The Marvelous Miss Lou

guv's hubby's response

2007-05-17T12:31:29Z

so dan mulhern sent me this the day after my article was printed:

Louise,
It was a pleasure meeting you yesterday. I was impressed with how focused you were, and I thought you wrote a very nice piece. It made me think I was being fairly clear, but it may that you just listened a lot better than I spoke.
Tell G. Randall Goss that I thought it was a very nice picture he took of me. I wish I could shoot shots like that.
All the best to you,
Dan

Dan Mulhern

yay! the 1st gentleman is "impressed" with me--although it did help that i was sitting next to an intern who really didn't ask him many questions. don't know why someone sent an intern on his own to cover something that big rather than have him go with someone. who knows.

marvelou @ 2007-05-15T20:47:00

2007-05-16T00:53:37Z

ok, so the guv's hubby is somewhat interesting.

i've been trailing him all day for 3 events and for the last one i basically wasted my time. here i am, waiting for him to give his speech at the last event which happened to be in the evening and was behind schedule. he's going to give it at a trails council meeting so i sit around for the meeting, yadda yadda and in the end i basically got up and left because he was giving the same exact speech he'd given earlier in the day.

ugh, totally wasted 1.5 hrs of my time which i could have spent writing my article or attending another meeting that i was supposed to go to tonight. but oh well. tough shit sometimes, that's all i can say.

but at least there was an intern from the Harbor Springs weekly paper who was following the guy too. intern was kinda interesting and kinda cute and a smarty pants so at least he kept me company.

yeah, so if you think the guv's husband is interesing, all i can say is eh. just a regular guy who repeats speeches.

time to write

ugh, definitely don't like starting articles at 9 p.m., as my brother-in-law said, "BUMMER"

shadow

2007-05-15T13:23:18Z

i get to trail granholm's hubby, Dan, around for the day. should be interesting...

me need vacation

2007-04-22T18:18:36Z

last week was a rough week. worked 50 hrs and was super busy and will be busy this week too, and on top of that i managed to screw up a pic that i need for an article tomorrow, and yet i didn't do anything to screw it up. my camera decided to be stupid and not record a pic using the amt of memory it's supposed to so now i'm stuck w/ a low resolution pic and i have no idea how it happened.

did i mention that this is the second weekend in a row that i have worked?

i'm tired of being negative all the time but my job is stressing me out and it's not because i've been busy but cause i feel like i'm doing a half-ass job. either i'm having a slow week and i feel like the editor is silently thinking that i'm not doing enough work, or i'm busy and happy that i'm busy but stressed out because i'm not sleeping enough. and then whether or not i'm busy i'm stressed out about pics because i'm terrible at taking pics of people, even though i can take good nature pics, but i have to take pics of people.

and on top of that i'm always worrying about my hands and eyes because both get worn out and i'm trying to maintain my eyesight w/out getting eye strain all the time. it's kinda hard to do things on the weekend when you're trying not to use your eyes or hands much to give them a rest.

ugh. by now i would have thought i would have stopped feeling like the ignorant underdog and more like an actual reporter, but i don't feel like a reporter. i feel like some stupid kid who is just putting on a reporter front.

*sigh, the good thing is that i and the rest of the reporters are supposed to meet w/ the editor in pairs to bring up concerns and whatnot so i can mention stuff to him. i mean, i know i can write well but writing well doesn't mean a person can be a good reporter.

i'm just in a rut right now and in need of feeling like i'm good at something. maybe i just have low self-esteem or something but no matter what i do i can't get over this whole ignoramous thing.

on the bright side, it's sunny out and warm which means that once i stop ranting and finish an article that's due tomorrow i will jog my frustration out on a snow-free country road.

here's to having that first real job!!!

*eck

marvelou @ 2007-04-04T10:19:00

2007-04-04T14:20:32Z

it's snowing. whatever happened to spring. ugh
and we have a "blizzard warning"
oh NO the sky is falling!!!
as if, ew how "Clueless", seriously we live in Michigan, I in Northern MI for that matter, a few inches is not a blizzard. a foot, well, then now we're talking.
gag

hp

2007-03-31T02:58:14Z

i just pre-ordered the U.K. version of the 7th Harry Potter book. oh my.

i wanted to get the uk versions of the other books, but i decided that i'd rather pay for grad school than pay for that much international shipping. ouch!

commitment

2007-03-22T02:26:16Z

oh my gosh, commitment is scary. i just signed up for the GRE for July 28. yikes ikes and more. all i can say is, the last week of july had better be a damn slow week at work.

