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Loopy on Wednesday

There are so many times I’m sitting at my desk at work and something happens or I have an idea, and I wish I could blog right there but I’m at work and I can’t.

Since I last checked in, I’ve talked to candidates (I’m still crazy, heeeyy), went to a high school tailgate, met my 5-year-old self at fire prevention night and went to a school board meeting. The features are fun — though there’s only so many new points of view you can get at a football game. We’ve either got spirit or we don’t… I interviewed a a bunch of athletes, students, teachers, volunteers and guy dressed in a hotdog suit. Mingled with the community. It made me miss high school football games…even though only went to them by freshmen year because my friends were in the band. I was talking to a friend about going to the Thanksgiving game this year, which I would really like to do.

It was interesting just to walk up to people and start talking to them at this other school. I felt kind of cool not being a part of the high school hierarchy and busting into all of the circles. Does that makes sense?

Monday night I talked to little kids at fire prevention night. Not too much to report, they had fun food, stove fires, fire trucks and a DJ. It was cute. I talked to one 5-year-old who looked like me at 5 and sounded kind of like me. Talked to a lot of 5-year-olds with ice cream and fire hats.

Spent a lot of time trying to do some reporting today for my school board meeting coverage. I don’t want to sit there and write articles just about what happens at meetings because I don’t really think that’s my entire job. So I tried to make the calls and ask some of the additional questions I needed to today before deadline. It’s difficult being new to a community and trying to ask the questions I think people want answered. Spoke with a woman I had met a few weeks ago to get an idea of what I should ask.

Fruit loops are now with fiber, according to my tv.  Can you just give your kid an apple? I feel bad for my future child. I’m also not going to let them eat things that aren’t real food. Ex. fiber one bars. I bought a box once and I bought one once or twice when I was out and hungry but didn’t want a meal. They’ve always given me the worst chemical-induced headaches.

D.C.-bound this weekend…woo!

I have a love affair with Doylestown, PA. They have a great main street, an awesome farmers market aaannnd you can go tubing down the Delaware River and stop halfway to grab a hot dog from a man who allegedly has an illegal riverside business.

My new condition

Scoliosis can cause rib prominence on one side and leg length discrepancy, which often results in gait dysfunction. Pain, difficulty sitting or standing, stiffness, and spinal rigidity are often associated with scoliosis. Rarely does adult scoliosis adversely affect cardiopulmonary (heart and lung) function or cause neurologic complaints. However, a complete medical and orthopaedic evaluation by a physician with experienced in adult scoliosis is essential.

I had a free evaluation from a chiropractor tonight at an athletic store and learned that my neck and back are out of wack and I have scoliosis. I got a free back massage and it hurt because I was so out of alignment. Or I’m just super sensitive. Bad news. I was so sad about having scoliosis that I didn’t finish my free wine. I have an appointment for an eval and adjustment in two weeks, so I’ll have to be lopsided until then. How embarrassing.

At work today I started working on candidate profiles about those running for the board of commissioners and the school board. I’m so scared about misrepresenting someone that I repeated statements/ideas back to them during the interviews. I think I’m going to drive myself crazy. This is my journalism degree paying off. That and an internship with Meet the Press where facts are double-checked and triple-checked.

I can’t believe tomorrow is Friday.

Deadline day

One of the things I like about my job is that I get to run around town one day and the next I get to write in the newsroom. Monday night I had a borough council meeting, Tuesday morning two preliminary court hearings, Tuesday afternoon I went on a hawk watch and Tuesday night visited the home of a 5th place world champion in the Agility World Championship in Austria the weekend of Sept. 18. I saw the dog do some runs in the backyard. Click on this video of the championship!

Yesterday marked my second day reporting from the district court. I was covering two preliminary hearings — both waived — one case concerning a woman who will plead guilty to stealing funds from a middle school nonprofit association (she was the treasurer), and one for her husband, who will plead not guilty on the stance that he was not involved.

Like my first time reporting from court, we didn’t have an available photog, so I had to take my editor’s camera. It was easy last time…there were camera people from all of the major networks who thought it was cool that it was my second day ever as a reporter and told me where to stand for a good shot (and I was in the shot when NBC ran the story 11 p.m…exciting). I got two decent pictures that day. This time I didn’t really get any decent pictures… just one that looks like a weird mug shot of the mister. I was talking to the woman’s attorney when she slipped out and I got a bad angle on her husband when he left. Ideally, they would have left together. But I had to sit through a hearing in the middle. One old woman was accusing her neighbor of trying to strangle her. This is what sitcoms are are made of.

On the bright side, I think I fared pretty well without the NBC and CBS reporters to follow. Politely challenged an attorney’s statement… and then while driving away  thought of a further challenge, based on the affidavit of probable cause. Baby steps. I’m still a bit slow. The story is going on the front page tomorrow, which is one of the exciting aspects of working for a small paper.

