I don’t know if I’ve really got anything to say at the moment, but I’m always amazed how much comes out once I actually put the figurative pen to paper.

I guess it would be good to catch anyone who’s reading up on what I’ve been up to since my last post.

I miss New York a lot, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be home in Utah for a long time now.  When I first got back, I went back to serving at Los Hermanos for a few weeks while I was job hunting.  That’s been a good job for me, but I’m glad that I’m no longer employed in the food service industry…

My neighbor Elaine suggested that I apply at Ancestry.com, where she works, because they were hiring and the company was so great to work for.  I feel like the job almost fell into my lap, and it’s great!

I was hired to work in the Call Center, so I spend my days talking to people about their family history work most of the time.  Granted, you do get the occasional irritated customer, but nowhere near as bad as you’d expect in a “call center” job.

I spent a few months “on loan” to the Family Tree Maker department, and really loved that, so we’ll see what happens.  Ancestry.com is really good about giving people within the company a chance to grow and expand there.  I really love my job.

Also, I’ve made it outside of the bubble that is known as “south of campus” in Provo, and it’s so nice to be a little bit removed from that.  Graduating will do that to you, I suppose.  I live with Lisa and Beka, and it’s so great having awesome roommates that you know how to live with already.

Lisa’s sister and brother-in-law are renting us their town house in south Provo, and we love it.  It’s nice to have a place that does not consist of cinder-block walls.  We even have a super-cool unfinished basement that we’ve added our own flair to.  If anyone is interested in coming to see it, we’re always up for visitors

Nothing too exciting has really happened besides this, so I guess that will be all for now.

I just wanted to let the blogosphere know that I’m back

Monday was awful weather, which we did a story on.  The two hours where it was actually decent outside I was talking to people about how awful the weather was for the last month and how New York was on course to have the coldest June for like 100 years.  Got some good stuff, too, I thought.  It was funny, because it was rainy when I left for work.  It was nice for the two hours when I was out.  And then when I got back to the office, it was black outside and coming down like crazy.  Rain really is so weird in New York.  By the time I was heading home, it had lightened up enough that I didn’t get wet on the way home.  It’s crazy, because you usually get wet in the rain there no matter what happens.

Nothing too exciting Monday night.  FHE, as usual, and it was fun.  I’m going to miss those people.

Tuesday was a good last day at work.  I went to a press conference at City Hall.  The conference was about the city council sending a letter to the MTA to ask them to stop the discriminatory rule that members of the Sikh and Muslim faiths that wear turbans must put an MTA logo on them.  It’s ridiculous, I think, to require someone to put a logo on a religious head dress.  The MTA instituted this rule for “safety reasons” after 9/11, and it’s really silly.  I talked to council members and members of the Sikh coalition, and Sikhs who worked for MTA.  It’s always fun to get a story like this.  Doing something that involves the community is my favorite kind of writing, because I feel like it’s something people care about and I love that.  I felt like I covered all my bases on reporting, because I talked to everyone I could think of, and then some.  And I had everyone’s names too, which is hard during press conferences sometimes. I called in with that, and Rob had me come back to the office.  Part of me was hoping that he’d let me write it myself, but the rest of me wasn’t letting the hope get too high because I just don’t write for them all that often.  When I got back, Rob told me to write it, and I was so excited.  I had six inches and knew what they wanted and everything, so it was great.  I spent about an hour writing it, and I think another tweaking it and cutting off two extra inches.  I finally got to the point where I was confident enough to ask Rob what else I needed to do to it, and he said it was pretty good, actually.  I tried not to start beaming, but I probably did.  They did have a few questions when they were editing, but they were minor, and I knew all the answers!  I was so proud of myself for that.  I know it sounds silly, but it’s the same thing when you’re in elementary school and you realize you’re smarter than when you first started that grade.  It’s an exciting thing.  Before Rob left for the day, he came over to where Sam and I were sitting and shook our hands and said it had been a pleasure working with us, and he hoped we learned something.  It was nice of him, and it was just a good way to end up an internship.

After work, Sam and Abby and Brooke and I went to Max Brenner’s to celebrate the fact that we had survived.  I love that there are cool places like that where you can go and do stuff like that after work.  It’s not quite the same thing in Utah, where you go get something and then leave quickly.  When you’re out you can take a little longer in New York, even though everything else is faster.  Seems kind of like an oxymoron, but it makes sense when you’re there.  I’m going to miss it so much!

Monday at work stayed slow last week, which is par for Monday, so nothing more to report there.  (It’s shaping up to be similar today, but oh well.)  Then Laura and I went to FHE, which is always fun.  It’s so nice to have that network of people here, because I won’t be scared to come back if I get a job.  It would have been intimidating to come out here by myself the first time, but the BYU group has made that transition really easy.  We’ll see how it turns out.

Tuesday at work was interesting.  They sent me to 42nd street and 8th Ave., which is basically Times Square, because someone had gotten shot.  The story was about it happening so close to so many people, and I was supposed to track down witnesses or something.  Except it happened at 5:30 in the morning and I didn’t get there until just before 11, so the witnesses had all gone home.  They sent Sam to come help me, and it was fun to work with her, even though it was a sad situation.  We’d canvassed a good radius from where the shooting happened and didn’t get anything, so we called in for more instructions.  Rob told us to talk to people on the street and get their reactions.  “Fear and loathing,” he said.  You wouldn’t think it would be hard to find that when you’re telling people someone got shot a block away from one of the biggest tourist destinations in the city.  Most people we found weren’t really phased by it though.  They expected it from New York, or came from places where violence was worse, or remembered when Manhattan was a scary place to be before Giuliani cleaned the city up.  It took some digging, but we did get the fear and loathing eventually.  It just took a lot longer than I expected.  And the rain wasn’t the most helpful then either.  New York rain is so weird.

