Anyone Have an Answer?

The governor comes to your little town of less than 10,000 people. He brings with him $11 million in grants and loans, and a promise of about 250 new jobs. Zippo gets money. The historic district and other downtown projects get money. The hospital gets money for part of its $14 million renovation and expansion project. There's an announcement of a new business moving from Florida to your town. Big stuff, right?

I'm wondering why that didn't make the newspaper's list of the top ten stories of the year. Actually, I'm not wondering. If I'm right, the reason is just one of the 1,347,622 reasons I left there and now have the best job I've ever had.

Something fun ...



Make your own church sign here.

Gotta Love Scoops

Do I mean the Fritos that go well with dip? Although I do like those, that's not what I'm talking about.

Ice cream? Not when it's 2 degrees below zero outside.

I'm talkin' news. I got the scoop I was blogging about the other day! It was big, big, big. And, at the end of my newscasts, I really emphasized "You hear it HERE first."

Ya know, I like picking up the paper, looking at all their "big" stories and saying "Had it. Had it. Had it. Had it."

Well, it's time to go gather more news. :)

Tip of the Day

When you're doing laundry, put the lid on the washing machine down. If you don't, you'll go back ready to put your clothes in the dryer but, instead, you'll find your clothes sitting in a washing machine full of water.

Still Lovin' It

Now that I'm finished griping (and it didn't make me feel better, by the way), I'll tell you that I still love my job. It's only been 2 months but I feel as if I've been there forever ... in a good way. I just love it in so many ways that I can't even mention them all.

I will mention a couple, though. In case you didn't know, the National Association of Broadcasters (I think that's who it is) started a campaign about a year ago with the tag line: Radio. You hear it here first. Well, the station I work for adopted that as the tag line for newscasts. When I worked for the newspaper, it pissed me off. Now, I love it ... especially when I break stories, which I've been doing a lot lately. And I know the people at the paper listen to my newscasts because, a couple of weeks ago I broke a huge story. The man it involved told me that even before my newscast ended, someone from the paper called him to confirm it.

If they thought that was big, wait 'til the next one. It'll be happening very soon, and it's even bigger than the other one. And, because I know they read this blog, I'm going to say "Ha!" right now. I know that's kind of like counting my chickens before they're hatched, and it might come back to bite me in the butt. However, I'm so excited about this story that it's hard for me to keep quiet about it. I've done well so far, though, because the guy who signs my paycheck trusted me with the info and I refuse to break that confidence.

Anyway, let's see. What else do I love about my job? Doing promos. We have this contest going on and we all had to do promos for it that including acting. It was so much fun! Mine aren't the best of the bunch, but I like them. I also did a promo telling kids to write their letters to Santa so he can read them on the air. That was fun, too.

I also like working with mostly guys. There are only 2 full-time female on-air personalities. The other 5 are guys. It was the other way around at the paper. This is so much better! I hate to say bad stuff about people of my gender but, women are a pain in the ass to work with when they out-number guys.

During my job interview, I was told the reason they wanted me was to "take the news department to the next level." In my opinion, we've taken it up two or three levels. The news director told me on Friday to remind him when my three-month probationary period was over so he can get me a raise ASAP. That's pretty cool. He's also the sports director and, I think, he didn't expect me to want to do stuff for sports, too, but I've been staying late so I can put the latest local hoops scores in my 11 p.m. newscast. (I record it before I leave at 7:45, usually. But on nights the high school & college teams play, I stay 'til after the game.) Of course I do have a soft spot in my heart for the girls b-ball team. Regular readers of this blog must remember "The Coach." And, a relative of GSG's is one of the announcers for the girls' games.

Two more things: One, I love that at least 3 or 4 times a week someone at work tells me I'm doing a good job. Even if I don't think I've done enough, they do, which is cool. Two, at least once a day listeners tell me they like my newscasts.

Oh, and one more thing I almost forgot about: People recognize my voice! The last time was at Hallmark when the cashier looked at the name on my Gold Crown Card and said "I knew you sounded familiar!" They also sell my books there, and when she asked if that was me, too ... Well, I thought she was going to pee her pants. ;) I like being a celebrity ... and I don't even care that I'm a big fish in a little pond. It still rocks.

