A night at the Butte Bars

I've been out to the bars in Butte several times before however, this past Friday gave me a pretty interesting story to share. I went out with our old Butte sports reporter/current Bozeman sports reporter and his replacement who just got into town. We met up with some people at one bar and a few of the Montana Tech and University of Montana football coaches were also there. The old sports guy saw this as a perfect opportunity for them to get to know the new guy so we all migrated over to the coaches table. Well then the coaches decided to leave and go to a local Irish pub. The rest of us followed about 15 minutes behind them. Shortly after arriving at the Irish pub one of the coaches asked me to be his pool partner. I agreed and gave him fair warning that I REALLY REALLY suck at pool. I didn't let him down on this promise either I made one ball in a pocket in 2 games. However, we still won these games. He was pretty much an awesome pool player. Now during these pool games a super drunk middle aged man dressed in all black (including black beanie) kept coming up and talking to me and giving me tips on the pool game. Of course these tips were coming out in slurs. Well this was continuously happening. Whenever it wasn't my turn to try to hit a ball with a stick and make a fool of myself this guy came right over to me whispering drunk talk in my ears. Luckily one of the guys I was with saw this and recognized that I needed saving from the drunkard. He came over put his hand on my back and put his arms around me to try to ward off the guy. This worked and then we both forgot about it and I went back to playing pool and not standing with him anymore. So later the guy comes up slurring at me again so again my friend comes over and tells the drunk guy that he needs to borrow me and puts his arm around me turning me away from the guy. Well then the drunk guy calls my friend an asshole. That just started a huge fight between the two of them yelling at each other with me in the middle holding a pool stick unsure of what to do. I attempted to stop it but was unsuccessful and it was my turn to shoot so i just took my pool stick and left. They were still yelling at each other when the bar closed, which was only a few minutes later. The bartender told everyone it was time to go so we all gather our stuff. As I'm walking out with my guy friend right behind me the drunk guy is being held back by someone as he yells in my face "Don't go home with him! Don't go home with him!" We all walked out of the bar and I'm not sure what happened to this dude but I thought the whole debacle was pretty hilarious. I'm glad the fight was just verbal too and I do appreciate the attempt to keep the creepy drunk guy away from me.

Moose on the loose

So last week a pair of moose decided to wander into Butte. Therefore my job that day became Moose stakeout 2010. About 5 minutes after I got into work we got word that there were moose on Harrison Ave, which is a major road in Butte. I then quickly loaded up the station car with my camera and tripod and headed out there. Once I got on the scene and parked I saw the 2 moose running across Harrison. As fast as I could I got out my equipment, set it up, and started shooting. Unfortunately I only got about 3 seconds of the Moose sprinting back across Harrison. But they kept running so I filmed that. Then they kept running far and the police and Fish Wildlife and Parks Game Wardens followed them. So, I also followed. Got back in the car and drove to where all the action was. Then I set up my camera and tripod again and filmed some more moose activity. As I was standing at that spot a reporter for the NBC station came up so we were both standing there filming moose running. Well then we hear what sounds like gun shots (later learned they were firecracker shells to scare the moose) and a cop standing by us yells "get back to your vehicles!!" So we go back to our cars and just film standing next to them as the moose come running by. Then they ran off far away so we couldn't see them anymore. But we could see where a bunch of cop cars were gathering so we drove over there. We learned that the moose had run into the area and Fish Wildlife and Parks said they bedded down in an area of trees and bushes so we couldn't see them. So we waited for the Moose to come out of hiding. 3 hours later all that had happened was one of the moose stood up once and then went back down into hiding. It was a very interesting 3 hours just sitting there outside waiting for moose to show their faces. At noon Fish, Wildlife, and Parks left so we did too. They put up signs along the road to warn motorists of moose in the area but they said the moose would probably be there all day so they would decide what to do that night and possibly the next day. Well turns out the moose was up and running again around 3 p.m. and by 4 they were safely back to the mountains they came from. So it ended well and no large animals had to be tranquilized. Definitely was a first for me. I had never seen a moose in person. They are much hairer than I imagined. The rest of the week wasn't quite as exciting after that fun stereotypical Montana experience.

