Good afternoon everyone! How are you?
Well we’re in a new year! 2020. . . .it’s five days into the new year and I’m already sick of the “2020 Vision” jokes. But I’m really excited! I’m excited for this new year; I’m excited for everything that’ll come; I’m excited about things that are going on right now. It’s been a good couple of days.
And since we are in a new year, let’s start with how I celebrated the new year! It’s actually kind of cute. . .so I worked New Years Eve and wished all our viewers a happy new year, and then I had that evening and all of New Years Day off. I had decided ahead of time that I’d have a really nice time by myself — just sort of treat myself.
For my Christmas stocking I bought this little dip-kit that came with this mini cast iron skillet and dip mix; so you mix up the dip and then bake it in the skillet. So for cocktail hour I had G&T and the jalapeno-cheese dip baked in the skillet, served with crackers, and watched John Mulaney specials on Netflix. To be honest I had been struggling with some personal things but this really helped me get into the spirit of the new year. I believe I got through New In Town and maybe half of The Comeback Kid.
For my main course I tried a new recipe from the Tasty app — baked Garlic Parmesan Chicken Wings. It was something I’d wanted to try and I figured this was the perfect time, and they were so good! The combination of garlic and cheese was so good and I would totally make those again. Now, I was pretty full so I waited a few hours before I had dessert — chocolate mousse.
So overall — the food was very good and honestly if I couldn’t feasibly be with my college friends or family, it was the perfect way to ring in the new year.
Buuuuuut, here’s the thing: of course I was going to stay up until midnight to watch my laptop clock count the first seconds of 2020, but I live in central time. Everyone else is in mountain time. So I actually celebrated the first moments of 2020 twice — once at actual midnight and again at 1 a.m. So I was a little tired that night and slept really well.
Now, moving onto New Years Day — the first day of 2020 — what did I have for breakfast? Well I used (and have still been using) that mini skillet to cook an egg; I cooked some minced garlic and green onions and then baked the egg in the oven. I also grated some potatoes and made some hash browns with a nice hot cup of coffee. Let me tell you — that was a very comfy way of starting the new year.
For the rest of the day I was still in the cooking-baking mood, so I made these little thumbprint cookies I was going to make at Christmas but ran out of time. So I used my brand new hand-mixer (which I was way too excited for when I got it for Christmas, and it just donned on me that I’m an adult now) to make these thumbprint cookies, coated in chopped walnuts, and filled with fig-lemon marmalade. I only ate two — one that crumbled on the sheet pan and one all done — and sat the other in my office as a nice treat to my coworkers.
[PS: they all loved them!]
The next and most major event of the new year so far happened on Friday. Friday was a doozy.
So on Friday, January 3rd, I went to work like normal and finished the show like normal. But during the latter part of the show, I’m getting messages to investigate this Facebook post from a community member about a missing person (as in, the family considered him missing, I do not know if they filed an actual missing persons report). So after the show I make calls to various police departments about this man who was last seen Thursday morning and who didn’t have a cell phone, and they have no answers for me.
So I’m going through the normal post-show routine of archiving the show and post to social media, when I get a call back from one of the departments with new information that the body of said man was found. Naturally that’s all the information they could give me at the time, so I’m scrambling to get a story online and to send a push notification and to post it on social media. This was breaking news, so you expect it to be stressful.
But, as that was going on, we hear on the police scanner about a car on the train tracks in what appeared to be some sort of auto accident; now I’m trying to finish this missing man story and the only other person in the office is our meteorologist. So we both scramble to call the reporters who are working today to see who can check out this accident, it takes about 4 tries to get through to one, and there was an issue with interview timing and missing cameras — but we did get someone on the accident.
So by this point it’s maybe 10-ish and I’m hurrying to finish this missing man story so I can go home and eat (I’m starving at this point) so I talk to coworkers and finish my things and I’m clocked out, out of the office.
Now, I get home, right? I get home and I’m starving so I figure I’d make breakfast — so I make some Bisquick biscuits and stick them in the oven (some for now, some for later) and then bake an egg in the cast iron skillet with some chopped bacon.
The egg is done, the biscuits are just about done. . . .and I get a call from an unknown number. So I answer. And it’s a coworker of mine. So she’s supposed to cover the midday (11:30 a.m. to noon) show for our boss who is on PTO, and she has a family emergency and needs to know if I can cover. So I’m just like ohhhhhh crap I got this stuff in the oven, I don’t know if I’s going to be done, I need to get dressed again and all that (thankfully I hadn’t taken off my makeup yet!). So after some stressful few minutes of figuring out these logistics, luckily the biscuits were done; so I hurry and take those out, turn off the oven, stick my egg in the microwave so it’ll stay warm, pour my coffee mug into a travel mug, throw my work clothes back on and head to the office.
So I run in, maybe 20 minutes before the show is supposed to start, and my coworkers are all “what are you doing back here?” and I’m all “I’m covering the midday show lol.” Now the show as already made, I just needed to inform the directors of the anchor change (so they could change the camera coding), call to see how long break times were, clock in again before I forgot, get myself all set up in my IFB and microphone, greet our Newsmakers guest, sit in my chair and take a deep breath. So we’re a couple of minutes out now and I’m sitting there joking with our meteorologist, like “wow, it’s been so long, how are you?” and our guest, and we continue this argument from the morning about how I don’t like milk in my cereal and how that makes me “a serial killer” lol.
But anyway the show starts, and I stumble over the words a bit because I didn’t get to read through them a lot, but it all goes well. Newsmakers goes well — I researched the guest during the breaks/packages and got some questions in without there being an awkward silence. And by the end of the show I’m VERY hungry (at this point it’s noon and I haven’t eaten since about 2 a.m.). So I’m doing my social media, joking with my coworkers a bit, and then run home to eat my still-warm biscuits and my egg.
So. . . .yeah. That was a morning.
Friday evening was much more chill; I made myself a nice cocktail and I tried experimenting with this ribeye steak I bought. So I seared it in a pan with butter, rosemary, thyme and garlic, basting it every now and then. In the meantime I sliced some potatoes, mixed them with some olive oil, Parmesan cheese, garlic power and parsley to make Garlic Parmesan Potatoes.
It was sooooo goooooood and I would totally make those again; I love those flavors together.
As far as this weekend? Fairly calm. I’m packing for a trip to Vegas, I did another Netflix ‘n Swill episode, I made potato pancakes for breakfast for the first time. . . .good time. Good way to start the new year. Yey!
Stay tuned — more to come!