Day 13 (Mon., June 20)

I'm back!!! As you know I took a slight break (sort of) as I headed up to North Texas to do my National Association of Hispanic Journalists internship with the Latino Reporter. It was a great week. I had a lot of work. Please check out the NAHJ Internship Journal.

It was a nice return as I walked back into the Standard-Times office. Well, it wasn't easy getting back into flow of things. First, I was very tired. My drive back from Fort Worth ended earlier today at 3 a.m., so I did not have much sleep. When I walked up to the back entrance of the Standard-Times, my access badge did not work. Suddenly, I felt a certain "oh oh" as I thought they didn't want me back. Turned out, they gave me an official badge w/ my picture and name on it and de-activated the temporary badge I carried. Whew. When I finally got in the building I walked by a board that that the above front page of the West Texas section that ran on one of the days I was away. It was cool, it was complimenting my photo. I felt really good since I was part of a good headline/photo package. It's good when people notice your good work. I am so glad that photo worked out for that story, which was about the high levels of water on local lakes because of the recent heavy rains. However, you might remember from day 5 when I went to cover the drag boat races. I shot this photo as I set up what should have been a good photo: the little girl playing on the sand as a speed boat went by on the water. That never happened as the little girl got up and moved from the location before the next boat went by. I still wish I had the photo of the boat, but oh well, at least I got a front page photo and it got good comments on it. I can't complain.

Heading out to my first assignment felt good. Not just because I was glad to be back in San Angelo, but because it was a similar assignment to the one I did on Friday during the NAHJ internship. I went to a western wear store. I came back with the above photo, which came out really cool. However, the people around me must have thought I was looney as I took this photo from under a clothing rack just so that I can have the right angle. They were whispering "what is he doing?" in a voice that wasn't so low as I shot the photo.

I continued my day by driving around town looking for "water". It was part of my assignment to look for residents enjoying water. It's funny, I might as well have been looking for water for myself. It was so hot. So hot, that by 8 p.m., the screen on a local bank said it was 93 degrees. Today was hot.

When I saw the screen w/ the temperature I was headed back to the office after shooting a few photos of some runners. There is a local run club in town and they get together on Mondays to do a two-mile run around a hill. Pretty scenery as they run next to Lake Nasworthy. I haven't ran in over a month and half as I have been very busy with things. First, w/ the school paper, my finals, my road trip here, my internships. Today that changed as I got some inspiration by these men. I went and did a three-mile run and feel really good right about now.

I am glad to be back here. I missed my apartment and I missed being able to relax a little. Last week was a very rough week, but It was a very good week. I can't complain. I learned a lot. Let's see what the rest of the summer is going to teach me.

Day 12 - Main - Tomorrow