Winter Break

Here's some irony for ya...I don't get a winter break this year for the first time since I was 5, because I'm not in school anymore...

But the term "Winter Break" applies to this time in my life better than I can possibly describe.

I'll describe it anyway :)

First of all, the break-up. This is the perfect time for a break-up, because everyone is gone, so none of these parties/get-togethers where people are telling you what they think about your break-up, and none of those uncomfortable moments where you both end up in the same place and everyone starts watching like you're suddenly the newest episode of "Grey's Anatomy." That actually happened once and I ended up crying...and not really because I was upset, but just because I felt all this pressure leaning in on me from around the room, and I literally cracked. So...none of those moments for awhile!

Also, some pretty big things happened...well, ONE pretty big thing happened just a few days ago. Our music director at Purdue announced that he was retiring, effective December 31. Which was a huge shock to people, since there are a lot of big things happening next semester that he won't be there for anymore. And it just makes everyone wonder...what's going to happen? This will change so many things for those kids. I am glad that a) I have already graduated and b) that it is winter break, so all the kids are at home where they can digest this with their families instead of rehash it at school...I mean, they'll do that anyway, but at least they'll have done it with their families first.

Finally, I got sick. It's just a cold, not the flu, but I honestly cannot remember the last time I've felt this gross. And since no one is in town and I don't have a boyfriend anymore, I can spend all day in bed, looking gross, and not having to go anywhere. I haven't been sleeping well because of being sick, so by yesterday I was exhausted when I got home from work. I went to bed about 9 a.m., and from then until about 6 this morning I have been in bed, with only small breaks for answering the phone (sometimes), going to the bathroom, taking medicine, and occasionally getting online for AIM, email, or facebook. And that's it! It's been a real break! All around! And it's not even Christmas yet!

I set up my first very own Christmas tree and did my shopping, and all my presents are wrapped and under my tree...and I'm so proud everytime I look at it! It's weird, for some reason I am the least excited for Christmas that I've ever been, and I don't know why. I am excited to go home, but I don't really feel like it's only a few days till Christmas, and I think it might be because every day at work just makes me feel like...every day is just another day. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, it's just that difference of not having a build-up. No Christmas show rehearsals, no finals, no packing and going home. I think that must be it. I have one day off to look forward to; Christmas Eve night/Christmas morning, and then on Christmas night I go back to the newsroom. Holidays come and go so fast because I don't get to relish them for days, just for hours. The only thing that gets me excited is Christmas shopping and wrapping presents. And looking forward to seeing the Christmas Show on TV!

Speaking of TV, here are my media picks of the moment:
TV...well, nothing is on TV right now thanks to the writers' strike, but here are some shows I started watching and hope to be caught up on by the time WGA lets Hollywood get back to business:
1. The Office -- I love Christopher Guest movies, and this is like if a Chris Guest movie were made into a TV show. I bought the first season on DVD, which to my disappointment only had six episodes...they must have really been counting on this one to fail! Which is understandable, considering the fact that it was based off of a British show of the same title. It's subte, dry, every-day humor and I love it. I am very much in love with the character Jim Halpert (who isn't?) as well as the Jim-Pam love story, or "JAM" as some fans call it. "The Office" never fails to cheer me up and give me stomach cramps.

2. Pushing Daisies -- I had seen the promos for this when the new TV season started, and it looked interesting, but I was busy enough watching "The Bachelor" on abc.com, so I didn't look into it. But I kept hearing my director obsess over it, so now that I've run out of other stuff to watch, I thought I'd give the show a look. I also found out that one of my favorite Broadway people, Kristen Chenoweth, is in it, so that was what really made me decide to check it out. I love it. It's like Tim Burton, Gilmore Girls, and CSI all rolled into one show! Every episode is like a little movie. It's whimsical, colorful, dark, and old-fashioned, with that rapid-fire wit of Gilmore Girls but finally in an atmosphere fitting of that writing style. And it's a murder mystery, so you just can't stop watching as every twist leads you to the next commercial break. Luckily, I was watching online and didn't have to sit through much of a commercial break! And Kristen Chenoweth even sings! The best part, too, is that when characters sing in this show, they just sort of naturally burst forth without needing an excuse to, and for this show, that works and makes sense. That's hard to do in a movie, let alone a tv show! More about that in the movie section...

