Week 3 - June 23 - 29, 2001

These past few days have been a rollercoaster, driving me to drink like a good journalist.

Saturday I went to another event completely populated by elderly people. I took some photos (I think my horseshoe photo will be up on the net cuz it's just so cool - I caught the horseshoe in the air, hitting the peg and kicking up a cloud of dust) but it was cold and raining and awful.

Sunday, I called the boss and said I was going hiking with my aunt and uncle. Hiking... try mountain climbing. It was hands and knees up the rock faces, laughing about how much my aunt sounded like my mom when she said "Oh yeah right." as she was looking up a rock face. But once you started climbing it wasn't too bad. And the view from the top was completely worth it. I'll get photos back later so everyone can see. The way down was crazy too - over the top of the mountain, which is an old volcano, and down over the boulders to the main path again. Easier to go down than the main paths rock faces.
After the 4.5 km of rocks, my aunt and uncle took me to their house for stirfry. It was great not to eat at the B&B. When I got home, the mother hen gave me "suggestions" that I don't remember. I was too tired and wanted to sleep.

Monday I went to work in the morning - no boss. I did some work, mostly my filler for the Canada Day supplement, and then was invited to go swimming, drink and eat junkfood. It was nice - people near my age, cheap coolers and junk food. Then the sister of the boss's ex-partner in the paper (small town) made teryaki chicken on the bbq and three or fours kinds of salad - amazing. To die for. She cooks at the cafe in the museum and her food is fabulous!

So then I get home and call my mom, a little tipsy, and we talk about all kinds of things - my great-aunt is in the hospital again (she has some wacky kind of anemia that's really dangerous but her own fault for her bad eating habits - eat yer veggies!) and the j-school secretary, who's been like a fairy godmother (especially with the British accent), has ovarian cancer, but her docs think they caught it early enough. I was off to bed, kicked off the phone by the "customers" (what the heck am I?) so I decided to read before I crashed. I had been drinking, had a sunburn from being out from 12-8:30 and was just tired from the weekend. The mother hen came by twice to ask when I was having my shower, etc etc etc... I was like "No, I'll get up early but I won't have time to shower at lunch because it's PRODUCTION DAY!!!!!!" (In other words, do you want your damn paper or not?)

Tuesday morning I got up, finished my library book, and went to work. The boss was there, so we chatted a bit. He was feeling crappy - he was stuck in traffic behind an accident where a kid burned to death in his car seat because his parents couldn't get him out. I got masses of stuff done, despite the proofreader distracting me by talking. I was trying to work. Ha!

Boss got a call and had to go home. He came back and told us that the hospital had called because they wanted them to go to Montreal with the baby right away because the baby has a congenital liver disease. Man. I drove him to his house. He'd been listening to the Elliott Smith tape I left in the car and said he'd been enjoying it. I'm sure it helped that it's a really mellow one - either/or I think it was. Anyway, Boss said he's really glad I'm here and that he wishes he weren't glad for the reasons. I hate it when people have disasters around me. I don't know what to say. I just didn't say anything. So I went back to the paper and got to work. Or tried since the proofreader was like "blah blah blah fix this fix that" instead of writing it on paper and setting it down so we could get to it since we were never on the same page. We're all intelligent people and if he wants to change the headline then we'll figure it out. Damn it was annoying. And then I had to write the editorial so the others closed the door so I could write. Instead of using the other empty office, the proofreader comes in and sits down at the other desk in this office.
AUGH!!!!!
It was enough to make me crazy.
The paper didn't get out until 9. The driver came by, despite us telling him we were late, and was annoying. We usually joke around but we really buckled down. It was necessary to get the damn thing out. The rest of us were buckled down and then there was the proofreader, "blah blah blah blah"
And he got pissed when I ignored him/told him to go away, etc, etc, etc, etc, so he started doubting my abilities. I'm the journalism school student. I was hired to be the pinch hitter, the filler girl, the amazing wonderful saviour... Okay so that last one is exageration.

Once the paper was off with the driver to the printer's, someone went to the store and brought back beer. Just getting the paper off was completely satisfying, but that beer... I took one sip and it was heaven. I don't even like beer, and it was a Labbatt's, which isn't my favourite, but that beer.. The only thing that could have been better is a Moosehead.
It's been a rollercoaster. I found slugs in my backpack, discovered the joys of huge (and cheap) bottles of beer and coolers from the store, got all sorts of bad news, but also had some amazing times swimming and hiking and eating and talking.
(The funny thing is that with the boss in Montreal, people look in and see me on the computer. Usually they say, "Wow Boss you've changed." Not today.)
Next week I'm staying at Laurie's instead of the B&B while she's on vacation. I'll take care of her plants and cat. Heavenly. I can shower three times a day if I want!
And who cares if I have to come up with the story line up for next week by myself, no boss, and who cares if the wrong date is at the top of one of the pages in the paper.
It's just a newspaper, after all.

Boss's baby has tyrosinemia, a disease of the liver. If she doesn't die, she'll need a liver transplant. And she still might die. So I'm here alone, trying to get a paper out in the middle of the town having a zoning scandal.

Tomorrow, I'm going to buy a bra at an outlet store in the city. As well as some soy milk. I'm depressed because of all of this. I wonder if I brought this on by being here - not because I'm so important, but because these things come in threes, I believe it. So this time it's people I know who are really really sick. The journalism school secretary, my great aunt who they thought had a really bad form of anemia and they now think has leukemia (she could have both, which is rare, but possible) and now the Boss's baby.

Is it a tragedy? I don't know. I'm sad. I feel guilty. I fell asleep in my guilt yesterday and slept like a baby through the early evening and then slept through the night. That's guilt. I'm not depressed. It's just exhausting.

I think that's why I'm going bra shopping tomorrow. I have the paper's van so I'm going to get the most out of it while I can.

I was looking for something in the email yesterday and I found out that the boss has panic attacks. Man, I hate finding out this stuff. It makes me feel weird. Like I'm intruding on a lot of things. I know that Annie got another job and is leaving. It's too bad about the timing because I would take the job, but I need to finish my degree. And leaving with a year left... what a waste. And I would like to live there. I could handle living in her area - a university and other such things. Nice. Plus it's near some of my family so I could go over dinner every now and again.

Well, it's Friday, the end of the week, and I'm off to a gallery opening tonight. Woo. But I need photos to fill my many many pages of newspaper.

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