Home for the summer

Okay, so actually I have been home for like a month now...but oh well. This is just an update informing everyone I am doing well. I am just working at the theater this summer and I think it may be the last summer I do this! I don't get paid nearly enough. Yes, I do have a full-ride scholarship but I still have rent to pay and all that jazz. I am kind of missing Cedar City, but at the same time it is nice to see everyone up here!

Besides that there isn't tons new...

Colorado: SPJ Conference

This past weekend I went to Colorado for a newspaper conference. The first day was kind of tragic because when we were about three hours away from Fort Collins 1-70 closed so we had to stop in a town called Vail for about four hours. It was really annoying. While we were there we went to a McDonalds and the girls and I are the trip were looking at the video we were making about the trip. This drunk guy thought we were video taping him and decided to come and sit down by us. He was so creepy! I decided to interview him for a bit, but since he was drunk the only question he really understood was, "What's your favorite color?" Right when we were going to leave he tried to sell us drugs. It was kind of funny.

We eventually did get to Fort Collins and the next day was the conference. It was a pretty good conference and our newspaper actually won second for best non-daily newspaper. The past three years we have gotten third. After the conference we just hung out at the hotel and then we went and ate.

On Sunday we were heading back to Cedar, but on the way we stopped in downtown Fort Collins to get some footage for our TV station. We also stopped at Molly Brown's house (from the Titanic) we weren't able to tour it though because tours were full until two, so we hung out in the giftshop. The last place we went to was Buffalo Bill's grave and then to a German restaurant, which had the nicest owners ever! It was funny.

Here are some pictures:

This is from two nights before the trip. I was making my portfolio and as you can tell I fell asleep in the newspapers I was clipping.



This is my best friend McKenzie and me before we got stuck in Vail.



These are some pictures of us in downtown Fort Collins.







This is the girls, Captain, and me outside Molly Brown's house. Captain is our advisor and he is kind of like my Dad away from home.



This is at Buffalo Bill's grave. Me at the view finder is because we thought it looked like a face.







The last few pictures are of Christian and me. We are doing really well right now, but we are trying to decide what we want to do about the summer. The first picture is us at a callbox. Christian thought it was cool how Colorado had callboxes and we teased him a lot about it. We were by one when we went to Buffalo Bill's grave so he and I gave a demonstration to the video camera of how to properly use one. The next ones are us at a restaurant.








There you go! Love you all and see you in two weeks!

Bowling: An Awkward Dating Situation

I have decided I dislike bowling unless you are with life-long friends or family who already know you are uncoordinated. Yesterday, Christian and I went on a double date with Kenzie and Blood and we went bowling. Christian warned me he was a terrible bowlers and I thought in my head, "Good, then I don't have to look like an uncoordinated clutz." I forgot Christian can be a really humble sometimes and has a hard time admitting when he is good at something. Basically, he would knock down a good majority of the pins while my ball decided to constantly make friends with the gutter. He claimed he was just lucky, but I told him I was sure he took bowling classes and was just showing off.

But seriously, bowling is awkward. You go and throw the ball and everyone is watching So, you have to turn around and either act excited because you hit something or indifferent about not hitting anything but deep down you are thinking "I suck."

Maybe this is just me, but I think bowling can be a bad idea sometimes.

Happy Easter! (And a announcement)

Happy Easter everyone! As you probably all know I spent my Easter in Cedar City because I came back early from Spring Break to work. I talked to both Mom and Dad last night and they both asked me if I was going to be alone for Easter and what I was doing. I told them I was not going to be alone because my roommate Ariel was here and I was still unsure of what I was doing for dinner. Honestly, I just figured Ariel and I would make our own separate dinners and maybe eat together. Well today Ariel and I decided we would have Easter dinner. I told her I would make the main course because I had some chicken I wanted to use. She said she would provide the side dishes. I made blackened chicken from a recipe I got from supercook.com. (Just so everyone is aware supercook.com is a awesome website where all you have to do is type in what ingredients you have in your kitchen and it will give you recipes. It rocks). We set the table with some dishes we got at DI and these brandy glasses we used once to make a dessert (Yay for the dollar store!) Ariel's side dish was green beans and lentils. I have never had lentils before and I was nervous to eat them because Ariel says when they are just plain they taste like dust. However she added seasoning to it and they tasted pretty good. We had a lively conversation and talked about what our favorite childhood toys were and such (we mostly just talked about our childhood the toy conversation is what stuck out to me the most though). So, this is a picture of our Easter dinner and that is my roommate Ariel.