It was another slow day that day, so they let me off early.  I was ok with that, because the BYU group had planned another temple trip to do baptisms, so I was able to take my time and get there.  I wandered around on 34th street for a little while first, so it was a really good evening.  Except I got water trapped in my ear, again, and it still hurts a little.  Oh well, it’s going away slowly, so no big deal.

Wednesday I felt so productive at work, it was great.  I did a web rewrite, and then went and talked to people about the Subway Series.  The Mets and the Yankees played each other for the first time that weekend.  It was the first time in the new Yankee Stadium.  I went to a Mets clubhouse store, and another intern went to a Yankee’s store, and we asked people about the outrageous ticket prices for these games.  Nosebleed seats were going for $60 each, so you can imagine how much better seats were.  A lot of people were really dissapointed, because they used to be able to go to games all the time, but they just can’t afford it anymore.  Especially the big rivalry games like this.  It’s so fun getting New Yorkers to talk about baseball memories.  It was a lot of fun.  The photographer I was working with had covered sports for years, and he had some great stories to tell.  After I dumped those notes, I came back to the office and chilled for a little while.  Later in the afternoon they sent me out to talk to people about whether or not they thought it was a good idea to wire the subway stations for cell phone service.  The MTA had announced a plan to do that years ago, but it’s been stalled for a really long time, so I was seeing if people thought it was still a good idea or not.  I was kind of surprised that I got mixed answers on it.  I expected everyone to say it would be great to have cell service at the subway stations.  But a lot of people said it would only make them noisier and it wouln’dt be worth it.

After that, they said I could go.  It wouldn’t have been worth it to go back to the office for 45 minutes, so I was ok with that.  I was going to meet Julie and Becca at the “In The Heights” lottery, which I often don’t get out of work early enough for.  So I was excited.  We decided we were going to keep trying all this week until we got in.  However, they don’t have an evening show on Wednesdays, so there wasn’t a lottery.  I was bummed, but one of the guys that worked at the theater started talking to me.  I told him I never get out of work early enough to make it to the lottery, so I was really sad there wasn’t one.  He said to come see him on Friday, his name was Ralph, and he’d get me into the show.  It made me laugh, but it was still a fun thought.

I met up with Julie and Becca right after that, and we were debating about what to do.  My ear was hurting, so I was thinking about going home and going to bed early to see if that would help.  They decided to go to a museum, and I decided to head home.

Thursday began the weekend of being in Brooklyn.  It was a really slow morning.  I usually sit next to a writer named Meredith, and about 1:30 she asked me if I had anything to work on.  I didn’t, and she said she had something for me, so she was going to talk to the editors.

I went to a school in Brooklyn to talk to parents about layoffs in the district.  The budget rollbacks aren’t going to affect teacher’s jobs, but positions like counselors, teachers aids, security or cafeteria workers, for some examples, were going to get laid off.  I was asking parents how they think those cuts will affect their kids’ educations, and spent a good chunk of my afternoon doing that.  It’s so funny how little kids act like I’m a celebrity or something because I work for a newspaper.  They’re cute, and it makes me laugh, but I just hope they don’t talk to strangers that way all the time.  I got ten or so good interviews, with a very wide spectrum of reactions from the parents, and was happy with my work.  I felt like I had covered any base they could ask for, so when Meredith asked me for my best one, I was able to ask what kind of quote she was looking for.  It was satisfying, even though she only used a few sentences from my pages of notes, because I had something that fit very well with the story.  It took a lot of phone tag to get to that point though, so they said not to worry about coming back to the office that afternoon.  It would’ve been six by the time I got back anyway, so I was able to catch Julie and Becca at the In The Heights lottery, for real this time.

I told them about my new friend Ralph, so if we didn’t win tonight we could come back tomorrow and see it then.  While we were waiting (you can enter your name once between 5:30 and 6:00 and they draw for about 22 tickets on the front row at 6), we were talking about what else was going on that night and what we were going to do.  They started calling names, and Becca got drawn!  We were all so excited, but you can only win two tickets.  It was funny, because there was a girl standing next to us named Rebecca Love, so she was really sad when the called Rebecca Loveland.  But Becca was way too nice, and said she’d have tons more chances to win, so Julie and I should take the tickets.  And she said she had already planned to go hang out with some other people.  She’s so sweet, and I felt bad, but she’s persistent.  So Julie and I got to go see it.  I hope Becca wins again, because she deserves it for being so nice!

We took some silly pictures in front of the theater because we were so excited, and it was great.  Then Becca went to meet other people and Julie and I went and got sushi for dinner.  Sushi is an aquired taste, and I’m about 3/4 of the way to liking it, I think.  The tuna and avacado roll was my favorite.  Plain salmon though, not so much.  We sat at the bar and watched the chef making it, and that was really fun.  It was kind of weird though, because it was a totally Japanese restaurant, with classic American rock playing in the background.  It’s kinda funny to put Lynard Skynard and sushi in the same place.

Then we went to the show, and we were right there in the front.  It made sense that they gave out these tickets for the lottery, because that close is almost too close, but I was ok with it.  I like being close enough to see all of the expressions of the actors, even if it means seeing spit and sweat while they’re singing.  It was so awesome though!  I totally want the soundtrack (is that what you call it for musicals?) because it was so good.  And the dancing was amazing too.

The story is about a neighborhood in upper Manhattan called Washington Heights that’s going through change.  It’s a story about how times are hard and rent is high and people are just doing what they can to make a living.  The neighborhood is mostly Hispanic, and some of the songs were in Spanish or used a lot of it.  It was fun, because I caught most of it.  The lead man was a rapper, so that was so cool.  And the dancing was awesome.  I think I was wide-eyed and had my mouth slightly open in awe the whole time.  It was soooo good!  The teenage cousin was so funny.  He had the best one-liners, which gave the title to this post, and was great.  And there was one part that choked me up a little because I’m away from home.  I’m so silly, aren’t I? But that show was just awesome.  I highly recommend it to everyone.

