A lot always seems to happen before I head on a flight. On Saturday, I just planned to go to the station for a laid-back day since I was leaving early to fly to Las Vegas that night for my mom's birthday. But of course there's never a dull day with the news. When I get to NBC4, all the desks are rearranged and everything looks misplaced because new carpet was being put in, and right when I find a chair, I had to keep going to the door at the front desk because OSU Football players kept coming to the station, thinking that's where they were doing interviews when they actually needed to be at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

In the afternoon, I go on a story with reporter, Paul Stelzer to talk about child safety at the Ohio State Fair. So we're at the fair for hours, getting b-roll of children in strollers and talking to parents and the sheriff in the blazing heat. The photographer suggested that I do a stand-up there to have on my tape, and that was fine, except I really didn't know what I would say on camera. I knew that the focus of the story was the "Lost kids station" where anyone could go to locate their child, but I still couldn't think of the best way to present the information. So Paul helped me out tremendously and gave me lines that I could use to give a quick 10-sec explanation on what lost children should do.
Yet there's so many things to think of when talking on camera:
-Is what I'm saying accurate and audible?
-Am I looking right into the camera?
-Are my gestures and body language consistent?
-Is my hair in place and outfit in order?

So all this is going through my head as I'm walking down steps, reciting my stand-up lines, and trying to block out all the people walking by and watching me. As easy as it is to walk down a staircase, it's one of the hardest things to do live on-camera because you're trying to think about what you're saying, focus on the camera, and you could easily miss a step and fall over! But I didn't trip or anything, it just took me a a while at least 5 times to get the whole stand-up together.

And while I'm doing this, I'm also keeping track of the time since I have a flight to catch at 8:45pm. But we finished up at the fair around 5:30 giving me enough time to get my bags, eat and head to the airport. So I arrive in Nevada at 9:50pm (since the flight is 4 hours and they're 3 hours behind us) and meet up with my family for another mini-vacation. :-)