Published: July 30, 2009 08:01 am      

Off and running

Hello, all. I have successfully completed my first few days at the McAlester News-Capital with no apparent fall-out. It was, in fact, blissfully uneventful.

An uneventful day in my world is like a lunar eclipse — rare and beautiful.

My kids were pretty excited when we told them I was starting a new job at the paper.

My husband not so much.

In his defense, he’s been a victim before.

I worked at a paper when we first got married, and I was supposed to write a weekly column. It was really intended to be a commentary on events around town and what not, but in order to continue life in an orderly fashion, I have to concentrate on my immediate surroundings, so that’s what I wrote about.

My husband, who shall remain nameless until he makes me mad, pestered me endlessly about when I was going to write about him.

Careful what you wish for.

This was in a tiny town in Kentucky, and there was nothing else to do but read the paper. So when we nearly ended up in divorce court over the installation of a ceiling fan, I wrote about it once the proverbial smoke cleared. The next time he went to the grocery store, both clerks wanted to know if that ceiling fan was up and working.

I wrote about his odd eating habits, our collective lack of handyman skills, and anything else I found funny. He stopped going to the grocery store.

He’s been going back and forth about whether to warn the innocents about the fact that soon their every moves will be plastered on the editorial page.

He’s opted to let it be a surprise.

Mandy Carter is a staff writer for the McAlester News-Capital. Call her at 421-2027 or send e-mail to mcarter@mcalesternews.com.