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.

I meet amazing people with my job

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

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.

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.