Friday for work I went out to Brooklyn again, but this time I was supposed to find out about a woman that had fallen out of a window.  I found the complex, which was by an industrial yard, and most people hadn’t seen anything.  They were wondering though if she fell or had been pushed.  I found out a few things about her, and called that in.  They told me that she fell because she was trying to avoid an arrest warrant, and to get some reactions from that.  That took several hours, because people didn’t want to talk to me, or didn’t have anything to say about it.  I finally got something that was good enough to work from a neighbor, and I was glad to get out of that neighborhood.  Walking back to the subway I could feel a few eyes following me, but nothing to really worry about.

The rest of the day at work was uneventful really, but being on the subway that much will wear you out.  Plus we had big plans for Saturday, so I had a low-key eveing just chilling at home.

Saturday I got up and tried to get to the Central Park early to see if I could get tickets to Twelfth Night.  They do Shakespeare in the Park during the summer, and Anne Hathaway is playing Viola, so it should be really good.  I got there just more than an hour before they were starting to hand out the free tickets, but then I saw that some people had spent the night.  The line was forever long, so I figured it wasn’t worth the wait.  A few people in the ward want to go as well, so we decided to go ridiculously early next Saturday to try our luck.

I wandered around the park for a bit, and then met up with Julie, Becca, and Laura to go to Coney Island.  It was a kind of rainy day, but we had so much fun anyway.  Coney Island is a great afternoon trip.  It just takes a long time to get there.  (This was my third trip to Brooklyn in three days, just for the record )

First we wend down on the beach, and I waded in the water a little.  It was overcast, but it really wasn’t too cold.  I love beaches.  We took some fun pictures down by the water, and then went up and checked out the boardwalk.  This place definitely doesn’t care about being politically correct, but that’s part of it’s history I guess.  It’s an experience.  We got some food on the boardwalk, and ducked inside while it was raining hard to eat.  It was good timing, because we finished when the rain was easing up a little.  Julie and Laura went on the Ferris Wheel, and Becca and I went and scouted out the Roller Coaster.  We weren’t sure it would be running because of the rain, but it was.  It’s called the Cyclone, and the first ride costs you $8.  If you want to go a second time, they’ll only charge you $5.  I figured it would be worth it to pay once, but I wouldn’t go again.  It’s just a wooden roller coaster, right?  Oh, no.  It was amazing!  I was more than happy to pay for a second ride.  We had so much fun taking pictures afterward also.  They have a place to check your bags while you ride, because there’s no way you can hang on to them.  It was awesome!!!

After a round or two of ski ball and some ice cream, we decided we’d had a very pleasant afternoon, and it was time to go home.  Some people in the ward were going to see a movie because we couldn’t get Shakespeare tickets, so Laura and I decided to do that.

Funny thing though, because we were going to a later showing of Up and it had been out for a while, none of us thought it would sell out.  When we got there, I didn’t have a ticket and neither did Kevin, and while we were waiting, they sold out the show!  Bummer, but we went and saw Night and the Museum 2 instead, and it was really good.  So can’t complain, except for how much movies cost out here!  It’s crazy.

Sunday was yet another eventful day, but in a good way.  One of the friends we met out here was in a bad bike accident on Saturday, and Laura and I decided to go see him after church.  The hospital he’s at is in Brooklyn.  You’d think with how much time I spent there this week, I’d know it a little better, but we had gotten wrong information about where the hospital was (and what it was called), so we were so lost when we got there.  It was a sketchy part of town, but we had just spent 45 minutes on a train, and we were going to find the hospital.  We knew the subway wasn’t going to be much help then, so we walked down the street looking for a cab.  These guys called out, “God bless you, Snowflakes,” when we walked past, and that was funny.  Once we were far enough away it wasn’t scary.  We found a taxi, but it wasn’t in service that day.  Fortunately for us, it was parked by a carwash where a towncar driver was just getting done with a wash.  He knew where we were trying to go, and he said he’d take us.  He was so friendly, it was cool.  He’s from Jordan, so we got talking about Islam and how similar it is to Christianity.  We told him about the Church and Joseph Smith, and it was neat to have that discussion.  People here seem so much more open about religion, and I love that.  He told us that we were in a scary part of town, and the hospital wasn’t in such a great place either.  He said if we weren’t sure where the subway was, and it wasn’t close, we should take a car because it would be safer.  He was really nice, and we told him we’d be careful.

Jeff, the friend we were coming to see, looked great.  If I hadn’t know there was hemorrhaging in his brain, I’d wonder why he was there.  He was cheerful, and was actually there and cognitive.  I was expecting him to be out of it on painkillers or something, so it was good to see that he was doing ok.  They think he’ll be fine, and probably won’t need surgery so that was good too.  We didn’t stay too long.  He looked good, but still, when someone’s in ICU, you just don’t visit for too long like that.  We found the subway home, no sweat, and laughed when we realized how close it was if we had stayed on the right train.  We got back a few minutes late to a fireside that night, which was also really good.

The fireside was given by the Ambassador to the UN from Bangladesh, and that was just cool.  She practices Islam, and talked to us about world peace and things like that.  It was really neat.  Julie and Becca had been working on this for a while, so it was fun to see their project come about.  They have a cool internship.

By the time we finally got back home, it was 10:00.  Long day, but a good one.  And this post is long enough, so I’ll tell you about today later.  Though there’s not much to report besides yucky weather right now.

Friday after work there was a BYU Communications alumni dinner that the interns were invited to, and free food is always good.  It was fun to go and meet new people that are working in the city.  I was the only print intern though, and there were only two other print journalists there.  I kinda felt outnumbered, but it was ok.  There were lots of cool people to talk to.