and how hard is it to find out where to take your test? seriously, i googled "GRE" and thought i would come across all sorts of information regarding how to sign up for the test. but no, it was all about prep crap. ugh.

plus these tests are waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy too expensive. i should go into the testing business. that or car towing in A2 and in other major cities. i would make a fortune. all i can say is, is that when i had to have my car towed up here last yr because my battery died, people didn't understand why i was so upset. after i saw the bill (which was for about $60) and said, "wow, that's cheap" and told them that in A2 it cost me $180 to pay to have my car towed 2 miles then they understood.

and yet it still cost me $50 up here to have someone start my car. yeah, that was fun. my engine froze up for 3 days the other week and so i had to get it towed again and when the shop guys tried to start it it turned right on for them, no probs. arg. i guess i just don't have that magic touch even though I tried for 3 days and even tried giving it gas while doing it. seriously, if your car won't start for 3 days it would seem that there would be something actually wrong with it.

and miss lou is rambling when she should be going to bed. night.

marvelou @ 2007-03-06T09:38:00

2007-03-06T14:46:52Z

stupid insurance.
i get insurance from my job, however, they gave me a 3 day window to sign up or fuck it.
i would like to cancel my other insurance w/out doubling up because being covered by 2 insurance companies at the same time doesn't sound very intelligent. unfortunately i can't cancel my other insurance yet because my folks are on vacation, and not just downstate but out of the country.

talk about a recipe for a disaster if something happens to me. i can hear the insurance co. now, "no, you pay." "no, you pay, she was covered under you first!"

*sigh

plus, i'd like to go over the policies i can choose from w/ people who actually know stuff about insurance. oh well, i've been complaining to my parents that they butt into my stuff too much, so i guess it's time i swallowed my own words.

*double sigh

marvelou @ 2007-03-02T09:02:00

2007-03-02T14:03:39Z

damn, you really can use duct tape to fix everything. you won't believe this one...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/health/27real.html

can you tell that friday's are a slow day at work?

marvelou @ 2007-03-02T08:43:00

2007-03-02T13:44:22Z

i'm thinking the US is just a wee bit behind...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6409693.stm

marvelou @ 2007-03-01T09:37:00

2007-03-01T14:38:56Z

damn, potter's got some abs. wish i were in that audience. anyone want to take a trip to england for a bit of full monty?

pulitzer lunch

2007-02-20T03:25:35Z

Today, my fellow News-Review employees and I ate lunch with a Pulitzer prize winner. Eric Lichtblau (never heard of him before) who writes for the NYT and won the prize last year for his article on "the Bush Administration's secret domestic eavesdropping."

can't say i read the article, but i heard about the topic of course since it's been on the news. anyhoo, the guy came to the college here to give a speech tonight (which i didn't go to because i was covering a meeting) but the news-review and other newspaper interested folks were invited to have lunch with him. it was pretty interesting.

and my love-hate relationship with my job is not so hate-ish right now--pretty much due to the fact that it's 10:19 and i'm finished with my article and it was an easy one, though i really was avoiding the main story of the night which i'm going to discuss with the reporter I replaced cause she said she'd help me. let's just say that miss lou does not get along with anything related to city budget meetings. in one ear and out the other.

on a good note, sully was in town yesterday so i got to see her for a few hours. i made the mistake of drinking a raspberry mocha while out with her and ended up tossing and turning all night and being in a foul mood this morning. but, eh, it tasted good and it had whip cream. :-p

but seriously, i drank it at 4:30!!! stupid delayed reaction to caffeine. don't know about other people, but my sister and i have agreed that caffeine has a delayed effect on us. i don't feel it kick in until several hrs later, and i didn't even notice it until i tried to go to bed and couldn't.

ok, me need sleepy.

mondays----grrrrr

2007-02-13T06:02:54Z

it's a typical monday. it's nearly 1 a.m. and i've been working since 8 a.m., except for a 3 hr break between leaving work and heading to city meetings to cover.

i know this job is good for my resume and good for experience, but i truly hate meeting nights. and i have another one tomorrow.

and the reason why i hate meeting nights is that i don't know what the fuck i'm doing. i don't understand city government, i don't understand why certain things affect the schools and the city the way they do. government and technical budget crap has never been my strong point and never will be no matter how hard i try, and yet this is what schools and city commissions discuss a good chunk of the time. it's all about funding and where to get money for this program and for that and i'm rambling because i'm super tired and am on my way to bed but i'm so irritated with the fact that my articles that i wrote tonight suck.

