This past week I went to cover a dinner where high school seniors were being awarded scholarships. There were the 2 students who were the awesome students who did community service, activities, and were really smart. The there was a category called the ACE award, which stands for Accepting the Challenge of Excellence. This award is for students who have overcome obstacles to still be excellent students. There were 3 nominees. The first 2 received 50 merit awards. One girl had recently lost her father and the other boy had been in a dirt bike accident that nearly took his life. He had part of his skull removed for 4 months to take the pressure off. He also now has trouble with learning and doing things. Everything is more of a challenge now. Obviously these are both very difficult things to not only deal with but deal with and still have awesome GPA's. The girl who actually won the award though stunned me. She was diagnosed with 3 diseases at the age of 8. And she said herself "3 diseases that most people can't pronounce" And that is true of me. I can't even pronounce them or start to spell them to tell you what they are. But in reading her essay she said that she had been to Salt Lake City 27 times in the year for medical care and has had 17 surgeries in her life. She also has a pump the size of a hockey puck in her body that dispenses medicine. When I interviewed her she told me that she wasn't even sure if she was going to be able to make it to the dinner that night because at 5 p.m. it was very ify. I don't know how I would ever deal with something like that. I can't imagine being in that much pain constantly and to be cut open that many times. I would not be the happy person she was or that great of a student. I'd probably use that as an excuse to not do anything. So I was amazed by that and agreed that she should have won the award.
I Do meet a lot of people with my job and this night really made that clear. I'm lucky to not be in the same position as these people but also lucky that I get to meet them and talk to them. I also get to do some cool things. My job paid me to take a ski lesson. Of course my falling in the snow glory was aired on the 5:30 and 10 pm news but that's ok. I've had a lot of people come up and talk to me about it while I'm out in the community so people seem to like it. And it was a fun day of work. If you want to see it here are the links for part 1 and part 1...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzcFazUccS8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTRa_z7-Vi8
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Happy Chinese New Year
Ok so the chinese New Year was yesterday but I had no time to blog then so Happy Chinese New Year a day late. In Butte yesterday there was a Chinese New Year parade to celebrate the event. It's an annual tradition and this was the first year I witnessed it. I was told it had a reputation as being the "shortest and loudest" parade. Well it was definitely loud. I'm shocked I still have my hearing honestly with all the fire works going off inches away from me. However, the shortest thing didn't happen. This year was the first year that they dragon dancers offered to do the dance of prosperity in front of your business if you gave the Mai Wah society a donation. So this year the parade was about 45 minutes long as the dragon dancers and the rest of the noisy parade made their way throughout uptown Butte dancing in front of businesses. It was interesting and I'm glad I saw it. The video should be on KXLF.com tomorrow if you are at all interested. Oh also it's the year of the tiger. And if you were born in 1986 you are a tiger. There's some more birth years that are tigers but I only remember 1986 and 1938 being read at the beginning of the parade. I looked it up and 1987 is the year of the Rabbit. I'm not sure how I feel about being a rabbit but I'm glad I'm not a rat or boar actually.
After the parade I went straight to Bozeman with my cousins to stay with more family out there for the night. That was good had a tasty dinner, talked, and watched the Olympics. Oh and by the way in case I didn't mention it before a guy from Butte, MT won a bronze medal in moguls. Everywhere you go now there is some kind of sign that says "Congrats Bryon Wilson on the Bronze" or something along those lines. Anyways back to Bozeman. I had a lovely 6:30 a.m. wake up call this morning by my one 2 year old cousin. He was excited to find where I was sleeping. Then kept starring at the horses out the window right behind my bed and telling me what they were doing. Then we jumped on the bed then the horses became scary monsters so we had to hide under the covers to protect ourselves and periodically look out to see if they were still there. It was really cute just early but that's ok. After breakfast we then went snow shoeing. Something I had never done before and I have to admit I had visions of tennis rackets being tied to my feet when thinking of the activity. Snow shoes actually don't look like that at all though. And it was fun and much easier to walk through feet of snow than with regular boots and sinking down. These shoes keep you more on the surface of really deep snow. It basically allows you to hike in snow, which is what we did. Even stopped to sit on a log and have a snack in the snow.
Anyways now I'm back in Butte and trying to catch up on a million chores I need to do. Still won't get it all done today but that's ok my apartment can be a mess another week longer. Tomorrow I'm going to interview the Chief Executive about how stimulus money has been, is being, or will be spent in Butte. Anything you want to know about it?? Text me.
After the parade I went straight to Bozeman with my cousins to stay with more family out there for the night. That was good had a tasty dinner, talked, and watched the Olympics. Oh and by the way in case I didn't mention it before a guy from Butte, MT won a bronze medal in moguls. Everywhere you go now there is some kind of sign that says "Congrats Bryon Wilson on the Bronze" or something along those lines. Anyways back to Bozeman. I had a lovely 6:30 a.m. wake up call this morning by my one 2 year old cousin. He was excited to find where I was sleeping. Then kept starring at the horses out the window right behind my bed and telling me what they were doing. Then we jumped on the bed then the horses became scary monsters so we had to hide under the covers to protect ourselves and periodically look out to see if they were still there. It was really cute just early but that's ok. After breakfast we then went snow shoeing. Something I had never done before and I have to admit I had visions of tennis rackets being tied to my feet when thinking of the activity. Snow shoes actually don't look like that at all though. And it was fun and much easier to walk through feet of snow than with regular boots and sinking down. These shoes keep you more on the surface of really deep snow. It basically allows you to hike in snow, which is what we did. Even stopped to sit on a log and have a snack in the snow.