That night Julie and I were tired and bored, so we watched some YouTube clips of Bollywood movies, and that was a lot of fun.  Some days you just need to chill out, and it had been a long work week.

Saturday was so much fun.  Julie and I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a few hours.  That place is huge!  We went through the Greek and Roman, African and Oceania, and some Native American exhibits.  And that was maybe half of the first floor.  It’s nice, because museums are often suggested donation, so it’s a cheap thing to do, and they are so cool.  One of the exibits reminded me of Grandpa Sweetheard, because it was the grass-weaved mats and the hollowed out drums like in Vanuatu.

After that, we walked through Central Park for a while.  It was a beautiful day.  Much better than the rain from the day before.  We were trying to find the Lake or the Resivoir, but then we saw the Castle in the distance.  On our way there we found Turtle Pond, and we had to stop and take pictures.  Turtles are so cute.  While we were trying to find the path to the castle (Central Park is really huge, so that’s harder than you’d think), we happened upon a puppet show.  They were doing a version of sleeping beauty, modified to fit the Central Park Castle.  It was kind of corny, but still.  More people should experience a puppet show in the park.

The castle was really pretty.  It’s called Belvedere Castle, and now it’s a weather station as well.  We took lots of fun pictures that I’ll put up soon.  After that we decided to keep wandering in the general direction of Columbus Circle, because we could hop on the subway there to get to Times Square.  The park is so pretty, and I love walking through it and seeing people there.  It’s so funny, because people come and lay out like they’re at the beach, but there’s no water around.  It seems strange to me, but it’s a New York thing, I guess.

Our end goal for the day was to try the lottery for In The Heights tickets.  We met Becca at the theater at 5:30 and put our names in for the drawing at 6:00.  The deal is, if you win you can get tickes for $26.50, and they’re up front, really good seats.  They only draw for about 20 tickets though, so no luck for us yet.  But we’re going to keep on trying.  And the theater is right next to Billy Elliot, which just won ten Tony’s.  I’m not sure if that means tickets will be easier to get for In The Heights, or if more people will walk next door so it will be harder, but I’m optimistic about it.  We’re going to keep trying this week, so keep fingers crossed for us.

Julie and Becca decided to go to the Museum of Modern Art after we didn’t get tickets, but I still really wanted to see a show.  There were some people that said Shrek tickets were still available, so I headed over that way.  I was museum-ed out for the day.

Shrek won the Tony for best costumes, I think, and I’m not surprised.  They did a fantastic job with it, and it was as good as the movie.  Shrek had an amazing voice, and it was a really fun show.  I laughed really hard–it was great when they parodied other shows on Broadway.  The Wicked and Lion King moments were the most obvious, and it was so funny!  I liked it.

While I was walking back to the subway I found a music store that seemed to specialize in Broadway, and if it hadn’t been late then I would have stayed for an hour or two.  I browsed for a while, and found some fun stuff, but nothing that I really wanted.

Sunday was so good.  Church is always good, but it was particularly awesome yesterday.  I’m so glad it’s there, everywhere I go.

After Church I was talking to Chris, one of the guys in my ward, and we decided to try and get together a game night.  He brought his roommate Steve, and Julie and Becca and Alli came, and we had fun.  We played spoons and two truths and a lie, and just hung out for a while.  More people said they might come, but I wasn’t too surprised it was just us.  Oh well, we still had a good time.

So far today has been pretty quiet.  My assignment this morning was to go see if people were buying Billy Elliot tickets because of the Tony’s, so I spent a few hours at Times Square today.  That’s really all that’s happened so far, and there are a bunch of new interns so it’s really dead.  There’s not enough for us all to do right now.  But there should be fun things happening tonight, so it’s ok.  I can’t believe it’s my last full week as an intern.  I’m going to make it a good one!

It kind of feels like I’ve worked on a lot of lighter stories this week.  They did send me out to a school with an improved math score from last year, and that was fun.  There were some adorable kids there, and I got some good interviews from parents.  It’s a lot easier to get people to talk about improved scores than it is about worse scores.

Besides that I’ve been out and about asking New Yorkers what they think of a new VW car that is designed for one passenger, and whether they think people wash their hands after using a public restroom.   It’s raining pretty hard today, and I discovered my shoes are not waterproof.  My umbrella is struggling a little bit in that category as well, so I might need to take a shopping trip here soon.  Good thing tomorrow is Saturday.

It’s so strange to me that it’s cold enough to buy hot chocolate and wear a jacket in June.  Wednesday I went out to 1st Ave. where some scaffolding broke and was dangling off a building, and it was so cold!  I hung out for a couple hours, watching the fire department lower it.  I think they might have killed a tree in the process, but that was unavoidable.  When I called it in, my editor sounded disappointed that no people were hurt and they didn’t evacuate the building.  It didn’t make the paper, but what can you do?  I keep busy enough with work and other things that I’m not worried about it.

Julie and I have tried to go see In The Heights or Billy Elliot three times this week, and failed.  The lottery for In The Heights never worked out, and student tickets sold out for Billy Elliot.  Or there wasn’t a performance the night we tried to go.  We were really sad, because we both really wanted to see a show this week.  But we didnt’ let that stop us.  Little Mermaid was across the street from the other two, so we decided to try it, and they had tickets.  It wasn’t one either of us were dying to see, but we could get tickets to it.  Being a student has major perks sometimes.   We got fourth row seats for way cheap.

The show was fun.  Flounder and Sebastian were my absolute favorites though.  It was fun being so close that we could see every facial expression, and all the details on costumes.  The set and costumes were amazing, and the music was really good too.  I didn’t love some of the other actors, but they were still really good.  It was a good way to spend an evening.

