My camera bag is red, and missing.

Lately i've taken to losing all the things I really need, which is how it usually is.

Today I couldn't find either of my perferred black zip-ups, and had to go with the homely gray one.

My cell-phone charger is currently plugged in at one of four locations: the last coffee shop I worked at - The Brewers Market on Folsom, Max's outlet near his bed, or in Fort Collins - actually unplugged - near the toaster.

I also can't find my sense of humor - which has been dwarfed by a relative stress level, my muscles - which have been dwarfed by excessive growth probably due to excessive cookies, or my money - on account of being un unpaid employee for the past year.

Some of you may be wondering at this point...

What does this have to do with an internship blog?

Egh....cough. Wehellll.....sirs and madames......

How am I supposed to catch the barefooted students running all around campus without my lovely digital camera? One more thing on the to-buy list, which already has a suit, a briefcase or bag, a wireless card, a new computer, a second cell-phone charger, and a better digital recorder on it.

AND, as I mentioned.....I can't find my money. The experience of being unpaid has a few drawback professional consequences, namely, not being about to affor the things you need to perform your job as best as you can.

Ika (as the Italians do indeed say).

jean

"I've never noticed that being a woman is a handicap or a plus. I am a woman and there are men and we climb together. Sometimes I'm stronger, sometimes they're stronger — we motivated each other." - Robyn Erbesfield

"Rocks make no compromise for sex... rock climbing is not like some sports, where it is made easier for women; or sports like, say, softball, which is only baseball for soft people. On a rock, everything is equal." - Beverly Johnson

Above is a picture of Maxamilian Barlerin and me at Shelf Road, Colorado doin a little climbing in an area known as "The Incredible Hulk." This was my first over-night climbing trip and left my hands raw and fingers bloody at the end of the three fabulous days.


Let it be known climbing is finding inhabitance in the nooks and crannies of my life. It has found its way into that calluses of my hands, into my dreams where I contimplate how I could have reached that last sloper better to rep-point that route, and into where I'd like to intern next. I have applied to Climbing and Women's Adventure magazines, hoping to use a two growing passions to benefit each other.

It's not what you knon, it's who you know

So my blog has taken a backburner recently, as internship, school and climbing have taken over my life.

Let's being with the internship:

Recently I feel stuck between accomplishment and glass ceiling. The stories I have produced and the trust my editors have given me make me feel really good. It takes dedication, a good thesaurus, good motivation, and a lot of coffee to be a journalist -- I have found out -- and I think I have what it takes. I remember sitting in some introductory journalism courses and professors would talk about how fast-paced and intense a career in journalism can be...but that is what fuels me really. I like to work hard. In the daily newspaper business you work hard with a very quick return. The next day your article sits in newsprint next to your bowl of cereal. Pretty quick.

Yet, I feel that glass ceiling of the end of an internship. As my final weeks approach I already wish I had done more. Taken on a bigger chunck. Chewed harder. But I guess that is a good way to feel; it will propel me into my next endeavor - internship/job. I want to keep doing these things I am doing, and will, eventually, work past this glass ceiling feeling.

my first story idea realized

I received a news tip from a friend about his sister returning from Iraq last week and sent the idea into my editor who let me follow through with the story.

I just finished reporting, writing, and submitting the story into my editor about 15 minutes ago, and I think that it will appear on tomorrow's front page.

This makes me feel like a more accomplished reporter. A huge part of the game is being able to find stories, understand what is in the public's interest and make that into news. Especially since my interest is in editing, I feel like this was an important step to take.

I have a bunch more story ideas that I will suggest next week. I'm excited about all of them.

Tomorrow I will post the link to this particular story and I hope you follow it.


Some stuggles I have faced as an intern are simple but bothersome. I still sometimes don't understand the timescale this newsroom runs by. Part of this is because two out of the three days I work I am alone in the newsroom with one editor, and on the third day I work in a full newsroom. The change in atmosphere throws me a little bit off.

