Top Ten Best Things About Working in News.

In the words of Grape...

In no particular order, here are the absolute best things about working in television news:

1. The "front row ticket" to life. You get to rub elbows with celebrities, people who run the country, the most interesting people on the planet. You have a lifelong backstage pass while others pay big bucks for front row seats.

2. Working weekends. Your friends will feel sorry for you, but if you've never done it, you've missed the pure joy of a mostly empty building with no managers around. You can relax, turn the scanner down from an ear-splitting level, throw a frisbee around the newsroom or a football around the parking lot. You only have to dress from the waist up if you're an anchor, as the "weekend anchor collection" might include a suit jacket, tie, cut-offs and docksiders with no socks.
3. Photogs. 90 percent artists, 10 percent psychologists, these guys should wear a cape as they seem to have superpowers. They can fix a viewfinder or a carburetor, find anything without a GPS, and know what you're thinking before you know it. They have the most pride of any group in the news business, are the most loyal, and weren't born with the backstabbing gene. They can become true friends for life.
4. Newsroom camaraderie. If you're in a great newsroom with nice people, your life can be like an episode of Friends every day. It's like having a second family.
5. Orphan Holidays: When Thanksgiving and Christmas roll around and you're a thousand miles from home, you can feel depressed. But the holiday orphans always get together to celebrate and create some of the more memorable holidays ever.

6. Working with creative, smart people. The news business does feature some dim bulbs, but for the most part you're working with the smartest people on the planet. All with a seriously warped sense of humor.

7. You never watch the clock. How many people in other fields can say that? Your day goes by so fast it doesn't feel like work.

8. You make a living, and this isn't even a real job. Seriously, you tell stories for a paycheck!

9. Breaking a big story. The pulse goes up and suddenly you're a kid on Christmas morning.

10. Changing the world with a story. Imagine, showing up for work not knowing what your day holds and going home knowing you've saved or changed a life dramatically. Doctors do it all the time, but we can do it with words and pictures instead of a scalpel. Nothing, and I mean nothing, feels better than this.

What Would Punch Say?

I am totally in love with this YouTube video we aired on First Edition today. I've watched it several times already!  This got me thinking... what would Punch say if she could talk?  And what would her voice sound like?

Well as far as the voice, I'm pretty sure she talks like a teenage girl... snotty and condescending.

Punch camping at "Beer Can Island" July 2009

And what would she say?

• "Leave me alone, you're smothering me!"
• "Will you drop a piece on the floor for me?"
• "Did you just say 'go for a walk'?"
• "Cat alert! Let me out!"
• "I love Grandma."

What would your furry friend say?

Wedding Wear.

So of course many of this season's weddings will be compared to the Royal Wedding of Will & Kate... I wonder how many new British trends we will see here across the pond?

Probably my favorite trend is wearing hats!  I have an important wedding this July in Breckenridge, Colorado.  Kubes' brother Scott and his fiance Jen will tie the knot and I think I'll be donning a hat myself.  I just got my dress in the mail yesterday so now the hunt is on to find a piece of headware that coordinates.  Help me... I have a few ideas but its so hard to decide.  One thing I do know is that I'm going to go vintage!  I am taking some advice from Blissfully Eccentric.

Here's the dress:

I'll be shopping the vintage chests in Wapakoneta where I've seen several good pieces. Here are some random hat examples, what color and style? I'm thinking a fascinator... I definitely don't want to look bridal and am loving the peacock feathers.

Current Reads.

The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory is such a page turner.  I'm reading it under the suggestion of my mother and cannot put it down!  After a long stretch hooked on Jodi Picoult and Janet Evanovich, I almost forgot how much I love historical fiction set in Old England!  This one brings me back.

I'm tempted to once again read one of my all time favorite books... On the Night of the Seventh Moon, by Victoria Holt.  It has the same atmosphere and general setting... a girl growing up in a privileges family in old England... the struggles of whom to marry and what the servants are gossiping about.  Love it!

My Superstar Besties.

Ever been in a music video?  Me neither... but my best friends have! 

On a recent spring break trip to Arizona they were approached for a cameo appearance in a parody music video for Rebecca Black's "Friday"  Check it out here!  They are the two beauties on the subway, btw.

Malorie blogged about the experience... you can read her thoughts here.