not to mention that i get no leeway what-so-ever. if i have a meeting to cover, my article is due by 9 a.m. the next morning--although really it's not 9 a.m. because some of the pages need to have articles submitted a little earlier. arg. and it's hard to get help that early because everyone is on deadline, the only thing is is that they know what the hell they are doing and i'm the resident english major looking up stuff in my AP stylebook.

ugh. getting to sleep tonight is not going to be fun. i'm going to be focusing on those damn articles all night.

cheers to my late night, pissed off, i-hate-my-job rant. there's been a lot of these so far, but i haven't bothered to type one yet because they all sound the same. definitely not having a life-long career in journalism.

g'night

marvelou @ 2007-02-11T19:35:00

2007-02-12T00:45:32Z

i have survived 2 weeks at the news-review so far. all i can say is, i'm not going to get much sleep, but i'm hanging in there and it's getting easier.

i'm supposed to cover the boyne city, boyne falls, charlevoix regions as well as the environmental stuff. yeah, so this is me being one of the 6 news reporters they have. can you believe it!? and no, i don't mean the fact that i am now a reporter, but the fact that this is a daily newspaper and they only have 6 news writers (ok, so they have other writers who cover the sports) but 6 writers for a daily isn't much. and it certainly doesn't help that i'm supposed to cover city meetings, school board meetings and so on, but since i'm covering 3 towns some of their meetings are at the same time so i have to miss some of them.

the nice thing is that i'm actually learning how to be a journalist. before, i was doing okay on my own but i was stumbling along 'cause i didn't really know the rules.

and what's even better is that my job doesn't end at 5 p.m. (note sarcasm) i'm actually taking a break from writing an article right now, and it's a sunday. a SUNDAY!!! not cool. okay, so this won't happen often, but there was an event that i wanted to cover and it happened to be today so miss lou gets to work on sunday.

sigh, this is me feeling happy that i have a job but also wishing that i had a job that ended when i left work. behold, the life of a journalist--though i do not believe that i will be in this field for long. a few years, maybe, but news writing really isn't that interesting. there's a reason why i'd rather listen to the news than read it. it's because news articles are generally boring. or at least that's my opinion.

and guess what i get to use at work?

a MAC

kate, big meg, all you MAC lovers, i don't know how you do it. they're TERRIBLE with a capital "T"

porn update

2007-02-01T18:07:47Z

p-town has a porn store!!!
as if i'm going to go in, but it's funny.
it's called XPectations, so if any one comes up here and is bored as hell we now have something to do in p-town that people here would consider risk-ee

sad

2007-01-25T01:43:20Z

what was supposed to be a good day turned out to be a good/bad day.

yes, i did officially get the job at the news-review. i start monday. i celebrated by going shopping for a few new work clothes and managed to actually find some that fit so i was happy.

but then i had to deal w/ the bitch. a true, evil I'm-going-to-bite-you-in-the-back-because-I'm-an-ungrateful-bitch kind of bitch.

here's the scoop: i did a business feature last week for a new nail salon that was opening in boyne city. the Citizen give me the name of the business, the owner's name and the phone number. i call her up, meet with her, we got along well, i wrote the article and it was published today.

just so you know, when the Citizen does a business feature--not sure if other papers do it this way or not--they treat it as a feature and not an advertisement, meaning that the feature isn't necessarily going to contain certain specifics like the phone number, address, hours of operation, or whatever. basically, they are doing a feature for a new business or for a business that has recently made improvements to let the public know about it. the perk is that the business owners get a little free advertising--but the Citizen is only about to do so much of it.

anyhoo, i screwed up my business feature by putting the wrong name down. instead of calling it the Nail Studio I called it the Nail Salon (which is what I had been told it was by the office, but their info isn't always correct, they just pass on stuff to you and you double check)

the salon owner was upset, as she should be because that is not a mistake that i should have made and i know it.

two big rules when interviewing: always double check the spelling of the person's name and make sure that all titles are correct. I remembered to check the spelling of the lady's name but forgot to double check the business name. major oops.

other than that, my article was fine. i focused on what her business offers and what the owner thought were the advantages of her salon. when it came to contact info and such, i didn't include any since it was a business feature like i mentioned before--although i did mention which street the salon was on and a snippet about the hours since the hours related to part of the advantages.

to make a long story somewhat shorter, the owner was pissed. she showed up to the office (wasn't there, but heard about it ) with the article covered in red ink because i had made so many mistakes (which i hadn't) complaining about how i couldn't get the name right and that i hadn't even included an address or phone number and how she, her relatives, and her friends were all "shocked." Jeannie in the office tried to explain to her the difference between a business feature and advertising but she didn't want to hear it.

