Just Rewards
I took a journalism “shadow” with me on an assignment yesterday. Nikolett Anneler, from Ninnekah, will be a freshman at the University of Oklahoma this fall. This summer she’s taking part in a camp with the Oklahoma Institute for Diversity in Journalism. As part of the camp, she came to The Oklahoman for the afternoon to shadow a working journalist — me.
She didn’t realize it when she volunteered to go with me that she was in for a treat.
First, though, I made her suffer.
I drove her out to Luther to the Must Love Dogs Animal Rescue. I was warned the property, at the end of a dirt road, might be muddy, and that there would be 11 dogs on hand to great us. Poor Nikolett. Thinking she needed to put on a professional appaerance, she showed up in business clothes — nice blazer, slacks and pumps. She kindly volunteered to go with me, though. First we found her some rubber boots. I figured paper towels would have to do to take care of any dog slobber.
Thankfully, there was no mud, and the dogs were either in cages or in the house, so we didn’t even have any slobber, jumping or scratching. The downside was the heat. The themometer in the car said 93-degrees, but it felt more like 114 on the porch where we conducted our interview.
After I made Nikolett sweat for a good 30 minutes, I rewarded her by letting her take part in another assignment I’ve given myself for the summer — the great snow cone search.
It’s my goal to try as many snow cone flavors as I can over the summer. So Nikolett and I stopped at Scooby Cones on Memorial Road in Edmond on our way back to the office. There, the operator talked Nikolett into trying a “Liger,” something he convinced us was better than a Tiger’s Blood. Sure enough, it was pretty darn good. He wouldn’t tell us the “secret Scooby formula” but it tasted like a cross between an orange and cherry lifesaver. Thanks, Nikolett, for letting me taste your snow cone. I, on the other hand, got a passion fruit — very yummy.
Hey, real work requires real rewards.
Tricia Pemberton
Staff Writer
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