The office that I used to intern at, settled in the valley between Walnut Creek, Lafayette, and Moraga, with a view of Diablo Mountain.

But to my surprise, I got an e-mail from the Managing Editor, LeeAnn, who offered me a chance to come back one last time.  While Ethan was away for vacation, she needed a little bit of extra help in the office working with editing that I had never done before. And they would pay me for it.  I would have done it for free, regardless, just for the opportunity to learn something new. But being paid for it was even better. It made me feel like I actually worked there.

I was working some crazy hours at my last week at Best Buy, but I was able to come in on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

It was a lot of fun.

I learned about InDesign, it’s the program they use for the layout and edits for the magazine. I have never used it before, so my job was to look at the markings of the proofreader and edit according to those. I learned a lot about proofreading marks as well.  I never knew there were three different size dashes: The hyphen, the en dash, and the em dash. And the difference is very slight, but it’s significant for where it goes and the use for the magazine.  InDesign was surprisingly easy to use, at least for what I was using it for.  I also got to sign my initials as an Associate Editor to verify that I put the edits through for the layout I was doing.  I was like an Editor for a day.

When I went super fast through the editing of the proofs, LeeAnn somewhat ran out of things for me to do.  So she handed me an article and told me to look through it and make notes if anything sounded off or confusing.  Like a real Editor!  So I busted out a red pen and tried my best.  I read the article at least twice before I started making marks, but read parts of it over and over about 3 or 4 times, making sure it sounded right in my head.  I’m not sure if they used my suggestions, but I’m sure I’ll find out when the August issue comes out.

On Wednesday, I did more InDesign proofs and a few other tasks.  The editor in chief had a couple of projects for me.  The first one was about the brainstorming.  Remember when we had the brainstorming session with colorful post its and markers that made me want to color?  Susan wanted me to get a whole Word document list of the post it ideas we came up with that day.  The project took awhile and I had a hard time reading some people’s handwriting, but luckily I was there that day and was able to remember what people suggested about their ideas.  The list ended up over 3 pages and I tried to categorize where the posts it stuck on the graph.  Susan very much appreciated my help in gathering the good ideas we had into one document.

The second task I was given was writing up tweets for Diablo Magazine’s twitter.  I worked on tweets for upcoming events and mostly I worked on tweets promoting Diablo’s Food Awards (anything you see about Food Awards are what I wrote).  I also used one of the tweet apps (I forget which one) that made a tiny url for the Food Awards tweets and tracked how many hits it got when posted on twitter.

It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed being a Guest Editor for the week.

I’ll really miss the staff at Diablo and working there.  I just hope I’ll end up working somewhere similar to it.

Doing something I love.

Ironically on Wednesday, at Best Buy, one of the staff of Diablo (one of guys who works downstairs who mostly does networking, technological type work for the company) recognized me and insisted that I get pizza for lunch on my last day.

On Thursday, I came in and Ethan was very apologetic for not having planned a lunch for me and insisted that he would plan one once he came back from vacation. (he was planning on going to the East Coast the next week).  However, to my surprise, one of the editors got a box of cookies from Walnut Creek’s Bakery and we mingled for 10 minutes as the editors asked about my future plans.  All of the editors also gave me a thank you card, with notes they wrote for me.  Something I will probably treasure forever.  I found myself feeling actually really sad about my last day, more so than I thought I would feel.

Although one of the new interns worked that day, I was happy to be able to work at the same intern desk I usually work at.  The newbie worked at the other desk.  (I think Ethan did that on purpose, for me to be at the same desk on my last day).  I worked on a fact check about eggs and where to buy baby chicks.  The Alamo Hay and Grain employee sounded like a place that sold chickens year-round (he sounded like he belonged in the hills of the back country).

I also worked on an intense fact check for an article about Dana Dornsife and Lazarex.  It’s a foundation for cancer paitients to afford living and travel costs, while taking trial medication for their cancer.  I only made a couple of phone calls since it was pointless for me to leave voicemails (since it was my last day, I wouldn’t be there for them to contact).  One source was a cancer paitent, Scott, from Massachusetts who praised how Lazarex saved his life.  When I called the phone number listed, it said that he was out of the country and listed an alternative phone number.  I hesitated for a second, wondering where he might be and hoping there wouldn’t be a vast time difference.  So I made the phone call.  Biggest. Mistake. Ever.  I called him at 3 in the morning, the next day, because it turns out Scott was in the Philippines.  Consequently, Scott was not very pleased with me.  Although after we talked and I asked my questions, he apologized for being rude and I apologized profusely for waking him up.  I got the fact check though.  And I have to say, one of the most memorable fact checks.

I also wrote my very last blog for Diablo.  I did a scoop on a restaurant abruptly shutting down in Pleasant Hill.

