost everyone there are friends or neighboors or more importantly; enemies. There were years old arguments and gripes brought up and some more recent arguments brought up. But the goal was met; what are the best things about Harrisville and what are the worst things, and how can we fix them?

Yes, overall it was an experience. I've realized that you can't shake your fist at the big guy on top, you have to get down and dirty with your community first.

Adventures in Creative Writing.

I have a few things I want to talk about.

I have been working on this story called "Just a Girl From Rushmore High" for a year now. I have about 19 chapters written in my notebook, and it was really going places, but it wasn't written the way I wanted to. I have had this idea for a long time of a desperate author stealing a young girl's blog to plagiarize it and what would ensue soon after that. My story was ok, there were a few plot holes and not enough of the characters were developed enough, and since a lot of it was mindlessly written, the writing wasn't that great.

This is the premesis.

First of all, "Just a Girl From Rushmore High" is the second novel I've tried to write since I moved to Michigan about a year and a half ago. I am sort of upset at myself when I think about this. I like to call myself a writer but in all honesty, I haven't written much. I write a lot in my journal, and I have a lot of short stories, and I think about writing a lot, but compared to a lot of people my age, I just haven't really written anything. I am really dedicated to this story. Don thinks that I should lose it and try a different story idea, but I can't. I have to finish this story.

I have been writing it for a while. I would write it in class and on the bus all the time. Then all of a sudden I had a research essay to write and then immediately after that I had my exams. I was to pick it up after I graduated, but the look of those three notebooks full of crap sitting there just intimidated me. I felt like I lost contact with my characters and my plot. I haven't written a single thing since at least May.

Since I started writing it, I also got very into Fiction Press, which is where I post these works. I was reading all kinds of stories and leaving lots of good reviews, hoping the same favor would be returned to me. I was also in search of someone who could truly help me with my story. I gave up after this person flaked out on me, but then I got high speed and I decided to give it another go. I believed [and still do] that another writer to bounce ideas off of would do wonders for my work. When I write I feel like I am lost and alone in this jungle of ideas and my vision is very foggy. I feel that if I had a friend to help me, I wouldn't feel so lost.

I went on a desperate search. I searched on every writers forum I could find. And now I am happy to say that I have found two people to help me with writing. One, a 14 year old, is helping me with writing excersices, and another, a 17 year old, is helping me figure out my story and help me with plot holes. I don't know how people can write alone, but perhaps that is because they're good writers who can get their thoughts down very easily. All I know is I feel so inspired and motivated when I have someone to talk to about it.

I am also happy to say that I have restarted my story. I have changed the gender of the second main character, taken out a few characters, and added a little bit of backstory. I am currently having a problem trying to figure out how to write the author's point of view in this story, but I have realized that if I take my time with it and actually concentrate, I can do much better.

I also realized today that sometimes I write in the way you would see something in a movie. When I do that, my writing comes out very bland. For example, I was writing my first chapter today and I was trying to start it off. I started off visualizing what my character would be doing. My character ended up getting out of bed and the narrative continued to say that she had writers block. This is what would happen in a movie. You would watch a character get out of bed. I scratched that immediately, knowing that if I started my first chapter this way, the rest of my story wouldn't have a chance. I have learned that I am not writing a movie here, I am writing a book, and I need to stop not taking chances and just write in a way that shows the reader more than tells them.

It may be a while before I get this story done, but hopefully not too long. I hope to not spend a year writing this story. I would like to finish it and clear my mind up for another story that I will like better, one that I can write using current experiences. This story is about a 15 year old girl and I am very much past this stage in my life, despite the fact that it haunts me. I watched a movie today and got thinking about mothers and daughters and how mothers are so attached to their children sometimes, so attached that they can be controlling. And I thought how that must start early on when the child is in the womb, but then thought that I had no idea. And for a brief [totally not serious] second, I kind of wished I was pregnant just so I can feel that bond with another human being. But I'm not pregnant and don't plan to be pregnant anytime soon.

