I am now a housewife.

How, you ask, do you know when you have made the transformation into housewife? Well, it helps to be married in order to support the later half of the word. But what really drove my new role home was when I cut my finger while washing a blender blade. No, the blender had not been used to concoct some luscious alcoholic beverage — I had used it to puree some homemade tomato soup.

Holding my hand above my head, I stood at the kitchen window mesmerized by the baby face framed with wisps of loose brown hair and glasses that was staring back at me. “Yes,” I told myself, “This is my exciting, big news for the day. I cut my finger after doing some horribly boring homemaker crap.” Looking closer, what others jealously call a baby face is subtly showing signs that my youth is, for the most part, behind me. Laugh wrinkles frame my eyes, frown wrinkles make an appearance on my forehead… I’m too young for this! I can walk into a high school and blend right in, but walk into a bar and the flawless faces I see only add to my frown lines.

I am now a housewife.

But you know what? I’m happy with it. My face tells people that I have lived, and I refuse to hide my life behind a mask of makeup. I have a natural beauty, and I want to take that gift and apply it to my everyday life. I will make my tomato soup from scratch, I will go the extra mile and put my recycle on the curb, I will stay at home and tend to the house so that she may show her antique beauty and I will live out my new role of housewife peaceful and happy.

If you have followed my life, you know that I spent the past year as the editor of a newsroom in Idaho. I lived to work, producing a daily newspaper that was understaffed, under-resourced and underpaid. I worked day-in and day-out running around to collect main art, stories and to put a face on the newspaper for the community. I worked myself to the ground, but I didn’t mind until circumstances led me to understand that my well-being was suffering for a cause nobody above me cared about.

Upon returning to Southern Indiana I married my love of five years. We are the proud parents of two rescued mutts, Guinness and Danni, and we live in a lovely home in Evansville. I enjoyed some time to myself to relax and find my center after a year of being spread thin, but am now back in the job market determined to find a job within the communications field.

Until then, I am a housewife, and I am determined to be a damn good one!

I am working hard to hone my cooking skills, satisfied to turn out a delicious coffee cake and frustrated when my waffle batter ends up everywhere but in the bowl. I am a cleaning diva, but then again I always have been since I find it a peaceful and productive way to find my zen. I am learning to be a good wife.

Some say that once a ring is on the finger the game is done; the fish was caught hook, line and sinker. I believe differently. Once the leap of faith has been made to man and wife, it is the beginning of what we all hope will be a life-long happy marriage. But you can’t just sit back and hope. This is the man you love, so show him that you love him each and every day. Do something nice, even if it’s just putting the coffee on to brew five minutes before his morning alarm goes off. Give him a home he can get away from the world and relax in. Keep working to make unforgettable memories that you will share while rocking in your rockers popping pills 50 years down the road.

So what if my big story for today is that I sliced my finger? You decide what you are going to do each day, and today I decided to be a housewife.

Currently I am in Montana, scheduled to arrive in Idaho tomorrow afternoon.  I am exhausted, so this is just a brief update so as not to leave you hanging.  I will be sure to be much more detailed once I get settled into my new place and am able to relax.

Until then, keep copacetic

This weekend, as the rain pattered on our roof, rolling off of the overhangs to collect on the saturated earth in reflective puddles, I succumbed to my desire as I fished a book off of the bookshelf and cracked it open.  The book:  Dostoevsky’s The Idiot.  It had been sitting on the bookshelf, already worn from when I assume my father or mother read it.  I hid the book amongst my things as I left for college five years ago and never had the chance to dive into its pages.

I attended a lecture Friday by Alan Cheuse, National Public Radio’s “Voice of Books,” and loved how he said that in many ways reading is as important as writing.  Reading analogically could help in my own writing, and my inability to simply sit and read for anything besides school may be what is holding my writing back.  No matter the cause behind my difficulty in finding the motivation to write, I know that getting back into the habit of reading is definitely a step in the right direction.

