Week Two begins

After a weekend at home in Anderson, I made may way back to Merrillville for work this morning.  My boss asked that we come in at 8:30 this week, so that meant I had to be on the road at around 6:30.  My saving grace is the fact that I pick up an hour on the way up.  It was calm on the roads this morning.  Except for one nervous nelly on State Road 47, I made good time and rolled into the parking lot with 10 minutes to spare.  I-65 was smooth sailing all the way.

The programming lineup is coming together and we should have wire services running in the next couple of days.  I'm still a little concerned that I haven't made the proper contact for police and fire beats in the morning.  I reached out via e-mail this afternoon to some of the police and fire chiefs, hoping they might pass it along to their public information officers.

I think we have a very good news team and could become a dominant resource in this area.  The commercial stations have made news an afterthought and the newspapers only come out once a day.  I've also discovered that the print media doesn't have BlackBerry friendly web pages so it's a little clunky to get information on the run.

What's really great about this job is that I feel that my input is taken seriously.  The news director and program director approach me and ask what I think about this or that.  In the past, I've been told how it's going to be done, regardless of how it may impact my ability to do things effectively.

I have to be honest that I was a little preoccupied with a personal matter today.  I don't know if my co-workers caught on, but as my day ran a little longer than the appointed six hours, I was antsy to get out and call someone.  Fortunately I found five minutes between meetings to do that, but I had wished I had a little longer.

I'm back in my cheap motel for the week again.  It's a different room and I'm not really as pleased as I was last week.  The heater wasn't on when I walked in and it was as cold in the room as it was outside.  I had to crank it up to 80 to get warmed up.  If I have to stay here again next week, I think I'll ask for the room I had last week.

I have a bag of groceries so I should be able to get through the week without caving to a fast food craving.  If I do need something, there's a Jamba Juice across the street, so I can at least have something halfway healthy.  By the way, whoever at the Mt. Olive pickle company came up with the single serve pickle cups deserves some kind of Nobel Prize.

Word on the street is my 3 am shift starts Thursday morning.  I'll enjoy the last couple of late nights I have left...