Hey there everyone. How are you?
I would say I am well for the most part. Everything seems to be going alright; I’m alive, I’m well, I think I’m happy.
Well let me tell you it has been quite a week for me — next week will be longer because I work a full seven days in a row and then I have the actual weekend (Saturday & Sunday) off. But let me glance through my work stories and tell y’all about what’s been going on. . .
You know, I do wonder if it a bad sign that after the end of the work week I cant remember what stories I did or when they happened. . .but I think that has more to do with the amount of stories that I do and that every day is rather fast-paced and stressful and busy. I personally don’t know but her as long as there is a record of my stories somewhere, right?
Anyway, let’s talk about last Saturday. Now this was after I had three days off as a Labor Day weekend. I woke up super early and went down to Cody Park for the annual “Dogie Dash,” which is an event comprised of a 1 mile Family Run and then a 5K run around the park. I actually saw one of my coworkers there who ran the 5K, and this married couple dressed up in pig costumes as part of the Family Run. Basically they were a play on “pigs in a blanket” but some people called them “super pigs,” and it was incredibly cute. Definitely check it out on the KNOP website if you’re interested. After that was a vintage car show in another smaller park, Memorial Park, and let me tell you it’s good I got there when I did. I finished the first story early and so I went to the car show early; they were having a raffle to win this vintage custom Mustang car supposedly at 3 p.m. However, we were told the wrong time and the raffle winner was called at 2 p.m. instead. Good thing I got there early or else by the time I got there, it would’ve been over!
But anyway, I got there fine, completed the stories fine — everything ended up working out.
Now onto Sunday. On Sunday I went back to Cody Park, this time later in the morning, to attend the “Arts in the Park” festival, which an annual festival where the town invites artisans and crafters (both local and from different states) to some sell their work. There was a food truck alley, games for kids, music playing, an adorable petting zoo, saw two of my coworkers there — pretty good. Pretty good weather, too; cloudy but still warm. However, the real fun and interesting thing happened later that afternoon at the regional airport they have here in North Platte. A Casino Flight (where people buy tickets for roundtrip tickets and lodging at some casinos in Nevada) was taking off and I got footage of people boarding and the plane taking off and yadee yada. Well, they let me behind the ticket counter to get a better angle for my footage, right? (also this was my first time at the regional airport; very cute and very small). Anyway, so this man is in line and see me with the camera, and he’s all “Oh, are you filming for TV?” and I’m all, “Yeah, I’m with KNOP TV” and he gestures subtly for me to come closer, right? So I walk over and his voice gets all quiet and he basically says, “I’m actually undercover with the State Patrol, so can you not have me on camera?” and I look up and I’m like, “Yeah, sure, no problem at all!” So I go to the camera to make sure I hadn’t gotten him in any of my footage (which I didn’t) and I was sure to not get him in any of the other footage but that was kind of cool, actually. Never met an undercover person before. I also got to go out onto the runway with the airport manager to film the plane taking off which was also very cool.
Now onto Monday. Monday was again the weekly Lincoln County Comissioners Meeting, no biggie just talking about budget, but then there was the town’s “Battle of the Badges,” which is basically a friendly rivalry/competition between the town’s police and fire departments to see who can recruit as many people as possible to donate blood to the American Red Cross. Cute, right? Easy, right? Well, I covered it like normal — got some great footage and then accidentally reformatted the SD card and has to take the footage again — BUT. . .BUT. . . .BUT. . . .this time, my boss has my do a liveshot for the 6 p.m. show.
What is a liveshot? Well, it’s when on the news they say “Erika Siebring is live at X place to give us the story,” and then the bars on the screen say “LIVE,” and the reporter (me) is actually on-site in real time talking in front of the camera. When I first started and I was tagging along with a coworker of mine he did some of those and well. . .now it was my turn.
So naturally I was nervous — I mean, it’s basically the same as talking in the studio except, but in a liveshot there is no teleprompter and more things can go wrong. So my boss came with me to make sure the liveshot went okay — to make sure I got the right equipment, that it was all plugged in right, that it was all on, that the directors could hear me okay, all that stuff. And so I’m there trying so had to memorize my lines and I did have to glace at the scripts in my hands a few times. But, it did go okay. I survived.
