August, 2009

After two weeks, I’ve got some bearings. The streets look familiar and I’m learning the fastest ways to get around. I FINALLY got internet and cable installed. I went all summer without a TV and now I get hundreds of channels (including extra sports and movie channels). I spend more time finding something to watch than actually watching a show.

Last week got sucked up by board meetings so I spent very little time in the newsroom. The all-day retreat Saturday broke up my weekend. I did make it out to my first Casper bar (one of Hemingway’s haunts), a minor league baseball game and the Platte River Parkway.

Two reporters left this week, and the going away party happened at the Wonder Bar. The building dates back to the 1800s and the bar opened in the ’30s. Old pictures line the walls and from what I’ve heard, horses are allowed inside as long as they’re potty trained.

Casper has a minor league baseball team — the Casper Ghosts. The mascot is a duckbilled platypus. I don’t know the connection. I went to the game with a photographer and his friends. Standard minor league fun: bad team, free beer coozy giveaway, cheap beer. Afterward, I joined a work bachelorette party where the bride to be wore a custom-made cowboy hat veil. The weather has been wonderful — cool in the mornings and just enough sunshine in the afternoon to spend time outside.

I feel refreshed for another week. The story I wrote for today has already generated some feedback to check up on tomorrow. And this week I should have time to start planning longer-term project pieces.

The hardest part of this job, for me, is scheduling myself to get as much as possible done in 40 hours without going over. This was even harder this week because the school board has several retreat meetings including an all-day affair on Saturday. I can’t report other stories when I’m sitting in these meetings so I’ve had to pare down my budget this week to the stories I know I can finish. On the other hand, the meetings help me learn faces/names and get a feel for what people think about the district.

The second hardest part of this job has been the lack of institutional knowledge. Schools in Wyoming are very different from anywhere I’ve lived. In addition to that, there are terms, acronyms and stories that I don’t get the first time around and have to look up in the archives. This will be easier now that I have Internet in my apartment.

I’ve been writing. Last week I got a fun assignment to write about a college professor who found a mammoth tusk and skull. Otherwise, stories have been a mix of K-12, community college, preschool and for tomorrow’s paper, the University of Wyoming.

I also set up my work blog, which is a work in progress. I went with “The Report Card” after hearing suggestions from many friends and coworkers. My favorite suggestion was “Getting Schooled by Jackie Borchardt,” but I don’t think it would send a positive message to readers.

[note: The "t" in "Report" can be silent]

Casper Mountain (elevation 8130 feet) is only about 10 miles away. There’s a downhill ski area, lighted Nordic area, hiking/biking/snowmobiling trails and campsites.

I had planned to run a two mile trail race this morning, but last night’s showing of Inglourious Basterds got out at 1:30 a.m. so I skipped it and mapped my own run.

Lola the Corolla chugged up the steep incline and made a few noises I’d never heard before. When winter comes, I’ll be at the mercy of people with four-wheel drive to take me skiing and snowboarding. One of the families I met last week does all of the above and offered to take me.

I met them near the top early this morning and we hiked up and down the wider, less difficult trails. After an hour or so, they left and I ran around on the cross-country trails. The weather was terrific: mid-70s, partly cloudy. Most of the weekend campers had left already, so the only sound we heard was crickets and the strong breeze through the trees.

The elevation has its advantages.

At the end of the first week I’m happy to report that I’ll be back for another. I spent most of Thursday in a state task force meeting, leaving to finish reporting a story I’d started Wednesday.

I left around lunch to schedule a photo assignment for another story and got lucky with the first school I called. A photographer took pictures and I was able to talk to not one but four teachers and the principal.

Back in the meeting, I wrote that story while taking notes from the task force meeting for a later story. The meeting ended at 4:30 p.m., I talked with a few committee members and went back to the newsroom to finish the story.

It felt like I was running around all day, but I only clocked 16 miles on the trip meter.

Today’s assignment took me 40 miles north of Glenrock to the site where professors from the community college unearthed a complete mammoth skull and tusk. The college drove a van full of media people 72 miles out to the ranch. The last 9 miles were gravel road. I made the most of the time and expanded my knowledge of Wyoming stuff to include antelope and uranium fields. I wrote the story on the (bumpy) ride back.

I appreciated the opportunity to get out of the newsroom, but the trip took much longer than expected (2 hours just to get there!) and I didn’t have time to report a story for Sunday.

I’m over hours and not getting paid overtime. It takes me two times longer to do everything just because I don’t know where it is or its history so for now I don’t care.

I can see a mountain every time I leave my apartment, but adjusting to the altitude continues to be a new experience.

Last night I baked cookies ‘n cream brownies to give to my new neighbors. With 8 minutes left on the timer, I realized I hadn’t adjusted the recipe for the altitude — more flour, less fat. Had I baked a cake, I would have wasted my time. The brownies came out crispier around the edges and strangely puffy in the center. They tasted like brownies. Appearance didn’t matter because I covered them in vanilla frosting and Oreo crumbs.

When Mom and I unpacked my things, we noticed all of the bags of Zapp’s chips and Chee Wees I moved from Louisiana had puffed up like big pillows. Again, they still tasted like chips. At first we thought it was just the bags from the trip, but saw that bags in the stores were puffed up as well.

I’ve gone running a few times. Wow, what a difference elevation makes! Every road goes up and down at points. Louisiana was flat, flat, flat but I couldn’t run past 7:30 a.m. because of the heat/humidity. Here, it’s almost too cold to go before then. This morning it was 50 degrees! Goodbye tanks, hello running tights. Maybe I’ll rack up enough red blood cells in a few months to compete with the Kenyans (slow Kenyans with one or two injuries.)