Melissa, Oh?

I used to *love* snow. I mean, what kid doesn’t? A free pass from school and something fun and new to play with … can’t beat that …
Then I got a job at a newspaper. And they had a lovely rule in which we had to drive into work even in inclement weather. Understandable, I [...]

My post last week reminded me of this incident that happened 4 years ago.
There is a reason I can hardly bear to look at this photo:
I wrote the text below in February of 2006, and a version of it was published in the newspaper that I worked for at the time. Four years later, and I still can’t read it [...]

Working at a newspaper made me paranoid.
In the years I spent in the newsroom, I shared space with a police scanner. A police scanner that was always on (well, except for when someone would turn it down so they could watch the latest episode of the news or Lost or Elimidate …)
And in being around [...]

When I was in college, studying to be a journalist, I was told that newspapers were dying. And I either didn’t believe it or didn’t have the foresight to see why that would matter to me and my future budding career.
I graduated, got my first job at a local newspaper, and it was there I [...]

Me in my room at 15, being photographed by The Charlotte Observer for an article about the teen panel I was a member of. I was very proud of my wall! Susan jokes that I was able to turn it into a career …

Written on August 29, 1994:
In ten years I would like to be out of college and married.
[10-year-later update: I was 4 years out of college, and I was married exactly 10 years and 6 days after this was written]
I want to be a journalist at a large newspaper, perhaps writing editorials.
[10-year-later update: I was assistant [...]

On that day 7 years ago, I was still a rookie copy editor and page designer at the newspaper. Fresh from college, I had been working there just 9 months, and this day would be the first day I would see what an impact working for the media can have – not just on the [...]

Spring lives here where sunrise greets
weekend coffee and conversation
Trust and truth rests – in your lap,
my feet – in my hand, a newspaper
Did you know, dear, that the world has stopped
understanding but we know our demons, and we know
our angels, and this day you are the guardian
of my heart – the town might talk and [...]