baby on the horizon!

okay, so how bad did i scare the crap out of you all with that headline?!?!? lol dont worry...im not pregnant!

there is, however, a cute baby that i will be visiting this weekend...my new cousin, Nola. i posted some pics of her a while back...i think shes 7 months old. she is the cutest thing ever! im actually going home to florida for a few days...i will see her on sunday. im leaving for FL saturday morning and will be back in NC on monday since i got the day off. should be a lot of fun! hopefully i will have plenty of pics to show of me with Nola!


heres a couple stories:)

http://www.nbc17.com/content/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-02-27-0023.html crime watch

http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-02-28-0001.html more north carolina drought

loooong day! im glad it's over :)

here's the story...cheating scandal at chapel hill high school

http://www.nbc17.com/content/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-02-26-0014.html

sometimes the most random things make me smile. for example, today i was driving around doing some errands and i pull up to a red light...i glanced over to the car next to me and there was a girl driving by herself singing and dancing to a song that was on the radio...not even caring or aware that other people might be looking at her. it was so awesome...i wanted to roll my window down and ask her what song she was listening to because it must have been a damn good one! lol

today i went out and bought a CD simply because there was one song that i had heard that i love. it was the one i posted about yesterday...Sara Barielles is the singer. the cd is really good and her voice is wonderful. she is so different than most of the female singers out there that i hope she has a huge amount of success...that's why i bought her CD instead of just downloading the song. gotta show my support!

well, things have been pretty busy with work this week. we are going through some changes at the station so we'll see how all that goes.

last night was a lot of fun. went out to dinner with a couple of my friends. we went to this restaurant in downtown raleigh called Sushi Blues. it was awesome...and so was the music! we called the restaurant a little before 8 pm to see if they took reservations..they said they didnt, but that the wait was only about 15 minutes at that point. so OF COURSE by the time we get there 20 mins later, the wait was more than an hour! are you kidding me? all the restaurants were packed though so we just waited it out. we didnt sit down until 9:30! i dont think id ever been so hungry after we waited that long! lol the girls went out after that, but i was tired so i went home...would you really expect anything else from me? :)

tonight me and a few of my friends from work went to this bar called Blue Martini...it's actually really nice! and i even had a Hawaiin Martini...delicious, but a super girly drink! lol it was awesome because i was with them but sometimes i could do without the whole bar scene...you know how it is...smokey and crowded. 2 things i dont love. laura (my girl friend from work) is going to have an 80s movie watching night at her and her husband's house in a couple weeks...im so excited! i havent seen any movie period in forever, let along an 80s movie! Pretty in Pink anyone?

this is my absolute favorite song right now (link below)...you honestly cannot help but smile to listen to the beat! and i love this singer...she is awesome! i also appreciate the fact that she's not cookie cutter pretty...but unique, which is beautiful :) have a look...and a listen!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MR5xv3pt7KI&feature=related

story from friday :) NC's flawed mental health services system

http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-02-22-0021.html

story from today....weather! my story hits halfway on the timeline...just after the weather forecast

http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-02-21-0004.html

sorry i have not updated much lately! i will soon...here's a story in the meantime

http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-02-20-0027.html

traffic, traffic, traffic!

http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-02-19-0030.html

so aimee and i were on the phone on saturday and we spent a good 20 minutes of our conversation talking about Jim Gaffigan...you've probably seen the guy at some point on comedy central...he is hilarious! this is a clip of what i think is the best segment he's done...it's a couple years old, but watch it anyway...it's about hot pockets. i honestly cry laughing everytime i see this!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jFFTwnYXI20&feature=related

have you ever had one of those days you wish you could just freeze time so it wouldnt end? i definitely had one of those this weekend :)

i love this quote! (and you all know me...im a sucker for a motivational quote!)

“I’ve missed over 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games.26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot…and missed.I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why Isucceed.”
Michael Jordan

a couple days ago i wrote about a story i was working on about the Oconeechee Speedway. it aired today and i have to say, this is definitely at the top of the stories im proudest of. i could do a 30 minute piece on this so it's kind of a shame to have to make it a minute and 20 seconds, but it came out very nice. enjoy!

http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-02-13-0025.html

kissing the gnome!

remember that gnome blog i was raving about several weeks ago that one of our guys at work has? well, i finally got to get up close and personal with the gnome...check it out!

http://gnomadicgnome.blogspot.com/

story from today....farmers and the drought...and me on a farm with some lambs! lol

http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-02-12-0032.html

i wont lie...there are a lot of things i dont understand: why do cats always land on their feet? who put those stupid tags on mattresses that says you cant remove them? why cant i be tan even though im a red head? (lol...gotta take the good with the bad!)

