
On the always riveting commute into work, a gorgeous black puppy was fearlessly running across traffic on US-1, an extremely busy main road by school. I felt so sad for this puppy but I watched cars slow down to try to let her get to the other side safely. I'm not sure what ended up happening, but I sure do hope the puppy made it home.
On Day 5 I wore a navy wrap dress with flowers and birds printed on it, and coral heels to match the flowers. I just could not with my contact lenses so I wore glasses instead. Lasik is sounding better and better by the day.
Nothing too big was happening at work except the follow up to the George Stinney, Jr. case. Mark Potter was with producer Erika in South Carolina for the hearing. We logged and logged and logged, hearing from relatives and witnesses. I realized how painful it must be for these people to have to dig up these memories 70 years later. I've been very fortunate in this life but even I understand closing the book on a painful chapter when the time is right.
I really was hoping for a positive outcome for the Stinneys. It was shocking to me to hear how similar the details of the case were to every fiction story I've read about a town like Alcolu in a time like 1944. The more I listened and logged, I hoped, for the Stinneys' sake, that the aforementioned-imagined painful digging will be worth it. The judge decided to give 10 days to both sides to evaluate legal issues of the case. No timeline has been set for when the two sides will return to court. I could empathize with Mark Potter's imagined defeat. I really hate showing up to a story and finding there might not be one.
We continued to log tape just in case we do revisit this story. I'm not sure how it'll play out- check back in 10 days. For the Stinneys, I hope justice, closure and peace. For the intern and producers who logged the hearing and still logged the hearing and still logged the hearing, I hope a really wonderful story.
I was once again proud to work for an organization that places value on news-gathering, and allocated funds for a reporter and crew to cover a hearing, while understanding there might not even be a story.
I left work exactly at 5 to get to a meeting at school that started at 6. Sirius XM The Highway played "No Hurry" by the Zac Brown Band exactly as I hit a ridiculous amount of traffic. I questioned what Sirius XM was actually trying to do to me, and then I chuckled at the irony.
In other far less important news, the day after Day 5 was Day 4 at school- also known as Justin-Bieber-Gets-A-DUI-Day. The same Mark Potter who was in Alcolu the day before was now outside of the courthouse, like many other reporters who I imagine were not too thrilled to be there. I laughed when Fusion's morning show covered the story with an "Insignificant Breaking News" chyron. You go, Fusion. You go.
I wondered how many times Justin Bieber's mugshot was posted to instagram, and I really disliked any time someone asked me if I had heard about it. I dislike myself as I type this for giving more time to it this morning. I also want it on the record that the first time I wrote this blog post I misspelled Justin Bieber's last name and I'm pretty proud of that fact.
Today is Friday which is, no pun intended, very good news. I was on RA duty again last night. The good news there is that I'm almost halfway done with duty nights, and I think that was my last one on a night before work. Duty tours on weeknights require you to be awake until at least 12:30 a.m., and as I walked into my room I turned to a resident who was in the hallway and I said, "be quiet tonight, okay?" They were.
No duty calls, but a call from a friend in need. Yes, he was "sexiled*". This is college, after all. So at 2:38 a.m., I converted my couch into a futon, threw the extra comforter down, opened the door, felt like a really good friend, and said, "go to bed."
And then we did.
You heard it here first,
Jordan
*Sexiling: the act of being isolated or exiled due to your roommate taking someone home with whom sexual relations could occur.