the owner also wouldn't listen to me. first thing i did when i called her back was i apologized for the business name, saying that i should had double checked but i hadn't and that i was sorry. i also explained to her why i chose not to include the address and the phone number. how that info would be in the advertisement that she was planning on running next week. i even mentioned that she was getting free advertising.

personally i think a feature is more important than an actual ad because people can read WHY they should go to your business rather than simply, hey, i'm here, call me.

the woman hates me. she thinks i'm unprofessional, that the Citizen is unprofessional and said that she will never advertise with them.

then she hung up on me.

bitch.

a bitch that does ear candling too. oh, let's see, i'm going to rid my ears of wax by sticking a waxy candle in my ear and lighting it on fire. i asked her about ear candling when she mentioned it, and she said it was a way of creating a vacuum to suck out the debris in the ear. it sounded interesting until i looked up info about it and realized that it really is a stupid and ineffective way of cleaning the ears. dude, buy some Q-tips and if you have wax/debris issues see an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist. I trust no one else with my ears--especially a bitchy lady holding a lighted candle.

she can fuck herself in my opinion--and not in the good way.

seriously, i already feel bad enough that i mixed up "Salon" with "Studio" but other than that she got a good article out of me and free advertising. i can deal w/ her feeling upset because i messed that up and it was stupid of me, but i hate dealing with stubborn ignorant ungrateful people who don't know the diff between what's advertising and what's not. you want advertising? pay for it. how else do you think a paper can make some money.

ugh, so that ruined my day. i gave the Citizen a heads-up after I spoke w/ the bitch and apologized for loosing a customer. well, she was kinda a customer. the woman wasn't a subscriber, but she was going to pay for an ad for her business and now she's not. the Citizen isn't mad at me, they know I made a mistake and goodness knows that they have made enough. Jeannie didn't sound like she cared about loosing the woman as a customer. sure, like me, she was sorry that the mistake happened and tries to prevent them from happening, but you can only feel so sorry when the person you're supposed to feel sorry for is irate and bitching at you.

first time i made that mistake and i plan on it being my last. damn, i'm usually so good about those things.

yikes

2007-01-23T16:16:40Z

good news: petoskey news-review offered me a f/t job 'cause they have a job opening and apparently they like me.

bad news: just started a p/t job at charlevoix public library and today is my 2nd day of orientation

the scoop: told the news-review "yes, i'd like to meet w/ you" i.e. interview because they have to go thru that whole process. also told the guy that i'd like to know that it's a sure thing before i tell the library "sorry." plus, i almost told him that i would like to think about it (because i feel bad quitting something that i've just started) but then i was like, "what the hell am i doing" and asked if he was free today.

good news, but sucky situation at the same time. oh well, can't turn down a f/t job and definitely can't turn down the news-review. i guess this means that i won't be writing for the citizen anymore. pity. *evil grin hehehe

I HAVE A JOB!!!

2007-01-19T21:32:21Z

oh my gosh, it's fucking time. miss lou finally has a job that looks like a job. i mean, technically freelancing is a job but it probably does look like a lazy ass job on paper. but anyhoo, i got the library asst job which is part-time, but p/t is better than nothing. even combining both the library and freelancing doesn't exactly equal a f/t job but i am not about to complain.

and another perk is that it gets my parents off my back. seriously, i had a good interview--better than the others i've had recently, so if i didn't get this job i was seriously having probs.

references

2007-01-19T16:09:46Z

if there's one part of an interview i dread it's when they ask me for references because my references suck. i can't really use a reference for freelancing because of the 2 editors i'm dealing with now, one i have only met once and we do everything thru e-mail and definitely do not waste words. and the other i have never met because he's down in bellaire (this is the one for the citizen and that whole editing business is just a mess) and he and i also do everything thru the e-mail w/ few words. these 2 definitely couldn't say much about me except that i always submit my articles on time or something like that.

so the most recent one i can provide is the lawyer which is just a warning light and frightening because he and i did not get along the best cause he was such an asshole.

and then there's the places i worked at in A2, but the most recent ones were restaurants that went out of business and i have no way to contact the chefs i worked for.

so, i'm stuck with the lawyer and people i worked for like 4-5 yrs ago. ugh, i hate references!

i'm whining because i had an interview a few days ago and the lady called me today telling me that she forgot to ask me for a list of references so i gave them to her over the phone, and i think that this lady is actually going to call these people. seriously, how many references do you need just to work in a library?

