I haven't disappeared ... really

I've been a very bad blogger, haven't I?

It's easy to let time get the best of you. But I have been busy. I'm completing my first month on a new and exciting career tomorrow.

Well, it's not really a new career. I'm still in the newspaper business, after all, but it's got a little bit of a twist to it.

I'm the online editor of three newspapers here in Louisiana. Mainly, I work as online editor for The Daily Advertiser, the major newspaper here in Lafayette. The Advertiser also oversees a sister daily newspaper in nearby Opelousas and a weekly entertainment tab called The Times of Acadiana, so I also serve as the online editor for those publications. Each newspaper has its own unique website, and two have their own Facebook pages.

It's my job to create a unique experience for readers who visit our websites. We constantly update and report stories throughout the day on our websites. Breaking news immediately goes up on our websites, while another story -- hopefully a unique piece -- is created for our next print edition. At least, that's the goal, so we're working toward that. While I'm part of the technical team that brings all this together each day, one of the main goals for me is to work closely with the reporters to create the best newspaper we can each and every day – both online and in print.

We receive several millions of page views for our site each month and log hundreds of thousands each day. We just started a joint venture with the major television station in the market, so each day the city's major news outlets are working together to bring the best news to our citizens. It's an exciting task.

There was an oil rig blowout in the Lafayette area yesterday, causing an evacuation in a one-mile radius of the rig. We immediately had a breaking news story online and details on our Facebook page. Our reporters and photographers were quickly on the scene, sending back facts, photos and video for our website. It's a very exciting way to cover news.

We have a columnist in London for the Royal Wedding, and she is blogging for our website and sending daily photographs.

I haven't completely left writing behind either. I write for the website, of course, and I wrote a couple of stories for print edition of The Advertiser the first week I was in Lafayette and before I even officially joined the staff. This Sunday, I have a major feature coming out, both in print and online, about "Cleve" Landry, who 20 years ago received a kidney transplant thanks to the generosity and love of his younger brother, Billy. The newspaper chronicled the story two decades ago, and, on May 1, the 20th anniversary of the transplant, I will be telling the story again and how these past 20 years have shaped the two brothers. There's a wonderful twist to the story that will really make readers think about how nothing is by happenstance. I'm very excited about it.

I've been busy learning the many different computer programs needed for my new job. Technology has never been my strong suit, so I'm on quite the learning curve. But I'm catching on to that part of my job more and more every day. I have a staff that works specifically with me. In fact, we just added a multi-media reporter to my department yesterday. He's been capturing some great video at this week's gigantic festival here – Festival International de Louisiane, a music festival celebrating its 25th anniversary that draws people here from around the globe.

I'm so grateful for my job.

Quite truthfully, I didn't really expect to work at a newspaper again.

I had thought I would probably work on some books I had been putting off for a long time, but sometimes things come together and you know it's the right thing to do. (I'm still working on some books. I'm determined to not let those ideas go.)

Even with my new job, I find that my outlook is different than when I was publisher of The Erwin Record. I'm one person out of dozens at The Daily Advertiser. In Erwin, I was ALWAYS publisher. When I was on the job, I was publisher. When I was at Food Lion first thing in the morning in a ball cap and torn jeans, I was publisher. When I was at a funeral, I was publisher. I lived and breathed my job as publisher, and I'm immensely proud of what we accomplished at The Erwin Record. We made history many, many times – not to mention winning the Tennessee Press Association General Excellence/Sweepstakes Award for eight consecutive years. No other newspaper has ever done that in Tennessee history. We will know if the Record wins it again in July. The awards are for work done in 2010, so if we do, it will be my last time with The Erwin Record to win the award. That will be a bittersweet day, but I do hope we can manage to do it one more time. Keep you fingers crossed. (Hey, if we do, my my old staff will invite me to the awards ceremony and the party, too!)