Finally, my shift was up and I said my last goodbyes.  To my surprise, Ethan even gave me a hug and wished me the best.

Before I left, I headed to the closet downstairs to grab more issues of Diablo.  And to my surprise (because I was told we didn’t have any copies of it) the new Diablo Arts was out with my article.  Another printed byline!  Except it looks NOTHING like what I originally wrote.  About two paragraphs made up what I wrote and the rest the editor wrote.  I didn’t have a high enough word count for the article, and it was my own fault for not writing the article sooner.  I snagged some issues of it all the same, and walked out the doors one last time.

I also learned that planning for Napa Sonoma will be happening next month.  For once, I was actually happy to leave Diablo soon.  I am SO glad I won’t be there to fact check for it.

I also worked on two blogs for the day.  I’m not sure why but both editors (Pete and Ethan) gave me an author event blog to do.  One was for an author visiting Clayton Bookstore.  Her name is M.J. Ryan and she writes a lot of self-help, you-can-do-it! type inspirational books.

The other event (which sounds like a lot more fun) was for an author booksigning event and dinner. The author wrote about learning how to raise her own livestock and farm her own garden.  What’s cool about the dinner is that it features meat from the livestock she raised and all local produce.  Very cool.

What’s funny about the two blogs is that I had blogs posted up within an hour of each other.  That rarely happens.

On Thursday, I find a note on my desk and a stack of fact checks.  I had no idea where Ethan was but my job was to start making a list of all the e-mails of sources for our July issue.  So I started by section or article and hunted down the e-mail addresses.  Sometimes it’s hard because certain shops or restaurants don’t even have websites, so there is no way I can track down an e-mail.  That kept me pretty busy for the most of the morning.

Then Ethan finally showed up.  He was meeting the new intern girl, Gina.  She was very sweet and very excited about her first day.  Ah, how I remember those days.  Fond, fond memories!  (It really seems a lifetime ago since I started).  I couldn’t help feeling a little pain at meeting her.  Since her shifts are Monday and Thursday mornings (same as mine), I feel like she’s my replacement.  (which technically I guess she is.  I wasn’t meant to stick around this long, but here I am).

I had to leave early for the day, but I managed to write a quick blog before I left.  It was for a special sale for a woman’s clothing store in Oakland. The sale was originally for preferred customers, but I called the owner and requested that the sale be extended to diablomag.com readers, which she readily agreed.  Anything to bring in business is a good thing, especially free advertising.

In other news, the July issue is officially done and came out this Friday.  (I am so excited to snag a copy for myself this week).  So you can check out all the Best of the East Bay winners here.

“No problem about today, I totally understand. And by the way, thanks so much
for all the hard work you did on Best of the East Bay--I think you completed
way more than any of the other interns and we couldn't have done it w/o you
so I just wanted to say we really appreciate it (and I think you deserve a
little break). Take care and see you on Thursday.

Ethan"

At first, I didn’t believe him.  Did I really do a lot for the Best of the East Bay?  And then I started thinking about all the pieces I fact checked, and called, and e-mailed about.  I guess I did do quite a few of them (and picked up on some of the other intern fact checks that they didn’t/couldn’t finish).  It’s funny how I didn’t even notice.  It made me feel pretty good about myself for the day, despite the fact that I didn’t come in.

By Thursday, the Best of the East Bay had finally calmed down.  The content was mostly complete and the office was a lot more relaxed, just like I hoped.  Planning for August was just underway so there were no fact checks to work on.  I was given two blog assignments right before we had our editorial meeting.  The editorial meeting was SO much fun.  We had someone from the DCP staff (I’m not sure who she was) come in and have us try a new, different way of brainstorming.  She had a whole set of pretty, colorful markers and fun, colorful post-its for us to jot thoughts.  We had to think of headlines of what we wanted in the magazine.  She would give us a theme and we would write the headlines.  Then we would put the post-its in if the story to was plausible to write and what kind of impact it would have on the readers.  I didn’t come up with very many ideas, but it was a lot of fun.  I would love to use that kind of brainstorming again if I ever have an editorial team.

Our colorful post-its exercise took the whole hour, so all I was able to work on for the day was the blogs.  One of the blogs was a special Father’s Day Deal at Edge Shop for Men, which is like a boutique store for men (only you know, more manly).  The owner, Todd, is a really nice guy.  I also blogged about a Dance event that sounded like a lot of fun (however, they never posted the blog.  I think it must have got lost in the shuffle).

It was nice to finally have a laid back intern week.

Out of 4 restaurants, I actually was able to get ahold of a couple managers and an owner (who answered the phone on the first try.  THAT NEVER HAPPENS!)  It was a good restaurant listing day for some reason.  I usually dread restaurant listings.  One restaurant even CALLED ME BACK.  The manager called me back.  I was so shocked and happy they called me back, I was practically speechless (not an easy feat).  Getting ahold of the restaruants helped me work on my other fact checks.

