Would you get arrested for your job?

Last Friday, Alex and I almost did.

If you're an FGCU student odds are you spend your weekends at the (yes, Alex, THE) Gulf Coast Town Center. However, they just changed the hours of liquor sales from 2 a.m. to 1 a.m.

The rumor is that the goal is to make the Gulf Coast Town Center more "family friendly," but with establishments like BAR Louie, Miller's ALE house, and Cigar BAR, the bartenders are going to have to invest in a Chuckie Cheese costume to get those six-year-old birthday parties booked anytime soon.

Alex, his friend Jake and I met up in front of Border's without much of a plan. We had a camera and our makeshift press passes so we set off going bar to bar to ask for interviews.

An intern's rite of passage... high school football.

In any career, you've gotta start at the bottom and work your way up.

Most interns working at office jobs find an endless stream of faxing, brewing bitter coffee, and random monotonous tasks that would make even the Wal-Mart greeter's job look stimulating. But if you find yourself in the environment you love - going home every night with more paper cuts than decimal places on your paycheck (if you are lucky enough to be paid at all) is absolutely dandy.

The journalism world, I've discovered, requires less faxing but still has its own rite of passage: high school football.

Why high school football? Its relatively easy, there's usually more games than reporters, and if misspell the 3rd-chair trumpet player's last name, no one really notices.

Its usually pretty simple stuff, fan photos with a point-and-shoot camera or experimental projects.

When it comes to covering high school football games, I'm no rookie. This is my sophomore season; I spent the 2008 season shooting highlight videos for the Fort Myers News-Press and this year shooting video for the Naples Daily News. Regardless of newspaper or county, school or season, some things never change.

The notebook experiment

Being an intern, I'm not blessed with the universal media passport a.k.a. press pass, and until recently I didn't even have a name badge. So more often than not, I have to do a little convincing to get admitted into the games. After a while, I started to notice that when I carried my pink notebook under my arm, it was like my credentials skyrocketed.

Almost every time, the band booster parent taking tickets at the gate would knit their brow and purse their lips, but as soon as their eyes fell to the notebook under my arm, I could almost hear them think: "Oh, okay, she has a notebook. She's legit."

"Yearbook staff?"

I can admit it - I look really, really young (I'm 20). Wipe off the mascara, throw a Hollister t-shirt over my head and you'd probably ask to see my driving permit. Every Friday night, I always get at least one person - sometimes a student, sometimes a parent - thinking I'm on the yearbook staff. Usually the conversation goes as follows:

Fan: Can I see the picture?
Me: Uh, yeah, okay.
Fan: COOL! Are you gonna put this in the yearbook?
Me: Well... no.
Fan: Aw, why not?
Me: I work for the newspaper.
Fan: Really? They hire high school kids?
Me: I'm not in high school... I go to FGCU.
Fan: ...oh.

Everything aside, covering high school football does have its perks, and I actually really enjoy going to the games. I don't mind hot dogs for dinner every Friday (I really love hot dogs), and getting to make a trip to my alma matter is always interesting (and, thankfully, the one school I didn't have to argue my way into.)

I'm also a PR intern for the Florida Everblades... except that requires more faxing.

I'm really good at embarrassing myself in front of celebrities part 2

Having a birthday in the 1980s has thankfully lead me to avert the current frenzy of Disney’s factory-produced, long-haired, skinny-jeans-clad trio the Jonas Brothers. I assumed that my graduation from high school immediately excluded me from hyperventilating at one sight of a young(ish) male with a musical instrument... Until last August.

One night, I was hanging out at Derek’s house, when, between facebook chatting, I came across an ad on a local radio station’s website. The front banner read, “ SEE JOHN MAYER FRONT ROW!” Previously, I thought I had a better chance of my Macbook instantly transforming into solid gold and spitting Gucci handbags out of the CD drive than meeting John Mayer. I frantically clicked the link, wondering how quickly I was going to be able to make the doe eyed, tattooed, blues singing, guitar player my boyfriend. As the page loaded, I discovered the fine print. The lanky singer is featured on the gossip blogs as quite the Casanova, so it was no surprise the contest was advertised as a,“ John Mayer ex-girlfriend look-a-like contest.”

“Caity!” Derek exclaimed. “ You should so enter this!”

College students & health care reform: what does it all mean?

Every night before I go to sleep, I turn on CNN. My evening ritual isn't for the glow of the television to put me to sleep, but so I see the day's headlines before I get out of bed the next morning.

Lately, the fist four words I've been hearing before my Cheerio's are "Obama's health care reform." Alright, I get it, clearly something in our health care system isn't working - but what? I fall in the college-age demographic (18-24) and being in that "leaving the nest" transition category, I'm used to being too old for some things and too young for others.

When it comes to health care, many people in my demographic are sometimes too old for be covered under their parent's insurance (provided their parents have coverage, many don't) and too young to have a job with full benefits. Many college campuses do have health services with routine and preventative care, as well as STD testing. FGCU even has health insurance available for domestic students - for $1,200 a year. However, anything above routine care just isn't covered. I, like other students, can barely cover the cost of rising tuition - any hospital stay would put my bank account in the red.

Here are the basics:


Why is everyone making such a big deal over health care?

For the Americans that have health insurance, 25 million are under insured and up to 46 million have none at all. With so many companies cutting back, many employers are limiting or eliminating health insurance for their remaining employees. in 2007, Americans spent upwards of $7,000 per person.

Let's put that $7,000 in perspective: that's 2 1/2 years of college tuition in a Florida public university, 35 iPhone 3Gs', or 1,400 pitchers of Miller Light at Miller's Ale House.

One year of health care in the US costs 52% more than the next most costly nation, Norway. The median income in 2008 declined 3% from 2007 - to $50,303.


That means health care costs almost 14% of the average American's yearly income.


What's all this talk about a "public option"?

Obama would like to create a health care system that is federally funded, similar to Medicare; a plan that would give affordable health care for all Americans. Obama is also insisting his plan would prevent those with pre-existing conditions to be denied health care.

Canada can do it, why can't we?

Private insurance would still be available, but Republicans are concerned that the public option would decrease the overall quality of health care and many employers would choose the public option to save money. Its always a possibility - busier doctors with more patients could mean less face time and and more rushed visits.

There's debate that the public option would mean the onset of Socialism... However, there's also a reason we have a President, not a dictator. If we had Fidel Castro hanging out in the oval office, smoking cigars and insisting on a public option, I'd be more concerned. But Congress has plenty of seats filled with conservatives to keep the argument balanced.

How does it affect you?

Resume

Click to enlarge

HIATUS

Taking a 2 week road trip to Maine.

Of course, I'm blogging about the whole trip.

Here's the link:

http://caityandcourtney.blogspot.com/

xoxo