There’s an alumni event tonight for BYU communications grads, and they’re inviting the interns so we can network with professionals in our field.  I wish I would’ve remembered to print out my resume yesterday.  But I’ll figure something out.  I hope I get a chance to go home and change as well, because I’m soggy from the rain.  I’d like to make a better first impression than that.

That’s about all I have to say right now.  There aren’t any big plans for the weekend yet.  (Julie wants to go to Boston, but we’ll see if it works out.)  But there’s always something to do, so it should be awesome either way!

I had to work on Monday, but it wasn’t bad because I was out of the office and it was a beautiful day.  I got to go to Central Park for the first time that day, and it was really fun.  Sad that I haven’t been to Central Park more, because it’s amazing.  I wanted to go back yesterday, but the weather was less than cooperative, so I’ll have to find time for it this week.

They didn’t need me to come back to the office when I was done, and while I was hanging out I got talking to some people.  The guy who started the conversation wanted to take me out, but I wasn’t too comfortable with that idea.  We had a conversation about where I’m from and what I believe instead.  It was kind of fun, and kind of exciting for me to be able to explain what I believe in.  It made me realize a little why missionaries can do what they do, even with little success.  It just makes you happy to share the Gospel.

We had an unofficial FHE where we went to Cafe Lalo (see You’ve Got Mail for reason why it’s cool) and then thought about going to the Statten Island Ferry.  By the time we got out of the cafe (they were really slow on service) we all decided it was late enough that we should just go home and get to bed.

Tuesday they sent me out a couple hours early to get people’s reactions on Herald Square about closing Broadway to traffic.  So I spent my morning hanging out in front of Macy’s, talking to people about how they loved the new car-free area there.  Then I stopped some cab drivers at a light to see what they thought, and got the opposite reactions.  It’ll be interesting to see if the city makes it permanent.  The mayor said closing Herald Square and Times Square will help traffic flow better.  (They shut off Broadway to cars for several blocks there.)  That afternoon I got sent to a scene where a woman got hit and killed by a car.  It was really sad, but a unique experience.  The people in the neighborhood that knew her and loved her were really helpful and willing to talk to me.  It was strange, because I don’t think I’d want to talk to a complete stranger, especially the press, in a situation like that.  But they were very helpful and forthcoming with everything.

I also had a very interesting conversation with the photographer that day.  He was explaining his beliefs to me that day, with some very interesting and different perspectives than I’d heard before.  It’s kind of cool how much more open people are about and with religion here than I expected.

Wednesday was kind of frustrating.  They sent me out to Queens to talk to people about Costco taking food stamps.  I didn’t realize they wanted to find someone on food stamps to ask about it so I was talking to people in the parking lot.  After I was told that wasn’t what they wanted, they told me to go find a housing project near by and find that.  Not my favorite assignment, and I didn’t find anything they wanted to use anyway.  I hate it when I waste my days like that.  I feel like I should be able to get what they want, and it frustrates me when I make mistakes like that.  But I’m learning and getting better, so it’s ok.  Chalk this one up for experience.

Thursday was an adventure.  Rob had planned to send me out later to talk with people about the idea of sharing taxis with strangers to save money, but an intern that was supposed to be at an assignment way up town called and said he was running late.  So he gave me an address and said he’d email me the info, and to get going.  I looked up the address on Hop Stop (one of the best ways to figure out where you’re going in the city, ever!) and realized I needed to leave ten minutes ago to get there on time.  And the email wasn’t in my inbox yet.  When I went to ask Rob about it, he was in a meeting.  So I arranged to have him call me and ran to the subway anyway.  Where I would have no cell service until I got to the assignment.  It was a semi-stressful train ride, because I hate feeling unprepared.  I got some good news when I got there though.  The other intern got there, so I didn’t have to worry about this mystery assignment.

Instead they sent me down to Grand Central to the taxi stand, to do the original assignment I had.  Which was actually pretty fun.  I really don’t mind just grabbing people on the street for interviews.  Most people are really nice, even if they don’t have time.  Getting blatantly ignored still annoys me though, especially if I fall in step with them.  People are funny.  And there were a lot of people from Connecticut in town that day, which was mildy entertaining.  I talked to a lady who was a journalist and now she’s an author, and she said I was doing a good job.  It made me happy.

Friday I decided I would like to start writing a blog called “the rest of the story” or something like that.  They sent me to a press conference on 2nd Ave. because there’s a mess of construction on the street.  They’re extending the subway, and the mess on the road has killed business in the area.  Seven businesses had to close already, and the project isnt’ slated to be finished for another six or seven years.  The conference was to introduce a city council initiative (or something to that effect) supporting state legislation to help these businesses out.  I spent several hours after the conference interviewing business owners in the area, and had tons of information.  When I got back to type it all up, Rob told me I had four inches.  I got to write it myself, but four inches is a brief, not an article.  And they did a big rewrite on it, but still.  I feel like I’m writing more often, which is good.  I just wish I would’ve had at least ten inches for the story.  Hence the desire to start the blog, because this isn’t the first time I’ve felt like that.  But with the way copyright works, I’m not sure I can do that.  Even though it’s just something that would make me feel better, not something I’d do just to get published.

I was glad I had all those notes though, because when they were editing they had lots of questions for me, and I had the answers.  That was a first, and it made me feel a lot better about all the questions.

After work I met up with Julie and Becca.  They had put in for the lottery for In The Heights tickets but didn’t win, so we checked out a few other box offices.  But there’s not a lot you can do on a budget when it’s Friday night on Broadway.

We decided to go find other fun things to do instead, and went and got dinner downtown instead.  On our way there, we walked through the new Nicolas Cage movie set.  That was pretty much awesome.  I felt like I was at Universal Studios a little bit, but we actually saw some filming on the street, and a whole bunch of props and trailers.  That might have been the coolest thing that happened all week.  The movie is supposed to be The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and I’m really curious as to how they’re going to turn it into a movie.

