Today I Am Thankful For....

Technically, today is Black Friday; however, I was Thankful for several things yesterday and even more today. I truly do think people should be thankful 24/7 so I decided to share a few of my reasons to be Thankful.

My Parents. I never was one to sit at the kids table. Perhaps, it because they were so young when they had me, but they are 100% the reason I am who I am today. They gave me a strong work ethic, the knowledge to know I can make my dreams a reality and an enduring spirit. For that, I am thankful.

 

This is my first Thanksgiving since my mother passed away. I miss her.

Motley, Also known as my son.No family is complete until they have the love of a dog. Even if he has taken up residence at his Opa's house for the time being...I love and adore him. I also, miss him snuggling up to the pillow next to mine like a little human.

Friendships, Good friends are hard to find. I'm a very lucky young lady.

I think my exact response was, "oh what a BS thing to do! Now smile."

What happens when you send 4 Georgians to Napa for one 30th Birthday party?! What happens in Napa,stays in Napa.

Many of my memories of WKU are with these ladies. They are my PJs.

She was the peanut butter to my jelly. It's so crazy when you realize you really do have friends on other continents that you know will always be there even when they're so far away.

The Mayors wife took this photo when we were flying back from Venetie for Operation Santa. She found it hilarious that two competing stations could actually be friends. From the moment I met Dan at his photography exhibit from his time in Mexico, I knew he was incredibly talented. I'm lucky to call him friend. Besides, I always enjoy running into him in the field because I know he motivates me to think outside the box in the field.

Kindred southern spirits soaking up the Last Frontier.

Sometimes Stories Just Show Up

Two days after first snow, APD responds to almost 100 car accidents. I live in midtown, our roads are cleared by the city. Like I said in an earlier post, the city was behind in clearing the roads this time around. When I was going to work Tuesday morning I got caught in traffic--which is kind of rare because we were actually sitting still. Naturally my reporter instinct kicks in and I start looking on twitter and trying to see what the hold up was. Come to find out, an SUV collided with two other vehicles and the father driving the SUV didn't have his kids properly restrained so 2 of the 3 in the car actually went through the window.

I finally broke free from the traffic and parked my car hoping to get some pics with my cell phone, but by the time I walked down to the crash site the cars were driving away on the back of a tow truck. As a newsie, this is a heartbreaking moment. Sigh. 

By lunchtime, Daniel and I are working on a different story when we were on the way to get locater footage from the scene of the morning crash. He and I are heading east on 15th street coming down the hill when we see TWO accidents in progress. We know we can't get footage of these accidents and play it during the newscast while talking about the morning accident. But reporter instinct kicks in and I get on the phone with APD to see if there were any injuries in either of these while he shoots video. 

Our wheels are turning so we're like hey let's see if any of these drivers will talk to us because both of these accidents were in the SAME place as the morning crash. We interviewed two of the drivers and made a package in less than an hour. They all told us the same thing, the hill is glazed in ice and caused them to lose control. I really liked the way Daniel shot the piece and I'm proud we saw the opportunity to cover the story in a different way than our competitors. In a sense, it was an exclusive story, but really it was just two newsies seeing an opportunity to get creative with our story telling approach and deliver a community driven story.

Click for full story. No, there were no injuries in either of these accidents. 

First Snow 2013

Disclaimer, our first snow was actually 12 days ago and the post is just a little delayed....

It's not technically our first snowfall, that happened in September. This however is the first measurable snowfall of the season which makes it the first. This also means lots (LOTS) of traffic accidents. I did 3 weather related stories this week . The first on Monday, because of the Veterans Day holiday, the city's snow plows did not get going until almost 12 hours after the first six inches began falling.

Obviously, this did not set well with Anchorage residents or anyone attempting to drive. Independent snow plowers were certainly reaping the benefits from that decision. I tried connecting with the city but they declined my request for an interview so I went in search of independent plowers to hear how busy they had been. To view the story click here. 

Photo Snack!

I love driving on both of the major highways in and out of Anchorage. On the Seward you get what I consider the most breath taking view of Alaska. On a clear day, driving on the Glenn into the valley has the most epic mountain views, especially if the sun shines just right. Wednesday was one of those days on the Glenn.

Daniel and I had been chasing a story in Wasilla and it was proving INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT to do. It is a sexual abuse story that's resurfacing although the alleged abuse took place between 1993-2003. Clearly, not an easy day turn, especially when people do not return your calls and it's an hour drive from Anchorage to the Valley. We had just packed it in and started driving home when we pulled over to grab some beauty shots for the nightly news.

 
 We brought back some content for the show and I ended up co producing so even if I didn't have a full package story, I still felt like I contributed.

Thousands Without Power in Fairbanks

A windstorm in the interior left 10,000 Fairbanks residents without power for days. In fact, some of them a still without power. Essentially wind gusts up to 70 mph blew through the burough. While we see winds like that fairly frequently in Anchorage, its VERY rare in the interior.

  Since our ABC affiliate is statewide, I asked the station to send me up for a day turn on the outage and they saw it as a big story as well, so I jetted up and this story is what I brought back.

Don't be fooled, daylight is sparse in the interior during this time of year. This is my return flight.

I caught my flight up at 6am. As soon as I landed, our FBX station manage, kip drove me to my first interview at the Golden Valley Electric Associations headquarters. These guys are rock stars, even thou at the time 3000 were still without power, the crews were working hard. Yes, that is my personal opinion and not an unbiased reporter response, but seriously, I'm a fan of giving credit where credit is due.

Kip hooked me up with a homeowner in North Pole, who has a 7week old daughter and joked they were embedding the "Alaskan Spirit" into her. I think the community was incredibly grateful to have us up there doing the story. At the same time the outage occurred in FBX, villages in western AK were hit by a duo of storms and the media focus was on them. While I do think it was important to cover that as well, we were the only station to cover the FBX outage and for that, I'm very proud.

Is It Really 0 Degrees Out?!

Yes, it really is zero outside. Wait, that's only in a warm pocket, the high was actually -4 yesterday. I was doing a story on the approved city budget and needed to grab some MOS(man on the street) interviews about the increase to bus fare. I'm pretty sure when we got to the bus station it was -20. The way the wind whips through downtown is brutal. But I guess you can't expect much else when you live in the arctic!

 I was working with Daniel again and we knew we needed city shots so we went up to the roof deck of one of the parking garages. Can you believe it was actually warmer up there then it was on the ground level? That's where I took a couple of these shots and realized just how lucky I am to soak up the beauty of the last frontier. At least for a few more months I will call her home.

Krispy Kreme is Koming!

Few things can make a southern girl slam on her breaks, do illegal u-turns, and run across GA's hwy 41 like the blinking red neon light yelling "hot now" of Krispy Kreme. For those of you who do not understand the magic of the mouth watering glaze of a hot KK original doughnut, I'm sorry. You have in fact, been heavily deprived of experiencing the worlds 8th deadly sin.

Which is why when I read my emails first thing this morning and saw an email from the company, North  To Alaska announcing they will be opening 4 Krispy Kreme stores in Anchorage and Wasilla over the next 3 years, I was one happy happy happy GA girl!

I grew up in a family that embellished the mealty goodness of the KK doughnut. We made Christmas Trees out of them, my cousin Kayla and I scarfed them down by the mouthfuls in the back of my nanny's suburban as children and I even shot a series around them in my photo 101 class at SCAD. 

So, while I have not eaten a KK doughnut in far too long (at least 3 years) It is---after all, not something I HAVE TO HAVE in my life. I do however, consider them a luxury I'd rather live with given the choice. So all I can say now is "welcome Krispy Kreme, welcome!"