Mitch and Kathy hang out by the fire. 
My brothers and I busy doing nothing at Dad's place.Thursday, December 28, 2006
Holiday Lounging
Mitch and Kathy hang out by the fire. My brothers and I busy doing nothing at Dad's place.
Meet Tiffany
My first and only piece of jewelry from Tiffany's, one of my Christmas presents from Joe. It's so pretty and shiny! I love it.Monday, December 25, 2006
And To All a Good Night
Back from celebrating the holiday with friends and family in the lovely Southern Tier. Pictures, details and more are soon to come, but for now, I'm completely beat. So Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and the like. . . I'm going to bed.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
It's Kate's Birthday Again!
Happy birthday, Kate!
Welcome to 27.
It's a very prestigious club, you know.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Is There Any Cure . . .
. . . for procrastination? I have some very serious things that need to get done and though I did more today than I have in the last few days, I'm still not being nearly as efficient and productive as I need to be.
Seriously, if anyone has any suggestions, please, please help a girl out.
Seriously, if anyone has any suggestions, please, please help a girl out.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Cuteness Overload
The other day, my esteemed colleagues and I spent far too much time looking and giggling at cuter-than-cute pictures of animals. Here are a couple of examples. . . pandas and kittens and marmosets, oh my!
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Friday Night
Joe came up for the weekend, and we went with Heather to check out the new John DeJohn bar, Legends, on Friday night. He did a great job with the place. It's pretty laid-back, with 1,001 TVs (but it's a sports bar so it's OK), and we had a lot of fun.
Yep, he's special.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Friday, December 01, 2006
Too Cute
A few weekends ago we went home and stayed with Ben and Colleen and the puppies again. The puppies are growing like weeds, of course. This pic was too cute to not blog.Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Thanksgiving 06
Joe and his sister Ang out at the bars Thanksgiving Eve. . .
. . . Laura on Turkey Day . . .
. . . Mitch and his girlfriend Kathy on Turkey Day . . .
Us, at dinner with mom and Terry.More family pictures to come once Dad sends 'em along. . .
Hope everyone had a fabulous holiday!
Friday, November 17, 2006
Kate the Great
Right, I'm talking about Kate Perry, who took me out for dinner and drinks early in my birthday week (on election day, actually) to celebrate me turning 27 (again, oy ve). She surprised me with cake, friends and presents! Here, Heather and Kate smile for the camera.
My yummy vanilla-raspberry-chocolate cake from the Vanilla Bean!
Jeb eats birthday cake. I like this picture because you can see Kate and Heather in the mirror. (I believe Heather's texting Joe here.)
It was a great time. The only thing that was missing (besides Joe, obviously) was. . .
Kristie.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Talk at SUNY Cobleskill
In September, I was invited to give a talk to communication students at SUNY Cobleskill on Nov. 8 about the reasons I got into the journalism/editing business. I am not one for public speaking, but I thought it would be a good experience, and I was flattered that they asked me. And I thought that the students could maybe benefit a little hearing from someone who's been in the business for a while who's kind of close to their age(s). Though I didn't use notes during my talk, I did write down a bunch of stuff earlier in the day (thank-you to my awesome boyfriend for helping me with an outline)--a kind of rough draft--to remind myself of things I wanted to touch on or make points about. I was asked to talk about three things: My academic/professional background; what a typical day at work is like for me; and what I like and dislike about my job. For anyone who's interested, here's what I wrote, and mostly what I talked about.
Hi, my name is Kate. I am a Senior Associate Editor at Metroland, an alternative newsweekly paper serving the Capital Region of New York and Western Massachusetts with a circulation of 40,000.
I’m very lucky in that I’ve practically always known what I’ve wanted to do for a living. I was in junior high school when I decided that I wanted to go into journalism. Many things contributed to my decision. I knew that my strengths, academically, were in reading, writing and English. I knew that I wanted to have a job where I felt that I was contributing to the community, but at the same time, where I would feel personally fulfilled in going to work and in believing that the work I did mattered.
So, I was able to focus my studies and my extra-curricular activities in the direction of my goal, which was to go to college for--and have a career in--journalism. In high school, I was very involved with the school newspaper, writing stories, and learning the basic process of editing a piece for the purposes of publishing. I briefly became a student reporter for the Southern Tier’s daily newspaper, the Press and Sun Bulletin. For my first two years of college, I went to Lock Haven University in central Pennsylvania. There, my major was Mass Communication with a concentration in Journalism. I excelled in my Journalism classes and could pretty much care less about my general-studies classes. I became the copy editor for the college newspaper and worked late nights making sure the paper was as grammatically correct and typo-free as I could make it.