Movies...
1. I rented "The Wendell Baker Story" from a redbox and it was really good. One of those movies that got totally missed by everyone, even though it was written and directed by the Wilson brothers (Luke, Andrew, and Owen -- actually Owen just acted in it). It was a quirky little story about a con man who decides to clean up his act after his shinannigans cost him his girl, his best friend, and some prison time. He goes to work in a retirement home where he finds out about the shady dealings of the owner and decides to help out, and make friends with, the hilarious senior citizen residents. The movie isn't flashy or over-the-top in any way, which is probably why it flew under the radar for the public, but to say it's worth the dollar it costs to rent it at a redbox vending machine for the night is an understatement.

2. High School Musical 2. Yes, I bought it. I am a sucker for this stuff. It's campy, cheesy, and not made for people my age...but I totally don't care. This is the part of me that never got past the age of 12: I love any show where singing and dancing is involved, and I love Ashley Tisdale. This movie was even better than the first one because there were much more songs, especially big group numbers, and the dancing was a lot more complicated. Also, this had more of a musical feel to it because more of the songs came out of the storyline and happened "spontaneously," whereas in the first movie most of the music was explained by an audition or even kareaoke. I am one of those people who wish life was a musical, and in that musical, the singing and dancing tells the story, everyone already knows the words, and uniform dance moves happen not because someone taught it that way, but because everyone was feeling the same emotion, which led them to move as one. Of course! So I respond better to a show where the songs seem to kind of just happen, rather than be rationalized. Because it's less realistic! Makes perfect sense, right?

Ok, that's all I have for now. Time to find something to eat and start cleaning up my "sick person" mess around the house!

Feels Like I'm Drowning...

...in a river of tears.

I had to break up with Ryan. Things just weren't going anywhere. He's not happy, and I'm not happy. So we decided to break up. And I'm a wreck. Tomorrow would have been two years and...it's so hard to let go. And I can't stop crying. I mean, when I'm at work I don't cry, but as soon as I'm not around anyone else, I just start sobbing. Like, as soon as I walked out of the station door, the tears started rolling. And I sobbed all the way home. And I've been sobbing ever since. And that's been like, almost two hours. I actually have a stitch in my side from hyperventilating. That makes me want to laugh, but not really. It actually just makes me want to cry.

Why is it so hard, even though you know it's the right thing to do?

The people in the apartments around me probably think the building is haunted from the way I've been bawling. I'm sorry to them. But I'm just so sad, it physically hurts.

I hate it.

Oh my God, I hate it.

My First Snow Day!

(File this under things I never want to forget.)

So, today was my first "snow day," as they call it at the station.
All week the weather team was forecasting snow for late last night and this morning. And they were absolutely right! It snowed last night when I was on my way in to the station, and kept snowing all night long.

We already had a plan--someone was going to do a live shot from the outside deck so everyone could see the snow. And I was counting on some breaking news; a crash or something like that, or at least police reports of bad road conditions.

But it wasn't until about 3:15 this morning that I heard anything. The scanner had been mostly quiet, and then I heard it; the big story.

A Greyhound bus had slid off the road on the interstate. At least eleven injuries, broken bones, head and neck injuries. I called our video guy to go shoot it. Not long after that, it sounded like almost every emergency vehicle on duty was being sent to this crash.

Then the anchors came in, excited about the show. Then the tape guy came in, not excited about the live shot. In fact he was, I think, 65 percent sure that it wasn't going to work.

And he and our anchorman got in an argument about it.

So now the tape guy is in a pissy mood.

