So that's what Bonus Tuesday is all about: a bonus post, written who knows when and about who knows what, that may or may not really deserve the light of day. (You're totally sold on the concept, aren't you?)
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| Lincoln City, NOT the Pacific. This will all make sense in a minute. |
I get a lot of interesting phone calls at work (well, the office does, I guess, and I am just lucky enough to be the one on the front lines picking up) that range from questions ("What's the number to the Oregon Department of Labor? You guys have that, right?" Fun fact: No) to robotic solicitations ("This is Amanda reminding you that you have not yet completed your Google business profile") to actual people wanting to sell us stuff ("Who's in charge of buying your supplies?" Fun fact #2: Unfortunately, me).
And then, of course, there are the story ideas. Usually they boarder on the slanderous (I mean, yes, it's frustrating when you get crappy service, but it's not really something we can base an investigative report on) or the weird (we had a dude come in with pictures on his cell of a UFO not too long ago), or the boring (I'm sure your event is awesome, but, um, we can't send anyone so... do you want to take a picture and just send it to us? 'Cause that would be great).
That's probably too much to say to introduce a phone call I got while manning the phones last Thursday,* from a woman very excited to tell me about an event taking place in Lincoln City with NATIONAL, PATRIOTIC significance over the weekend, and yet, I just did.
So you guys, I was only half paying attention because she lost me at Lincoln City. We are seated three hours from that coastal town, and as we only cover news in our immediate area, no one from our office was going to travel there to cover this event. We just won't. If there's no local connection, it ain't on.
But from what I gathered (and I actually tried to go on the Lincoln City newspaper site to see if there was any info on this to jog my memory, but there isn't. For some reason, I'm starting to doubt the NATIONAL, PATRIOTIC significance), some guy -- maybe a veteran? -- was traveling across the state -- maybe country? -- on foot -- possibly? -- to raise awareness -- or maybe money? -- and ending the journey in Lincoln City. On the beach, I hope, because that would be dramatic as hell. You can't go any farther than the Pacific.
I could tell she was elderly, and I didn't want to crush her dreams because she was so damn excited about this, but I had to. So I was like, We're a local newspaper and we only cover events in our area, and she was all, NATIONAL, PATRIOTIC SIGNIFICANCE!, and I was like, Yeah... still no, but she was not going to give up. So she told me that her sister and nephew live in town, and that she was 65, except she was really 91 and she just said she was 65 because when she was younger she had... blood poisoning or something?... and she was not expected to survive but Jesus broke the bonds of death and here she is!
And then she launched into her event info again.
You know what, people? I am not that brave and not that strong to go up against a 91-year-old on good terms with Jesus, so I did the only thing I could think of to get her off the phone: I gave her the company email address and the editor's name. And then she wanted my name ("Tricia?" Fun fact #3: Not even. I'm not a Patricia. I'm a Trisha. I get very cranky about this, actually), which I gave to her kind of against my better judgement, but hey, what could happen, right?
Still, I felt it in everyone's best interest to try one last time to not get her hopes up, but this time she was like, Where there's a will, there's a way, and you COULD cover this event. She was so excited to finally have contact info that she repeated everything three times, then told me to have a blessed day.
So that was nice.
Needless to say, that event has come and gone and not a single member of our staff was there to witness the NATIONAL, PATRIOTIC significance. But I do kind of wonder what happened, not with the guy walking or whatever, but with my new friend. Did she make it there? Was she disappointed we didn't? Does she think she should have tried harder to convince me?
I will never know.
*Not last Thursday. This was in September, maybe? October? This summer?
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