give me apathy or give me death

[aruan]

So what was supposed to be a rational little talk with Justin, wherein he dispels the amount of running around and keeping up and general haze of work that is my life as unnecessary control freakiness, turned into my having a quiet little breakdown on the back steps of the Alligator as he told me no, actually, I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing, let me clap you on the shoulder, "ghost of Justin past." Apparently, I do need to keep running after my people and breathing down their necks to make sure they're doing something, and it won't be until the last weeks of school before something will allegedly "click" and they'll finally, finally get what they're supposed to be doing and how. Among yet more unhelpful things, he told me to relax, but I still have no boundaries as to where my job ends and theirs begins and the pending insanity that will likely cause. I just feel so inadequate walking into budget having virtually nothing to show for a day spent running around assigning stories and keeping on my people about them. They're making me frustrated and angry and quite frankly, I'm growing to resent them for making me dread the job I love.

*deep breath* In any event, I got some Mediterranean food and listened to a little Britney, and all was somewhat, if only temporarily, better in my world. Until I had to deal with handling my first fatality of the job.

Early Friday morning, a 21-year-old kid doing 90 in a 35 mph zone in a hilly, woodsy part of town. His car became airborne and rolled before crashing into a telephone pole. Dead on the scene. My cops reporter knows his friends and got a great story about him as opposed to a cops brief, but for a moment there, I wish she hadn't.

There was marijuana found at the scene. Not in the vehicle, but at the crash site. Very small amount, too, and really, how many intersections in Gainesville can't you find the remnants of a joint at? But it was there, and it's a possible factor, which means my cops reporter and I are going to have a chat because it wasn't in the story. This kid was apparently a straight-laced, clean-cut Christian frat boy who hadn't even had a sip of alcohol until he turned legal last year. When she asked them about it, they basically amounted even mentioning the pot to "defaming his character." I thought about that, and if it had been my friend, I'd rather believe there was an outside variable. Not that that's relevant at all, and in my world of worlds, this would've happened on Wednesday morning so we could run the straight-up cops brief, then run the memorial with quotes from his friends and family on Friday. But it didn't, and it all needed to be said in the same breath, and while I think I handled it tactfully, Dwayne and I still debated about it for a good chunk of time. We made the right call - as a letter to the editor said last week, if we don't inform, the people can't decide.

Venturing out for groceries will have to happen sometime soon, as I'm all out of lemons, and it's a damn cold night to be without tea. However, that probably won't be tomorrow, when I'm due in court at 9 a.m. until possibly the afternoon, or just long enough to know the Williams case has been continued once again, and then I'll go to the office and start dealing with the foreseeable barrage of phone calls and e-mails from the kid's friends and family.

Comments

[science-vixen.livejournal.com]

If you do add the bit about pot in the story so that people may decide, you might also have to point out that studies done in the UK proved that people actually drive slower and more careful while under the influence or marihuana, even though the trip can be a lot longer cause they keep missing the exit. ^_^