Anyways now I'm back in Butte and trying to catch up on a million chores I need to do. Still won't get it all done today but that's ok my apartment can be a mess another week longer. Tomorrow I'm going to interview the Chief Executive about how stimulus money has been, is being, or will be spent in Butte. Anything you want to know about it?? Text me.
Monday, February 15, 2010
There is Sushi in Montana
I don't think too much has happened in the past 2 weeks. For work I went to Hanson Livestock to talk to the owner about wolves in the area and the problem they cause with his livestock. It was really pretty out there and there were a ton of animals. It was only my second time doing a story out on open land with animals. First time was in Maryland when I went to a dairy farm. This was a little different but still a cool experience to see this and be allowed to go wherever I wanted on the ranch to get some video. I couldn't go inside the fenced in areas with the animals obviously but they were nice enough to drive me down to the area with all the sheep and these massive dogs that live with the sheep and guard them. Anyways while continuing to work on this wolf story I'm finding that almost everyone is for hunting wolves. Montana had their first wolf hunting season this past year and people think it is a good idea to manage the population since they keep killing ranchers animals. The rancher I talked to did tell me he has lost 56 animals and in one night he lost 18 lambs to wolves.
Besides for that story I also had work on the super bowl since CBS was airing the game and we wanted to take advantage of the viewers. I had a fun story where I went to Papa John's to see the rush during the game. I followed one of their delivery drivers on 2 deliveries. At the first one the guy came out of his house to get his pizza without a shirt on. And what makes this so great is that Papa John's called him ahead of time to tell him a reporter would be following the delivery girl when he got his pizza and he still didn't put a shirt on. Oh well.
Last Thursday my boyfriend flew out here for Valentine's Day. He's still here and currently babysitting my cousins kids. I volunteered him....oops. But yea his flying out here was supposed to be a surprise but he let it slip that he was coming a few days before. But that allowed me to pick him up at the airport. We went to a comedic play at the local theater on Friday. It was ok. It was called leading ladies and about two guys in York, PA who cross dress to pose as girls to try and get an inheritance that really isn't theirs. Saturday we explored the city of Missoula, MT. It has a nice downtown area and we also saw the University of Montana. We had a nice sushi dinner. Sushi was the main reason we went. There is no sushi in Butte and I miss it haha. After Sushi we went to a local ice cream place. It was good and while we were standing in line the old woman in front of us farted really loudly. Then she turned around and smiled at us. It was very difficult to not laugh.
Valentine's Day was pretty chill. Breakfast in bed and watched the Olympics in bed. Then made some coconut shrimp for dinner. I attempted to make funfetti cookies with some pink icing to be festive. And I say attempted because they did not look burnt or even the slightest bit browned but they are so hard and crunchy. They taste ok just too hard for my taste. I was upset with myself but then learned today it's not my fault. Our anchor at KXLF was telling me that because of the high altitude here you have to follow the high altitude baking directions or that will happen. The air here just flatens everything and there's no moisture. She said for this reason she's given up on cookies and cakes here. So from now on I'll know that if I want to bake something I have to follow special directions because I live in the mountains sweet. Hope you all had a good Valentine's Day.
Besides for that story I also had work on the super bowl since CBS was airing the game and we wanted to take advantage of the viewers. I had a fun story where I went to Papa John's to see the rush during the game. I followed one of their delivery drivers on 2 deliveries. At the first one the guy came out of his house to get his pizza without a shirt on. And what makes this so great is that Papa John's called him ahead of time to tell him a reporter would be following the delivery girl when he got his pizza and he still didn't put a shirt on. Oh well.
Last Thursday my boyfriend flew out here for Valentine's Day. He's still here and currently babysitting my cousins kids. I volunteered him....oops. But yea his flying out here was supposed to be a surprise but he let it slip that he was coming a few days before. But that allowed me to pick him up at the airport. We went to a comedic play at the local theater on Friday. It was ok. It was called leading ladies and about two guys in York, PA who cross dress to pose as girls to try and get an inheritance that really isn't theirs. Saturday we explored the city of Missoula, MT. It has a nice downtown area and we also saw the University of Montana. We had a nice sushi dinner. Sushi was the main reason we went. There is no sushi in Butte and I miss it haha. After Sushi we went to a local ice cream place. It was good and while we were standing in line the old woman in front of us farted really loudly. Then she turned around and smiled at us. It was very difficult to not laugh.
Valentine's Day was pretty chill. Breakfast in bed and watched the Olympics in bed. Then made some coconut shrimp for dinner. I attempted to make funfetti cookies with some pink icing to be festive. And I say attempted because they did not look burnt or even the slightest bit browned but they are so hard and crunchy. They taste ok just too hard for my taste. I was upset with myself but then learned today it's not my fault. Our anchor at KXLF was telling me that because of the high altitude here you have to follow the high altitude baking directions or that will happen. The air here just flatens everything and there's no moisture. She said for this reason she's given up on cookies and cakes here. So from now on I'll know that if I want to bake something I have to follow special directions because I live in the mountains sweet. Hope you all had a good Valentine's Day.
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