Crazy days in the newsroom

It's been a stress-filled past couple of days at work, with the unexpected brain surgery of South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson. When I got into work Wednesday, I knew I was designing page 1A, but I didn't realize that Johnson had had a stroke – or stroke-like symptoms, as it was reported. Then we got the word from some inside sources that he'd had a "severe" stroke, and we weren't sure if he was going to live or not. And I started hyperventilating because I'm still a rookie, and here I was quite possibly going to have to design the front page for the biggest story of the decade in South Dakota.

And, I realized later, not only was this a huge story in South Dakota, but a huge story nationally because of the razor-thin Democratic edge in the Senate. Anyway, it all ended up turning out pretty well. I had quite a lot of input on how to design the page on both Wednesday and Thursday. And now I can add both to my portfolio and say, "Hey, look how calmly I handled this huge breaking-news story." Even though at the time, I felt like I was going to have a stroke.

Now, fortunately, it looks like Senator Johnson is doing pretty well. I'm hoping and praying for his recovery – not because he's a Democrat but because he's a human and, from what I've heard, a genuinely good guy.