6/13/07. 11:46
I am eating my lunch outside today, even though it’s a bit humid and cloudy. I have been going to lunch at different places in town or eating outside lately because the break room is so unpleasant. Same goes with the entire building- it smells like ass, there are cracks in the ceiling, and I think I might be breathing in mold. (Side note: black mold was later found in the building and had to be removed).
The building, in general, smells like old water damage (kind of a musty smell), body odor, and shit. Why would anybody want to eat their lunch in this kind of environment? It’s gross and can ruin your appetite.
6/15/07. 16:46
Today was all right. Writing down police reports is so boring and such a pain in the ass! The police department here sucks and they are too lazy and stupid to make copies for us. Instead, we have to sit there for hours copying shit down by hand. What a waste of time. I’ve only done it for two days and I’m sick of it already.
My boss thinks he’s hilarious. Yesterday he called PBS “The Communist Channel” and implied that women are raped and kidnapped because they wear revealing clothing. AWESOME.
He’s such a fucking idiot.
6/18/07 17:42
I partially tore apart this beautiful journal today, and I feel awful about it.
What happened was I was covering the circus set-up this morning and I had absolutely no paper to write on- nothing! We ran out of reporter’s notebooks at work and the new ones hadn’t come in yet. I was a nervous wreck this morning because I was supposed to take pictures of the circus set-up, then run to some antique shops to interview their owners for some stupid Summer Fun Tab story. I hate tabs so much. They’re full of stories that just pander to the local businesses.
One antique shop owner was a complete BITCH to me today and almost made me cry. Apparently, two ads that she ran in our paper were wrong somehow and she felt like taking it out on me. I don’t make the ads. I have hardly anything to do with them anymore. FUCK OFF.
I felt like quitting today.
I also had no batteries for my recorder, which was great, plus the newspaper doesn’t supply them. All they supply are the reporter’s notebooks. I have to buy my own pens, tape recorder, batteries, and gas (they only reimburse 20 cents per mile, which is pathetic and makes it not even worth it to turn mileage sheets in). (Side note: the newspaper regularly disregarded labor laws, including not paying workers for overtime. This happened very often and I was regarded as a problem when I refused to work overtime without being paid.)
If I had my choice, I would have stayed and covered the circus all day. There were oodles of people to talk to and there was so much going on.
I can honestly say that I hate my job, but I don’t know what else to do.
I hate it! My editor is a sexist, homophobic idiot and everyone in the newsroom has this awful, defeatist attitude that I can relate to now. I don’t want to relate to it. The whole place is so fucking depressing!
The entire town seems to have that defeatist attitude as well. I wish they would wake up and smell the damn coffee.