Another struggle I have, is apart from the stories I am working on, I don't know what to do. I have a lot of down-time. I don't understand how to read the wires completely or how far my lines of authority reach. For instance, we all get similar emails that contain press releases, or news updates and I don't know if I can write stories on those or not.

A final struggle is sometimes I don't have the courage to network. It's so comfortable to stay quiet in my cubicle. I do make a conscious choice to make deeper conversation with my co-workers, but sometimes I get too intimidated and remain tap tapping away in my little spot.


Oky doky. Ciao.
Jean

in booty shorts at the boy's house

I needed to do a little something in the communicative form immediately. I have a few things on my mind and my regular journal is too far away, and I don't have any paper to write this shit down so I gotta write it here.

My brother has a friend and she has offered me room and board in Rome in exchange for me teaching her daughter English.

Oh my god.

I am definitely signing onto that. YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!

I would have to make a one year commitment, and I think it's totally worth postponing graduation a little bit in order to do this.

How could I not take advantage of it?

I think that i am going climbing here in a little bit up by boulder falls. it is cold outside. windy. my bicep hurts. but i'm gonna do it. deliberate practice too.

okay so enough of the stream of consciousness blog entry. I am sorry for the vent.

Jean

and now for internship

And now back to my purposeful blog.

Interning week 4.

Had the busiest Saturday to-date with three distinct stories for the Sunday paper running me for 12 hours from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

The stories included:
- a junior high inventor's fair
- a "green recovery" environmentalists talk with Reps. Randy Fischer and John Kefalas
- a Hip-Hop Expo for the "Down for Life" tobacco free life campaign.

Today I am attending Rep. Betsy Markey's opening of the first of four congressional district offices as well as doing a colorful story on what people are doing for the Superbowl --> I haven't followed professional football this entire year, it's going to be hard to all of a sudden write something about it.

....but....should be fun....


As for how things are going. It's definitely been a challenge working in the newsroom 3 days a week. It is hard to balance a life in Boulder and a life in Fort Collins at times, and it really has made doing laundry a hassel (oh wait, I haven't done laundry since December (no joke).)

But the experience has been exceptional. I wish that I worked when a few more people were in the newroom in order to get some better connections and friendships along the way, but, I guess you take what you can get and make the most out of that.

I do try to establish relationships when I can, I concisouly say hi and how are you to people in the newsroom when there are people in the newsroom.

Finding your article in newsprint on the front doorstep (or your neighbor's in my case), though, is definitely something that makes a lasting impression. All my hard work the day before lies neatly folding on my neighbor's doorstep each morning -- where I steal the paper read my articles over breakfast (and the rest of the news that interests me) and then put it back on her doorstep. It is a good feeling. An accomplished feeling.

Ta da.
Jean

not on interning as much as a bit of perspective

In my life, something is always a race. It's sort of always been that way. I raced to get my belly button pierced first, to get the first tattoo in my grade, to get on the Homecoming ballot, and then the Prom ballot.......first to skydive, first to get a season-ending injury, first to win the arts and literature award. Race race race.

But today I am realizing something a little different.

I don't feel as obligied to race when I am in a relationship. It is like a natural body-slower. I start spending my energy racing to get deeper into the relationship than, say, trying to get my homework done first or get a 100% on my first set of midterms....

....it seems like its a race to fall in love. Other things don't matter quite as much when your time is spent shared with someone else that simply enjoys your company. Now I'm not saying im in love, or even that I want to be, but I AM saying that having a boy around really has thrown my energy on a different trajectory. I wouldn't say I'm moving in a different direction either. The same direction, a different path. The two run parallel, and make me wonder how many parallel paths to my life there are? How many different routes eventually lead me to the same destination?

It's a question of free-will or determinism i suppose. A question left unanswered for millenum despite an ongoing quest for its answer....

Jean