Unburdening

My first act as a responsible brunette was to pay off my student loan. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off me — a $5,500 weight. Yeah, it's not much for a student loan, but when your a broke journalist, you just have to chip away at it. Anyway, it should be history when my check clears. I better start saving more now that I don't have that payment.

Lessons learned: See, college is getting further and further away.

All new

So I went and did something a little crazy. I became a brunette the other day — brunette with a little auburn thrown in. This is in place of the dirty blond color I've had most of my life. I also got it cut and got some new bangs. So basically it's the complete opposite of what I had before. It's a little surreal to catch glimpses of myself in the mirror. I startle myself sometimes.

Now come the big questions: Now that I'm no longer blonde, can I still have fun? Will people take me more seriously? More importantly, will I be able to wear red? See I'm becoming more philosophical already.

Lesson learned: Yes, I can still have fun.

Case closing

It's been three weeks, and the murder trial I have been covering ended yesterday. I think I will kind of miss camping out in that courtroom and just watching all the interactions. There were even a couple of us "regulars" who I'd started to develop a certain companionship with.

But the days covering the trial were always packed, with me running around trying to get all my regular duties done, plus be in court for seven hours plus write my story. At least I was always guaranteed overtime.

Now it's time to wait for what the jury decides.

Lesson learned: The judge will let us steal the cushions on the front row of chairs, as long as you turn your cell phone off.

On trial

Lately I have been wearing a trail between my office and the courthouse. I have been covering a murder trial there for the past two weeks. I have never sat through a trial all the way through, so it's fascinating to watch the process. Sometimes it's dramatic, with witnesses sobbing and tension between the attorneys. Other times, its tedious, with an attorney asking the same questions over and over about some minute detail.

Prosecutor: "You said were were standing next to the trailer the whole time you were shooting"

Defendant: "Yes."

Prosecutor: "So you shot the gun, and you didn't take any steps forward?"

Defendant: "No."

Prosecutor: "After you shot the gun, did you move at all?"

Imagine eight hours of that.

It's the latest in what has made work all-consuming in the past couple weeks.

I also recently had a project run on unsolved homicides in the two counties we cover. I worked on that for six months, and had six stories run — one main story about working cold cases, four about specific cases and one with a sample of other cases.

Anyway, one more week of this trial, and hopefully things will slow down.

Lesson Learned: Don't mess with the judge.

Absent

Whoa, I guess this is my blog. I forgot I had one of these. I'll be back soon.