"the toughest kind of story you can write"

it was a bad weekend for early twenty-somethings in burlington. first, a student from champlain apparently became disoriented when leaving a party saturday night. his body was found, partially frozen, sunday in a snowdrift (if you go to the story, check out the very end - shameless plug).

and then, early monday morning, a recent smc grad fell down a set of stairs and died of a brain stem injury. which resulted in my first ever "death story," with all the fun (sarcasm: yes) trimmings.

i was not yet a regular defender staff writer when the girls died, nor would i have been in a position or emotional state to cover it anyway. when lexi died, i was most definitely not capable of covering it, even if i was a staff editor by that point. i offered photos and whatnot, but i didn't go near the writing aspect.

so this was my first time trying to investigate a death and (and this was the hard part) talk to loved ones about her life. yikes. i went to the apartment, i went to where she worked and i called her family and close friends. you want to talk about difficult phone calls - there you go.

but i'm pleased with how the story came out. people were kind enough to share their insights with me, even in an incredibly difficult time. that meant i was able to report on not only her death, but her life.

and i'm actually quite flattered today, as i received a phone call from an old acquaintance who, it turns out, is connected to the family. i was told that upon hearing that i was writing the article, the acquaintance knew it would be handled in a tasteful, caring manner.

thank you for that.

but it made for quite the bleak day, as i had an exceptionally disheartening day myself yesterday. it's sad when you focus on blocking out what's going on with you by turning to your work - which is covering a young woman's death.

needless to say, by the time i left the office, i was more than ready to burn off frustration at the gym.

what can i say? it's been a glum few days.

but i'm tough. i'll get through and i'll show everyone a thing or two. take that, bee-atches.

but even tough gals need a comforting voice and some laughter when things are dreary. for that, i thank you, you cwazy wabbit. you rock the casbah.

in other news. i meant to post about this days ago, but things got hectic. does anyone else find it somewhat disturbing that the theme song for gore's dean endorsement was "we can"? as in, the theme song from "legally blonde 2"? i'm not sure if this has been howie d.'s theme throughout his campaign (as i generally follow the campaign through print media instead of television - that is, when i'm not inadvertantly making people contribute to his fundraising campaign - bwahahaha), but i was laughing hysterically watching the news of the endoresement on tuesday. i kept waiting to see reese witherspoon teeter through the camera angle in pink heels ...

in other political news (see? and y'all thought my year on the hill would go to waste), the new york times analysis of dean's "one-way ticket" statement is hysterical. i meant to post this as well. go here and be amused.

ok, back to work. people holding the daily meeting are threatening to haze me, so i must watch out ...

wait - you can't really haze someone unless you want to initiate them. so, right now, it appears that hazing won't be happening ...