Another Monday

It happened again. A death notice showed up just as a hole showed up! I never plan these holes, they just kind of show up when they are needed.

Today I had TWO, yes two, ladies to help with the paper. Besides that, the paper was chuck full of ads. Kelly bragged that HE packed the paper tight just so it wouldn't be too hard for us to edit. I let Vicki Atkinson, new co-worker, & Karen Naylor, she used to work at The Citizen, my two helpers today, proof & Karen made some of the changes on the computer. At 4 o'clock Karen & Vicki had caught up to me. They had seen all 18 pages, minus the 3 full page ads. So, we let Karen go home. I told Kelly we would be through by 6. Vicki stayed & I'm sure glad she did. She was my runner, she did the checking on facts, spellings & signed us off on the pages. And yes, we were finished by 6!! So, cool, that's the first time we've been done that soon all year!! A cause to celebrate.

We have to sign off when we release a page to go to the next step. I was the second copy editor today. It reminded me of Mrs. Pollifax & the Second Thief or Tony Hillerman's The First Eagle. In both cases it was the second one that got caught, hehe.

Anyway, about 4:30, we got to a sports page that had a 1 column by 2-3 inch hole that Bob (Merrill, assistant editor) had put a box & instructions to use an in-house ad. I had just scrolled down to it & was commenting to Vicki that we needed to find something to fill this. I hadn't even finished making my comment when Stacey (Comeau, ad salesman) came around the corner with a fax in her hand & said, "I don't know if you guys have seen this obituary. It was on the fax machine." I just sat there, took the obit & said, "No, we haven't seen it." I said to Vicki, "This happens all the time. And it never ceases to amaze me."

I went in to the editors' office & told them we had a space to fill & we had an obituary just handed to us. Neither Rod (Boam) nor Bob batted an eye. Bob said, "Well, then fill it."

It fit, perfectly, of course. Just blows me away. I never expect it. If we plan it, it never happens. I hadn't even started on the obituary page this morning about 10 when Doug Webb called & said there was an obituary. He promised it just after lunch. At about a quarter to 3, I told Vicki & Karen that we still hadn't got the obituary. Before I could finish what I was going to say, Jessi interrupted & said Webb's didn't get to dictate when we finished the paper. That if they didn't have the obit there by 3 p.m., they were out of luck. Vicki called Webb's at 10 to 3 & told them that we had to have the obituary by 3. Jordan said he only had 2 paragraphs left to type. OMG, that was a humongous obituary. We had to split cards of thanks & move 2 of them over to another page.

I was getting so agitated, I was ready to bitch slap someone.