Week One of my new job drew to a close at 7:45 last night, 2.25 hours after I was supposed to get off work. I'd been in court all day, so when I came back to the newsroom I had to write about 50 inches worth of stories (somewhere around 1,500 words, I think). And then I heard something about how officers had found some munitions in a storage shed and had to call in the military. That turned out to be nothing, but such things tend to take up time while I listen to the scanner and call various police numbers, attempting to get some information.

But I'll back up a little. The days of this week basically melded into one, but on Wednesday I had calls from television stations about two different stories I had written. The stations wanted to cover the stories, but had some difficulties. Unfortunately for them, I didn't have a lot of sympathy.

On Monday, my story about those police cards I mentioned previously was the front page centerpiece. On Tuesday, I had my first banner headline story, right there across all six columns. And it was a HARDCORE story, too, instead of a soft piece on some police trading cards. On Wednesday, my story about a lady who gave birth in a gas station parking lot was the centerpiece story, and people seemed to love that one. That and a story of mine that ran on the inside of the paper were the ones the television stations were interested in. On Thursday, my sad story about a 20-year-old who was killed by a hit-and-run driver was the centerpiece story. Working on that story was hard, because I was talking to all these family members whose hearts were breaking. No, he wasn't perfect, but that made him even more real. His funeral is today, and his poor mother was hoping she would be able to make it, as she was due to give birth yesterday. While the story was hard, it was also rewarding, because it gave the family something more than a small obituary and a funeral notice on the inside of the paper. It's bad enough that he was killed, but the driver who struck him still has not been found.

Moving along, today my story was either a banner headline or the centerpiece. (I'm off work today, so I haven't seen the paper yet.) I spent most of yesterday at the preliminary hearing for a man charged with murder and attempted murder. I've only been to a few court proceedings in my life, but so far, I am utterly fascinated by them. This one was certainly no exception. The witnesses got up there on the stand and proceeded to change the stories they had initially given police. Two of the people who testified were brothers of the alleged murderer, and they are now blaming evil spirits for the murder. I don't know if this is a religious thing (they're Hindu), a language barrier (they only speak Punjabi), if they honestly believe it, or if they're now trying to prevent their brother from being found guilty. At any rate, the judge found plenty of evidence to warrant a full trial, so I'll be following the whole thing in the months to come.

Speaking of murder trials, I've taken over full coverage Sarah Dutra's murder trial, a story that was one of the two big investigative stories I did while working at The State Hornet. I scooped the major newspapers and TV stations on some of the details in the story, and I was rather disappointed when I knew I wouldn't be able to see it through to completion. But now it's suddenly mine again, and I'll be in court Monday morning to see the arraignment before Sarah Dutra goes on full trial. Not only will I cover the whole trial, but I'll be in there with major news sources, including the Associated Press. Yes, I'm a little nervous.

In other job-related news, I'm moving. I gave my 30 days' notice, and the last bit of moving will probably be crammed into the days before I leave for the RU, so that guarantees that I will go completely insane. But once I get over it, I'll be in a one-bedroom apartment three blocks from work. The rent is cheap even though it's in a good part of town (people really discouraged me from living in some areas), and I've heard nothing bad about it. The guy whose job I took lived there, so I was able to ask him questions before he left. The one drawback is that I'll have to go to a laundromat, as it doesn't have on-site laundry facilities. That will be a new thing, but I decided to just grin and bear it. Though I've been living away from home for years now, this will be the first time I've lived by myself. I decided I should experience that, and I don't think I'd ever find a roommate like the one I have now.

All in all, I'll be sad to move, because I live in a very nice place, pay extraordinarily cheap rent, and have never once had any problems with my roommate in two years. But the time has come for me to move on, and with this job, I really need to be closer to work. If some big police-related thing happens (as has been the case in Lodi lately), it will currently take me nearly an hour to get there. And in order to be a truly effective beat reporter, I need to be somewhat near my beat.

In conclusion, the next month promises to be filled with murder investigations, murder trials and an Ellmyruh slowly going insane when she thinks of moving.

Ell"should really stop posting long things about self"myruh