We had the Statten Island Ferry in the back of our minds, but that plan changed when we found Strand bookstore instead.  It was so amazing!  They say there are 18 miles worth of shelves of books.  I could spend all day there.  I finally found something to read on the subway, which makes me really happy.  We wandered around for a while longer, and then decided to call it a night.  It had been a long week of work for everyone (even if some of us did have Monday off) and we were all tired.

Saturday the BYU group had planned to take us to the Peley Media Center museum, which is a very cool idea.  We had the option of watching a movie about superbowl commercials or one about breaking news coverage.  I decided to go with my major and watch the news movie, but I was glad I did.  It was really cool to hear all of these iconic reporters that I want to be like talk about what they do and share some of the personal side of it.  I don’t know if I ever want to be that famous though, because they all spent a lot of time in war zones and things like that to get where they are.  I don’t know if I could handle being that close to danger, especially not knowing if I’d come out alive. But still, I have such a cool job.

It would be a way fun place to explore in, because pretty much anything that has ever been on TV is probably recorded there.  It would be a very fun place to do research, but I’m not sure how to go about it.  Someday, I’ll figure that one out.

Julie and I wandered around just off Times Square and found a really good Brazilian Grill for lunch.  It was fun, because she served a mission there so she knew what was good, and was able to talk to the waiter in Portugeuse.

There was a harbor cruise that night we had tickets to, so after that we went home to get ready.  It was a really fun night.  It was a stake activity, but the boat was open for anyone, so there were more than just people from the stake there.  There was dancing on one deck, with places to just hang out on others.  I met a few new people, and got a chance to hang out with some I already knew.  We had a lot of fun.

There’s not a lot to report about Sunday.  Church was good.  I met up with Julie for dinner in the cafeteria and we talked with Dr. Adams’ family, and that’s about it.  Which brings me to today, waiting for my first assignment at 3:00.  Should be a good week though, just because.

I guess more happened this week than I though, because this is a really long post.

We met just after 8:00 to head out of the city.  There were 11 people going, so they rented a 15-seater van.  It was cheaper and a lot more comfortable than taking a bus, which made everyone happy.

Sean was the mastermind behind the trip, and everyone was so much fun.  Julie, Laura, Kathryn and I went from the BYU group, and everyone else was in our ward I think.

Getting out of New York took a lot longer than we thought it would. Sean is a major planner, so this threw off his itinerary a bit, but it was no big deal.  There was a lot of holiday traffic I guess.  Joey was driving most of the day, and it was an adventure.  Not as scary as the Sri Lankan shuttle driver, but up there.  I think it’s a necessary trait to be a driver back here.

We got to Philly about noon, I think, and it was an adventure finding a place to park.  We tried a parking garage, but we were almost too tall, and a lot to wide to actually fit there, so we were happy when we found a central parking place that was just a lot, not a garage.

We started off at the National Constitution Center, which was pretty cool.  We opted to skip Ben Franklin’s grave and Betsy Ross’ house for the sake of time, and the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall were right there.

It was really fun to go inside the building where the bell was.  When we came here on the Church history trip with the Hursts, we just drove past.  We got group pictures with the bell.  These people are seriously just fun to be around.

After that we went to Independence Hall.  We got lucky because we didn’t have tickets, but got a tour time anyway.  There are just two rooms they take you to, but it’s cool to be in the place where the Declaration was signed and the Constitution was born.  History is so much more interesting when you can see it up close.  We talked about that while looking at the Liberty Bell.  Kathryn was saying she wanted to see it because you can’t put that in a text book.  It’s so true.  Actually seeing the places where George Washington and Ben Franklin were sitting makes it seem that much more alive.  I love stuff like this.

After that we went to Reading Terminal Market for lunch, which was so cool.  It reminded me of National Treasure.  The place is full of shops, or booths or whatever, I’m not sure what to call them, and I think you could find just about anything there as far as food goes.  There’s a big Amish section too, and that was really fun to see.  By the time everybody had eaten, it was around 3:00, so we decided it was time to head to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  This involved walking back to the van several blocks away, and then finding the place.  The GPS wasn’t working right then, so we did the best we could with the map.  Which was actually a pretty good job.  Luckily they didn’t have me navigating, which probably helped.

When we finally found a place to park there, it was nearly 4:30, and the museum closed at 5:00.  Sean is a smooth talker, so he got us in without having to pay.  Considering we’d only get to be there about 15 minutes, it was fine with us.  Most of us also agreed that we didn’t want to spend a lot longer than that in the museum anyway, so it was a win-win.  We had a lot more fun taking Rocky pictures out on the steps anyway.

We layed out in the shade on the lawn by the museum for a while, which was really nice.  It was a pretty area.  Some people waded in the fountain, and we all talked and then played Signs for a while.  The next thing on our itinerary was Geno’s Steaks for dinner, and no one was really hungry yet.  We took the scenic route back to the van once we decided to get going, and took some more fun pictures.  The museum has tons of cool landscaping and pretty places for stuff like that.  We saw at least three brides there taking pictures, most of them with full-on wedding parties.

It was another adventure finding Geno’s (and finding parking there–I never thought I’d see the day someone parallel parked a 15-seater in one try.  Joey is just that good), because you can’t leave Philly without trying an authentic cheese steak, right?  Apparently there’s a huge rivalry between Geno’s and Pat’s across the street, so we split up to see who was the best.  We found out there were territorial lines, so it’s not a good idea to bring a sandwich from one place to the other.  I was amazed, because the popular cheese is actually cheese whiz.  I went with provolone at Geno’s though.  Next time I’m in Philly I’ll have to try Pat’s and see which one I like better.  Locals were split pretty evenly on the matter.

We left to head home after that, and it was a dance party in the car.  We were all way tired, so everything was funny.  Good times.  We got back to the city around 10:30 or 11:00, and it was a great day.  I think that about covers it for now.