And then the calls started to roll in. Schools with 2-hour delays.
Wait, wait. Before the calls came, the anchors gave me this rapid-fire crash course in how to answer the phone, and they choose to do this as I'm trying to edit videos for the show:

"If you have time, ask them why they're closing school--"
"But no matter what---"
"That way we can get the information just in case--"
"And Lisa--"
"--we need it. But if you're getting tons of calls, don't worry about. And--"
"Can I finish please? Lisa, whatever you do, make SURE you repeat back to them what they told you. Because you don't want to get it wrong. You may think you understood them, but then you'll hang up and think, 'I'm not sure what they said, alternate kindergarten or NO kindergarten?'--"
"Yes, and make sure you understand the difference because you might hang up and then think, 'Did they say alternate kindergarten or NO kindergarten?'--"
"--And you'll get mixed up, like, 'Was it Clinton Central or Clinton Prairie, or Prairie Central'--"
"Yeah, so write it down because you won't be able to post it that fast and other calls will be coming in--"

And that's how that went. And THEN the calls started coming in. And then the show started. And then the live shot didn't work. And then we were two minutes heavy. And then the live shot worked. And then we were four minutes heavy. And then the phone was ringing off the hook in the newsroom, but not in the control room. So I was sprinting back and forth to answer the phone to get the school delays, meanwhile trying to figure out how to get rid of four minutes of content.

Finally the engineer found out what was wrong with the phone in the control room: someone had disconnected it. So he plugged it in, and immediately it started ringing. From then on, I was juggling a show that was four minutes too long, a frustrated anchorman and tape guy, and a phone that was ringing non-stop. Literally every time I went to post a school delay, I got interrupted because another school was calling. And then a school called because they had called ten minutes ago and didn't see their names on the crawl, and I had to explain to them that I couldn't get the schools' names up because people kept CALLING. But finally the calls died down, and I got them posted on the live crawl. And finally I found four minutes to cut out of the show.

And then it was like a train slowing into a station; we hit a rhythm, got everything under control, and we finished the show. I felt like I had just waded through crap, or mud, or something thick and nasty, but I was proud of myself for getting to the other side. And everyone felt pretty good about it, once the anchorman and the tape guy calmed down.

Then I stayed for two extra hours to do live cut-ins with updates, and then the video guy came outside and helped me get the snow off my car while he did hilarious impressions of all the people who work at the station. Then I got in my car and came home! What a day!

And now I'm sitting here at my computer, with a beautiful scene to my right through the open blinds of a wintery wood out my window. And I'm inside, cozy and warm, and hungry! I think I'll make cheese dogs and maybe some chips and salsa.

Oh! Also some quick updates.
I put up a Christmas tree. My first one. It's artificial, but it's 6 feet tall and the perfect size for my apartment. It has white lights, gold glass bulbs, and a gold tree skirt. Nothing under it yet because I don't have enough money to go Christmas shopping until my next paycheck. The only thing under it is a bag full of clothes that I need to take to Goodwill. I can't wait to wrap my gifts and put them under the tree to wait for Christmas!

OK, media favorites of the moment:
-Music: The "Enchanted" soundtrack. It's written by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, who basically turn to gold eveyrthing they touch. It was really fun driving through the snowy town with this whimsical music as a background!
-TV: The Office is my new addiction. It's so funny that I laugh just thinking about it. I've watched all the episodes available on NBC.com. I'm going to have to buy Season One on DVD and start from the beginning. I hope the writer's strike ends so I can see more episodes from this season! Also, I'm very excited because CBS is going to do a winter edition (first ever) of Big Brother! As you know, I was totally addicted to this show over the summer, and I think it's a brilliant way to deal with the writer's strike. And it comes just in time; Kid Nation is two episodes away from being over, and The Bachelor is long finished, so I'm going to need another reality vice to sink my teeth into.
-Movies: I've been revisiting the Austin Powers franchise...with the commentary. And it's really great! Mike Myers seems like a really sweet guy in real life; it's so funny that he can come up with such raunchy characters. Those movies are funnier every time I watch them.

Ok, that's it for me. I've been away from this for so long, and I can't do that anymore because I end up writing too much when I do come back. So hopefully it'll be sooner than later when I write again and I won't have to worry about that!

I'm starved. Cheese dog time! Happy snow day!