It's interesting how whenever I tell people that I intern for NBC, they automatically think that I'm on TV myself. Or when people see my NBC4 badge, they assume that I anchor the 5 o' clock news or something.

And even though it is a television internship at a major television station, that still doesn't mean that interns make their way on the screen. They already have reporters and anchors to fulfill those roles, and I'm just behind the scenes and at their sides learning more about what they do. So the life of a reporter is a glamorous yet grueling job. Viewers just see them on TV reporting the facts of the story, but they don't see the hours spent all day tracking down people to interview, driving to numerous locations, and then taking all that information and somehow factually framing it into a minute and thirty news segment.

But I have gotten some opportunities to be on camera whenever we're shooting "b-roll," which is the footage shot related to the story where the reporter is not shown. If someone is doing a story on the dangers of texting while crossing the street and they need people to sort of set up the scene, the photographer will use me to be that person who's on her phone unbeknownst to oncoming traffic. Or the camera will just get shots of me doing something at the fair or walking on campus because it might be at a time where no one is outside on the street or talking on the phone or walking their dog when that's the very footage they need to make the story believable.

And I would hear from people time to time who said they saw me on the news walking downtown or at the Rib Fest or a local church. So I guess in a way, I did get my 15 seconds (literally) of fame.

Posted by TV_Hope at 11:18 PM | Permalink

As July came to a close, I conveniently realized that there was only a couple days left before the tag on my car expired. I never really had to worry about that because my mom would always take care of it or I would already be in Georgia for the entire summer to handle it. I really should have took care of this all the other times I was home, but of course I chose to wait unitl the last possible minute. And this posed a major problem since I definitely still needed to get around, but didn't want to risk getting pulled over. So my mom comes to the rescue, and drives my car down to Atlanta, gets my emissions test and tag, and brings it right back up all in time before I had to be at my internship! So my panic is gone, and even though I had to virtually beg my mom to do this, that's one of the downfalls of going to school out of state. All those amenities and resources that used to be so close and convenient are now far away and a hassle. But like anything, proper planning and a family that cares will help you get through it all.

On Wednesday, I saw Batman: The Dark Night movie with my Godbrothers and thought it was actually pretty good. I knew it was going to be real intense, but I got through it and enjoyed it. Right after I picked up my friend Bever-leigh so that we could go to my other friend's Victoria Secret focus group. She's a marketing major and an intern with VS and every week they host events to get different girl's opinions on their products. It was held at this restaurant called Lindey's in the German Village part of Columbus (lindeys.com). There was about 15 girls there, and like I had anticipated, it was a little uncomforatble sitting around a dinner table sharing our likes and dislikes about underwear, but it got better after the first hour and we moved on to discussing pajamas and swimsuits. Randomly, Mayor Coleman busts in the room on accident, and says he was looking for the bathroom. So we told him this was a Vickie Secret group, and he says, "Well maybe I am in the right room!" But eventually he left, and everyone got giftcards for being a part of the group.

The next day at my internship, I went out with the Sports reporter, Jerrod Smalley, for a change. We covered a big Golf Tournament, and it was quite interesting even though I would normally find the sport a tad on the boring side. The angle was on this particular golfer, who was battling cancer so even though we were closely watching the game, our goal was to develop the story of this man who was still pursuing his dream despite the odds. We interviewed his son, who was his caddy, and even though he didn't win, we still had this story of a golfer's road to triumph. We had to be so quiet in between each hole, which I guess is necessary for the game, and we also had to walk around this vast course, and that just had to be the day I decided to wear heels! But at the end, all the press and the golfers got to eat in this VIP lounge, and the food was so good.
We went to the Red Cross next to get footage of the empty shelves since they obviously wanted to send out a message that they needed more blood donated and fast. It was weird how all these blood packets were stored in freezers like at the grocery store.

On Friday, after we went to this daycare to show Shigellosis prevention tips, we went to this restaurant called Pei Wei by Polaris mall to celebrate the reporter, Mikaela Hunt's 30th birthday.

She told me of how she's been at 3 news stations and married a fellow-reporter (also at NBC4), and has done a lot prior before hitting the big 3-0. The photog with us payed for our meal, and once again, we ate good. But it kinda made me think of all the things I would like to accomplish before turning 30. I think I would like to be at a nice news station in a warm state, have my own business set up, and then I can think about marriage.

Saturday was such a long day for me at NBC 4. I was interviewing people at the Rib fest all afternoon in the great summer heat, then I went to the crime scene where this 20-year old got shot, and next it was a job fair at this Church, then a benefit for 2 missing OSU students, and the last story of the day took me all the way to Newark, Ohio where a fisherman almost drowned, so we didn't even get back till way after 9pm. And I actually started adding Sundays to my intern schedule so right after Church, I made my way right back to the studio to get some more experience.

Posted by TV_Hope at 3:55 PM | Permalink

My mom drove back up to Columbus with me and my sister for the 4th of July weekend. She wanted to go to my Grandmother's grave on July 9th because that would've been her 93rd birthday. So things are definitely going to be a little different this July without my grandmother. Her brithday always kicked off the celebrating since my sister's birthday is exactly a week after, then my cousin's and lastly my mom's- all 7 days apart. But we made the most of the time and got some flowers and paid our respects at the gravesite. What a difference a year makes! Just last year, we took out my Grandmother to her favorite Red Lobster and now there's one less person at the table. My mom held up pretty well though, and we all got through her birthday.

