Oh journalism...

Today I have a case of the Mondays. It is super rainy and dreary outside, and I fear the sun won't shine today. I had the hardest time dragging myself out of my warm bed, but somehow I managed at 6 A.M. (which is 30 minutes later than normal).

Why is it that when it rains we don't want to do anything but lay around and watch marathons of House or Criminal Minds? Because that sounds exactly like something I would love to do today. But unfortunately, I am at work.

I am trying to get my ducks in a row for school and figure out how best to divide my time between paper, paper, discussion board, paper, take-home test, reading, scholarly articles, paper, etc. I am finding it incredibly difficult to muster motivation this semester. But I am hoping it is just the case of the Mondays talking.

Last week I was interview by the school newspaper about what I do at my job and why I love working for a non-profit organization. I'll tell ya, it was interesting.

Being that I have a journalism degree and wrote for the UCA newspaper, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on how an interview should be conducted. Educate yourself on the subject as much as possible BEFORE the interview, prepare a list of baseline questions to ask the interviewee, show up on time with a pen and paper, listen, take notes, ask follow-up question, take notes. That is pretty much what I would do. I mean it's not rocket science, but it can get a little tricky.

So anyway, I was asked to be interviewed regarding service learning at UALR. So when the reporter and I set up at time. I told him I was out the the office Mondays and Fridays. Being that he contacted me on a Thursday morning for an interview, this should have been my first red flag.

He calls to schedule a meeting for Friday afternoon...after I already told him I am not in the office on Fridays or Mondays. Then he asks if we can meet sometime that day (which was a packed Thursday). I told him I had free time from 1:30 to 3, and that he could come anytime between the time I had given. So he settled for 1:30 since he didn't call to schedule something earlier in the week.

While I was on the phone with him, I kept having the feeling that he was an older man. And I was right.

He looked about 60-65 with gray hair and a Fu Manchu that had grown so long he was able to have two small braids hanging from his chin. He wore a old timey car hat, the flat ones that sit on top of the head, and a vest.

So we go into the conference room, and the so-called interview begins. And it was awkward because he doesn't really ask questions. He just tells me the purpose of the story he is writing and the angle his wants to take. So...

I start talking about my job and what our organization does. etc. etc. And he is NOT writing. He jots a few things down, which I didn't feel like were prime things to jot.When he asked why I loved working for a non-profit and volunteering, I gave a long answer, full of very quoteable material. But he didn't write any of that down either.

Once I am done with my spiel, he asks if we had a Web site or any hand-outs. Great.


So I gave him the hand-outs we had and told him how to get to our Web site. And now I am just waiting. Waiting to see what he says I said during our little talk.

It was just so very strange with the Fu Manchu and no note taking. I know there wasn't a recorder. As soon as I see the article, I will let you know if Grandpa got an A for effort or an F for epic fail. Until next time...