This summer reviewed

I'm at a lull at work right now. I turned in my third-to-last story 45ish minutes ago. There are 15 minutes more until it hits the time my editor suggested for my exit interview.

It's been a wonderful summer. I've been working full time at an internship with the Deseret News. It's funny; on a day like today, my last day of work, you'd think I'd feel a little more nostalgic. Maybe it won't really sink in until Monday morning, when I plan to sleep in, in sunny California.

Five minutes. I'm hoping my source for the last two articles on my story list will email me back before 5 p.m. today. We'll see what happens.

The work atmosphere here at Mormon Times & Features is superb. Everyone is super nice. They take their work seriously, but they find ways to have a lot of fun, too. They have answered all my questions over the summer. Aaron (my editor) and Bob (another editor) have even reviewed articles for me before I turned them in because I wanted extra feedback.

Time.

Delayed. I'll go back in 40 minutes. But for now, a continuation of that review I promised you.

From my list of things editors have corrected me about:

1. Remember to put in a dateline (SALT LAKE CITY)
2. Lowercase my headlines
3. Names of newspapers don't get italicized
4. When doing Odds and Ends, always put the publication (where the information is from)
5. When reading over a finished story, look for interesting details that could be pulled up/referenced sooner
6. Be consistent with tense
7. "LDS Church," capital C
8. According to AP style, ages above 10 are spelled out (eleven-year-old, twelve)
9. Capitalize W in "Web" (Web series)
10. "Over" refers to spatial things only; "more than" is numerical
11. According to AP style, use figures with million or billion in all except casual cases: "I'd like to make a million dollars." BUT: "The nation had 1 million people."
12. If you have to use a lot of ellipses in quotes, you need to cut parts of the quote, leaving only the exceptional
13. According to AP style, abbreviate months with days (Aug. 17)
14. According to AP style, numbers below 10 are spelled out. Use figures for 10 and above
15. When it comes to millions and billions, the word "dollars" isn't needed. Just write $3 billion

Exit interview down. Aaron and Christine (assistant editor) had some good things to say about me and what I can do better.

I just reviewed my last article to see what the editor changed. I think it's some of my best work and a good note to end on.

It's time to turn this computer back in and relinquish my bus pass and name badge. Thank you for a great summer, Deseret News!

In the world of Harry Potter

I had a crazy dream last night. It went like this: me, my friends Rachel and Rebecca B. from UCAS and my friend Rachel H. from my current ward, were all Hogwarts students. We were mischievous but really smart, like four mixes of Hermione and James Potter.

In my dream, we were sneaking into Hogsmeade as animals (we were secretly all Animagi)- me as a big, shaggy dog, Rachel H. as a doe, Rachel B. as a gray owl and Rebecca as a little black monkey. Just messing around, we tried to get into Three Broomsticks, but we tripped a magical security system and were caught red-handed. The grumpy old man who caught us demanded that we turn back into people ("I know ye're students!") before he sent us back to the school, and everyone did except me. I was so flustered I couldn't think how to change back.

The man finally got tired of waiting for me and sent my friends to school without me, all the while getting more impatient as I failed repeatedly at becoming human again. The two Rachels came back a bit later with McGonagall just as I changed my mental command from, Human. Human. Turn human! to Dog. Dog. Dog.

For whatever reason, that worked immediately, and my friends and I laughed about it later, after our sentences had been handed down by Professor McGonagall.

Mara's Bridal Shower (Pictures)

Sara and Jennifer helped me plan and set up for Mara's bridal shower on Saturday, July 28. Judging by the look on Mara's face when she saw the spiedies on the grill, it was a success! (More details on the shower in my previous post- this post will just be a repeat of the photos I posted on Facebook. Reason for repeat: Sara doesn't have FB and thus would be unable to see the photos.)

 Setting up

 Kelly sucking helium

 Setting out the bridal shower Mad Libs

 A little beggar that was interested in the spiedies (chicken shishkebobs) grilling

 Sharing the Mad Libs

 Spiedies. Mmm.

 Sara asks Mara questions about her fiance Josh. For every question Mara got wrong, she had to put another piece of gum in her mouth. She answered 14 of 40 questions incorrectly.

 Mara opening presents!

 Kelly and Holly's gift

 Kelly and Holly's card

 Mara's Memory Book

 Sara posing with a spoonful of homemade vanilla ice cream

Jennifer and Mara

The story behind the story

Tomorrow, I will write a story about a family reunion with 3,000 attendees: the descendants of Henry Grow, who built the roof of the Salt Lake Tabernacle, several bridges, and some other buildings as part of the Public Works program in the mid-1800s after the Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.

