My debut novel, Made to Last, features a guy named Matthew Knox. He is kind of awesome. Oh sure, he has his flaws. After all, I am strong believer in flawed heroes…in both fiction and real life. And part of what makes Matthew Knox so cool is his awareness of his flaws and his eventual refusal to let his past determine his future.
See? Awesome. But then, I’m probably a little biased.
Another thing that makes Knox fun: his career. He’s a writer turned reporter and (as of chapter three) blogger. I’ve had a few people ask me why I chose that profession for him. I mean, aren’t there more exciting professions?
Um no.*
It was pretty much inevitable that I drop a reporter into this story because of how convinced I am that reporting is one of the most random and fun jobs ever.**
I’ve got proof in the form of my own reporting experiences. Thing is, I told some people this and they argued with me. You only did the newspaper thing for three years, they said. You were in a small town, they said. You couldn’t possibly have had that many crazy experiences, they said.
To which I said and say now: Challenge accepted.
So here goes. In no particular order…
Melissa’s Coolest / Most Random / Just Plain Fun Reporting Experiences:
1) Walking into a shed looking for PBR circuit bull-raising cowboy…and instead finding a massive buffalo stomping toward me. And not freaking out and running away.
2) Riding in a hot air balloon. And the guy flying the balloon insisted I take a ride before all the kids waiting in line. I felt guilty. I felt awesome.
3) Flying a plane! What’s extra cool about that one is that I’d been wanting to take flying lessons…but it just wasn’t in the budget. And suddenly this pilot calls me, out of the blue, and asks if I’d like to go up in his plane as part of an article about the airport. Um, yes!
4) Standing on a press platform during the president’s visit while a Secret Service agent shoos away people without credentials…and then having him pat my shoulder and say, “You’re okay, kid.” (And no, I totally didn’t turn to a reporter friend the next second and whisper, “He touched me! That Secret Service guy touched me!”)
5) Going down to the dark basement of the sheriff’s department and seeing the room where they lock up all the confiscated guns and drugs. Learning about how they process that stuff. Realizing what a great horror movie set up this would be if the deputy showing me around should suddenly turn scary…
6) Having a llama bite off the top page of my notebook while I attempt to conduct an interview. Another one left teeth marks on my shoes.
7) Interviewing almost every candidate in the 2008 presidential race. (Well, except for the one who actually became president. Go figure.) I still regret not telling Mitt Romney how much I like his oldest son’s first name. 🙂
8) Tromping through not one, not two, but three cornfields trying to get a photo of this bald eagle just to make an elderly farmer happy. Sadly, I never did get a good shot. I did, however, give my coworkers a good laugh when I returned to the office looking like I’d taken a mud bath. And that pair of shoes the llama chewed on? Yeah, ruined after my eagle-chasing field day.
9) Saving a goat’s life. All while everyone else’s attention was focused on a runaway cow. ‘Cause, you know, everybody has their superhero days…
10) Breaking into a zoo administration building in pursuit of a political scandal in the making…
OH WAIT…totally didn’t do that last one. That’s all Matthew Knox. Chapter one, scene two. But um, hopefully I’ve proven my point. Or, if nothing else, I’ve enjoyed this little romp down memory lane.
So tell me…what’s been one of your most random experiences “on the job?”
*Except for maybe FBI agenting. Speaking of which, I totally met an FBI agent once. He flashed his badge and I stared at it for a full thirty seconds before finding words. And when I did find words, it was all I could do not to ask him to repeat that “I’m with the Federal Bureau of Investigation” thing and then pose for a photo with me.
**Well, that and I’ve probably watched Newsies one too many times. Wait, I take that back. There’s no such thing as too many viewings of Newsies.
P.S. It’s Monday morning and I just realized I left off one of my most hilarious reporting moments. I was scheduled to take a photo of the fire department crew. So, I’m in the station waiting for them to get back from some training thing. They get there…and just all start changing in front of me. It was SO wrong…and SO hilarious! I cannot believe I left it off the list…bad Melissa!
Comments 44
Working at a historic site for ten years offered me some very interesting moments! I once watched a man accidentally inhale a tent caterpillar hanging from a tree. I was interviewed for more international documentaries than I can count (including the one by Charles Lindbergh’s secret German daughter!). But the most interesting was when I had to give a tour to a single man (alone in the Lindbergh House) and he had Tourette Syndrome and yelled (and jumped) at me in the middle of the tour–you’re quite familiar with that story! I was never so scared in my life! Your stories made me laugh, Melissa! I can totally picture you as a newspaper reporter!
Okay, I’m still slightly in shock about Lindbergh’s secret daughter…I loved getting first-hand Lindbergh insight from you when we were up in Little Falls. You have the coolest town! And yes, I remember you telling us the story of the man yelling and jumping at you! 🙂
Yes, it’s when I remember things like this that I miss my reporting days. Although, sometimes I remind myself of painfully sitting through three-hour-long evening school board meetings…there were some downsides. 🙂
I love this! What great experiences, but even more, I love that you embraced and enjoyed them. (Doesn’t surprise me, really.) I have a tendency to be more fearful of random/weird experiences rather than seeing the adventure and excitement in them. I haven’t had many “jobs” outside my home and the ones I had were very tame. (Read: boring) Can’t wait to meet Knox in the pages of your book!