I finally finished the winery article.  I was looking on the website and found the cell number for owner of the winery I had been trying to get ahold of.  Super easy.  Why didn’t I think of that sooner?  I was glad to finally finish with that article.

Someone also called us back, which I luckily found the fact check to verify.  The latest Hollywood trend is an oxygen facial.  (the lady even told me that there is a quote by Justin Timberlake saying ‘the facial makes my face feel dope’.  I just thought that was really funny).

One of the interns needs to learn what facts are.  I was given an article about an author Annie Barrows who helped her aunt (who died last year) finish writing a novel.  The book actually sounds really interesting.  The new intern, however, highlighted practically the whole article and e-mailed Annie Barrows (currently on book tour) with a HUGE list of facts to verify (quite a few of them were not facts).  The author replied back that the information was on her website.  I crossed off everything that wasn’t facts and verified some of the things that I could check.  And then e-mailed her with only a few fact checks for her to verify.  Annie Barrows e-mailed me back right away, commenting that my list was much more manageable.  I thought it was pretty funny that I was correcting the newbie intern’s mistake.

On Thursday I was able to attend a Web meeting, which has half the editorial team and a couple people from marketing.  It was fun!  I had never been to one before, and I felt like I had a little bit more to contribute considering I do work on blogs occasionally and understand facebook and twitter formats.  At one point, the  marketing person and I were on the same wave length on a point we shared in common.  The meeting lasted a whole hour, longer than any of the editor meetings and I felt like I learned a lot more about how editorial and marketing work together.

I also worked on a couple of fact checks.  I have been trying to reach Cass McCombs, a musician from the East Bay, for quite a while.  The Senior writer finally gave me Cass’ parents e-mail so I sent them an e-mail.  Hopefully they got back to the office by now.

And I finally wrote a blog.  I have been so busy with fact checks and Best of the East Bay, I never really had time to write a blog.  I was a little rusty, but it was good to write again.  An astronaut was visiting the science and space center in Oakland which sounded like a lot of fun.  The senior writer who assigned me the blog said I did a good job although he edited a little bit of it.

Next week should be a down week.  That means the staff will be a little more relaxed and there won’t be very much for me to do in fact checks.  Mostly I will probably be writing blogs or working on restaurant listings.

On Thursday morning, I did fact check for a couple Best of the East Bay people, including a young actress and a radio political commentator.  I couldn’t believe that the actress was close to my age, but she definitely has the look so she might make it in the business.  I also got a really good fact check for her article that Ethan complimented me on.  So that’s always a good thing.  The radio personality was over my head.  The article included a brief interview with her which was way over my head.  Reminded myself why I’m not a political person, especially when I visited this website.

I also got in contact with a couple more people about the winery article that I was working on for fact checks.  I left the day with only two sources to check.  I kept getting the voicemail of one winery, so I wasn’t sure how to get in contact with them.

I haven’t met any of the new interns but a couple of fact checks of theirs passed my desk.  They have SUPER neat handwriting, neater than the interns I used to work with.  Great.  They make my fact checks look messy.  Oh well.

When I came in on Wednesday, I was handed some Best of the East Bays but was told to focus on an article feature about Contra Costa County wineries.  It’s actually a really informative article and I look forward to it coming out in the July issue.  It talks about the history of Contra Costa in the early 1900′s about being the main place in California that grew wine, until prohibition.  Prohibition stopped the winegrowers in their tracks and developed cities instead to the point where there wasn’t enough land to get that back.  I could have been living in a place like Napa Valley if it hadn’t been for that.  Crazy thought.  Currently, there are a few minor wineries in the Contra Costa County that are trying to make a comeback.

I had to verify some of the information by looking at an article that the writer used as reference and had to call several of the wineries to verify their information.  There was a lot to verify so it took me most of the morning, and I wasn’t able to get to other Best of the East Bays or any blogs for the day.  I talked to some really cool people though and got in some really good checks that I was able to correct.

Always fun times.

For next week, my schedule was about the change.  A lot of new summer interns are coming in which is interesting to share a desk with some new people.  I am now working Monday and Thursday mornings through the month of June, and then I am probably finished at Diablo Magazine.  My future hangs in the balance.

I was able to attend the editor meeting, and was thrilled that the editor in chief tried to include, by giving me the copies of the paperwork they were going over for segments in the July and August issues of the magazine. It’s crazy how they have to write many of the articles in advance and have a set deadline when things are done. The deadline for writing articles isn’t so hard, usually it is adding the art and the layout which can take the longest.  It’s interesting how the process works with everyone working together but separate on their own projects.  They have to work really closely as a team.  It’s why I think interns can be such outsiders, because we are such a small part of the process.

