Here's the scoop

Sometimes I wonder at what point my sweet, pure child-mind transitioned into an in-the-gutter adult mind. You may have seen a headline about the passing of Billy Preston, known as "The 5th Beatle." He was an awesome keyboardist. Alas, he was pretty sick with a heart infection. Since Preston died in a Scottsdale hospital, our AP bureau was expected to write the obituary.
Billy Preston obit

I don't have any credit, but the paragraph and quote with Preston's friend, Andrae Crouch, a gospel musician, was my contribution. I got to interview him over the phone and write up that part. There was one quote that I didn't use because of how it could be interpreted. And of course, Crouch is grieving for his friend. So, he's not going to think about how it sounds. But can you imagine if I had put in "I never saw any man handle his favorite organ like he did." No disrespect to Mr. Preston!

So, in my bid to create some semblance of a life for myself, I went to an orientation for this group called makeadifference.org. I hear community service is always a good thing to try. I spent an hour after work at a homeless shelter where volunteers are needed to read to the children--that is when they can pay attention. Because I was new, I wasn't recognizable to any of the kids. So naturally, none of them would come over to me in the beginning. Still, it was a little unnerving sitting there without any kid for 10 minutes. Brought back memories of picking teams in P.E. Fifteen minutes in, a 5-year-old boy named Reuben took pity on me though, hehe.

Oh, the real news scoop is that I won a bunch of ice cream from Dreyer's again! I thought it would be funny to enter again just to see if I could win. Well, I got an e-mail from the company today confirming I am a "grand prize winner." Yup, party at my house...er...my parents' house at some point during the summer. Gee, I still have some of the toppings I bought for last year's party. All that stuff has a really long shelf-life, right?