To say I am exhausted would be a huge understatement. My workaholic boss actually went on vacation this week (as far as I know, his wife forced him) which meant I had to fill it, sort of.
Instead of leaving pages and stories with blank headlines, I had to think of them myself. Newspaper headline writing, to put it mildly, sucks. It’s little more than corny puns or attempting to sum up the entire story in one brief line. If you read my site then you will probably note that I don’t take my post headlines seriously at all. I try to have fun with them. But what I write for a newspaper will be read by thousands of people and you can’t really mess around when you have a stories on a vehicular homicide conviction or an arsonist that left 30 people homeless.
I also had to choose which photos were going to be published and write my own cutlines (photo captions). Cutlines are even more difficult but I had some fun with the high school football photos. 
Creative Freedom!
The worst part of my boss’s absence was having to work today. You see, I work anywhere between 15 and 20 hours on Wednesday just getting the papers put together and sent to the printer. The last thing I want to do is wake up at 6 a.m. and go back to the office on Thursday. What am I, a medical intern or something? Heck no. It sucks.
There’s also NOTHING TO DO. Thursday is the furthest point from our next deadline and one thing working for a newspaper has taught me is we live in a world of procrastinators. Being in the office today felt like the miserable in-school suspension days I endured back in high school - trapped in one room all day with nothing to do. At least Office Cat came to visit me today and it looks like he got a flea bath, although he did tip over the overloaded trash can twice.
Having to actually think for myself at work and the extended hours have left me beyond tired. I get really stupid when I get tired. It took me three tries to park my car in the lot this evening. I never thought I’d say this but I can’t wait for my boss to come back.
until Andre Tippett's Enshrinement
until Patriots Training Camp!
I'm Angela - I'm staring down the barrel of my 30s (gah) working as a production editor
(office bitch) for a small newspaper. I'm consumed by my endless devotion to
the New England Patriots and have recenty taken up knitting to keep busy until September. Oh yeah, and I have a really whacky boyfriend to keep me amused.
You need a beer!
Thinking of headlines is tough. I’m come up with a melange of good and bad and should probably just start picking a telling sentence out of the introduction or conclusion.
But yeah–have a beer (I’ll have several Molson XXX for you).
Cheers.
I had ISS once in middle school. It was probably one of the most boring days of my life, with the exception of the few minutes I took to go beat off in the bathroom. Take that school! I beat off in you!
ISS is the worst punishment a school can dole out. Pure hell.
I was always a good kid and never ISS, but I can imagine how bad it would be…..at least this time you were getting paid for your suffering.