The rain is continuing on into the week, and it does not seem to be leaving any time soon.  I guess Mother Earth needed to fit in her April showers so that we can get our May flowers.  I have one day of the Courier & Press internship left, Friday.  With regards to my job search, it is ongoing.  I have found that some of the positions I applied for have been filled, and others are still pending.  I am still trying to keep a positive outlook on everything, although it is difficult.  Once I graduate in less than two weeks, I’ll be unemployed and out of school.  I know I am a great reporter, I just need the opportunity to let it out and grow within a news publication.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Until next time, keep copacetic

As an intern at the Courier & Press I have covered everything from the drunk driver found passed out at the week to a little boy in Black Township who was honored for saving his family from a house fire.  It has been an experience that I will hold close as I move on and find my own niche within the journalism community.  I’m excited about the prospect of moving on and finding a full time position doing what I enjoy.  While Clay finishes up his undergraduate degree I will have a small apartment with my boy Guinness in a town where I will show up for work everyday and not have to worry about classes anymore.  I will have the chance to put all of my concentration on my work and when I go home I can fully relax and spend time getting to know that town I cover.  It will be a pleasant break from the constant stress of juggling work and school.

At this point I am concentrating on surviving the last week of classes followed by a week of finals that will conclude my undergraduate experience.  I am also able to concentrate on my job search as I send off cover letters, resumes and writing samples to prospective employers.

The future is wide open for me – I now must view my options and select the route to take that leads me where I want to be years down the road.

Until next time, keep copacetic

Here in Evansville, Ind. I feel smothered.  There are no jobs within my field here and there are no opportunities for me to make something of myself.  After almost four years together we have come to the agreement that we will not hold each other back and that I should branch out and discover myself while he finished up his undergrad degree.  Only then will we know for sure that marriage and the whole nine yards is right for us.  We will still be together, and we will visit each other as often as possible.  But this will give him a chance to fully concentrate on his studies so that he may attend the grad school of his choice, and this will allow me to branch out and live up to my potential.  I love him dearly, and having come to such an excruciating decision together was a milestone in our relationship.

So now my vigor is renewed and my sights are set on finding the job of my dreams, wherever it may be.  I prefer to stay within driving distance of Evansville so that we may visit each other and so Guinness and Juneau may frolic and play together.  There is a reporter position open in Columbus, Ind. which I plan on sending a stellar resume and samples to apply.  As of this moment that is my number one choice.  But wherever I end up, I will have Guinness to keep me company and Clay in my heart.  I imagine Guinness and I will stay in a little studio or one bedroom apartment until Clay graduates and then we can reunite and follow our dreams together.

With my eyes peeling and ears alert I know that I can land a job within the field of journalism that I will enjoy and that will cultivate my skills further and refine my abilities to the point of professionalism.  I am determined and know from deep within my heart that this will work and is a well needed stepping stone to a life that I can look back on with pride.

Clay, I love you.  And to the world, here I come!  Until next time, keep copacetic

“Good isn’t good enough.  Drop the “o” and get godly on it!” – Patrick Norris

I just wish I ran across fun little phrases like that every day.  In other news, my graduation date is looming.  I’ve already received a love letter from my student loan lender and for some reason received an alumni letter from the university.  Everyone is two steps ahead of me!  At this point I’m still looking for employment, which remains a grim endeavor.  With no call backs and zero chance of working for a paper in Evansville, IN I’m feeling discouraged.  I guess I need to get godly on it…

Until next time, keep copacetic

PS – I want to take a moment to thank you all for your interest in my blog!  In only four months I’ve already reached over 200 views! THANK YOU

But, little did I know that I would be given the chance to talk to a famous Hollywood actor.  I had the chance to talk to Michael Rosenbaum, the man who took on the role of Lex Luther in the TV series Smallville.  He is a Newburgh, Ind. native, having graduated from Castle High School and Western Kentucky University.  Since he is creating a new show for the SyFy Network, we did a little piece at the Courier & Press highlighting his recent achievements.  I had the chance to talk to Rosenbaum on the phone and found a really down-to-earth guy who I could have just bumped into on the street in front of Target.  I didn’t get the feeling that he felt a sense of entitlement or arrogance after his success on Smallville.  And what is great is that this new show he is piecing together is a sort of tribute to his fans.

Well, I’ve been struggling for a long time to get this post up and have enough material to justify posting this, but to no avail.  So, I’m just going to put this up for all my faithful and lovely readers.  So much is happening at the moment I am starting to get stress headaches more and more frequently.  But, it is hard to put it all down here.  One day, when I can take a moment to breath, I’ll fill you all in.

