JENIFER RAGLAND -- Notebook

I interviewed for a job at the Daily Pilot in the summer of 1997. I can

remember it vividly because it was the year of El Nino, and the 99-degree

temperatures were not exactly helping my anxiety-induced sweat outbreaks.

As I walked through the double doors at the front of the very distinctive

building on West Bay Street in Costa Mesa, my stomach was turning

somersaults more than it ever had.

Today is my last day at the Pilot. And it seems strange, but I have the

exact same feeling in my gut.

In fact, no matter how long I’d been here or how comfortable I was in the

job, those butterflies never really went away. Every day when I came to

work, something brought on that feeling -- a person I was excited to see,

a story I was anxious to watch play out, an experience I was eager to

relay.

As most people who work at the community news level in this business will

tell you, the job has plenty of downsides. The hours? Long. The pay? Not

so great. The workload? Sometimes it seems absolutely unbearable.

But as I prepare to leave today for a reporting job at the Los Angeles

Times Ventura County Edition, all I can think of are the best things

about working at the Daily Pilot:

Being surrounded each day by people -- from the news assistants to the

top editors -- who are smart, hilarious, insightful, caring, goofy,

innovative, sarcastic, witty.

Making them laugh while they are trying to conduct serious interviews in

offices and conference rooms, which all have glass windows. We’ve

contorted our faces. We’ve popped up from behind cubicle walls. We’ve

performed ridiculous dances, all the while gleefully watching them try to

suppress smiles and giggles.

Hiding food in their offices (or desks) while they are away on vacation,

and then snickering when they unsuspectingly come back to find moldy

doughnuts in their file cabinets.

The infamous white elephant Christmas party, where we spend a good two

hours doubled over in laughter as people unwrap anything from the ugliest

Kleenex-box cover you’ve ever seen to a rather gaudy gold statue of a

half-naked woman.

Lunches out at Wahoo’s.

Ordering in for the entire staff, which can be just as fun.

Being able to pretty much count on something sweet and most definitely

fattening being available right smack dab in the middle of deadline --

the exact time you probably get the most nagging craving for a snack. If

it’s not Krispy Kremes someone was thoughtful enough to bring in, it’s

cake for a birthday, wedding, promotion.

The 3 p.m. budget meetings, where the magic happens.

Walks across the street to the convenience store for a much-needed coffee

fix, bag of pretzels or venting session.

That acute feeling of satisfaction you get when you’ve managed to scoop a

competing paper with 20 times your reporting staff.

A bulletin board in the middle of the office, which someone at some point

in Daily Pilot history named the Marble Memorial Media Center. When

something you’ve written or edited gets pinned up for all to see and

admire, it can leave you with a high that lasts the rest of the day.

Knowing you have a core base of readers who pour religiously through the

news product you are producing each day -- their sense of ownership so

intense that countless numbers of them take the time to pack up a copy of

the paper when they go on vacation, take a snapshot with it and send the

photo in to be published.

And, of course, the going-away parties, when we sit around a table

munching on very good guacamole and swapping memories.

Goodbye, everyone. And thank you.

* JENIFER RAGLAND is city editor of the Daily Pilot.