I had beer spilled on me before going live on camera

Warning: This will be a VERY VERY Long post.

Last week I experienced my first St. Patrick's Day in Butte. It was a day I was warned about by many and since have been asked by many how it went. The Holiday is probably one of the if not THE biggest day of the year in Butte. Well when that Wednesday rolled around I put on a green sweater and a green and white beaded necklace because I was told I would be pinched if I did not wear green. I look good in green so not a problem. If yellow was the St Patrick's Day color I'd be in trouble. Also, the necklace was a cheap thing from Walmart that came with a blinking shamrock but I took that off finding it too tacky for the news.

Well in the morning I went out to film the parade. It was interesting but shorter than what I expected and from talking to people after it was shorter than other years. They also said it was disappointing and one of the worst parade's. Oh well. However, two of the guys I interviewed after the parade I want to say were in their 20's. They informed me that for the past few years they had been traveling with a group of friends to different St Patty's day celebrations. This year they decided to bring all their friends to Butte. And since the Parade was a bummer they made their own fun with relay races. These races required 2 people to race up the hill to where 2 beers were lined up then chug the beer as fast as they could. Once a person was done his or her beer the next teammate would run down the hill and chug a beer. They then invited me to come on their bus for the day and follow them around as they celebrated. That would have been fun but probably would have gotten me fired. So I went on to interview more people. I talked to one guy who told me he didn't see much of the parade but was happy with the chicks that were there. Awesome. I also interviewed a 77 year old man dressed in a white tux complete with hat. His vest had shamrocks all over it and his beard was dyed green. He has been walking in the Butte parade for 20 years.

Later in the afternoon I headed back uptown with my news director to get set up for my live shot at 5:30. We got up there at 4 and were set up and test run went smoothly by 4:30. So with that hour of time to kill I walked around and took some pictures and also had some very interesting conversations with people. I was hit on by dudes with my news director sitting 2 feet away from me, had some girl scream "yo you blondie" at me to try and get my attention to tell me about her guy friend that was interested, and saw several people walk by the camera and just scream in it. Yea it wasn't on. The best was the girl that walked up to the back of the camera where the viewfinder is and stand in front of that part screaming at it. Ok even if the camera were on you failed miserably at your goal of getting on because that is the BACK of the camera and not the part where people would be able to see you. There was also a drunk girl who came up to our "golden rod" aka what we use to feed the video to a transmitter on top of a mountain so that people can see what's on my camera, on tv. Well when this girl got up to the "golden rod" I guess she thought it looked like a certain um male body part. She proceeded to rub it and make certain sexual comments and sing songs about it. It was so hard not to laugh. Then about 20 minutes before I was to go on tv another drunk girl dropped a full beer right next to me. The beer splattered one side of my body. Sweet. I couldn't wait to interview the Sheriff smelling like beer.

Well the Sheriff showed up about 5:20 and we were going live at 5:30. We had asked him to have one police officer there as well just to keep an eye out for crazy drunks while we were on live television. There were 6 police officers. I was feeling pretty safe surrounded by police and standing next to the Sheriff haha. Well the live shot went ok except for the fact that anytime the Sheriff was speaking we had no audio. At first we thought it was a problem with the microphone cable but then our Anchor said she had a similar problem once before because of a transmitter they wear and it needs to be turned off. Oops. Guess I'll know for the future.

After the live shot I went to an alcohol free party for teens. Again smelling like alcohol since a beer had been spilled on me haha. Oh well.

After work around 9 I was able to meet up with some people and experience my first St. Patty's day in Butte being one of the people celebrating. All bars were ridiculously crowded. The picture at the top is of the bar I was at. And I would put it at this point in the blog but I don't know how to do that yet. Teach me. Anyways I felt like I was back in College with that kind of crowd at a bar. Also, the bathrooms were also very much like the College Park bar bathrooms. Dirty and long lines with no toilet paper.

