The twilight zone

Good morning everyone, how are you?

God, I am — I feel so much better after last night. Basically I finished a very long shift yesterday and got off work at about 8:30, 9 a.m. Then I promptly ran some errands. I bought groceries to make a next rounds of meals, such as guacamole, seared New York Strip with mushrooms, Thai chicken lettuce cups, stuffed mushrooms and tea cucumber sandwiches; bought a nice little canvas and some paint so I can have my own little “Paint & Drink” session that some place do, where you paint while you drink wine or eat snacks; even bought some old jeans from Goodwill that I’ll use on Sunday for a fun little Emergency Preparedness video my office is making where we all pretend to report on a zombie apocalypse as if it were really happening (some of us will be reporters on site, some will be zombies).

But anyway, I was exhausted afterwards and I napped for maybe an hour or so before I got up again to start my new project. Regulars on this site will notice this blog is under a new tab called “A Day in the Life,” and it is joined by another segment, “Netflix ‘n Swill.” Now I explain this a bit in the debut post but basically Erik the Electric YouTube watching and poetry-writing at 3 a.m. resulted in me thinking, “What if my new end-of-week tradition is to try a new restaurant in town, and review it while also reviewing a new Netflix show?” So, that launched the other day and it’s right there if you’re interested.
So after I got up from my nap, I ran over to Arby’s and got some yummy, caloric-dense food; took that home, watched some “The Good Place,” drank a G&T and went to bed early to get some much needed sleep. Woke up this morning to be pleasantly surprised this last week hasn’t screwed up my weight loss progress. Today I’m going to treat myself to a mini version of English Tea Time: I’ll make own own teapot of tea and have those cucumber sandwiches and maybe some egg sandwiches, too — just as a fun little thing. Tonight I think I’ll make that seared NY strip. Maybe I’ll work on my own “to do” list but for the most part, relaxing is a-OK with me right now.

Now as you could maybe guess by this point, this past work week as really kicked my ass, but done so in that I’m exhausted, not frustrated or mad. So, what happened this week? Let’s take the long route:
Saturday: one week ago. I didn’t have work until late in the afternoon because my story was late. The brewery here, Pals Brewing Company, hosted their second annual festival where they invite craft breweries from all over Nebraska to come out and show the community what they have, talk about how they make their flavors, etc. So, I woke up like normal weekend time, ran over to Dunkin’ Donuts to get a nice bagel sandwich, took it home and ate it with my own latte.
Now, I went to work expected to so a Live Shot, right? Because that was listed on the assignment. So I get the equipment and go over there (for those wondering, no I didn’t taste any of the beer because I was working) and take my footage and find someone from Pals. I tell them we want to do a Live Shot for the 6 p.m show and he’s all “Well, you can, but this actually ends at 6, so there won’t be a nice crowd and all.” So I call up my coworkers/producer/anchor and let them know, and they tell me to go ahead and just make a VOSOT for the 6 and a package for the 10. So I do, I have a nice time talking to the people there, I have to cram a little to get the VOSOT ready, but I finish it and it’s all good.

Sunday: now, background — I get a text from my boss either Sat or Sun morning that says “Sarah, our morning anchor, is leaving. I am going to train you to be a fill-in producer/anchor for the morning show. Training will start Monday morning at 2 a.m.” And, ya know, I’m like, “. . . . .ok.” Thus starts one of the longest days of my life —

Now again my stories to report on are later in the day; I drive just a few minutes east to Maxwell to talk to a camp about their annual fall festival and finish in time to drive back to the office, start working on that story, and then head to the next one. I meet this couple who preform equestrian therapy with local people and veterans, so I get some nice footage of the horses (normal size and mini), some footage of them reenacting a session, do a nice Facebook Live video with the horses — all nice. So at this point it must be about 6:30 or 7 p.m. and I go back to the office to work on this stuff, because both these stories are packages (but the horse one wont run until Monday night). And packages take longer to produce because they involve more script writing and audio recording and all. So I go back, I start working on this stuff, and it gets to be pretty late.
The camp/fall festival package is done in plenty of time for the 6 p.m./10 p.m. show, no problem. I start working on the horse therapy package all the while knowing I will need to be back at the office at 2 a.m. for AM Training. So, weighing my options, I think I can either go home and attempt to get an hour of sleep and come back to the office, or just finish this right now.
I go for the latter.
I run to Raising Canes for a dinner break, take it back and eat it, I finish the horse therapy package at or around 11 p.m., and I clock out (total workday maybe from, like, 1:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.? I don’t remember to be honest). I’m basically running on food and adrenaline at this point, but I feel fine. So I get out of my clothes, I make coffee and refresh my makeup, I get into fresh clothes and then lie down on my bed just to rest. Just laying down so I’m not standing/moving. Now I typically stay up until 11 p.m. -2 a.m. depending on the day so I already have energy, the coffee is just reinforcement.