For the next celebration, I headed right back down to Atlanta for my sister's birthday. Even though I was just at home last weekend, she begged me to come back for her 23rd as if that was some kind of landmark age, but you only turn it once, and she calls it her "Michael Jordan Birthday" (because he was #23).
So once again, I had to work my travels around my work schedule, but decided to leave first thing Sunday morning so that there would no breaking news story that was going to make me miss my flight!

But I did go on a lot of interesting stories this week, from Park safety, Stolen cars on campus to Shigellosis (which is like extreme Diarrhea). Saturday was fun because I got to interview some people on the Bush Legacy Tour. I thought this would be a bus promoting Bush's presidency while they're goal was the total opposite. The bus is a traveling museum of mini-exhibits with bad highlights of Bush's presidency. They said that since the president has made such a mess of things, they wanted to showcase his legacy now, instead of putting all the facts together years later. They parked right in front of the NBC station for us to see and will be making stops all around the country before the November elections. Here's their site: bushlegacytour.com
I also got to do my 1st real stand-up (when a reporter is in front of a building or displaying something) on camera at the Franklin County Fair. It was fun even though it smelled like horse maneur the whole time. But the angle of my story was to see if more people were going to the fair this summer because of high gas prices. I did a 3-part stand-up where I started off at a gas station saying,"If gas prices are putting a damper on your summer vacation plans.." and then I was at the Fair entrance and said "Why don't you come to the Franklin County Fair.." and then I said, "And ride a horse," while I was actually on a little pony. So it was a very detailed stand-up that looked really nice when it was all put together.

So I was at home in Georgia from Sunday till Wednesday since that day was my sister's actual birthday. And I flew back on Thursday morning just in time to make it back to my internship. We mainly went out to eat everyday and to the movies and mall because my sister just had to get a new birthday dress and her nails and hair done for her big day. I knew Wednesday, July 16 was going to be a day that never ended since we were up all morning and then headed to Fox Sports Grill at Atlantic Station for the dinner with 10 of her friends and concluded with going to this place called Noir (means "black" in French) where we saw Atlanta girl group, Cherish and some of the guys from MTV's "G's to Gent's." So we definitely did not get back home until around 2:00am when I had to be at the Airport promptly at 5:30am. The things I do for family! But we enjoyed ourselves and she did have a happy birthday, which is the main point.

But it was pretty hard to stay up at my internship that day. I had went in the employee lounge area for a bit and tried to nap for half an hour until someone came in, and I had to act like I was searching for my contact lens. After I got off there, I forgot that I had promised my friend Bever-Leigh that I would stop by for our weekly get-together dinner. So I was running on fumes that day and was too glad to finally go to sleep!

My sister, Bianca and I out celebrating her 23rd Birthday

Posted by TV_Hope at 5:14 PM | Permalink

This week I started volunteering for the Meals On Wheels program. I got an email about some service opportunities so I went to the Orientation last week, and now I'm delivering meals to Columbus residents over 65-years old or anyone with a disability. It's been a neat experience, especially since the program has their meal delivery sysytem down to a science, All of Columbus is divided into over 15 routes, and I handle the Clintoville area which basically covers High Street, north of the OSU campus. I have to check off and record the times for all the 30 people on my list, and make sure I give them the appropriate meal since they range from Hot, Cold, Kosher, & Puree and they get different types of milk or juice.

Here's one of the many meals I deliver out of the different selections. Each person gets two containers and a drink.

The first time I went on my route, another driver came along to show me their normal way of travel and all the back roads. It can get kind of tedious driving and stopping at every single house and continuously having to pull out the right the meal, but it's okay when I think about the elderly not being able to eat all day. They like to chat for a while and ask me all sorts of questions since I'm probably the only person they might've seen all day. I only deliver meals once a week, and it's interesting to know that the whole Meals On Wheels program is ran primarily by volunteers and random people who sign up. The other staff of drivers and cooks are pretty dedicated too because they work on Holidays and even on weekends.

These are the food bags that I pick up at this church and then place them in the back seat of my car.

I started to feel the mega-time constraints of being a news reporter this weekend. Because it's like their schedules are not their own. They are there to serve the public, and it's hard to try and fit a breaking news story in a 9 to 5 work day. I was supposed to be leaving the news station a little early on Thrusday since my sister and I were driving back to Atlanta for the weekend, but I didn't even get off till around 7:00pm!

I had went on a bunch of stories that day from Fireworks safety to Buckeye Lake events. So we had to go to a couple fireworks stores, the Fire Marshall's office, and then Buckeye Lake. I had learned more about the different types of firecrackers and their restrictions than I had ever wanted to know. So right when I get back to the NBC station, they send me off on another story to assist a photog on breaking news. It was only 4:00pm then so I thought that maybe I could've made it back home in good time...except the story was in London, Ohio all across town, a solid hour away.

So I called my sister, who of course wasn't going to be too happy,especially since I was the reason we left late for Memorial Weekend too, also because of a news story gone long. But I had to talk with the London police and other crime scene investigators about a sex-offender who had been kidnapping Columbus teens and bringing them to his London residence. That took at least 45 minutes, and by the time my sister and I got on the road for our 9-hour drive....it was already 8:00pm. So you can only imagine how late or rather early it was when we arrived in Atlanta.

Posted by TV_Hope at 8:22 PM | Permalink