marvelou @ 2007-01-10T17:37:00

2007-01-10T22:42:08Z

just got new lenses today for my glasses and it feels weird. i put them on and i was like, "whoa." i'm used to them now, but for a few minutes my left eye felt a little strange. guess it definitely was time for some new glasses--considering that my lenses were 3-4 yrs old.

i must admit, though, even though things are still clear these lenses are much more comfortable than the other ones.

and by the way, northern michigan now has snow. not a lot, but about 2 inches, enough to cover the ground. which means that now the ski resorts will be opening up all of their runs as soon as they can make enough snow to have a good base. i believe that miss lou will be going skiing again in the near future.

happiness

2007-01-03T20:48:51Z

not only was new year's in A2 awesome, but sully gave me a 5x5 for x-mas.

yippy skippy :-p

which i managed to solve in 2 days--i think it was my 2nd attempt but it may have been my 3rd. not entirely sure cause there was a night in there. anyhoo, i did it and WITHOUT cheating. that is, unless you count the move i looked up online in order to solve my 4x4 which i discovered works on a 5x5 when i hit the same dead end scenario. so in a way, i guess you could say i cheated. but whatever, i solved it w/out looking online

and they say the 5x5 is difficult. hah! i laugh in the face of difficulty.

naughty

2006-12-25T20:55:39Z

i must have been on the naughty list this year because i didn't get my 5x5 cube, which was the only thing i requested. thought i would cause i gave my sis a hint thinking that she'd either tell my mom that i wanted one or she would get me one herself. alas, no such luck but i was more than pleased with what i received.

we actually celebrated x-mas 2 days ago cause we typically do it on an off day 'cause of people's schedules and whatnot, so today feels just like another day. definitely doesn't feel even close to x-mas since there's no snow on the ground. stupid global warming, arg!!! glad i don't own a ski resort because i would be Poor with a capital 'P'.

now to do what i really need to do today which is write another article. yippy skippy.

(that was for you, sully.)

typical amy

2006-12-23T01:48:58Z

had a family dinner planned for tomorrow with me, my parents, my sister and brother in-law and then amy, my half sister who i don't see much. and of course, amy said that this year she was going to come up and see us and has been saying so for weeks, and then the night before she cancels w/out giving us an explanation why.

and to be honest, i really didn't expect her to come up or to provide an explanation cause it's always the typical outcome: she says she's coming and then last minute she cancels after we've gotten excited and have thought that this year is going to be the year when we spend a holiday with her.

dad's always commenting about how she has money troubles cause her rent is expensive, ect...but you know, if she needs gas money than he can obviously provide her with some w/out offending her cause after all my dad is her dad and he's given Ang and i gas money often enough in the past. my mom was thinking that maybe amy didn't have good tires on her car and was worried about road conditions, but it's not like there's snow on the ground. it's been raining. and if she can't drive up here in the rain then why should she be driving around windsor in the winter?

either way, what it comes down to is that amy is lazy and will not extend the effort to visit us or her grandparents who live in canada north of the soo. they're like 90 yrs old and in failing health and one reason she was going to visit us was because it was on the way to her grandparents, but now she's not even going to visit them.

seriously, i know a lot of people who will take a mini road trip and drive several hrs to only stay only a day or two to visit and then go back home. i guess she's just one of the people who doesn't want to do that unless it's an hr or less away.

pissed off, as usual. this has been going on for years. i swear, she's only going to come up if one of us dies and she has to go to the funeral or if i get married--which is certainly not going to happen anytime soon. even then, somebody will probably have to pick her up and bring her here because it's such a "long" drive.

(now this is where i get mean) I can rely on my sister's dog to come when i ask her to more than amy, and ang's dog barely listens to what you tell her!

marvelou @ 2006-12-21T00:06:00

2006-12-21T00:06:06Z

just never know what i'm going to learn next.

right now i'm talking to docs about ear infections, infertility treatments, and whooping cough. i'm picking up all sorts of medical info that i didn't know and probably would never have known otherwise. and something that was definitely interesting was talking about men and infertility 'cause when you think about infertility you usually think about women rather than the probs with men.

creepy

2006-12-19T23:23:51Z

it's creepy when your mom likes your music. usually she hates my cd's for various reasons unless it's classical or swing.

but yesterday, i was playing the Scissor Sisters while making christmas cookies and she thought they were pretty good. first i'm kinda excited. yippy skippy, my mom actually likes something of mine so i can play my tunes throughout the house w/out hearing complaints.

after a while, though--actually, when i saw her dance to one of the songs of the SS's that i don't like much, i decided that it wasn't "cool" anymore, it was creepy.

plus i also think it's funny that she likes a band that's named after a lesbian sex position and has pretty sexual lyrics.