By Katy Sweeny
Mandy the managing editor got off the phone and walked over to my desk. She stood really close to me. I was scrambling to get my purse and notebook together. A vegetation fire just came over the scanner.
I looked up at her. She leaned in close to me and said, “Terry Vau Dell is retiring and David is going to offer you the job.”
My heart sped up. Not only was there a fire, but the Chico Enterprise-Record might offer me a job, I thought. Sweet and scary.
My mind was swimming with all the possibilities.
Terry is a legend in Butte County. He”s worked for the paper covering courts for more than 30 years. He knows everything and I know the basics. But then, maybe he would teach me how to get all the information. I”m still sketchy on the procedure. He could whisk his magic wand, a pen, and turn me into a knowledgeable court reporter who knows immediately what a 995 motion is and all the penal codes.
All my editors, friends and family said I got the job. But I wouldn”t believe it until one of the Chico editors said the words to me, “We”d like to offer you the job.”
After what felt like two weeks of hearing the Jeopardy write-down-an-answer song in my head, I built up the gall to call David, the Chico managing editor, back. In less than an hour, the news editor Steve called me and said I got the job. I actually said, “Yay” over the phone to him. When we got off the phone, I jumped up and down with joy.
I accepted the job in Chico. They want me to start Sept. 29.
In 2009, I worked for the Chico paper as a news assistant and an intern. At the end of my internship, David didn”t have a job for me but recommended me to other MediaNews Group papers. So Mandy, Gary the publisher and Lake County took me in, giving me my first staff-reporting job.
Though I”ve come to like Lake County and my job, I can”t pass up what Chico has to offer.
I will be back in a newsroom with other reporters who I can ask questions of, joke around with and learn from.
Chico has a bigger circulation, which might give my resume a boost.
A number of my best friends still live in Chico along with a bunch of family.
The Chico Enterprise-Record has a softball team that I can play for in a pinch, but maybe I should practice a bit first.
There are also a few thousand more people my age in Chico.
I know that I”ll miss out on a lot here, too.
There are dozens of stories on my back-burner that I want to write and a bunch of things I won”t be able to cover, like court cases and the election.
So if you have any story ideas you think I should write in the next few weeks, send them to me. If I don”t get around to them, I”ll add them to my replacement”s list of articles to write.
Be nice to him or her for me. It takes a while to learn how to swim in this county.
In my upcoming final column, I”ll thank my co-workers, sources and friends for helping me to keep my head above the water when I felt like I was going to sink. The life support system in Lake County kept me tied here, mostly with a smile, for 14 months.
Katy Sweeny is a staff reporter for the Record-Bee. She can be reached at kdsweeny@gmail.com or 263-5636, ext. 37.