Tales of the Traffic Law Challenged: Special Edition

OK. One of the reasons this is a special edition is that I can't remember where I left off, and I didn't feel like looking it up. Another reason is that my main gripe is not really about a traffic law, per se. It's about inconsiderate people in relation to parking.

A little bit of history first: My estranged husband and I are still friends and, actually, his house is where my computer is so I'm here quite often. The house has been in my family since the 1930s. My family (uncles, aunt, mom and then me & my husband) has had the same parking space since the 40s. Here's a photo of the space:



The space in question is where my car is parked. You see, the woman who moved into the house in front of ours a few months ago thinks that should be her space. Further, she believes that if we park there, we're blocking her driveway. There hasn't been a problem for 60 (sixty ... 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60) years. Now, all of sudden, there is a problem.

Not only that, the day after the first big snowfall this year, my husband shoveled out the space. Then he had to leave. While he was gone, she parked in the shoveled out space!

You know, even if my family hadn't had that space for 60 years, we've been here for 20. She's been there for a few months. Wouldn't you think she'd be considerate, and observant, enough to realize she's taking someone's space. And, she doesn't even live on our street. It's just that her driveway is on our street. If she wants to park on the street, she should park on her own street. I mean, why should we have to park halfway down the block because she doesn't want to use her driveway?

I'm Back ... Kind of

I'll start posting real stuff again soon. But for now, have fun with this:

Make Your Own Snowflakes

Oh no!

I haven't been watching MSNBC lately, because I'm at work so much. When I get home, I really don't want to think about news anymore. But today, I turned it on so I'd have some background noise while I'm NaNo'ing. A promo came on for "The Best Prime Time in Cable News." Know what I just realized? (After a month. Duh, me!) My News Review (my big newscast of the day) is on at the same time as my boyfriend's show. Oh well. I'll get over it. At least we're an NBC affiliate, so we're kind of affiliated now, too.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Work and NaNo have been keeping me pretty busy. But, both are going well. Actually, work is going better than NaNo, but I plan to catch up this weekend.

One other thing I have to blog about before I forget I good I feel about this (as if I ever could). My friend won a seat on city council! I was so excited when the numbers started coming in Tuesday night. The news guy who was working with me that night had to remind me that I had to be an objective news woman and not say "Yay!" when I went on the air to say he was leading in the polls. Of course, he had to remind himself not to sound too excited, too. We really like this guy. And, we know he's going to try his best to make some positive changes. Besides that, city council meetings are going to be so good now. I kind of want to start covering them again.

OK. Enough goofing off. Back to NaNo'ing. But before I get back, I have to say I'm really happy with this year's novel. It's something different for me. It's really funny (if I do say so myself), and I like it. I don't think I'll even be embarrassed or nervous to share it with people for the first time.

I'm Just Sayin'

I worked at the newspaper for 8 years all together, which means my byline was in print more times than I can even count. Now, my name ... the same name ... is mentioned on the radio at least 17 times a day Monday through Friday.

Wouldn't you think people would say "Hmm? I wonder if that's the same Anne Holliday?" I mean, it's not as if anyone else in this town of less than 10,000 people has the same name.

So, earlier this week I had to call a place for some information. When I was at the paper, I called and went into the office quite often so you'd think people there would know who I am. This time, I had to call because I do a newscast every half hour and I'm not quite good or fast enough yet to record one of them early so I can leave and go someplace without missing a newscast. Usually, a station reporter goes to the office, but she's on vacation. When I called, I explained that, and apologized for having to call. The woman at the office treated this as a major imposition and said "We have a news folder." I said "I know I used to work at the newspaper." (You know, just in case she couldn't put two and two together.) After a bit more of her whining, I said "I understand that. What I'm trying to tell you is that Linda is on vacation. I'm in the newsroom by myself. I have to do a newscast every half hour. I don't have time to come to your office." More of her whining, including "The reason we have a news folder is so we don't tie up the phone lines." I said "Forget it. I'll just get it from the paper in the morning." She said "No, no, no. I'm getting it."

I think she finally realized the Freedom of Information Act doesn't say "You have to give that infomation, unless doing it will tie up your phone lines or it inconveniences you in some way."

But, I will say by the end of the conversation, she was nice and we ended up laughing about something.