We took the train up to the Bronx, which took a lot less time than I thought it would.  Yay for slow days at work that happen to coincide with days where you have a good reason to leave early.   Rob said the paper was full, and it was slow, so he let me off at 5 instead of 6. I was really excited that I didn’t have to wear my work clothes to the game and that I didn’t have to take the train from Penn Station to the stadium alone, because that would probably have taken an hour or more.  Instead I was able to meet up with Julie, Laura and Becca right as they were about to leave.

I was the only one cheering for the Orioles in the group, even though Becca is a Red Sox fan.  It was tons of fun.  Most of the BYU group was behind us, and there was a drunk guy in front of us.  He and I got to be good friends, which has been interesting.  He was a very friendly drunk, and kept talking to me and some little boys down the row that were from Boston.  Everybody else wanted to go get some more food, but I wanted to stay and watch the game, so I was by myself for a bit.  Joe, the drunk guy, came and sat by me for the three and a half innings they were gone, so we chatted and did the YMCA and his friends took pictures.  I was starting to look for a reason to move up by the other BYU people because he was getting a little too friendly (he put his arm around me once or twice) when everybody else got back, just in time for the Seventh Inning Stretch.  His ride decided to leave after that, so the rest of the game was a bit easier to pay attention too.  The people behind us said he was more entertaining than the game a lot of the time.  He got my number and has texted me a few times since then.  We’ll have to see how it goes…  I’m betting he’ll get bored with me sooner or later, because I don’t drink.

The game was still way fun, even though the Yankees won.  I think it was 7-4 after nine, maybe ten, innings, so it was a good length of game.  I could tell that a few of us were getting bored and wanted to leave early if it was going to go much longer.  I was happy that we got to stay till the end.  And we still got home at a decent hour.  I think that night was the earliest I had gotten to bed all week.

Friday at work was really fun too.  I got sent to follow a group of singers from Pittsburgh.  They’re called “Bus Stop Opera” and it was so fun.  I got sunburned again though, which is not so fun.  Anyway, the group was from Carnegie-Mellon, and they took conversations they heard at actual New York bus stops, wrote music to go with them, and then performed them at bus stops in the city.  I was following them down Broadway, and it was so fun to see people react.  There were some instruments, so people would congregate to see the performance.  The best part was the actors/singers looked like part of the crowd until they busted into song.  The first girl would come up to people in line for the bus, and ask if she had missed it.  Then she would start singing about how she was going to be late for work and all the consequences.  It was great.  Because I knew what was going on I tried to pick out the performers before they started to sing, but there were still a few that caught me off guard.  It was so funny.  The performance lasted about a half hour, and they actually took the bus to get to the next one.  It was down on 66th where Becca and Julie work, so I texted them to come see if they could.  They caught a few songs before going back to work.

It was fun.  I kind of felt like part of the group for a bit, because people would ask me what was going on and the performers talked with me while we were going between stops.  I love stories like that, because they’re so easy to get people to talk about and they’re just fun to be involved with.

I went back to the office around 1:00, and typed up my notes really fast.  Then Rob had me go to Battery Park to talk to people about a race in the Hudson on Saturday.  The park is beautiful, and it’s so nice to be down by the water on a sunny day, so it was a great assignment.  (Again, except for the whole sunburn thing.  My arms are so red!)  It was really funny to see people’s reactions as well.  The Hudson River isn’t exactly known for cleanliness, so people swimming in it got some fun responses.  I dumped the quotes I got to Larry McShane.  I’ve worked with him on a few other stories, and he’s really nice.  Then they had me head back to the office.

They didn’t like the first re-write of the opera story, so it was being done again when I got back.  I helped with that for the rest of the afternoon.  I really like my job.  It made me laugh, because the last thing Rob said to me on my way out was, “You know interns work holidays, right?”  Even if I hadn’t heard from Sam that we were working already, I would have figured we were.  I’m kind of surprised how many people in the group have tomorrow off.  Oh well.  I’ve got an extra week to play, so it doesn’t matter.

Julie was heading out to a museum right when I got home, and Laura was on a date, so I just chilled for a little while at the I. House.  I met up with Julie later for dinner.  We went to Serendipity, and it is amazing.  I might like it better than Max Brenner, which is saying something.  The frozen hot chocolate is so good.

That covers that part of the weekend, details about Saturday will be coming soon!

Tuesday night was really fun.   One of the features editors was talking to me after work, and he said if I have time he’d like me to come do some small stuff for him.  It’s up to my editors on the newsdesk, but I think it’d be fun to get some variety in my clips.  Though news is really varried anyway, so I’m in good shape no matter what happens.

I met up with a bunch of other interns for dinner, and the barbeque place was amazing.  It was a long wait for a table, so we split up into the first come first serve section, and ended up at a table with a very drunk guy.  He tried to order us some beer, but the waiter knew we weren’t drinking.  He also said he’d buy our dinners, but that didn’t happen.  He kept scooting closer and closer to Sam, and she finally had to ask him to move back.  He was trying so hard, that you almost felt bad.  New experiences, for sure.

When we got back, it was apparently group laundry night, and it was nice to have people to talk to while I was waiting for clothes to dry and ironing.  The people out here are great.

Wednesday at work was just plain awesome.  They sent me to cover Taxi Appreciation Day at a restaurant on 5th Avenue.  Ben and Jack’s Steakhouse was giving free lunches to cabbies to say thanks.  It was a pretty cool event.  When I got back, I was expecting to type up my notes and send them to another writer, which is what normally happens here and we get a double byline.  But Rob said, “Why don’t we let you write today?”  and I about started jumping up and down right then.  He said it would be a test for me.

