Eugene Celebration

WHAT FUN!

What a fun fun weekend I had! I went out to the Eugene Celebration to enjoy what some call "Eugene's Biggest Party" This was the first year I decided to venture out and I'm so glad I did. Picture it, hundreds of people, dancing on the streets, amazing smells and tastes from food vendors, 3 huge stages with various music. It was a total blast! So much fun that my friend Lindsay and I went two nights in a row. The second night we rocked it out to this amazing Reggae band followed by "Gift of Gab" performance at the McDonald Theatre. We met up with some friends and had the time of our lives.

Eugene is the only place I have lived where you can do whatever you want and nobody seems to care. I Love the relaxed vibe of this city. Check out some of the costumes people wore to the Celebration! It Certainly was a good time.

Radio Part 2

This was just posted on KKNU's Facebook Page

We're stunned and humbled. We just found out that we have been nominated for a CMA award as morning show of the year! That's just amazing. We're one of five finalists and will find out if we win next month.

How exciting! Tracy is back and I listened to the morning show today. For those who requested it..here is the video of my doing one of my news cut ins. This is the one where I start laughing after Fox decides to bare his entire chest while I am doing the weather. Good times :)

Jingle Butt

Friends. How could we manage without them?

I am blessed in so many ways with friends that touch my soul.

"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."

Take today for example. When things don't make perfect sense and the world is uncertain, friends come into your life to remind you of what's good. When the mind is frazzled and the edge of reality blurred friends come in and clear the confusion.

I have many friends who do this for me. Friends who will listen to me for hours, let me vent till I'm out of breath, tell me reality even though I don't want to hear it.

One such friend is my friend Kristin. We met at my very first television job in Duluth, Minnesota. I was a struggling reporter who could barely get out a sentence and she was a photographer who always made me laugh. When work got out of hand and too stressful, we headed to the local bars and laughed and joked till nothing at work really seemed to matter much anymore. When I did live shots in the frigid Minnesota temps and my lips turned blue from the cold, I could always look forward to hanging out with her later and forgetting all about the days struggles.

We have kept in touch all these years. Even as I got a job in Anchorage and moved far away we still kept in touch. I was thrilled when I found out she had gotten her dream job as a producer at KARE-11 news. The station she had watched as a child. We always joked about how one day we would work at the same station again. She talking through my IFB as I sat on the Anchor desk. We have our own inside jokes and we always get together for Chicken Tendermelts from Perkins whenever I go home to Minnesota.

This morning as we chatted through facebook we weren't joking around as usual. I hadn't had the best day and she is recovering from the death of one of her closest friends.

As I was confiding in her, her words were just what I needed to hear. Assuring, Positive, and most of all true. The best part is knowing that what she says comes from the heart.

I left the conversation with a smile on my face.

A couple of hours later she sent me a text to make sure I was doing okay, then she followed up with a message on facebook and she keeps keeping tabs to make sure I am surviving.

People pay thousands of dollars a year on therapy when one friend can make your heart smile for free. Thank you Jingle. You are truly the best.

Radio, A Whole New World!

I arrive bleary eyed and barely awake at the KKNU studios this morning with one question on my mind...What on EARTH am I doing up so early. It's 4:30AM and this is normally when I am putting away that good book and nestling into my covers to sleep till 11AM or so. This week I am filling in for Tracy Berry who is on vacation at the local Country Station. My job consists of reading 3-4 news headlines every half an hour and following up with a brief weathercast which I put together using information from weather.gov. Although it's really really early, I must admit this is a fun experience. SO different from TV! It's strange to me to be speaking into a mic that is not attached to my blouse and not having to wear makeup or get dressed up.

My co-anchors are BARETT and FOX, two insanely funny guys who for the most part have not yet, made too much fun of me although they have resorted to calling me NATE on the air and making fun of how short I am in person. LOL.

All in all I am having a lot of fun with this radio thing. This is my last day here and I have a news cut in coming up in one minute...Just got done with it. :) These days my sleep schedule consists of me getting to bed around midnight, up at 4:15AM or so, head to the station and get here around 4:30-5ish. First news cut in is at 5:30AM and then every half an hour. Last cut in is at 8:30AM and then I head home. Fall asleep by 9AM and get up again at 12 noonish or so to get ready for work. Cannot imagine doing this everyday!

One thing I have had to adjust to is listening to all this Country Music...cannot say I am the biggest fan but, I am getting used to it and dare I say this....I may actually be liking a couple of the songs...ahhhh

Why Men Won't Commit

A question that has plagued me forever and contines to plague me...while searching for some answers from women who have wondered the same thing, I came across some interesting observations ...I thought posting them in a blog format seemed fitting.:

What do you do when men won't commit? You can jump ship at the first sign of panic and save yourself the heartache of attachment and endless tears, or you can sit there on the turbulent seas of his indecisiveness hanging on for dear life and praying that you don't get tossed overboard before you find his emotional life preserver... but hey... realistically speaking, why bother?

The second category of men have women lined up to get them to commit. These kinds of men will make these women wait - there's a wait time of approximately 2 billion years.
These women are convinced they are going to be THE chosen one. The one who finally snag him, the one who didn't let him get away so they will put up with bad behavior because after all, that's just the way he is.
This switch in a woman's brain is called her nurturing switch but when turned off, it becomes very deadly.
A woman whose "switch" has gone off will do things like beg, crawl, whine, accommodate, be understanding, remain "friends," feel bad, and plain out lie to herself because she's confusing a "connection" with a real relationship.
It is because she's using a primitive part of her brain that is supposed to help her take care of her offspring - a non-committal man becomes her "baby"
He says he's not ready so she accepts it. He says he wants to live together first, so she agrees. He says it's too expensive to get married and she nods up and down. She just can't find the power to climb up out of the hole of negative emotional conditioning.
So she's ready to give him sex. She's ready to move in together without a ring. She doesn't mind being the waiter girlfriend because her non-committal man would rather put a new flat screen TV on his credit card while thinking "Marriage? Whatever!"

Some women, however, are already past the position of the hypothetical young woman addressed in the first post. They are in a relationship; the man has, to some degree, already made a commitment, but they cannot get him to take the next step (whatever that may be).
My advice for women in this situation is: withdraw. If you are not getting what you want, pull back. Break up with him and tell him why. If you live together, move out. Make it clear that what you want cannot wait any longer. And if he won’t get on board, then set sail without him.
This will do one of two things.
1) He’ll freak out, realize what he’s got, and make the commitment you want.
Or,
2) He’ll let you go.
Number 2 sounds terrible, especially if you are in love with the man, but understand that you cannot have a deeper commitment with someone who doesn’t want to commit to you. If he’s willing to let you go, that means he’s willing to let you go. You should just take the hit – as hard as it may be – because, in the long run, you’ll have the opportunity to meet someone who will commit to you in the way you want.

I think it's all good advice..why be with someone who does want want YOU and Just YOU.