It's Twitterific!

As you may or may not have noticed, I have added a gadget to the left side of this blog page. It is entitled "Twitter Updates," and is just that. I have a Twitter account (for those of you who don't know, it's a web site where you can post 140-character notes/updates as much as you want), and I'm updating it whenever I feel like it, and from now on, those updates will show up on the side of the page here. I'm going to try and keep up with it as much as I can, so that will be something else for you to check out when I haven't updated the blog in a while.

I've had a Twitter account for a while, but then since I've been here, I've realized how many people have them, and I decided it would probably be a good idea to get on there and understand it.

In other news, today I got to work and was assigned to cover a meeting of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments in which a presentation was going to be made about the number of homeless people in the area. The thing was that today was early deadline day, and the meeting didn't start until noon, and I had to have my story filed by 1:45 p.m. And on top of that, the actual presentation of the information didn't start until 12:45 p.m. Which meant I had exactly one hour from the beginning of the presentation to get my story written and filed.

I got to the meeting about 10 minutes early, got all the papers off the table for the press, and found a seat. There was a document with all the numbers of homeless populations, so I grabbed that and started looking through it. I wrote the lede to my story and kind of outlined the story so I would be ready to go when the presentation was over.

Then, to add more stress, a PIO came over to me and said that the document I was poring over was actually incorrect, and they were trying to get the correct numbers prepared, but he wasn't sure whether it would happen or not.

That was highly stressful.

Fortunately, the new numbers came in during the presentation, and everything worked out fine. I took avid notes, desperately scribbling in my Moleskin notebook. It finally finished around 1:15 p.m. I had a half hour to write the story.

I sat down and wrote my butt off. Fortunately, 350 words isn't horribly difficult. Got the story done to the point where I was satisfied with it. It was 1:43 p.m. I tried to log onto the wireless in the building where the meeting was to no avail. It wasn't working. So I had a completed story but no internet.

I was right next to Union Station, and I knew there was a Corner Bakery in there. So I ran. I ran to Corner Bakery. Got there, and my computer wouldn't pick up the signal. I tried and tried and tried. Nothing. Went into B. Dalton, just because I was desperate. It was now nearing 2 p.m. B. Dalton was no help whatsoever. I went back to Corner Bakery, just to try one more time, and it worked!

I sent the story off just in time. Literally moments after I had sent it, the connection died. I think I need to get the wireless card checked out in my laptop, because it feels like everywhere I go I have issues connecting to the wireless. So either everywhere in DC has a weak signal, or my wireless card isn't doing very well.

Either way, I got the story filed and my editor was very happy with it. He called me to let me know he didn't have any questions, and since I was already at Union Station, I could just go home since the deadlines of the day were past. So I got a sandwich from the Great Steak and Potato Company and a Mcflurry from McDonalds and went back to the apartments, where I am currently sitting.

One thing I liked today, though, was that while I was sitting in Corner Bakery waiting to hear back from Keith, there was a lady with two young boys, and she asked one of the workers if there were any other food options in the station. The worker just kind of looked at her and was no help, and I noticed. I don't always butt into these kinds of situations, but I decided to help. I told the woman that there was a whole food court downstairs and gave her directions. I figured that after how many people have helped me out since I've been here, I could pay it forward, if you will. It felt good to be able to help someone.

Tonight is progressive dinner, sort of. A lot of people are going to be gone, since tomorrow marks the beginning of our Easter break, so we decided to just order pizza and hang out rather than make everyone do a bunch of work for not many people.

I'm still going to work tomorrow, even though we are supposed to get the day off. Jason called me "dedicated" this morning, but that's really not it. It's more guilt. Keith came over to me Tuesday morning and told me that like, a ton of people had taken off the next couple of days and he was really going to need my help this week. So I just couldn't make myself tell him that I was supposed to get Thursday off. So I'm working. But it's no biggie, it's not like I have anywhere to be or anyone visiting, so I might as well work. And after tomorrow, I only have three more internship days.

Yesterday I wrote a story about how Catholic churches in the area are seeing a higher number of people that are going to be confirmed into the church this weekend. It was actually really interesting talking to the people. I called the Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Arlington and talked to them a bit. It's a good story, I think. I like writing it.

After work, I met Mandi and went to a book release party/lecture at the Marian Koshland Science Museum with her (she was covering it for UPI). It was about climate changing and global warming, and the book showed climate change through photos. It was actually pretty interesting.

Then we met Coco at Fuddruckers in Chinatown area and had dinner. It was quite fun. I like those girls. Then we took the bus home because we had not expected it to be so cold and we hadn't worn coats that day. Bad day to make that choice.

Got home around 9:30 p.m. (long day), and hung out for a while. Talked to Nick on Skype before completely crashing in my bed.

And just as an update, I'm still doing quite well in getting up early for our 7 a.m. devotionals. Everyday this week I've been up and at 'em at 7 a.m. It's been a really good experience, and I'm glad we're doing it. Definitely gives me a better outlook on my day. I think we're going to keep this up until the end of the semester? I would be fine with that. It just makes me absolutely exhausted, so I completely die in my bed every night.

And as a last note - the Giants definitely WON their opening day game yesterday 10-6. LOVE it. Good way to start off the season. Can't wait to see more of this.