My point is this; I could write about that experience if I were pregnant. But right now, I can write about making life changing decisions in your youth, thinking you have the world in your hand, thinking you own everything and you will never fail. This is what I can write about because this is what I am experiencing. But how can I write about that when I have to finish this story about the 15 year old?

I'm sorry for rambling, and I know that my posts have been pretty invaluable lately. I have been extremely clouded. Sometimes I don't really know how I feel, and therefore cannot express those feelings. It is a very frustrating situation for me to be in, so I stay far away from writing in my journal or blog to keep my self esteem at a healthy level.

I Have Learned...

That you really can't force anything. Sometimes, there's a rock that just refuses to move and you need to leave it alone and stop pushing it.

I am the one who will stay at the rock from morning until night and push and push, persistent in trying to get it to move. I will push until someone comes up to me and tells me that it's not going to move and to stop. And I will most likely lean on that rock and cry through my frustration and heartbreak.

I cannot leave things well enough alone and I refuse to give up. Sometimes this is nice. Other times, it really gets you nowhere but exactly where you were before, but crying on a rock this time.

Sometimes I think that I'm "go-with-the-flow" and I am up for anything, anytime, anywhere. But truthfully, I'm not. And I have learned that I need to know things ahead of time and have it in my mind otherwise I will get extremely confused. I cannot make plans an hour before they need to happen and I cannot have plans changed on me without getting very frustrated. This can be a hassle to those around me who try to do things differently and are met with my hard, frustrated head. I can end up throwing fits and getting my way, but end up hurting those involved or making them sacrifice what they want.

The truth is, I am not a very relaxed person no matter how badly I want to be. I am actually pretty uptight and anxious.

While my 4th of July was horrible, it was a learning experience and it was a definite slap in my selfish face. I want to apologize to those I stepped on through the night, and turn my cheek to those who stepped on me.

A Real Journalistic Experience and a Really Bad Interview

When I first started my internship at The Alcona County Review, I was asked to bring in a couple of story ideas of what I would like to write about. Don's mother had given me an idea--Write about the new building going up on the edge of Church Street. She said "Everyone wants to know what the hell is going up there!" So I go into Cheryl's office [my boss] and tell her that I want to do this. She gives me the information I need to know, and I get to work.

Pam Burt is the name of the lawyer who is trying to open up this old parts shop into a farmer's market. I call her, and have a heck of a time getting through to her. When I finally do, she tells me that she doesn't want me to do the story quite yet and that she'll call me back.

This is mid-May.

She calls me while I'm healing from my tooth extraction. So I call her back and finally get a hold of her when I feel like I can do an interview. She tells me that the Farmer's Market isn't ready, but the Dairy Dome is. The Dairy Dome is a little old igloo thing that used to serve ice cream way back in the 80's. Her brother is trying to open it up. So she tells me that I can do the story on the Dairy Dome. Cheryl doesn't like that, she wants me to wait. So I tell this to Pam Burt. Pam Burt tells me she'll just give the story to the Alpena News.

And then it hit me. I just experienced my first competitive journalistic experience! Ok, it's not much, and I wasn't really involved, but it was a little taste and it was a little surreal.

But it gets better. Yesterday I was in Harrisville with Don. I was wearing boxers, a t-shirt, a hoodie, and boots. I didn't even have any socks or makeup on. [P.S. This is what I wear when Don and I are just watching a movie after having a long day] And I saw that the Dairy Dome had a surprise opening. Pam told me they were opening on the 4th! And I'm looking around and everyone from the community is there, like Pam's brother just went to every business and all of his friends and said "Hey, I'm spontaneously opening my business up, if we get enough people to gather outside it, more people will come."

Oh my god, I should have been there! I was so torn! There I was sitting in my relaxing clothes not relaxing at all! I'm grungy looking, and I don't have a pen and paper to my name at this point. But on the other hand, no one's out there and Cheryl would love me if I wrote this, even though she said no! And that's another point; she said no. But maybe she didn't know the severity of this issue. Everyone's wanted the Dairy Dome to open up for a long time, and this would be GREAT to put in the paper.

