it happened. officially.

That thing that happened (officially) is actually two things. The first thing is good. The second this is bad, but it was inevitable. Alas, I have survived both.

The first is that my first edition (manchesterenterprise.com) came out today. This is a major career marker I suppose, and I was elated that my peers and friends thought it was a major success. They patted me on the back and all that stuff. It felt really nice, and I was happy with my first try. I was even happier knowing that the next edition is going to be even better and I'm feeling pretty good about what I want to try to do with it.

Then that second thing happened. That thing that I wish never happened. I got the first angry reader phone call.

And let me tell you.... it was a doozy.

First I have to say that this goes with the job. It isn't necessarily an attack on me as a person (so they say), but more a gut reaction from someone who is unhappy. It's like having a conversation with those mean (and albeit ridiculously unreasonable) bloggers over at the annarbor.com website. But it still stinks. The worst part, however, was that I sort of agreed with her.

She screamed at me for a full five minutes (that of which I inserted zero dialogue because I wanted her to get it all out of her system) about how sports was only three pages this week and only one of them was manchester specific and I should be ashamed of myself and yadda yadda.

You know what lady? Touche. I'm totally with you... except for the ashamed of myself part...

Unfortunately, I don't get to make that call. The sports editor (not Ed Patino, mind you) is supposedly in charge of deciding on a page count for the sports section and I fill everything else. I don't really agree with having the smaller sections and I get why she would be angry. I mean I'm coming from writing sports in Saline and Milan. I get it. I've been there. But on the other hand, our poor sports editor was covering for someone and was responsible for four sections this week. He didn't really have a choice.

Basically I had to tell her that I get where she's coming from (I do), I want it to change (I do), and that I will do everything in my power to make the Manchester Enterprise better than ever (the verdict is still out... but the incentive is there).

So that's where we're at right now and that's going to have to be enough, because that's all I can muster. I'm going to exercise my muscle on my new baby chair of power and see how far it goes.

Stay tuned...