So much has gone on, so little time to actually talk about it.
First things first. I've made some enemies in town. This all goes back to the
election. I wrote a column about the candidates' debate in town. I made the
observation that the Independent candidate was posssibly not MP material. When that
column ran, the candidate called me to vent about how I had put the nail in his
political career coffin. It was one of those phone calls where I held the receiver
away from my ear for 10 minutes. After he hung up, I asked the front desk people
to warn me if he dropped by the office so I could hide out in my office.
The next day, he stopped by and I hid. I really didn't want to deal with him. He
spent half an hour talking to the publisher about my irresponsible column and then
left. Whew.
The next enemy I made was a woman from the arts council. I had gone to one of her
events, taken pictures and wrote a story, but it never made it into the paper. Not
my call; the editor's job. She stormed out of the office, mad as hell.
Lastly, I received a typed, unsigned letter accusing me of bad judgement b/c I
took photos of some teenagers jumping off an old railway bridge into the river.The
parents of the kids thought the photos were great; they ordered reprints. But
this anonymous person thought that I decided to put photos of a dangerous activity
in the paper, thereby condoning the jumping. Again, the editor's job, not mine.
So the job has been challenging here in GF. Not only have I come to realize that
I will be targeted for arguement b/c everyone knows my face, but I also have come
to realize that my newspaper isn't so much a newspaper than a newsletter.
There was a big story this week, where an adult son killed his father. Big story.
Horrible story, but as a newspaper we have a responsibility to report the facts.
The family called the editor and asked him not to print ANYTHING about it. He
agreed. So now we don't report it, except for reprinting the RCMP releases.
Needless to say, I'm frustrated with my job. Especially when I've been offered
some freelancing work with the local radio station but I'm not allowed to do it
b/c it's a conflict of interest. But there's a possibility that I may be hired
full time by them in the fall. Keep your fingers crossed.
On the personal side of things, I've had too much fun the past few weeks. I've
been meeting more and more people and hanging out and seeing the sights of GF.
Two weeks ago, I spent some time at the beach on Christina Lake (gorgeous lake
about 20km from here) and then I went floating down the Kettle River for a few
hours. Floating is the main activity around here in the summer. Everyone has
rope swings and diving platforms on the banks. It was so nice just floating,
drinking beer, swimming. Very cool.
Last weekend was a big party weekend in Calgary. I drove out to Calgary on Friday,
making the mistake of driving through the parks and encountering tourists in
rental RVs. Soooo slow.
Friday night was Kent Zado's wedding. Beautiful ceremony, small, friendly. Lot
of fun. Afterwards, a few of us went to Rahul and Sarah's house in NW Calgary
and hung out til 4am.
The next day was tiring but busy. A few of us took a bunch of dogs for a walk,
getting messy and muddy in the process. Really, four people walking seven dogs
in an offleash area is an interesting idea. Then, I went for lunch at the Ship
(oh, the ship, how I missed thee) and then off to Dianna's to decorate for
Karen's party. We had planned on surprising Karen and it went off better than
expected. She had no clue what was going on. It was an amazing party and I got
to see a bunch of people I hadn't seen in a really long time.
After a fast trip to IKEA, I was gone back to GF on Sunday. Shorter drive since
I went through Fernie this time.
Coming up this week, the Kettle River Days in the village of Midway. There's
lawnmower races and a pig roast. Yippie.
Promising to write more...