The reunion stretched over two days: Friday and Saturday. I interviewed two of the four main organizers of the reunion Thursday morning, and they were kind enough to invite me to come to some events during the Grow reunion. They set it up so I could join the family on a special tour of the Salt Lake Tabernacle at 10 Saturday morning. I was really excited!

I intended to drive the car up to Sandy and ride TRAX in to Salt Lake City, but when I woke up in the morning it was to an empty house (my parents and siblings had left to go to our family reunion at Snowbird) and no car keys. Mom and Dad left me Skip (the name of our car) as planned, but after calling them on the phone about the key problem we realized I'd inadvertently locked the spare key in the car. Roadside Assistance came to the rescue, unlocking the car for me at about 8:55 a.m. There was no longer time to ride TRAX; I sped all the way to Salt Lake. Luckily, I found parking right off (and it was free!) and walked quickly to Temple Square, where I made it just in time for the tabernacle tour.

The rest of the day was busy. I stayed with the Grows (who were all very gracious and friendly) until 12:30 or so, then sped home to prepare for a bridal shower my friend Sara and I threw for our friend Mara. We ended up leaving for the park later than we meant to, but still had enough time to get everything going. Jennifer was a lifesaver- she drove to the park to meet us at 6, the time we'd wanted to get there, and lay on top of one of the picnic tables so nobody would take it. Good thing, too- that park was busy last night! We saw a wedding, a baby shower, and a birthday all at the same time at the same park.

Holly and Kelly came to the shower too. We had a blast doing Mad Libs (Sara, Jennifer and I made them up specially about Mara and Josh), grilling spiedies (chicken shishkebobs), making homemade ice cream and feeding Mara more and more sticks of gum for every question she answered wrong about Josh. (Sara and I wrote a list of 40 questions and sent them to Josh to answer beforehand. Mara answered 14 of 40 incorrectly. It was very amusing for those of us watching.)

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Note the important edit made August 1: Mara answered 14 of 40 questions INcorrectly, as pointed out in the comments.

A midnight thought about Facebook stalking

What is it about being on a computer late at night that is so mesmerizing? I work at a computer all day. You'd think I'd stay far away, but the truth is I can hardly pull myself away. And now that I've started this you can be certain I'll finish it.

Facebook. That strangely addicting, wonderful and sometimes hurtful tool. It's like a, I don't know what to call it, a phone book with pictures and life updates that people choose to share. I love it because it's so easy to find out what my friends are up to- one click and I'm there. Wondering whatever happened to that girl or guy from high school? Chances are, they're on FB, and it takes me all of 30 seconds to scan their profile for any life-changing events. Where they're working, going to college, living. Engagements. Marriages. For a few (so far), the births of their first children. Even less important (aka non-life milestone) things: a funny status or picture. A clever comment. A shout-out to a friend. How they are.

Do I Facebook stalk? Depends on what you mean by stalk. Defining "stalk" as the act of trying to find more information about someone without their knowledge, I suppose I do, although I would point out I don't care if people know I'm looking at their profile, as long as I'm not being creepy about it. I don't sneak around when I "stalk" (definition one). Defining it as obsessively trying to find more information about someone without their knowledge, I do not. I have a problem with the second breed of stalkers, but I do like having a connection to all the people I've met in my life that I care about what happens to them, but don't necessarily have a way to contact them.

I believe that is all I wanted to say. I don't feel like staying on to think of a neat little conclusion. Any minute now I'll start rambling about a lot of boring stuff you probably don't care about. Better to end the post raw than subject you to that. Happy Friday to all, and to all a good night. When I wake, it will still be Friday.

Ghosts!

A quick funny story to finish off your day and mine: On the way to the bus stop this morning, Mom and I heard faint voices. (Ahem... I'm really tempted to say, "voices, ever so faint," but that's just not really my style) She double-, triple-, and quadruple-checked that the radio was turned off- but the voices continued, mystifying us both. They were quiet enough that if she hadn't said something, I might have thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me. One of those voices sounded awfully familiar...

"We have ghosts in the car," Mom joked to me after checking the radio yet again.

"At least they sound friendly," I replied just as one of the spirits laughed loudly. Hey, I laugh loudly...

I was still hearing voices an hour and a half later when I got off the bus and headed to my office. I searched through my backpack until I found my little digital recorder, which I use sometimes when I interview people. Sure enough, it was the source of the supernatural disembodied voices. It also explained why I recognized my own laugh.

Author Eoin Colfer is coming to Provo!

J Washburn is giving away two free tickets to Colfer's lecture on July 16 at the Provo public library. Check out his blog if you're interested: J Washburn: Author Blog