another thing i dont understand is why is it that everytime someone dies in either a car accident or something terrible happens to them, reporters always have to try to go talk to the family members? i mean really, what purpose does that serve? why do we do that? and i want a REAL reason...not just, well because the other stations do and that's how it's always been done.

i bring this up because today i did a story about a DUI wreck that happend where a 16 year old boy was killed...so of course, had to try to get some interviews with the boys family and friends. the whole thing kind of felt like a circus though...i was there, the ABC station was there, the CBS, and the FOX station. i mean can you imagine being this kids parents or friends and some reporters who you dont know are coming up to you at your house, wanting to interview you about your son who just died 2 days ago?! why do these people ever even agree to do the interviews? if it were me, there's no way i would ever do it.

i guess im guilty too because i did the story even though i dont agree with the principle of it. whenever i do a story like this i always try to write it seems i'm talking about a real person...not just a one minute and 15 second story.

here's the link:

http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-02-11-0029.html

sorry to end on a depressing note! here's a smile:

:)

so sweet

today is my mom's bday (and aimee's too! how convenient...mom and my best friend have the same bday!). last night around 1 am my dad sent me and my brother a text saying he started blowing up balloons and putting out flowers after mom went to bed to surprise her! isnt that so sweet? even after 26 years of being married he still does stuff like that for her! it makes me teary just to think about it! so cute! so of course i called her this morning and i knew it would make her cry...even though she was trying to hide it in her voice! (but she should know she cant hide it from me!)

what a sweet surprise for my mom! nice job, dad! :)

the people who wind up being the best interviews are the ones who are completely unaware of the fact that they ARE the best people to interview (if that makes sense!).

today i did a story with these two guys from a group called the "Oceneechee Speedway Group". they were just formed less than a year ago and their whole goal is to preserve and revitalize the Oceneechee Speedway in hillsborough. i dont know much (well, or anything really!) about racing and NASCAR but apparently this speedway is pretty famous...richard petty even did his final race there. so the speedway hasnt been used since 1968 and now they're trying to get it back into shape (and they've already done a really great job).

i interviewed the two today and the words that came out of their mouths were just amazing...and even better is the fact that they have no idea how great it was. they're just your average joe kinda guys doing something they love. honestly, you see it in their eyes and hear it in their voices when they talk about how much doing this means to them. im so excited to put this piece together. it's weird though because when i know i have all the right elements to put a great story together, it makes me a little nervous because i want so badly to do it justice...make everything just right...i dont want to screw it up.

anybody can cover the fires, accidents, and court cases...they're always terrible situations, but as a reporter, it doesnt take much skill to get the story across. when you have the opportunity to do a really special story like this one, you always want to knock it out of the park...but still make it seem like it came easy. these are the kinds of the stories that make me love my job...it also probably explains why i spent much of my friday night, when i was off, working on it.

funny enough, i cant think of anything else i would rather have been doing tonight :)

a couple of stories from this week :) my voice sounds a little weird because i cant shake this random sore throat ive had for the last 5 days...not real happy about that.

http://www.nbc17.com/content/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-02-05-0007.html

http://www.nbc17.com/content/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-02-05-0005.html


tonight's a big night for some bball! Duke at UNC. I cant wait! ill be helping with the coverage tonight...i dont think me and the photographer im working with are actually going to be in Dean Smith Center because the sports guys are handling that...but we'll probably be down on Franklin Street (equivalent to High Street in Morgantown...only a little bigger) where there will be plenty of people watching the games in bars who couldnt get tickets. hmm...lets see....huge rivalry game..alcohol likely involved....and we'll be doing liveshots for the newscast.

guys and girls, i see a You Tube moment in my very near future! lol (wish me luck!)

typical!

the weekend with my aunts and mom was SO fun! they helped me rearrange my living room, we did some shopping and literally ate out for lunch and dinner everyday. the food consumption was out of control! lol tonight we went to PF Chang's for dinner and each got a fortune cookie. my mom's said "you will become more passionate and determined about you vision." my aunt sue's said "doing what you like is freedom. liking what you do is happiness." my aunt eileen's said "dont worry you will always have everything you need." and you want to know what mine said?

"he who grabs the last lettuce wrap is the least hungry."

can you believe that?!!? lol they get the enouraging, thoughtful fortune's and what do i get?! the one about a lettuce wrap. GO FIGURE! maybe it's a euphamism for some sort of other thought-provoking phrase....or you know what?

maybe it really IS just about an effing lettuce wrap! lol