Quick update!

Firstly, I feel I should apologize for sort of dropping off on my blog. I realize it's been approximately two weeks since I've written.
So, as I sit in between classes and article-writing at the office, I shall relate a few interesting events of the last few weeks.

Firstly, Journal Workshop Week was awesome. We have some new reporters and photographers (incoming freshman) who seem to be doing well, even if I have been giving them a lot of help when it comes to the actual writing of the articles. Workshop Week involved the preparation of our first paper of the semester, as well as other fun activities designed to promote teamwork, etc. I note the Ropes Course particularly, because I learned to walk on a tightrope and watched Dana get pushed (quite accidentally) off the rope swing and land on her face. She was okay, but she sort of felt like beating up Eric afterward. (Eric accidentally pushed her... long story).

After that, things have pretty much been going full bore, and I've barely had time to sleep every night. Mainly the news these past two issues has been centered around a plane crash (the second in two months) that killed ten people from Cedar City, including six students, ex-students and alumni from SUU. There have been two memorial services and a third is planned. As you can see, for now, news is my life.

The first week of school is now over, and I note with relief that my student loan has come through to pay off my tuition, I am moved into a new apartment (not that black-mold covered lung-killer) and I've received my refund check so I can get my contacts updated (because it's getting to the point where I can't read...) and get my truck fixed so I can give my mom back hers. I realize at this point how ridiculously long that sentence was. I attribute it to the fact that I'm in a slight rush, and I use very long sentences when I'm in a hurry, because for some reason I think if I can fit all my information into one breath, somehow it will get me to where I need to go a bit faster. Odd.

I have no classes Monday for labor day, and as a consequence, I'll be spending the entire day at the Journal! Joy! Rapture! (No sarcasm, here, I really am excited out of my head about it. Does that say something about how lame my life is at this point...?)

Along those lines, I was afforded a singularly unique pleasure today in my newswriting class. We were given the opportunity to see a first edition of the New York Herald, 1865 (I think) that announced the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. This incredibly rare paper really provided some insight into the history of journalism, as well as bringing a sense of reality to the actual event. Professor Husselbee has a hobby of collecting rare papers. I have decided I'd like to begin the same hobby. Or at least collecting papers that will become important and rare someday... I'm keeping today's New York Times as an important benchmark in this year's presidential race.

Anyway, I have to go to class now, so I'll pop back in when I can.
Mucho amor!
--Anna Grace

A blog that is not about today.

All three or four people that read this blog know what happened today, and I have no desire to re-hash this already painful tragedy. However, I would like to say that it made me realize just how fragile and unpredictable life is, and how important my family is to me. I would attend the funeral if I could, but I can't.

Therefore, since I am determinedly not blogging about today, instead, I shall blog about the upcoming weekend and the following week. Tomorrow, I'm leaving the certainty of mom's house and striking out into unchartered territory. Let me explain. Until about September, I'm going to be staying with my friend Christina at her house. They're moving out in September. Therein lies the problem. She was supposed to be moving into an apartment, and I was going to split rent with her and move in. But now they don't know whether they'll be able to get into it. If that happens, Christina said they (she and her daughter) might end up sleeping on the floor of her ex-husband's house. And if that happens, I won't be going with them.

Sure, I like Clint well enough, but that's too weird. I think I'd rather sleep in the park, honestly. If that happens, I'm not sure where I'll go. I also still need to find a second job (my Journal job starts Monday, but it doesn't pay enough to live on).

Anyway... on the schedule for tomorrow is an editor's retreat and special training, that I am almost ridiculously excited for. Why? Two reasons. The congregating of friends that I have barely seen or heard from this summer (other than Kenzie, 'cause we've had plenty of correspondence), and because it's an editor's retreat. Let me clarify something. I'm not an editor. I was extended a special invitation by Kenzie, because I'm sort of an editor in training, and she's prepping me to be an editor next semester. Dumb reason to be excited, maybe, but I don't mind.

Then on Sunday, it's church, which I can say I am genuinely excited for. This may not seem significant to anyone here, but you've got to realize that I've never been excited for church before starting on at TLC, and even then it took a while. Don't tell my mom, it'll ruin my reputation... Just kidding. After church, I plan to... go hang out somewhere... until seven, when I head over to Kenzie's for ROCKBAND WEEKEND! I'm also super psyched about that. I've got my costume all worked out. I showed it to mom... she didn't like it... Anyway. Tomorrow I gotta get some more stuff for it - blue hair dye and hair gel so I can give myself a triple mohawk. And cough drops, because these stupid allergies won't go away...

As for Tovie, he has to stay at my mom's until I can figure out what's going on with a place to stay. If we end up moving into that apartment, Clint said I could keep Tovie at his house. I can do that. But I'm slightly wary, because Tovie climbs fences and digs holes, and I don't want him ruining Clint's yard. Clint's place is in easy walking distance of the new (hopeful) apartment.

I'll be borrowing my mom's pickup for a while. Hopefully Jeremy gets back quickly and can fix my pickup. Mom keeps telling me I need to 'learn how to walk.' What part of 'the apartment is four miles from campus' doesn't she get? Anyway... enough of that.

And with that, I think I'll go to bed and draw a close to what has been an overly cruddy day for far too many people.

Here's to better luck tomorrow.
--Anna Grace

Knit one, purl two, ChaCha three!

