So much for that

I quit my job yesterday. It came down to choices and priorities, on both sides. I'm still mulling the emotions of it and am bouncing between "Crap, crap, crap, crap! No paychecks!" and "Hey, my stomachache is gone."

What I do know is that I will miss being in a newsroom. The reason I'm in graduate school now is because of the way I've seen my writing and critical thinking grow with the kind of daily criticism, guidance, mistakes, successes, mentorship, stress, pressure, frustration, excitement, deadlines, dead ends, humor and craziness found in newsrooms.

I knew if I had a fraction of that kind of focus on my fiction, I could take it somewhere.

God, there are so many reasons to mourn, and to be dejected about the state of newspapers today. Journalism is transitioning, which, in classrooms a few decades from now, might be discussed as exciting. Being in the middle of it is rotten.

I'm so grateful, though, for what I will carry with me, to another newsroom, or not.

So, in honor of the humor and craziness part, I'm sharing with you my favorite news release ever, which I saved from a newsroom in Wisconsin. It's appropriately fitting for Northern California. Here it is, as received:

"On 03-28-00 at approximately 5:15 a.m. Mr. James Hughes was traveling eastbound on CTH H, Approximately .7 mile west of CTH K, in Clark County near the Panther Creek bridge when he observed what he described to be a large creature, approximately eight feet tall, step off the roadway and go into the ditch. He estimated this creature to be in excess of 500 pounds and walking on two legs. Mr. Hughes also advised he felt it was carrying something in its arms, possibly the carcass of a goat. Mr. Hughes stated this creature appeared to have a grayish colored hair all over its body.

On 03-29-00 Mr. Hughes reported this incident to the Clark County Sheriff's Department. At that time a deputy met with Mr. Hughes to investigate the incident. Mr. Hughes also took the deputy to the site, however no physical evidence was able to be obtained.

At this time the Clark County Sheriff's Department does not feel further investigation is needed. No further sightings have been reported. From information gathered it does not appear this creature is a threat to anyone."

(Don't worry. It's 500 pounds and carrying a carcass, but you're good.)