Oh, I don’t think you’re boring! I’ve read your books! I don’t think a boring person can write a novel about a female race car driver… 🙂
Lol! I have a GREAT imagination but very little life experience to back it up! 🙂
Small-town newspapers are the BEST places to work, especially if you are looking for “life experience.” I took pictures of above-average produce, wrote editorials against corrupt local officials, and covered murder trials. All in a day’s work! One of my favorite interviews was a local legend we called the Two-dollar Doctor – because that’s what her office visits (which at this time meant her sunroom at home) cost. She had NEVER let anyone interview her (she was too modest) so I felt like it was a real coup!
LOL, I took some above-average produce photos too!! My favorite was when this guy called me SOOO excited to tell me he had rhubarb growing out of his sidewalk. I was cracking up on the other end of the phone, but did agree to come out and take photos. I mostly had my giggles under control by the time I arrived at his house.
And good job snagging that two-dollar-doctor interview! 🙂
What great experiences! I once got to take the BMW driving course with a photographer and model for a feature article I was writing. BMW only allows 3 in a car, so I had to have my own instructor and drive my own car. What a rush to drive around the track at 180 mph! I even learned how to ‘drift’. For a short while, my teenage sons thought I was the coolest mom EVER!
Oh now that is too cool, Edie. I don’t blame your sons for thinking you are the coolest. 180 mph?!?!
I just need to know one thing: Why on earth were you interviewing a llama???!!
HA!! I was actually interviewing this guy affectionately known as Old MacDonald. He raised lots of different animals…but we did the bulk of the interview in the llama farm…it was hilarious trying to take notes. The goat pen was equally as funny. The piglet nursery however was more hot and smelly than even this Iowa girl can handle…although I have to admit, the piglets were adorable. Oh, and this peacock chased on my way back to my car…good times.
Yay! Can I just say how happy I am to read your random posts on a Monday? Totally makes my morning even though it’s, well, Monday. 🙂
I’m trying to think of a random experience but I’m utterly failing!! Although one cool thing about my job is we work with some fairly large clients. So I’ve totally written stuff for Shutterfly and Coca-Cola’s sites and marketing campaigns.
Thanks, Linz. I like writing the random posts…it’s an excuse to get all the crazy out right at the start of the week. 🙂
Ooh, fun clients. If you ever need marketing help with Coca-Cola stuff, I would be happy to write an endorsement for Diet Coke with Lime.
Hilarious and fun, Melissa! Love it! I’d say you won the debate. 😉
Thanks, Andrea. Yep, my friends are sorry they ever suggested small-town reporting was boring. Haha!
Haha! Glad to hear that you proved your point with them.
I think my best story is still the patient who got his upper lip bitten completely off by another guy when they got in an argument while watching TV. At least that’s the best one I can think of right now. Although I did like the lady who told me she had the flu and she knew it was the flu b/c she kept dying… dying on the couch, dying in the trunk of the car.
Okay, so, you’re an ER doctor…your stories will always top mine, I’m sure. HAHA! Didn’t you once have two ladies come in–one stabbed the other, then the other picked up the knife and stabbed the first, and then they came to the hospital in the same ambulance? I think that’s my favorite story you’ve told me…although, maybe I shouldn’t admit that. I mean, stabbings are bad.
Love it! Thanks for starting this Monday off with laughter!!
Thanks, Britney!
HA! And this was all SMALL town reporting? How fun!
It was indeed. It helps that it was a really cool small town with lots happening–it’s a college town and pretty well off economy-wise compared to a lot of towns. Plus, with Iowa having the first in the nation caucuses, we got tons of political visits, and that was always interesting.
Love your Random Mondays! I have lots of odd-ball stories from my days in the abstinence program, but one I really like is: I was leaving Walmart and one of the boys in my abstinence class was with a group doing a car wash. When he saw me he ran toward me, yelling “I still haven’t had sex yet, Mrs. Trainum! I still haven’t….”
Ahhh, that is hilarious. I love it! There’s also a family story I now really, really want to tell but just can’t because I would get in trouble…but ahh, I’m laughing… 🙂
What a fun post. Small town papers often have such distinct personalities–a mix of educational and entertaining and sometimes downright hilarious. And so do some of their roving reporters, it would seem. 😉
One of the most random memories of my job working for a small textbook publisher years ago was a discussion the writers and I (the copyeditor) had with the freelance artist doing the illustrations for our biology textbook. The staff was women. The artist was a man. The subject was the size of a certain part of the male anatomy featured in the reproduction section of the book. The poor man managed to please everyone after several attempts–and he never once blushed.