After two years at Lock Haven, I transferred to UAlbany. I didn’t do much research about the school, so I didn’t know that it wasn’t possible to take journalism as a major. I got my degree in Rhetoric Communication with a minor in Women’s Studies. After college, I wasn’t in a hurry to find a “real” job, so I worked as a waitress for a year, which I did throughout college as well. At the café where I worked, we got Metroland delivered every Thursday, and I started reading it, and quickly fell in love with it. I liked that it was an independent newspaper and that its coverage of local politics (and its spin on issues) was different than the mainstream media. I met my current boss—the owner of Metroland—while I was working at the café. I told him that I wanted to work for Metroland, and I applied for a job. There were no positions available at the time, but I was determined to get a job at the paper, so I was content to continue working at the café while I pursued a job there. This lasted for about a year.
Finally, in March of 2002, I started temping at the paper when they needed extra help. That eventually turned into a fulltime position when I was hired as an editorial assistant. Over the course of the four and a half years I’ve been at Metroland, I’ve been promoted four times and, needless to say, I’ve taken on more responsibility.
A Typical Day
Metroland is a small, independent company, and therefore, we have a very small staff and we work in a very relaxed atmosphere. There are four departments at the paper: Production, Editorial, Administrative, and Sales. Each department kind of follows their own set of unspoken rules. There are six of us in the editorial department, not including my boss. We have very flexible schedules—we can come in late, leave early, work late, or work on weekends—whatever works best for us. A typical day for me would be getting at the office between 9:30 and 10 in the morning and leaving between 5 and 6 in the evening. My job varies day-to-day. Since we work on a weekly schedule, I usually take care of different things on each day of the week. Our production day is Wednesday, so Thursday is pretty much the beginning of our week. Thursdays and Fridays are spent planning the next week’s issue—we have meetings, make calls, make sure larger stories are where they need to be, update schedules, and pick out what events we want to preview or review for the next week. Each editor makes sure that his or her sections are taken care of. For example, my main section is music. I contact my music writers, or they contact me, about what shows or stories they want to cover. If someone’s profiling a musician, I make sure there’s a photographer assigned to the story. Think of being an editor as kind of like being a producer. You are the person behind the scenes, making sure everything goes smoothly and the people who need to get in touch with each other do, or if you have a writer going to review a show, make sure that he has tickets waiting for him at the door. And make sure there’s a photographer there to shoot the band, etc.
Mondays through Wednesdays are generally spent writing, editing, and basically producing the paper. I’d love to say that we make our deadlines every week, but we rarely do. I have yet to come across an editorial staff that’s really good about making deadlines. Wednesdays are usually pretty stressful, trying to make our 5 o’clock deadline, but I got to leave early today, so I was happy to leave the other editors with the work.
What I Love/Hate About the Job
I am extremely lucky, because I love my job. I really do. I like maintaining good relationships with my writers, I like that I work in a relaxed office with very smart people, I like that I believe in the product that we put out, and I like the freedom I have in terms of schedule and creativity. There are some fabulous perks—sometimes I get to travel for work. I get to meet really cool people. I get to work with people I admire and respect. What I don’t like? Deadlines. Having to conform to other people’s schedules. Dealing with difficult people. And sometimes, I don’t like the lack of structure.
Hi, my name is Kate. I am a Senior Associate Editor at Metroland, an alternative newsweekly paper serving the Capital Region of New York and Western Massachusetts with a circulation of 40,000.
I’m very lucky in that I’ve practically always known what I’ve wanted to do for a living. I was in junior high school when I decided that I wanted to go into journalism. Many things contributed to my decision. I knew that my strengths, academically, were in reading, writing and English. I knew that I wanted to have a job where I felt that I was contributing to the community, but at the same time, where I would feel personally fulfilled in going to work and in believing that the work I did mattered.
So, I was able to focus my studies and my extra-curricular activities in the direction of my goal, which was to go to college for--and have a career in--journalism. In high school, I was very involved with the school newspaper, writing stories, and learning the basic process of editing a piece for the purposes of publishing. I briefly became a student reporter for the Southern Tier’s daily newspaper, the Press and Sun Bulletin. For my first two years of college, I went to Lock Haven University in central Pennsylvania. There, my major was Mass Communication with a concentration in Journalism. I excelled in my Journalism classes and could pretty much care less about my general-studies classes. I became the copy editor for the college newspaper and worked late nights making sure the paper was as grammatically correct and typo-free as I could make it.