Monday: I go into work at 2 a.m. and start Am Training with Sarah (who before this I’d met briefly but now I’m sad she’s going because she’s super cool).
Sarah shows me how she goes about producing the morning show (as in, creating the rundown, making sure it is the correct length, picking what stories need to be ran, etc.) and then later I see how she anchors the show with our meteorologist, Brayden. The North Platte show is at 6 a.m. CT and then immediately after it they do the Scottsbluff show at 7 a.m. CT (6 a.m. MST). After that, they go home.
So I watch them do this and then my boss comes in at 8 a.m. and asks how it’s going and yadda yadda, and she asks how the day prior went. So I tell her the camp story went well but they didn’t have everything set up yet (so the footage was a bit boring) and that the horse story was fun and is all finished. And she’s all “wow, it’s finished?” and I’m like “yeah,” and she’s all “okay, cool. Go home and go to bed!”
So at this point I’ve been awake for approximately 12 hours. Now, you’d think I’d be tired now, right?
NOPE!
. . .no, seriously. I go home, I get in my sweatpants, and now my body thinks “oh, it’s about breakfast time. We have breakfast now!” so I’m not sleepy at all. I make breakfast and drink my coffee, and it honestly just feels like a normal morning. I dont come in again until like midnight, 2 a.m. Tuesday morning (so I can see more) so I just fuck around my house and all. So I do nothing, I eat, and I go back in for more training.

Tuesday: I go in for training early in the morning again, because that’s when the morning anchor/producer has to come in to get it all ready and all. So I do, and it’s great, and I stay and see how they anchor the show. Sarah was all “you must’ve slept a lot the other day,” and i’m not “actually, I didn’t sleep at all,” and she’s all “WTF,” and I’m like “my body thought it was normal morning time lol.”
BUTT, now I start feeling it. As in, as they are doing the Wednesday show(s), I can feel myself fading and getting sleepy. So when my boss comes in we are joking and laughing because I’m all, “my body’s catching up with me; it’s all hitting me now.” So I promptly go home and nap off and on all day because my sleeping pattern is totally fucked up.

Wednesday & Thursday are about the same; I nap off and on during the Normal People Hours, I stop by fast food place to get sustenance (because it’s early and I’m tried and yes I know it’s high in calories), I go in around midnight and actually produce the show myself (with the advice of Sarah), and then I actually anchor the show and go home.
First off, there are not enough food places here that are open late lol. I need to eat more food if I can’t sleep because I need to stay up and keep working – -shoutout to Wendy’s 4×4 meal and McDonalds McNuggets and fries. But anyway I was worried this schedule would fuck up my weight loss because of the irregular/more sleep, less running around and heavier calorie intake; but luckily it did not. I’ll just have to be more careful the next time I to AM Train (this coming Monday morning btw). Now I didn’t tell my family about this because I was super tired and was just trying to focus on being functional, learning it all, and yadda yadda. But I did send them a snippet of my anchoring and they loved it and they’re all “look you’re on camera!” and I’m like “yup.”

Now, anchoring? That’s a little hard, but not in the way you think. I mean — you just read scripts off a teleprompter and then Ad Lib when needed. But this was my first two times ever anchoring and it was super nerve-racking (again, even though probably hardly anyone is watching at 6 a.m. and the studio itself only has up to 3 people in it). Now both times went well by outside standards — nothing went wrong, I read fine, but the second time most definitely better because I had a better handle on it. Before Wed/Thurs, I was on camera and read off the Medical Segments, but being an anchor you know you’re on camera the whole time.
It went fine, really. I can’t Ad Lib very well, but skills come with time. It’s hard to relax on camera though — I need to relax and talk more with my hands, and be all casual, but that’s really hard. Hopefully that will come with time and with this next week’s Am Train.

Honestly? Anchoring and producing is easier than reporting. Very straightforward, all the stories are already made for you, you just talk to your coworker like normal and read off words, and then you’re off at 9 a.m when everyone else is just heading to work. But again, like everything there are pros and cons.

Good news though, my sleep schedule should be back to normal after last night. Now I titled this post the way I did because of how irregular it was, and how I was awake for a long time before my body realized it was out of juice. But I know last week I was thinking pretty seriously about my own happiness. Well I was sad because I thought that AM Train would mean I’d sleep all day and not get to text my friends back home, but that worked out fine and they’re all proud of me. But as far as general happiness?

I don’t know. I think so. I really hope I’m not just existing without feeling anything — I’m really excited to make those new dishes and see if I like them, and I’m happy to have a day to myself, and I’m happy to talk to my friends and make visiting plans. Maybe I’m just recovering, you know? But look at me, I’m excited to make new food, to have a new hobby at the end of the week, my coworker gifted me this little succulent pot — I have it good.

But anyway, I should see about some English Tea Time! I’ll talks to you all later!