As you can tell, I'm still a little bit torn about it. I don't know if I should be the good intern who does what she's told, or be the initiative journalist and go out and do a spontaneous story in boxers and uggs.

Here's another story about my negativity's with journalism.

I had a really bad interview today. I have to do another article like the Spotlight I did on Joe Lavigne. Except now I have to do it on Mackenzie Sims. Let me just put it simply-- I am not too thrilled to be another beat on this guy's personal drum. He thinks he's cooler than an electric knife. And I have to interview him on his latest accomplishment: a pilot's training scholarship.

Let me tell you something about Mackenzie that is imperative to this story. He has a very unique stutter. Not only does he stutter on his first letters, but he does this speech impediment movement where he searches around for a very long time to find what he's going to say. And when he does find it, he either A.) doesn't say it because he thinks that his stuttering episode was him actually talking and you should have understood it or B.) tries to say the word three times. Now. I'm not making fun of people with stutters. I myself have a lisp. But he acts like his shit doesn't stink ww-wh-when it d-d-does.

So first of all, he shows up late. Kids, remember always show up 15-5 minutes before your appointment, it shows that you take it seriously. The first thing he does when he sits me down is tells me that all he wants is to have a shout out to the people that helped him. Then we conduct the interview. Halfway through, I ask him what his other accomplishments have been through his high school. He says "I don't... uh... well... people already...uh........." then he beats on his chest with his fist and says "You know?" Now, I could understand what this awkward hand gesture meant-that people already think he's a horn tooter, and this would just further his cause. I guess he's just done TOO much for anyone to handle! Towards the end, his stuttering problem started getting really bad and I'm not understanding where he's going with any of his stories and the clock has hit 1 hour since he showed up late. I hurry up and wrap things up and tell him that I need a picture.

And he tells me "uhh... well... could you uh... umm... well... ha!" He tells me that the Oscoda News [the next town over that's big enough to have a newspaper] recently did a photoshoot of the pilot trainees at the airstrip and that I can just go over there and get their pictures because "they took a really good one." That really ticked me off. I was already pretty annoyed because this was taking so long and he wasn't saying anything of use. And he tells me that I have to go get a picture from ANOTHER newspaper? It doesn't work that way! I say "Well, I got my camera here, why don't we just go take a quick shot now" and I'm trying my best to coerce him into just taking the picture! He's stuttering a million reasons no, but I'm not understanding them because they're all a bunch of nervous noises. And then I realize that he's not going to let me take a picture with my camera and I get upset. Because I know what the reason is. He doesn't want HIS face on MY camera. He has no problem if some other reporter took the picture, just as long as I didn't. And, when we were scheduling this interview, he said "I don't want you to know where I live, so why don't we meet at Simple Miracles?" I asked him if he would email me a picture, and he starts acting like THAT'S a problem too, like he doesn't want me having his email address.

I finally gave him my email address, told him that he must send me a picture by Monday before 10. He asked if it was imperative and I said yes, it's pretty imperative. I couldn't believe it. He thought he was better than me, didn't want me to know too much of his personal information like I'm just going to stalk him. As if I fabricated this entire interview just to talk to him. I was so upset. I wanted to say "Look, we're not in school anymore, and I'm trying to be a professional, so stop being a jerk."

Don told me something that is so true, that years down the road I will wish I could have more interviews like Mackenzie's because interviews in the real world of journalism can go a lot worst. And he's right, I'm going to be begging to do interviews with just regular old egotistical high school students after a hard day.

While Don had the kisses to ease the pain, Winnie had the best explanation.

As a journalist you will encounter so many others
that will try to make you feel
like an ant. You will just have to remember
you are a monster ant that is
ready to bite the living @#%& out of them and your words
can make or break
them.

You live and learn, and these are just a few of my adventures in Journalism.

This is what my horoscope said for today:

An awkward social moment is forgotten, as your
workload increases. Your
life doesn't get much easier, though. There are
changes in your assignment that
makes it hard to complete it on time. Be
patient. Try not to blow a fuse.

And so I just need to forget about these things, and continue on. I have two business briefs that haven't even been started that are due on Monday. So I guess there's some things I need to focus on!