After two years at Lock Haven, I transferred to UAlbany. I didn’t do much research about the school, so I didn’t know that it wasn’t possible to take journalism as a major. I got my degree in Rhetoric Communication with a minor in Women’s Studies. After college, I wasn’t in a hurry to find a “real” job, so I worked as a waitress for a year, which I did throughout college as well. At the café where I worked, we got Metroland delivered every Thursday, and I started reading it, and quickly fell in love with it. I liked that it was an independent newspaper and that its coverage of local politics (and its spin on issues) was different than the mainstream media. I met my current boss—the owner of Metroland—while I was working at the café. I told him that I wanted to work for Metroland, and I applied for a job. There were no positions available at the time, but I was determined to get a job at the paper, so I was content to continue working at the café while I pursued a job there. This lasted for about a year.
Finally, in March of 2002, I started temping at the paper when they needed extra help. That eventually turned into a fulltime position when I was hired as an editorial assistant. Over the course of the four and a half years I’ve been at Metroland, I’ve been promoted four times and, needless to say, I’ve taken on more responsibility.
A Typical Day
Metroland is a small, independent company, and therefore, we have a very small staff and we work in a very relaxed atmosphere. There are four departments at the paper: Production, Editorial, Administrative, and Sales. Each department kind of follows their own set of unspoken rules. There are six of us in the editorial department, not including my boss. We have very flexible schedules—we can come in late, leave early, work late, or work on weekends—whatever works best for us. A typical day for me would be getting at the office between 9:30 and 10 in the morning and leaving between 5 and 6 in the evening. My job varies day-to-day. Since we work on a weekly schedule, I usually take care of different things on each day of the week. Our production day is Wednesday, so Thursday is pretty much the beginning of our week. Thursdays and Fridays are spent planning the next week’s issue—we have meetings, make calls, make sure larger stories are where they need to be, update schedules, and pick out what events we want to preview or review for the next week. Each editor makes sure that his or her sections are taken care of. For example, my main section is music. I contact my music writers, or they contact me, about what shows or stories they want to cover. If someone’s profiling a musician, I make sure there’s a photographer assigned to the story. Think of being an editor as kind of like being a producer. You are the person behind the scenes, making sure everything goes smoothly and the people who need to get in touch with each other do, or if you have a writer going to review a show, make sure that he has tickets waiting for him at the door. And make sure there’s a photographer there to shoot the band, etc.
Mondays through Wednesdays are generally spent writing, editing, and basically producing the paper. I’d love to say that we make our deadlines every week, but we rarely do. I have yet to come across an editorial staff that’s really good about making deadlines. Wednesdays are usually pretty stressful, trying to make our 5 o’clock deadline, but I got to leave early today, so I was happy to leave the other editors with the work.
What I Love/Hate About the Job
I am extremely lucky, because I love my job. I really do. I like maintaining good relationships with my writers, I like that I work in a relaxed office with very smart people, I like that I believe in the product that we put out, and I like the freedom I have in terms of schedule and creativity. There are some fabulous perks—sometimes I get to travel for work. I get to meet really cool people. I get to work with people I admire and respect. What I don’t like? Deadlines. Having to conform to other people’s schedules. Dealing with difficult people. And sometimes, I don’t like the lack of structure.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Metroland's Blog
The editorial staff at the newspaper where I work are very excited, because we finally have a blog on our Web site!
We need to blog more, to be sure, but we did live-blog the election.
Also, another area blog took enough notice of ours to call us "boring." That was nice. At least people are looking.
We need to blog more, to be sure, but we did live-blog the election.
Also, another area blog took enough notice of ours to call us "boring." That was nice. At least people are looking.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Monday, October 30, 2006
Whose Idea Was It . . .
. . . to make matching sweatsuits fashionable? I don't care how fancy they are--sweats belong in the gym, at home, or walking the dog.
That's all for now.
That's all for now.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Top Five Pet Peeves About the Gym
1. People who do not use the cardio equipment during their scheduled time.
2. Women with long hair who don't put it up while they're working out. If you don't put your hair up, you're not there to break a sweat, and therefore don't belong at the gym at all.
3. People dropping weights. It startles me every time.
4. People who try to talk to me while I'm working out. Just don't.
5. Short shorts on guys. ANY guys. Ick.
Anyone have any other gym pet peeves I haven't thought of?
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Autumn Weekend in NYC
Spent the weekend in the city with Joe. . . It was fabulous, thanks for asking. :-)
While walking in Central Park, we came across some sort of doggie festival, where we oohed and ahhed at all the pretty dogs. Here, Joe cuddles a Newfoundland that was bigger than him.
We ate at Kunjip, a great restaurant in the teeny area south of Midtown known as Koreatown. The food was yummy, but Joe had a problem separating the noodles. It was quite an amusing display of chopstick ability.