Until then, keep copacetic

The point that I am trying to drive home here is simply that maybe we should reevaluate the way in which we go about our lives.  Should we really just ignore our subconscious and go about our days moment to moment without a glance toward the future?  I don’t believe this would be wise.  We should all find a healthy compromise that would reduce our stress levels without taking us all the way into apathy.  Personally, I find that living day to day is fitting for my lifestyle.  I get everything done for the day that is scribbled onto my mental honey-do list and then the rest of my time I can ponder the future or take a moment to actually live in the moment, but just for a moment.  A chocolaty cup of coffee or a moment  with my boy Guinness, massaging him behind his ears as his tail lazily swings back and forth – these are times to live in the moment.  But to live my life, I prefer to take things a day at a time as I believe humans were meant to.  Separated by nights of sleep and dreams, each day is a new opportunity to take your life in the direction of a happy and healthy future.

I have found this view of life has worked wonders with my internship.  I do not go to bed Friday night dreading the fact that I have to be at work at 8 a.m..  I now go to bed thinking back on my day.  What did I do that just rocked my socks off?  What could I have done better so that I may improve upon it in the future?  What did I not do that I should have done?  That’s okay, maybe I can do it tomorrow.  But I won’t know until tomorrow, so I’m not going to stress about it in the meantime.  This pillow is soft.  Guinness is starting to snore, who knew dogs snore?  Of course, this is just an example of what I go through every night.

Speaking of my internship, things are going great.  I feel like I’ve gotten into the groove of how this place works and I am comfortable in the constantly changing atmosphere of the newsroom.  This is most definitely a profession I would enjoy as a career until I grow old and my kids stick me in a retirement home (just a figure of speech, my future children would never do that to me.  They will take me into their own home because I will be a surprisingly self-sufficient and sprightly old lady).  I enjoy the fresh material each day as news breaks and develops.  I love the interactions of the coworkers around the newsroom as they work to put together the best and most relevant paper they can for the next day.  I have a love/hate relationship with the way being a journalist forces me to confront my highly introverted personality and push it aside if only for a moment so that I can get my story.

I am reminded daily of how debilitating being a highly introverted individual is, but the other day it kicked me in the face.  For my online journalism course we are putting together a podcast on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Evansville.  Everyone had to speak into these microphones about their area of “expertise”, mine being early childhood education/preschool.  I found that I hit a wall as all my classmates were watching me completely fail.  I could not get the words out and felt my face flush as I stared horrifyingly into the menacing wire mesh of the microphone.  It’s not that I didn’t know what to say.  It was the fact that 15 people were staring at me and that I was being recorded.  With encouragement from my classmates Mick and Ian I focused on the floor, tuned everyone out, and pretended I was alone in the room holding a random conversation with myself about ASD.  That was confirmation enough to know that I am a print/online journalist.  Being a highly introverted individual, I could not make it in radio, let alone on TV.  I am comfortable behind the scenes, expressing myself through the written word rather than through my voice or physical gestures.  I still have to step outside of my comfort zone often to interview and talk to people for my stories.  But that is a healthy, guided excursion outside of my comfort zone as opposed to being thrown out without a map just hoping that I can find my way back before I totally break down.  The individual who develops a cure for the introverted persona will wind up able to afford the mansion next door to the guy who invented Viagra, and then some.

Well, it’s about time for me to wrap things up.  Take a moment to think about how you approach your life.  Do you prefer living in the moment?  Do you let your subconscious drive you crazy with worries of the unknown future?  Have you found your healthy balance?  I hope you find your peace.

Until next time, keep copacetic.

I admit, I have not been as gung-ho about my approach to finding a job as someone who is promised a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.  If I had a pot of gold, I wouldn’t be stressing about finding a job.  Maybe I should focus my efforts more on finding that pot of gold?