I also talked to a reader pick for a Danville Yoga teacher.  I could tell from the piece written about her that she was VERY into yoga as a spiritual activity and was quoted as saying that yoga was a way to help you with the things you can’t change and to help the things you can (or something similar to that).  And she debated about this phrase, not sure if that was the true belief of yoga. Then asked me, “Does that sound like something I would say?”  I just replied “oh most definitely”.  Her piece was only a page but our conversation lasted for twenty minutes.  She also tried to convince me that I needed to do yoga.  I tried to tell her that I wasn’t very flexible, but she assured me that she wasn’t either.  And then proceeded to tell me the history of how she fell into yoga in the first place, and now she’s the most sought after yoga instructor.  After I finally got off the phone, two minutes later when I was trying to get out of there, she called back.  The other intern handed me the phone.  She wanted to add a little bit to her phrase, “and open to the possibilities”.  She was very nice, but I wasn’t surprised to learn that she first got into yoga in Santa Cruz.

And I finally snagged myself a copy of Napa Sonoma.  I figured that I worked so hard on the listings and those blasted maps that I deserved to own a copy of my own.  It turned out looking really nice.  And the map looks even more intense than I remember.

On Wednesday, I had a serious talk with Ethan about future employment.  He told me flat out that there wasn’t a position for me on the staff, but he would try to help me with any leads he might get.  I guess that is the best I could hope for.

I think the conversation spurred him to give me something a little bit more challenging for the day than the normal fact checks.  I had a few Best of the East Bay’s to work on, but he gave me a blog to work on too.  It was about a foundation for Lafora Disease, a very rare degenerating disease.  I looked up on the website about this 18 year old girl who was suffering from siezures, trembling, and loss of mental ability.  She can no longer walk and has to be fed through a feeding tube, and she was diagnosed only at 14.  It was the saddest story ever, and I had a really hard time with it.  I called the mother to talk about the foundation and the event.  I think it is the longest blog I have written and I was happy to see that they edited very little of it.  It was really a challenge for me, and I ended up being very proud of how it turned out.

I also talked to Ethan about staying through for the month of June, since I will be living in the area for the summer.  He seemed happy about me staying.  I figured that I would keep with the blog even though the semester is already done.

On Wednesday morning, I was refreshed and happy to be back.  Most of the June issue is done, and now there will be a huge push for the July issue.  The July issue is Diablo’s biggest issue because of The Best of the East Bay.  I have a feeling I will have to become best friends with The Best of the East Bay.

The Best of the East Bay is when people vote and editors choose the best restaurants, businesses, boutique shops, art galleries, spas, gyms, and basically anywhere that is a place to go, all located in the East Bay.  All the businesses get a sign saying Best of the East Bay for the year (I see them regularly when I walk in downtown Walnut Creek) and of course it brings in business.  It’s a HUGE deal.  And I definitely learned that on Wednesday.

Ethan gave me four fact checks to start for the Best of the East Bay, just short paragraphs about the places we’re mentioning that are printed on this huge list.  I left messages for three people, but I did talk to one person.  She was manager of a spa and a reader favorite.  I wasn’t allowed to let her know that this was for The Best of the East Bay, so I had to be vague in my answers when she asked what the article was for in the July issue.  And then she figured it out, “OMG!  Is this for the Best of the East Bay?  Did we get Best of the East Bay?”  And all I told her was, “I can’t tell you anymore about the article” and she freaked out, telling me she wanted to jump up and down and scream.  And that’s when I realized that this was going to be a HUGE deal for the next few weeks.  Ethan warned me that people might figure it out on their own, so it’s not a huge deal that she figured it out.  Then she went on in great detail about her spa, when all I needed to know was if they did microdermabrasions or not.

I also left messages for Diablo Dish fact checks.  As well as Faces fact checks.  I hate fact checking for Faces.  It’s pictures of a bunch of people at certain key events, and you should only fact check the people who are Big Names, which kind of irritates me because what if the photographer got the spelling of the other people wrong.  And they see their picture in the magazine, only to realize their name is misspelled. I guess it also bothers me a little bit because I feel like I have to fact check EVERYTHING so I can’t let the other names just go unchecked.  Besides, even if they’re not a Big Name, they could be somebody important and we wouldn’t even know it.

In other news, I finally finished my Diablo Arts article.  I met with the Artisitic Director of the Diablo Light Opera Company, who was super nice and offered me a discount on tickets if I ever wanted to see the show.  I’m seriously considering taking him up on his offer.  I had a lot of trouble writing the article though.  It was supposed to be around 500-600 words and I could barely say 250 about it.  But she said that she could add more on the piece in back ground information, so I sent her what I had.  I wanted to check in with her to see if it worked out okay, but didn’t get a chance.  I guess we’ll see when it’s finally printed.

Here’s hoping to a better intern week.