We watched the ice skating in Rockefellar Plaza for a while (does anything feel more New York, or more Christmas-y? I think not). . .
. . . and stole a kiss before walking another 20 blocks downtown.San Fran (Beyond the Bars)
The Fishermans Wharf, of course.
Boats. Lots of 'em.
Caitlin feasts on crab. More San Fran Photos
Caitlin sings karaoke!
Michael uses parking meters as hurdles.
Megan, Caitlin and I won a karaoke contest! It was a cash prize: $75. Megan is overjoyed, and therefore sticks the money down her shirt. None of us can blame her. Tuesday, October 17, 2006
San Francisco Pics
Here's a smattering of the pics I took in San Francisco:
Michael (Syracuse New Times) and Caitlin (Charleston City Paper) rock out on a San Fran street. 
We got a rum bowl at a bar in the Haight. . .
. . . and we drank it. . .
A reminder on the street to not dump waste down the grates--we must protect the sea animals!
Here, I'm enjoying a glass of sangria at a tapas restaurant called Cha Cha Cha's, and giving a look to Andrew, meant to say, "Who is this chick [to the left of me] and why is she so hyper?"
Thursday, October 12, 2006
My San Fran Pics (?)
OK, I know, I know, all of you who know me know I took a ton of pics in San Fran. So where are they, you're wondering? They're on my computer and waiting for me to sift through them to select a representational few. Which will not happen until next week, because I am going to New Jersey tonight to visit my Gram and then I'll be on Long Island to spend the weekend with Joe. That makes me super happy. :-) In the meantime, I'll post this San Fran photo to represent the fact that it was FLEET WEEK while I was there. That made for quite the scene!
An Epiphany
As I unpacked and hung up my clothes in my hotel room in San Francisco, I realized something. . .
What does this mean??
The Girls
Kristie was home for a week but Kate and I were only able to visit with her on Tuesday night because Kristie had a death in the family that she was dealing with and I was away in San Fran for the majority of her time home. We went to DeJohn's for drinks and caught up for a few hours. It was lovely.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Flowers in My Hair
I'm heading to San Francisco today for a Web Publishing Conference. I'll be sure to take pics of all the alt-weekly cats to post here when I get back (I'm sure y'all didn't get enough of it from my pics of Little Rock). I'll be back on Monday. Til then. . .
Monday, October 02, 2006
Sunday Morning in Pictures
The puppies drink from the puddles in the driveway. 
Colleen makes home-made hash browns for breakfast.
Ben caulks the front stoop. He's so handy.
Joe contributes to breakfast by throwing some sausages on the grill.
Todd and Jess come to visit and to meet the new puppies.Puppies!
Colleen with one of the puppies.
Joe cuddles the new pups.
Joe and I went and spent the weekend at home in the Southern Tier. We stayed with Ben and Colleen, who were perfectly gracious hosts, at their beautiful home in Apalachin. They just adopted two cute-as-a-button golden retriever puppies, Blue and Kismet, who got pleeenty of attention from us while we were there. It was a picture-perfect weekend, and I hated leaving.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Butt . . . Butt . . .
Metroland stickers make hot asses hotter: Joe and I show our support at Lark Fest. Monday, September 25, 2006
Nate Turns 31 Today!
Sorry to out your age, darling, but you seriously don't look a day over 25. ;-)Nate will spend his birthday evening entertaining folks as always--everyone go to Justin's to wish him a happy one!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NATE!
P.S. This pic is from Friday night--Nate and I had a fabulous dinner-slash-pow-wow, and then we met up with Robin at Elda's (of all places).
Friday, September 22, 2006
Fall Fashion Shoot
On Monday, Mel and I directed the fall fashion shoot. This is my third shoot, and my second time doing fall. Luckily, this time we were in a studio instead of on location. We had so many vendors and SO much merchandise. To have shot on location would have been a horror and a half. Thank goodness for photography studios. Here, I'm adjusting the clothes on Shane, one of our models. I drastically cropped this pic--the issue doesn't hit the streets until next Thursday, and we don't want to give anything away before then.
TGIF
This weekend, the plan is to go to see Gram for Rosh Hashanah. (Happy Rosh Hashanah by the way, for all you people who are into that sorta thing.) I'm totally just in it for the brisket and matzoh ball soup. (Just kidding, Gram, don't worry! . . . But there will be rugelach and chopped liver, right? *wink*)
Tonight, a much-needed pow-wow with Nate. Followed by a cocktail or two.
Tonight, a much-needed pow-wow with Nate. Followed by a cocktail or two.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
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