Unquiet Friday

Friday is usually a slower-paced day, an end-of-the-week breathing space. And August is the slowest news month of the year, so when I headed in to the office this morning, I expected to get caught up on some of the pile of emails and stories that built up during the week.

As I dug into the editing pile, there was a knock on the door. Stephanie and I had been playing telephone tag all week, so this was a welcome surprise. We spent some time talking over assignments, plans for a new series of stories on ethnic grocery stores and esoteric ingredients, and photography and video.

Only one interruption — a phone call from someone at the Twin Cities Black Film Festival looking for contact information for Soul Fridays. Can do.

And then another phone call from someone trying to register on the site and post a story about foreclosure on a Native American woman by a Native-owned bank. We straightened out the user registration over the phone … that story is up in the Free Speech Zone now.

And then there’s an almost-in-real-time discussion with Jay and Morgan about Fringe blog display on the home page … and email conversation with a community media partner about some articles we are working on together.

Back to the edit pile, and the phone rings again.

“I want you to tell my story,” she begins. And half an hour later, I’ve heard a story of rental woes, and complaints to the city inspector, and probably retaliatory eviction.

That’s not all of the day, and I did get through some of the editing pile, as well as more emails and phone calls and assignments. I didn’t get done, but there’s always the weekend.

I like being an editor. I like talking with writers and with people who have stories to tell and making connections between them, and between people in different parts of the community. I like helping people tell their stories. This is one of the days when I feel good about helping a lot of people to make those connections.