You WIN! I have had a lot of fabulously awkward moments in my life, but none of them top that. It would take a group of incredibly mature people not to dissolve into laughter during that…
Ummm…I have a career in customer service. My experiences aren’t so much “cool” as verging on … deadly. 😛 or gross. Lots of gross. BUT!! I DID survive a trip with my boss driving the car. (He thinks he Mario Andretti but he’s really the squirrel from Over the Hedge on crack)
Okay, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Over the Hedge, but the thought of any squirrel on crack is hilarious imagery! 🙂
What a fun post! I worked in the athletics department at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington when the TV show Dawson’s Creek was filmed in Wilmington. We heard they wanted to use the old gym to film a few scenes. I’m not embarrassed to admit that my co-workers and I spent quite a bit of time lurking in the hallway outside the gym just so we could see Katie Holmes, James Van Der Beek and the actor who played Pacey. The next year, the Washington Wizards NBA team held training camp in our building and Michael Jordan was in the same room as me for about 3 minutes. Totally speechless. Okay, enough about me. Thanks for the random Monday fun.
Okay, I never watched Dawson’s Creek, but all the same, seeing actors in real life is FUN! But even better…Michael Jordan!!! That is too cool. Talk about fun on-the-job experiences!
I worked as a small town reporter for a while. For a few years after that, if you googled my name the first thing that popped up was a story about someone’s first-hand encounter with aliens.
But my most awkward job was in college. I worked for the department that assisted students with disabilities. One of the services we provided was to read textbooks on tape. Part of my job was to read a sex education textbook out loud in this big office where all of my coworkers were working. Somewhere in the world, there is a cassette tape of me most likely mispronouncing extremely embarrassing words with my thick Oklahoma drawl.
Okay, okay, today’s conversation in the comments has become one of my favorites ever. Seriously…combining your textbook recording experience with Keli’s illustration experience with Pat Trainum’s abstinence teaching experience…it’s all too perfectly hilarious! 🙂
How fun! And it’s okay on the missing picture. More fodder for a future post! I have had many random experiences on the job, but what I love most is reading all of the ones here. Awesome! Thanks for generating such fun today!
And thank YOU for stopping by. I thought I had some funny stories, but oh boy…I love everybody else’s!! 🙂
*chuckles*
As usual, once again, Melissa, you’ve made me smile with your wit and another fabulous blog post. 🙂
Hope your Monday ended up being great!
Thanks, Rissi. My Monday turned pretty sweet after I re-stocked my fridge with Diet Coke with Lime AND found fresh cherries on sale for $1.98/lb. It’s the little things. 🙂
So why stop reporting, Melissa?… Lois Lane eat your heart out and Matthew is Clark Kent (just needs some specs).
I do like the fact you tried to interview a Llama. When you bring your book signing tour down under, I’ll line up a couple of interviews with a koala & kangaroo. Ha!
Fun, fun post, Melissa…
HAAA! Okay, I really should’ve been clearer…I interviewed the farmer…in his llama barn…and the whole interview was just too funny. I’m just glad the llamas never spit on me. And I totally need to do a book signing tour in Australia. How fun would that be?!
You know, sometimes I ask myself why I stopped reporting. 🙂 But nonprofit work is good, too. I mean, it’s had its fair share of excitement. So far I’ve started a fire in the office, been proposed to twice and started an underground quote board…
I have lots of random/fun stories from when I worked for the Prime Minister. But one of the most public was one day we were at an event where he was supposed to stay for lunch but, as per usual, everything was running before time so he ended up having to leave before he could eat.
So we’re walking out and this catering person comes hurtling out with all these sandwiches and fruit and all this stuff. I’m the only one who can take it because everyone else either can’t carry anything (so they can access their guns) or were dealing with the press or whatever. So I end up stacking all this food on top of everything else I’d been given and then sprinting across a carpark trying to catch up with everyone. Didn’t think much of it because random stuff like that happened all the time.
That night my phone starts going mental. Turns out one of the news crews thought it would be funny to include this in the news item that night and the entire nation got to watch “the Prime Minister’s lunch girl” trying to chase him to his car without losing her armful of papers and food!
I LOVE that story. A) I think it’s too cool that you got to work for the prime minister. B) And then to end up on TV chasing him down with food…love it! 🙂
My BFF got locked in the umm, area of the morgue where the drawers were. The cold room with the big, big drawers.
I once shared a ditch with a pig. I was somewhat ill and could not leave the ditch. The pig was FRIENDLY and came very close. My jeans were near my boots. The pig came closer and closer. My friends were laughing.
I was not.
All right, locked in a morgue beats any of the places I’ve ever been locked inside. 🙂
AND um the pig story…disturbing and hilarious on SO many levels!!!
Does an internship count as a job? If so, that’s where/when I had my weirdest experiences. I mean I was an undercover spy for Jesus in Turkey, of all places. Doesn’t get cooler than that. And our apartment was searched by the cops…twice. And there was a terrorist attack (bomb went off) a mile from where we were. And I got the locals to admit that some of the calls to prayer were prerecorded. And one time when telling a burqa-clad Iranian woman how cute her child was, she actually pulled down the face part of her burqa to talk with us (did NOT know they could do that in public). AND when we were visiting ruins I thought it would be a good idea to climb into an ancient crypt…
Though I must admit…agenting gets me into some odd situations.
Oh, an internship totally counts…especially when the words “spy for Jesus in Turkey” are involved! Because, you’re right, it really doesn’t get cooler than that. Also, please please tell me you have a picture of yourself in the crypt!!