Also for those who are wondering, police won 46 to 45 for a total of 7 times in 10 years.
Now Tuesday was very similar in that I did another liveshot — to make sure I got the procedures and everything down. But this other kinda annoying thing was going on: my right eye. I don’t know what I did, but for the past day or two my right eye was being weird. At first I thought it was because of my contacts so after work on Monday I changed my contacts. But my right eye still hurt and couldn’t tolerate bright light, even in my own apartment. So basically, it kept watering and I had to keep my sunglasses on just so I could see. Not fun. So I’m downtown covering a meeting of the Downtown Association — where they were talking about redesigning the Downtown Bricks area to make it more economically competitive — and I have the hardest time shooting my standup because the light has to be in my face (so people can see me) but it’s hard to look into the camera with both eyes open. So I text my mother and tell her what’s going on and she’s all, “Maybe it’s a scratch. If you can help it don’t wear your contacts, and buy this cream at Walgreens and that should help.” I did later that day and tried it and it did work, my eye is much better now, but basically that day I drove to the same downtown area three times: once to cover the meeting, once to shoot the standup, and once to shoot the liveshot for the midday (11:30 a.m.) show. Liveshot went fine, although the sun kept going in and out of the clouds and made it harder for me to look at the camera (and made the lighting constantly change), but everything worked and it was all fine in the end.
Now Tuesday was actually pretty cute — I got an easy day with one assignment and that was it, I guess my boss felt like she dumped a lot on me with two liveshots in a row — because I went to a local Catholic school music class to film and talk about this new SMART Board they bought with some grant money. Anyway it was super cute because it’s third, fourth and fifth graders all excited and learning about music, so I got some of the teacher teaching, some of the kids talking and participating, got a few of the kids interviewed — I interviewed the teacher with the kids in the background and they were so excited — basically I couldn’t have asked for a better day. Simple. Easy. Cute. However I did stick my foot in my mouth at work and got a massive headache towards the end of the day. But, I got Burger King for dinner (had to take my bath the next night because of a severe thunderstorm warning) and it was all better.
I also got a text from my boss at about 8 a.m. yesterday (Wednesday) morning saying I’m going to be trained to be a fill-in morning anchor and, to be honest, I’m not sure how to feel about it. To be honest, I’m not sure how to feel in general. I actually don’t know if I’m happy here. I mean, parts of my job are fun and all, and I get to meet new people, I get to cook on the weekends (yesterday was Pasta Puttanesca and Couscous Salad [made with rice instead] pictured above) and that part is fun but am I happy in general? Am I happy with where my life and my career are going? I’ve been here about a month and so far it’s been great but I just don’t know if this is what I want. I wrote a really crappy poem about it last night before writing a better poem about a different set of worries, but — I don’t know. This is why I don’t really like thinking too far ahead because it’s full of so many “what ifs” and “I dont knows.” Then again this could be attributed to my eating habits — I don’t eat lunch so I get a little tired during the workday; but I only really noticed this on Tuesday because it was a short/not-full day so I wasn’t constantly running around and I was actually aware that my stomach was hungry.
I just. . . .I don’t know. What does it even mean to be happy? I would say I am for the most part but I can’t look too far into the future because then I’m confronted with things like “When will I get to visit my friends back home?” or “Are there even men my age around here that I can profile for potential relationships?” and I just. . . . I don’t know. Sometimes workdays are rally hard in the moment and then I look back and think “Well that wasn’t so bad after all.” But I’m started to build a life here — it may only include me at this point but I’m building a life here and it’s actually pretty comfortable in general.
But like I said, I don’t know. Is it bad that sometimes I dread Sunday nights knowing I will have to wake up and run around at work the next morning, like I did when I was back in school? Maybe I need to take more Vitamin D. . . .but like I said I just don’t know.
But there is one bright side — I has this idea last night while I was writing poetry at 1 a.m: what if once a week, on a day off, I try a new takeout place here and then watch a show on Netflix and review it on this blog? I’d have to budget money for it but it could be a thing. . . .it could also be an idea that’s great at 1 a.m. on a Friday morning but not at 9 a.m. the following morning but I don’t know. I’ll ge tback to you on that.
But I should stop rambling. . .I think my laundry is done.
Goodbye, for now.