Happy 8 a.m.

This is such a bad decision: going to spin class on a day when I head to my best friends’ new apartment to play all night. It’s 8 a.m. I need to take a nap when I get home, but I’m planning on stopping off at the township library to grab a book or two about the history of intriguing Horsham, PA. I’m writing an article about a real estate firm making renovations on a historical site, and I would really like to get a sense of what the place was like in it’s heyday…because now, it’s littered with beer bottles and graffitified (I’m not trying to pretend that graffitified is a word). I got this idea from an article Bill Marimow shared with me. If the article turns out the way I want, maybe I’ll pass it on to him. If it’s not what I want, but passable, I’ll post it here.

Let’s play paintball.

The paintball shed at the annual Holy Martyrs Church carnival looks different from the average game at the fair. It’s a wooden shed with no flashing lights, save a red emergency light steadily turning and flashing on the roof.

Observers hear only the “pows” and the “dings” of small, paint-filled balls smacking into targets, instead of the music and computer-generated sounds they would hear at the standard toss ’em, pop ’em and squirt ’em games at traveling carnivals. Those games are across the parking lot.

Rustic and original, the paintball game rounds out a hometown section of the fair, where church volunteers manage small carnival games and local restaurant workers serve festive cuisine like hamburgers and ice cream.

“We set up the garage and hang our beloved collection of targets, which we selected over the years,” volunteer John O’Brien said Tuesday, the carnival’s opening night. “And man, the kids love to shoot paint balls.”

“Yes they do!” said his co-volunteer Delores Serianni, who has been working at the paintball booth for about eight years.

Hanging from the wooden rafters and splattered with greenish-yellow paint are street signs — a stop sign, library sign, a no parking sign — a firefighter’s boot, a Direct TV satellite dish and a fire alarm bell.

Those who want to test their aim pay $1 for five shots and $5 for 30.

Nine-and-a-half-year-old Colin Quinn had already loaded and pumped his paintball gun. He was aiming for the perfect target.

“Hit one of those lights that’s hanging,” O’Brien said. “That will give you a good ding.”

Quinn aimed and fired, then turned around to share his content after hearing the gratifying ding.

“I wasn’t sure if I hit the target, but I was sure when I heard a bang and I saw it move,” Quinn said.

The carnival at Holy Martyrs Church in Oreland runs through Saturday evening. Hours are 6 to 10 p.m. until Friday night, and 3 to 10 p.m. on Saturday.

“We come every year. It seems like it gets bigger and bigger each year,” said Colin’s mother, Vickie Quinn, of Oreland.

In addition to the rides and games there is music, and dinners donated by a different restaurant each night.

Through Friday, visitors can pay $10 for a meal donated by a restaurant that is either local or has a relationship with the parish, said Donna DeMarco, a parishioner who has been managing the carnival’s food operations since 2004.

Tuesday night featured Halligan’s Pub. Other restaurants represented on the menu will be O’Towne Tavern on Wednesday, Winnie’s Le Bus on Thursday and Roberto’s Trattoria on Friday.

A filet mignon dinner courtesy of Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar will cost $12 per meal on Saturday.

“It includes a nice meal, drink and desert. You can’t beat it,” DeMarco said.

One of the most popular attractions each year is a dunk tank on Friday and Saturday nights, Pastor Mike Ryan said.

“Our principal sat in it one year and drew a big crowd,” he said.

Over at a play-till-you-win Winnie the Pooh-themed game, Briana Vetter, 11, and Megan McGrath, 12, were compensating for a slightly smaller-than-usual turnout with their own energetic enthusiasm.

“We love the church and it’s for a good cause,” Vetter said. “And Father Ryan is a very nice person.”

Friday

Had a really nice day today. Started with a 3 a.m.  phone call from someone saying he missed me, went to the gym then went to work. Wrote awhile and then covered a visiting author at the middle school, Pseudonymous Bosch. He’s apparently a secret author.  He didn’t take off his sunglasses at all during his presentation, which is certainly odd, but intriguing. I made friends with some 5th graders.

- 5th graders are so small. (There are 5th graders in the middle school…for now ) I interviewed one really pretty girl who was wearing an outfit it looked like she took straight out of a Limited Too catalog. Limited Too…
— LTD2 is no more, now it’s just TOO Inc, or TOO on the NYSE. Sad.

- There was a handwritten sign on the girl’s bathroom that said “Girls Only.” Ughk?  I was scared to go in anyway because I didn’t want someone to make fun of my shoes, try to pierce my ears with a pin or offer me a cigarette.

- Kids smell. Always. Everywhere.

Happy Friday…spending the night watching movies, relaxing, love it.

Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. One of my favorites from the Prado