Within the field of journalism, the opportunities are depressingly slim.  The Courier & Press is not hiring.  The only opportunities available are freelancing jobs, which offer minimal pay and no benefits.  I have had to open my search up to anything that offers decent pay and benefits.  I’ve joked about flipping burgers with my B.A. degree, but that joke is slowly losing its humor as graduation nears.  I’m sitting here swamped with school work and assignments for my internship that I have no energy to devote to a full-on job search.  I’m thinking about going to an employment agency and submitting my resume there.  Maybe some employers they are helping to fill positions may be interested.

What makes this job search the more difficult is the knowledge that I will only be spending one more year in Evansville.  Clay and I will be moving to whatever grad school he ends up attending, which means another thrilling job search in a different city for me.  The prospect of going through all of this again in less than a year is less than enticing.  But, the plus side is that we will both get a fresh start and I am hoping that by then things will have improved nationally.  Additionally, the city we move to will hopefully be a treasure trove of opportunities compared to Evansville, Ind.

I hope for great things in my life as a working adult, it’s just getting that initial push to begin gathering momentum is difficult.  I have many talents, am a strong and dedicated worker, and I am confident I can get the job done correctly and efficiently.  I feel that I have great potential, I just need pointed in the right direction and given the resources with which to build my career.

Any and all advice, comments, stories, tips, and words of wisdom are welcome as I could use a lift and a boost in this difficult endeavor.

Until next time, keep copacetic.

Recent accomplishments include breaking a news story and landing my first story on A1.

I came across the breaking news story while sitting in on a Vanderburgh County Council Meeting for a class assignment.  At the end of the meeting one of the council members announced that he will not be running for another term and would be leaving at the end of May to pursue a career opportunity in St. Louis.  I called my editor, who wasn’t aware of the announcement, and ended up putting together a couple paragraphs for the county government beat reporter to expand upon, since he knows the details and history of the council members.  This was a nice little thrill to break up the usual assigned pieces.

My A1 story is featured on the front page of today’s newspaper, highlighting a nine-year-old boy who is credited with saving his family from a house fire.  It is one of my favorite pieces and it’s nice to see a positive story such as this on the front page of the newspaper.  And it gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling knowing that his family will most likely cut this story out and save it.  I sure hope the piece does the young man justice.

Other than that, the past couple weeks have been filled with various assignments.  I did complete my first multi-media assignment, although it was one of the strangest assignments I have been on.  My editor wanted me to cover the arrival of, get this, Coco the Colossal Colon to Eastland Mall.  Celebrating March as colorectal cancer awareness month, this enormous colon proved great fun for kids who crawled through the somewhat unappealing model.  Of course, I crawled through Coco myself and shot video of the insides as well as interviews with a local surgeon and volunteers.  Overall it was a fun and unique experience, and I ended up with an appetite and a sticker that I wore proudly stating that I crawled through the colon to combat colorectal cancer.  Long ago I have come to accept that as a lowly intern, I get all of the weird assignments. But I’ve learned to love them as they are definitely unique ways to get my name and work out there.

It reminds me of this list that my editor gave me after a week or two on the job.  It is a list of things they don’t teach you in journalism school.  Here are just a few highlights:

• Interns and new reporters were just made to talk to the crazy folk
• When in doubt, ask
• Never promise a source anything
• Remember the 75 cent rule: It’s good to feel bad when you make a mistake, but don’t let it eat at you.  No matter how bad the error you just made, remember readers only pay 75 cents for the paper
• Always carry a pencil.  When it’s raining your pen won’t write on wet paper and when it’s cold your ink will freeze.
• Don’t do anything we’ll have to write about in tomorrow’s paper

Also, a little bit of wisdom from one of my journalism professors:  When your mother tells you she loves you, check it out.

And with that I shall leave you all to your relaxing weekends.  I hope to have a chance to bask in the beautiful weather before the rain sets in tonight – if the weatherman is right this time.  It is blissful to be able to open the windows and doors and air out the house after a winter of recycled, heated air.  The dogs are enjoying running around in the sun and Juneau is back into her fascination with munching on green grass.  Clay took the top off his Jeep for the first time this year and my sun roof is wide open.  Daffodils are beginning to pop up in random places by our driveway and mail box.  Old man winter has finally released his grip on our city and I am ever so grateful for lady spring as she steps in and embraces us with her rays of sun and purifying rain.

Until next time – and I don’t plan on it being so long until my next post this time – keep copacetic.