Okay. So... I have a bit of news. The first thing is the most awesome thing that has happened to me since I joined the Journal. I've mentioned before how The Journal is a pirate ship and all the staff (crew members and deckhands) have pirate names given to them specifically by the Captain (our faculty supervisor). I finally got mine! Ready to hear it? Savor the moment... wait for it... Okay. My pirate name is TARGET! So now, at the University Journal (also known as the Jour'Nal and the Redden Black Pearl) I will never be known as Anna again... I will always be Target. New people coming in will hear references to someone named Anna and say, "who's that?" For some reason, I'm psyched for that.

Now for my next bit of news, which oddly enough started out as actual news. My first story of the reporting season was an assignment to do a profile on a company called "ChaCha." Which is sort of funny, because that's what Joe's grandkids call him. Long story. Anyway, it turns out that ChaCha is an organization that is sort of like Google Text. People text message questions to the ChaCha database from their mobile phones. Those questions are then sent out to ChaCha "guides," who look up the answers and send them back to the database. Then the database sends the answer back to the "Infoseeker's" mobile phone.

It turns out that ChaCha is always looking for guides, and they pay. Not well, but it's something to do while I'm doing nothing. Anyway... I was accepted, and have been answering queries like crazy and making a few bucks here and there. Obviously it won't do as a full-time job. But it will help for little odds and ends, and there is no set schedule, it's just when I log in and go.

The other thing that's going on is knitting. Lots of it. I'm rapidly becoming a complete knitting addict, for which I blame Alex, since my first knitting project was a scarf for her birthday. Since then, I can't stop! I don't really want to. It's fun, and I dream about the wild colors and kinds of yarn that I want to turn into something fantastic someday. So far, I've only managed to produce scarves. But they're very pretty scarves... Right now I'm working on a pretty blue and white one for my sister-in-law for Christmas. I'm also researching some pretty awesome stuff that I'm also going to be making for Christmas for a few people. But since Alex is one of those few people, and she reads this sometimes, I'm so not telling what it is. In the meantime, my mouth waters over yarn... colors... patterns... soft and pretty...

I took Tovie pictures today. But first, I gave him a bath. And combed him out. He didn't like it one little bit. But he's so gorgeous, especially when he's clean. You wouldn't know it under all that fluff, but he's actually fairly thin. He looked like a drowned rat when he was wet, and he's got so much hair on his tail that he couldn't even wag it when it was wet. It weighed too much... I've decided to give Tovie a nickname. "The Mouth." I do this for two reasons. Firstly, he doesn't shut up. He's got a chihuahua-like yap that wakes me up every morning. Secondly, he licks anyone and everything that gets in his way. I wouldn't mind that half so much if he didn't eat every piece of poop he came across... Other than that, he's a good dog. And he's scared of the goats, which I think is hilarious.

There's more stuff - obviously, since it's been a bit since I wrote last. But this is a pretty long blog already, so I'll compromise and tell you about the rest tomorrow. Until then...

Adieu! Au revoir!
--Anna Grace

A rather nondescript day...

There have been many thunderstorms around here lately, and I, for one, am astonished that there has not been a single fire around here. Especially since most of the lightning wasn't really accompanied by rain. I guess that means more growth for more fires next year, though.

Today I went online and registered for Workforce Services. All their job postings are listed online, and a person can apply online. I searched for several hours, and did not manage to find a single job that I met the qualifications for. There were a few that I could have done, and I had all the right qualifications and time, but applicants had to be twenty-one or over. Big fat help that was... I suppose I should give it some time, but still... I guess I need to go apply at Convergys or something. Ugh.

As for today, I actually slept through most of it because I had a headache that felt like a monster truck might have run over my head. I had an excellent dinner of spaghetti and fried zucchini, and I think I might go fry up some more zucchini for a snack before bed. Mmmm... yummy stuff.

I need to start getting boxes so I can begin packing my things. I'm almost ridiculously excited to go home for a few days, even if Dad won't get back until after I leave. I am also excited for school to start, save for the fact that I still haven't completed my loan counseling, and have no money to buy my books. I'll figure something out. God provides, right?

Until tomorrow,
--Anna Grace

Here we go again...

I had an awesome weekend in Alpine with Sam...
Other than that, I've been getting sick again. Darn the stupid ulcers that flare up whenever life gets interesting... Anyway. As I mentioned a while back, I put myself on a plan to try to gain some weight. Unfortunately, it's not working. In fact, I seem to be going rather far in the other direction.

In other news, I'll be moving out of Angie's and into Christina's next week. It sounds okay other than two things: first, Christina is a neat-as-a-pin kind of person. She likes things meticulously clean and tidy. And while I'm fond of a tidy house, I am not necessarily fond of the means of tidying it. And not to sound mean... but her daughter, Christiana... can be a real brat sometimes. Other than that, it sounds good.

My truck is still dead. This worries me more because I don't know how I'm going to get to school... or work... and as of yet, I have no work. Anyway. I'll be moving some stuff in on Tuesday. I'll call Christina in the morning when I'm coming with my stuff... that was the only sentence out of the whole phone conversation that I understood.

Tovie will be staying at my mom's place until we move out of the two-bedroom and into the three-bedroom apartment. And when we move into town, he'd better learn how to shut up, and real quick. Neighbors don't take kindly to being yipped and yapped awake at six-thirty in the morning.

Bible study went well tonight. I'm going to try to find a way to continue going even after I move. I really have been enjoying it - and not just the Rock Band we play afterwards, although the practice I've been getting will really come in handy for Journal parties. :) I want to get involved in one of the mini-churches at TLC, but I'm not sure I'll have the time after school starts and I'm farther into town.

I'm tired, and really not feeling well, so I'm headed off to bed.
Night, all!
--Anna Grace