But as much as I loved my job in Erwin – and I did – I am sort of enjoying my time out of the spotlight. It's good to go to work in the morning and come home in the evening and turn it off, for the most part. I've found myself getting a little nervous on Sundays until I realize I don't have to write a column that day. I always wrote my "From the Publisher's Desk" column on Sunday, and it's been odd not to write
a column every week. Sometimes I was worried about WHAT I was going to write about, but, in the end, it was my favorite part of the job, especially when my column sort of, unexpectedly, turned into a humor column. I enjoyed being silly and making people laugh – and sometimes think and shed a tear, too. Finding that emotional niche was cathartic for me. My natural melancholy and my love of a good giggle, too, found a place in print, and I'm so happy about that.

I haven't completely left that behind either. In fact, I'll be doing some writing for a Tennessee newspaper soon, but I can't really talk about that just yet. All I can say is that I'm looking forward to returning to my Tennessee roots and telling the stories of my life once again. I'll keep you posted on that, too.

Sorry for my lapse in regular blogging. I'll try to be better now that things have really gotten a little more normal here.

Hopefully, I'll be back in Tennessee soon, too, to see all my wonderful friends there. In the meantime, thanks for keeping up with me here in Louisiana.

Love you all.

Sadie Pooch

Lots of folks have asked how Sadie has done with the move, and I'm happy to report she's doing really well.

When Amy and I moved to Erwin from my grandparent's home on Simerly Creek Road, our sweet little dog Mamie just couldn't handle the change. She clawed to get out and was basically miserable. Part of the problem was she hadn't, in the past, been left alone very much. When Amy and I left for work, we'd just take her next door to my parent's house.

When we moved to Erwin, though, she had to be left at home alone while we were at work. I don't think my new neighbors would have taken too kindly to dogsitting Mamie. When it became clear that Mamie was miserable, Mom and Dad agreed to take her in. She was happy there, and she became a wonderful companion to my parents as they faced illnesses over the last few years.

So in March of 2000, Amy and I found ourselves in our new Erwin home but without the daily comfort of a good dog – something we had grown to love. Sadie won our hearts at the Johnson City Animal Shelter, and she's been part of our lives ever since.

I always thought Sadie would do all right in the move. She's a fairly laid-back pooch. When I would go home for lunch each day in Erwin, she'd stretch and welcome me home with a mighty ... yawn. Sadie knew that Daddy (that would be me) was responsible for bathroom breaks and filling water bowls and food bowls. He was pretty good at rubbing tummies, too. He was also a strict disciplinarian. Overall, though, Daddy was as much of her routine as barking at the FedEx man.

Momma (that would be Amy), on the other hand, somehow always garnered much more glee. Amy deserved a bounce from the bed and an anxious tail-wagging arrival each and every time she returned. Momma didn't fill water bowls or food bowls. She didn't take Sadie out for bathroom breaks. (Could be moths out there, she'd say.)

Mamie adored us, but she loved her sanity more. Sadie wants to be near us always, but she's independent, too. Her fluffy bed sometimes works as well as being curled up with Mom and Dad on the couch.

Here at our new house, she has a lovely little courtyard to run around in. She loves sticking her cute little head through the iron fence to see what's happening. Passer-bys – joggers, cyclists, kids with basketballs – get quick wags of the tail from behind the fence. Each morning, I open the French doors to the courtyard and Sadie bounds out to check out Lafayette.

She lets me know when she's bored with the scene and is ready to come on. On a few occasions, I have forgotten to check on Sadie, and she has moaned pitifully and made a few scratches on my new doors as she demanded to be let inside again. I can't really discipline her for scuffing my newly stained wooden doors when I've forgotten the poor little baby outside, can I?

Right now, I'm looking down the hallway, and she's being "Flat Pooch," that is, sprawled out on all fours and giving me that stare as only she can.

She's 11 years old, and she's been through two surgeries in the past few months – one only a few weeks ago. She's adapted well, though. She seems happy in her new home. In fact, we all are. Amy and I are amazed how much it feels like home. Could it be true that home really is where the heart is?

Got a little more unpacking to do this weekend. A few more pictures and paintings and such to put on the walls, too. Everything is coming together, though. We're getting it all together.

I'm just happy my little dog has been OK with the move. She keeps me grounded. It's time for her nightly feeding. Gotta go!