Jared: moving to Bellingham, crashing cars and THE DUCKS ROCK!

And then there were only two.
Shadra and I are the only two interns left, of those who posted on this blog. I have accepted a job at The Bellingham Herald as a growth and development reporter. After a very frustrating few days, I think I may have found a good apartment situation (I found one apartment that's $475 a month for a 135-square-foot room (not including bathroom). It has its own bathroom; I won't make the same mistake twice. It's in a home that was built in 1887 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It sits on a hill above downtown. It was a bed and breakfast until just recently. Five minutes ago I faxed my application over, and I'm now crossing my fingers.

I will really miss the people I got to know here at The Spokesman-Review, and a walk back from the county courthouse about 20 minutes ago over the Monroe Street Bridge reminded me how much I'll miss downtown Spokane, which I think is rather beautiful.

Before I left, I'm glad I got to cover one thing: demolition derby. At the fairgrounds Sunday, demolition derby drivers and thousands of fans went to action, smashing large cars into each other. They kicked up mud and dirt clods, spewed steam from their radiators, one caught fire slighly and tore their tires off by smashing into each other. It was kinda cool.

People seemed glad I was there, as, I've noticed, have most groups that you go to write weekend features on. It was the same with the trapshooting folks. They practice specialized sports/activities that rightfully don't make it into a general newspaper every day. But they are passionate. Reporters tend to get warm receptions when they do come by to cover big events, and almost always they get invited back.

Anyway, my last day isn't until Sept. 26, so I'll post again.

Oh yeah, and GO DUCKS! I don't care if that onside-kick call was bad, we still blocked the field goal attempt at the end, and that's not easy to do.