I left the bar with a friend and 2 cowboys. Don't worry she knew them. We went to a bonfire that one of the cowboys knew was going on. That was interesting. It was a good time I was taught how to jitterbug by one of the cowboys. I really don't know what that means but it was some kind of dance. Anyways it was interesting because I had to pee while I was there. Well this bonfire was in the middle of nowhere. Soooo me and the other girl climbed over a hill and tinkled on the ground far away from the bonfire where no one could see us. I really don't remember the last time I had to do something like that. Thrilling. My St. Patty's day ended shortly after that but I was still told I did not do it right because I did not get a shamrock painted on me and I did not eat corned beef and cabbage. Looks like I already have plans for next year.

Crazy

Yesterday was a pretty crazy day, for news. The story I covered in the morning was pretty routine but then about 10 minutes after I got back to the newsroom a guy that works in our control room called to say he had just seen 4 cop cars and fire trucks at this one apartment complex. So I went over there with my camera to see what was going on. When I arrived at the scene I saw a mass of people just standing around watching as police were on ladders breaking a 2nd story window. I asked the people who were watching what was going on and one woman told me that the guy who lived in the apartment that now had a broken window had posted on facebook that he had bombs and was going to kill himself. She also informed me that he had barricaded himself into his apartment by putting things in front of the windows so even though the police just broke the window there was still a wall of random crap they had to get through. Immediately in my mind I was thinking "this is ridiculous!!!!" but kind of exciting at the same time. The police proceeded to yell into the broken window telling the guy the just wanted to talk to him. There was an officer on one side of the window on a ladder that had broken the window and on the other side on a ladder was another police officer holding a gun aimed at the window. Great visuals for the story. When they got nowhere with that window they went around to another side of the building, climbed ladders, and broke another window. Then the fireman brought out their chainsaw and started cutting the door off. After they cut if off and pulled it away the pulled a bunch of things out that had been stacked behind the door. Clothes, books, pillows. All types of stuff. Eventually they did get the guy out of the apartment in handcuffs and he was taken away in a cop car to the local hospital for a medical evaluation. I talked to the police chief once everything was over and he told me that they had evacuated everyone nearby and that he had never heard anything about bombs. But when the police got to the scene at about 10:30 a.m. (this whole thing ended a little after 1 p.m.) they just tried to talk to the guy first and that's when he barricaded the doors and windows and told police he was cutting himself. When the cops did find the guy inside he was sitting on his couch and the only weapons they found inside were knives. Is it wrong that I was a little disappointed there were no bombs and my life really wasn't in all that much danger standing next to that building? It was still an exciting story but the whole no bombs thing made it a little less exciting. This is probably why people hate reporters. I'm super happy no one got hurt and even if there were bombs I wouldn't want anyone getting hurt but being able to say he had bombs just makes such a much better story haha. But it was still crazy and I enjoyed watching all the action.

Someone please fix how expensive plane tickets are here

So for those of you who don't know my boyfriend got a job in Bismarck, North Dakota. He is moving there tomorrow. So congratulate him. It's a great job as a sports reporter and there is a NBA development league in the area. And if you know him you know his love of basketball. His friends have joked about him marrying a basketball. That's cool with me I'll just work on converting Anderson Cooper to the heterosexual side. Just kidding. But since the basketball and Mr. Cooper probably won't work this creates quite a conundrum for our relationship. There is no easy way to get to Bismark from Butte. I know a lot of people are probably thinking well North Dakota is the state right next to Montana so it's close! WRONG. The states are big out here in the West. So there is a 10 hour drive between us. So now you're probably thinking ok 10 hour drive that's like a 1 hour flight. Easy. WRONG again. Since Butte and Bismarck are both small cities there is no direct flight between the two. You've got to fly to Salt Lake City then to either Denver or Minneapolis and then on to Bismarck. So it's about 8 hours to fly there. Another problem, flights are expensive. The cheapest is about $500 and once you add taxes, bag fees, and the price to keep your car at the airport for however long you are gone while that adds up.
But I had an idea today. To just drive there. Obviously not for one night but if I have a 3 day weekend or get a few days off I could do it. I've never driven 10 hours by myself but whatever I'll just make sure there's good music on my ipod. I originally didn't want to do that drive because I didn't want to do that to my poor old car. (Oh RAV4 how I wish you were still in your younger days) However, I can rent a car! For only $145 for 4 days. And that's including the being too young fee so if I were 24 that price would be cheaper. So $145 plus gas is still HUNDREDS less than a flight. And only 2 hours of travel time more since there are no direct flights. So hmm I think driving sounds like a good idea. Unless someone has a private jet they want to let me use or someone can come up with a way to get me some cheaper flights. Seriously, why does it cost so much to fly in and out of these little midwest/western towns? Let's spend some stimulus money to fix this. Oh and if anyone else has some suggestions I'll gladly take them. Or I'll just have some fun adventures across Montana and North Dakota.