Now for the announcement.... I learned what my position will be at the Journal next semester! I am the Accent Editor!!!!!! The Accent section is primarily the arts section and more of featured news. I am super excited and I also am getting $20 from the photo editor Blood because he was convinced I would be Sports editor. (We made a bet on it). So, some of the perks of being an editor is I get half-tuition, but since I already have a full-ride scholarship I just get $700 at the beginning of the semester from the newspaper. I also get near $200 every two weeks! So, no more scrubbing toilets for me and I also don't have to write as many articles. I also get my own computer on Editor's row which I am excited for. (Reporters have to share computers). So, I am way excited and I cannot wait for next semester!


Happy Easter!

I'M GETTING MARRIED! JK... Fake bridal pictures.

Okay, so my friend Blood (Richard) is a wedding photographer. He is still a bit unknown and so since he doesn't have a lot for his portfolio he has people model for him that he can use for advertising. He asked me to pose for some pictures, but here is the kick... it was underwater. So basically, he had a cheap wedding dress he got from DI, I wore it and than jumped into the water. Here are a couple of the pictures. I think they are really cool. The one where I am staring at my hand is supposed to be me admiring my engagement ring. Since I don't have one he is thinking of photoshopping one into the photo. So yeah! Here you go. I had a lot of fun doing this and we are thinking of doing it again sometime.

Quote of the Day

Yesterday at staff meeting for newspaper it was announced that it is once again time to apply for positions next year. I admit I have been a bit nervous about applying for an editor position again. I have applied for an editor position for the past two semesters and still no dice. This time I am positive I will get a editor position just because how hard I have been working and I also assist with layout a lot. Still, there is still a bit of me that is nervous especially since I am applying for the associate editor (which is the position right underneath editor-in-chief). After the meeting I was talking to my professor for a bit and than I went back to my computer to work. Before I was able to start though my professor turned to me and said, "Dana, you better keep working here because you impress the hell out of me." I think that is a good sign....

An update

Hey everyone!

I just thought I would give you an update about this semester! So far it has been really good.

I think I have finally learned of how to manage my time between school work and the newspaper so I don't fail classes and I can help out a lot. However, while figuring out this time management I kind of spaced scheduling a social life. :) It is okay though because I really just hang out with people from the newspaper anyways.

Actually in a couple of weeks I am going on a date with one of the newspaper guys. His name is Christian. He is pretty cool. So that should be fun. Hopefully it is not too awkward or anything or that could make work awkward. (As long as he doesn't give me a gnome I think we will be fine)

I will see you guys this weekend when I come up for the Mika concert!

A Gnome

Last week I had a guy from my ward, Hank, ask me out on a date. Now, I wasn't exactly interested in the guy in the first place, but I decided to be polite and go on the date. It was an interesting date...He took me to dinner and a high school basketball game. Throughout the night he would make joke of how demented I was with my arm in my sling and he had a bad habit of reaching over and eating my food. When it came to conversation it was different....he doesn't like to read and he has no preference on music. Basically, after the date I wasn't keen on setting a wedding date and I thought he felt the same way too since he took me home earlier.

A couple of days later I came home from the Journal and my roommate Jessica told me I had a present. It was a gnome. Yes, a gnome from Hank. I asked Jessica if he explained why he was giving me a gnome and she told me that he said I would understand what it was about. I don't. I have never had a conversation about gnomes with anyone until he gave me one.

The End.

Round Four! (Aka my fourth semester)

So, here I am back in Cedar City. Sorry I disappeared without really saying goodbye to anyone. I actually got invited to the Editor's Retreat for the newspaper so I left a bit early. Technically, I am not an editor I am a still a reporter and paginator (which is a fancy word of saying I assist with layout). I was invited though to be trained on layout. The Editor's Treat was more of a party than anything else. Yes, we did learn some stuff and were trained a bit. But mostly we watched the movie Goodnight and Good Luck and than we played Rock Band for three hours. Somehow I ended up being the singer, but I still tried the bass guitar and the drums (not so good at the drums). P.S. Rock Band is a video game for anyone who did not know.

The rest of the week we have been putting our first issue together and tomorrow I finally get to do layout! I am so excited/nervous.

I am starting classes on Monday and I will let you guys know how that is.

That is about it...for now.