When I’d finished the first draft and asked him to look at it, he said it wasn’t bad.  “You might just be a writer here yet.”  That was huge!  I was giddy the rest of the day, because he didn’t think it was terrible.  I feel like I’ve actually improved writing since I’ve come here, and it’s starting to pay off, which is so great.  Hopefully they liked it enough to keep giving me stuff like that to work on.  Getting any byline in the paper is so exciting.  It’s a great sense of fulfillment.  And the other reporters here are so nice and great to work with.  I love it.

That was the highlight of Wednesday, and not much else happened.  My “online exclusive” as Rob called it, is there and makes me happy.  They tweaked it a little, but that always happens, so it’s something I’m proud of.

Today has been a little bit slower, but we have tickets to the Yankees game tonight, so it’s a good day to be slow.  Rob said I might even be able to take off a bit early if nothing comes up.  The paper for tomorrow is full anyway, so I doubt they’ll need me.

Earlier today they sent me to a press conference at City Hall.  Beautiful building, at least from the front steps, by the way.  Some legislators introduced a bill that would punish reckless drivers that kill pedestrians or cyclists.

The back story is really sad.  Back in January two kids were killed by a van that was left running and in reverse while the driver made a delivery.  He didn’t even get a trafic ticket, let alone any consequences for the deaths.  The kids were three and four years old, from Chinatown.  One of the families was there, supporting the bill and asking people to get involved to prevent these tragedies.  I almost cried reading some of the past articles.  I hope the legislation gets going soon and isn’t blocked for some stupid beurocratic reason.  They say that a lot of DAs won’t prosecute these accidental deaths because the laws aren’t there to support it.  It’s really sad.

That’s been most of my afternoon, so now I’m just waiting till it’s time to go home.  Life is good.

Monday morning started off crazy at the I. House because I finalized how long I’m going to stay, and had to sign some paperwork for that.  But once I got in to the office it was pretty slow for the first hour.  They were going to send me out to Queens at 4:00 for the final round of National Anthem auditions for the Mets, but there wasn’t anything planned before then.

Fortunately, for me anyway, we heard about a school closing because of swine flu, so I got to go talk to the headmaster there.  It was a private school over by Fifth Avenue called St. David’s, and it’s really fun to see the different faces of the city.  This was definately a nice, wealthier neighborhood.  I was supposed to see if I could snag any parents, but the kids didn’t come to school that day so it didn’t work out so well.  However, the headmaster was very nice and spoke with me about the measures the school was making to keep students safe.  It was nice coming away with some real notes instead of just observations.

Between the subway rides and typing up the notes, that took most of my morning and a chunk of my early afternoon, so I didn’t have too much down time before heading out to Citi Field.  I like it better that way, because being busy is more fun.

The ride out to Queens takes about an hour, and since I’d done it once before I wasn’t worried.  The first time I was a little bit afraid I had missed the stop.  Being part of the press at something like this is really cool, because the PR people are so excited you are there.  The singers were waiting in a room in the ballpark, but they took press right out to the field.  I was a little bit awestruck because they lead us right out there, behind home plate.  I don’t know how professional it was, but I busted out my camera because it was so cool to be right there. I even asked one of the very nice Mets people to take a picture of me with Mr. Met, the mascot.  This job is so cool!

Anyway, they had 17 finalists to peform, competing for five spots.  I was amazed at how many young kids there were, and they were all pretty talented.

They didn’t announce winners right then, so it was just kind of grab someone to interview after they got done singing, and hope none of the other media crowded you out.  I did four good interviews, and happened to get lucky and get the youngest winner selected for one of them.  Sammi has a pretty amazing voice, and she’s 11.

Originally, they weren’t going to announce the winners until the next day, so the editor said we probably weren’t going to do a story without that, so they didn’t have me send in my notes.  However, during dinner I got a call from the Mets with the names of the winners, so I called the desk.  It was such late notice that they didn’t have room in the paper, but what can you do?  I felt like I’d accomplished a lot that day, and it made me happy.

After work I met up with Julie for dinner and then we headed to FHE (after my quick call to the office with the Mets info) with Brooke.  We played Apples to Apples, and it was great.  There are so many fun people in the ward, and our group has been really good about reaching out to get to know us.  Laura met us there, and since she hadn’t had dinner yet, we went and got Thai food.  New experience for me, but it was really good.  I just wasn’t super hungry because I’d already eaten dinner.  I’m glad Laura has a fridge and is willing to let me keep stuff in it once in a while.  I can’t remember the last time I had leftovers…

Which brings us to today, and quite the adventure there.  This morning, Rob sent me out to another jumper suicide.  It is so sad to me this happens, and kind of disturbing at the same time.  This one was less frustrating though, because I was actually able to find a witness.  It’s really sad what happened.  He said this guy just dove off the fifth story of a building after being egged on by some kids.  The whole thing kind of turns my stomach a little.  They had me type up my notes, but I don’t know if they’ll actually report it.  They don’t want to encourage people to jump because they’ll get publicity, you know?

This afternoon has been a little more relaxed.  I just got back from talking to people about Wahsington Square Park, which opened back up to the public today.  It is gorgeous, and I want to take everyone back there.  The people who lived in the surrounding neighborhood (it’s in the middle of NYU, right between the East and West Village) said it was very nicely done, and they were excited to have the park back.  It had been under construction for a long time, and there was a big controversy about the new designs.  Everyone seemed really happy with the end result, even though they felt like it cost more than it was worth.  One woman was telling me that the fountain had been moved less than 10 feet to center it with the arch in the park, and that seemed excessive.  It was a really cool fountain though, with steps actually inside it to sit on.  I can’t wait to bring the girls back and see what they think.  There were two bands playing while I was there, and it’s supposed to be great for stuff like that in the summer.

That’s about it for now.  Just hanging around until something else comes up or 6:00 gets here.  A whole bunch of the interns are going to some barbeque place up the street from I. House for dinner tonight, and that should be way fun.  I love being here in the city!