so...this is a thursday.

i woke up at about 8 this morning. i felt pretty okay, considering the three.5 hours of sleep, and got all my stuff together and made it to my 9 a.m. class, chocolate slimfast in one hand and my favorite red notebook in the other. it's been raining and the worms are starting to be all over the place --...which leads me to wonder -- how do they get there? i never see them inching their way onto the sidewalks, and yet, there they are. maybe they get floated there with all the water. --which is pretty gross, but not altogether unusual. today is thursday. thursday's are my story days this semester. after class, i head over to the newsroom. somewhere in the back of my mind, i was thinking about the super-long law paper that is due by 5 p.m. tomorrow. and i seriously don't know when i'll get it done.

i find a few ideas for stories and i'm pretty excited, despite the knowledge that i have to work tonight and i will be shooting in the yucky rain and waking up at the crack of dawn to edit and put everything together and...when am i going to write my paper? i always feel like dying after finishing the show, plus there's the party after the show, and the dance party i want to go to in a.f. tonight and let's be honest. there's just not enough time in the world for everything that i want / need to do.

[[enter voice of reason.]]

the v.o.r. (beth) reminds me that i've already done enough stories (since i did two last week) and tells me i should just work on my paper. i remember that i have enough extra credit to have a decent grade without the extra package. i am suddenly torn.

so i make a choice. who knew i was such a massochistic workaholic?? -- that i'd actually want to do the story today and go to class and work tonight and then the party and then write the paper and then log my tape and edit my package in the morning and go to the party at one and have my paper ready before five and hang out with my sister before she goes to colorado for the weekend (sad face).

but that's not what i decided.

now i'm at home. it's just before noon and i have nothing slated for the afternoon besides my law paper. i might actually get it done before i have to go to class today, be able to revise it after work, and sleep tonight (omg). i don't even know what to do with myself.

it makes me sort of sad to think that i'm done reporting for the semester. looking back, it was an awful, terrible, knee-shaking, heart-wrenching semester, leaving me with many sleepless nights, silly standups, shaky b-roll and strangers that i fell in love with (because of their stories, of course). and last week, i furiously edited my package and vo/sot/vo, angry at myself for not thinking to double-check the tape (even though it SAID i still had 20 mins left...rrr) and got it all done with time to spare. it's funny to think that was the last time i'd ever edit a 325 package.

you never think it will be the last time for things until after the fact. and then you wonder if you might have changed things...if only you would have known it was the last time. i wonder if i would have done anything differently. i'm not really sure.

wow. this is so long. i'm going to go write my paper. i think talking about my reporting experience will need to be a totally separate post altogether.