It's a gorgeous day today, seriously

So, I didn't get into the Yale program.

Remember I was applying for grad schools? I got a rejection letter yesterday from Yale. I guess it was expected since I'd started out the week with a rejection from this program, I figured why break the streak? Now I'm just waiting for my Georgetown rejection letter. Kinda makes me regret spending the application fee and postage (I overnighted both of them).

Anyway, it was crazy because I got this suspect letter and was like, wtf? no return address on the front. I knew it was a rejection letter. Either that or a plea for money. So I opened it (and see Yale on the envelope flap) and knew I didn't get in. Remember when you were in high school and they talked about the fat envelope vs. the skinny envelope? Yeah, I figure the same applies for grad schools. And my envelope was thin as a mug.

I wasn't even upset about it. I just text the BF like "I didn't get into Yale." He called back immediately and I didn't even bring it up. It was kind of a non issue. Whatever. Yale doesn't know what they're missing.

I was cleaning my house yesterday (after I cleaned my car on that gloriously beautiful Saturday!) and ran across some old newspapers I'd saved forever to mount as clips but never got around to. I decided to toss them since a) I use electronic or web print outs now and b) I've written better stuff since I saved those papers, so I wouldn't use those as clips anyway. Anyway, I was reading some of my old stories and I used to be really good. Well, okay, I used to be good. I did a lot more features when I was in the bureaus because we needed centerpieces. Now that I'm in the main newsroom, most of my stories are briefs or my big features get whittled down to shorts (did I mention a 40 inch story I wrote on domestic violence -- that everyone thought was banging -- got cut in half? And still hasn't run? They're going to make me stop reporting as much because soon as I put in a national expert, when it comes time to print, they just cut them anyway. Save my time and post an update to twitter or something instead.)

So yeah, that was a nice trip down memory lane.

Then, I get a text in the middle of the night from Vandy about this foolishness at my alma mater:

An 18-year-old man shot the night manager and another man inside a Hampton University dorm before turning the gun on himself, police and school officials said Sunday. All three were hospitalized.

No students were injured in the shooting reported about 1 a.m., Hampton police said.

The suspect, who is from Richmond, shot two Hampton men, ages 62 and 43, before shooting himself, police said in a statement.

The shooter is a former student and the older victim is the night manager of the dormitory, Harkness Hall, said school spokeswoman Yuri Rodgers Milligan.

It's like, is the entire world going crazy? I don't know if the two men have died. I think when I first heard about it, I was upset because I thought it was students who were causing silly drama. I'm a firm believer that thugs don't go to college, so if you're in a university, you shouldn't be packing heat or slanging rock. It's just an oxymoron. But when I read the story, I can so see how it happened. Our security is so lax on campus that people can literally just walk on. And from what I hear, the kid was in school last semester, but wasn't enrolled this spring, so it wasn't like people would have been alarmed to see him walking around campus. I just wonder what beef he had with Harkness Hall. My prayers are going out to the entire HIU community.

I've been busy

Actually, no. I've just been tired.

I feel like I did like two trials non-stop last month. I didn't. But the one I did do was a doozy that my newsroom was having wet dreams over so it was causing me much angst. First day of testimony, they're like, give me 175-190 lines.

'scuse me? That's like 25 to 30 inches, sir. People seem to think a bunch of stuff happens during a day of testimony, like it does on TV. They lie. This is how testimony goes in real life.

Prosecutor: What's your name?
Witness: Joe Smith.
P: Where are you employed?
W: Widgets and Stuff.
P: What do yo do there?
W: I'm a janitor
P: How long have you been there?
W: 15 years
P: Do you have a family?
W: Yes.
P: Are you married?
W: Yes.
P: To whom?
W: Sally Smith.
P: How long have you been married?
W: 25 years.
P: Did you have chance to be working on March 23, 2005?
W: yes I did.
P: And how did you start that day?
W: I cleaned the trash cans and picked my nose and read people's mail like I always do. ....

But it takes a lot longer than it took you to read that. Trust me. And cats don't want to believe me when I tell them that

Pause for the cause.

I think Dan Barry just walked into my newsroom. Ahh, I think he's speaking (or spoke) at a journalism class taught by one of my colleagues. Apparently he's got local ties. From wiki: Dan Barry is a reporter for The New York Times. His column, "About New York", appeared on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the NY Region section of the paper. While working for the Providence Journal-Bulletin in 1994, Barry won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting after exposing corruption in the Rhode Island court system. Well, dang.

Back to our regularly scheduled post.

So anyway, they want me to pull 30 inches of crap out of my neck when they don't understand that the first few witnesses aren't necessarily the juicy ones. Like, they have to set scene and establish all these things before they get to the juicy stuff. Let ME -- the person who sat in court all day -- tell you how much I can pull out of my neck, please.

But I wrote it anyway. Here it is. I got in trouble for not having enough attribution. I complied in later stories.

So after that, I started writing this other story that keeps getting held. Shoot, actually two stories. I know it's the nature of the beast, it just is MAD irritating. Because they keep coming to me with stuff that's in the story asking me about it. And I fix it, or bring their point up higher in the story and the joints still haven't run. Someone kill me.

Beyond that, training has been beating me. And I'm lazy. I did do 30 minutes of core strengthening yoga this afternoon followed by a 45 minute run/walk that covers the 3.1 miles I'll be running on May 2. I was proud because I got further than I had been before I stopped to walk, but still kinda discouraged because I had to stop. I'm building up slowly, so I figured it best to at least get used to the distance, even if I didn't run it the entire time. I ran in intervals. So I guess that's improvement, huh?

I'm hungry and I'm about to go to a Town Council budget workshop session. Joy.