Sometimes I ask myself, "Where am I?"

And the answer to that question is then "Montana" And don't get me wrong Montana is great. Like I've said before the people here are awesome and the scenery is amazing. I've also been able to learn skiing and basically live a little adventure. However, sometimes I see things and just have to ask myself, "where the hell am I?" But I blame this on the fact that I grew up in a very spoiled life always living in the suburbia of some major top 10 news market city. I may have moved around a lot as a kid and lived in 6 different states but really the suburban towns I lived in were all the same and even the houses I lived in pretty much had the same floor plan. And hey it was a good spoiled life, I'm not complaining. I'm just blaming my naivete when it comes to Montana on that spoiled life. Sooo some times I have asked myself, "where am I?":

1. When I was driving along a highway and had to stop because there were a bunch of big horned sheep on the road. They were just hanging out licking the salt so the cars on the highway just stopped and slowly tried to maneuver around them.
2. When I learned that in the summer this state has a testicle festival. Basically a few days of a bunch of people eating balls. but I still want to go this summer so I can get a t-shirt.
3. When I saw our sports reporter, Shane's, story on the chicken wing ding that was held last summer. Eating a bunch of chicken wings and competing for the tastiest is pretty normal in my mind. However, part of the event is a race to see who can chase a live chicken and catch it the quickest. Hilarious.
4. When I was told that there was a dead buffalo "with my name on it" Yes, it's an annual thing here that a local history teacher takes his class to a bison ranch where they shoot a buffalo. They then proceed to use every part of the buffalo. Teeth and bones are used for jewelry, the meat is cooked in a large barbeque, and the science classes get the organs for the exact reasons I never became any kind of science major. And guess what I get to do the story on this event. Yay. The reporter who did the story this past year also said that he got lots of buffalo meat to take home with him to make for later. ummm yay.
5. When I drove into Philipsburg, MT for the first time. If you've ever seen an old western movie or the depiction of an old western town in a movie or magazine or anything that's what this town looked like. Seriously close your eyes and imagine the sterotypical old western town, the architecture and everything. That is exactly what this town looked like that was all of 2 streets. They also had a restaurant called Doe brothers that I visited. There whole sandwich section of the menu was an angus burger with different kinds of toppings depending on what the sandwich's name was. But it also was very old school with the ice cream/soda fountain look with the long counter and stools. cute tows.
6. When I drove to Whitehall, MT for the first time, which was today. Again, imagine a stereotypical Western town. Whitehall looks like this and is about 6 blocks large. I was going there to interview people for the 1 year anniversary of what was made to seem like a massive fire to me. And yes, when your town is only 6 blocks losing as much as they did is horrible and massive. However, I was driving around looking for a whole block that looked like it had been taken out by a fire. Well what I was told was a block looked like just 1 vacant lot to me. Oooops. I need to seriously downscale my expectations for some things. But yes very small town. I'm not really sure how I would handle living in that small of a town. And I don't know what people do who do live in these small towns. I need to just spend some time in tiny towns answering these questions. But still the people I talked to there were ridiculously nice.


So totally random but I was watching Anthony Bourdain No Reservations and he did a teaser showing a ton of craps from the ocean saying, "coming up crabs, so many crabs you'll think you woke up underneath the cast of the jersey shore."

hahahahahahahahahaha. HILARIOUS. Seriously I can't stand the cast of that show.