I will not complain about MT weather anymore

Ok so I won't complain about it at least for the next 24 hours. I did a lot of complaining in the spring and summer mainly because it was still snowing in May and while all my friends on the east coast were wearing sun dresses and flip flops on the fourth of July I was bundled up in a jacket it was so cold here. And Monday morning when my roommate knocked on my bedroom door to tell me there was snow on the ground I responded with a long, "ewwwwwwwwww." However, that was a minimal amount of snow and by noon it had all melted and there was no sign that it had ever existed. The rest of the day was bright and sunny. Same with yesterday and today is a little overcast but that's ok. It's especially ok because while watching the news this morning I learned there were tornado watches pretty much for the entire eastern seaboard. New Jersey, Delaware, Baltimore, D.C., and Atlanta all reporting tornado watches. (probably more places that I just didn't see flash across the screen.) I saw a live camera shot of Atlanta, and boy did that not look like a pretty day, the sky was green. Then when my boyfriend woke up in Bismarck, North Dakota he so kindly sent me a picture of the scene outside his window. Snow. And a lot more than the sprinkling we had here in Butte the other day. His snow was still coming down hours later along with 30 mph winds and the town had a no driving advisory. Now it is in the high 40's here in Butte today, which is a little chilly but really I just get to wear a brand new sweater and some cute boots. I don't have to hide in my basement from a tornado and my boots don't even have to get wet since there's no snow. So for today I will be happy with the weather I've got. I make no promises for tomorrow though.

I had to drive 6 hours to go shopping

A few weekends ago (I know I need to blog more consistently.) two of my friends from Butte and I took a little road trip to Salt Lake City. The city is about 6 hours from Butte so we just left Saturday morning, stayed the night, then came back on Sunday. The whole reason for the trip...sometime in the summer I mentioned I wanted to go there and they of course asked, "why?" They were thinking that Seattle would be a much cooler semi-close city to visit. I responded that I wanted to go shopping and Salt Lake City was the closest place that had a lot of stores that I used to shop at while living on the East coast. Shops that just don't exist out here. I agree I would love to go to Seattle but that is a 10 hour drive and not doable for just one night. Salt Lake City meant no need to take a vacation day for a three day weekend and I could still do my shopping.

So the idea was in their heads, but these were boys so I wasn't too optimistic the trip would happen. Then one day one of them told me he had the perfect weekend for Salt Lake City. A band he liked was playing there October 9th. So it was set I would get to do my shopping and the boys would get to see a band they were into. I had never heard of this band but I did not care. The Felice Brothers band would be the reason I would get to see an Express and Forever 21 for the first time in months.

On October 9th we began our little journey. We traveled South through Montana and Idaho until we got to Utah. I had never driven through Idaho before and I'm sure several areas of it are quite nice, however, the part we drove through was pretty desolate. Now if hay bails were people Idaho would be the most populated state in the nation. Seriously there were just stacks and stacks and stacks and stacks and stacks of hay all along I-15 South through the state. Granted we did pass Idaho Falls and Pocatello and then we saw some civilization. But that was quickly gone 10 minutes out of the city limits. Oh there's also a massive Budweiser factory or something in Idaho. So Idaho has hay, Budweiser, and potatoes. Sadly, I did not get to visit the potato museum.

Once we were about 30 minutes from Salt Lake City I got very excited. There were tons of cars on the road! Another thing I have not witnessed in very long. I swear when I go back to Philly for a visit in December I'm going to be overwhelmed with all the traffic. Anyways we arrived in Salt Lake City and it was a very nice, clean city. But honestly for a big city there weren't too many people just out and about walking around. The weather was really nice too, in the 70's. But that's ok. So we put our stuff in the hotel room then went out walking around looking for a place to eat. After that we continued to just walk around the city and eventually we came to a very happy place. A large outdoor shopping complex. This is where I would then spend too much money. But I told myself it was ok since I hadn't done some serious clothes shopping since probably college. I quickly lost the boys when I saw some cute boots to look at and later fielded calls from them while in dressing rooms. But eventually we found each other again, me with large shopping bags in hand. And I did appreciate them telling me all my new clothes were cute even though I know they don't care one way or the other.

Later that night we went to see the band. They were good. I was wearing one of my new white shirts. One of my guys friends bumped into me and my drink went all down the front of my shirt. This is probably why I should have waited to wear some of my new clothes but oh well the stain came out once I got home and had time to work on it. The next morning we drove back to Butte through all the hay in Idaho. So it was a successful weekend getaway and I'm glad I got to see a little more of the West while I live out here. Now I just have to find the time to get to Seattle.

Phillies in the Newsroom

I have not blogged in over a month. Didn't realize it had been that long but makes sense since all my time is basically spent working or sleeping. But the Phillies had their first playoff game today and it was so exciting that I'll stay up an extra 20 minutes to write a blog.

So obviously everyone knows already that Halladay had a no hitter tonight...only the second in playoff history. What you don't know is what I went through to watch the last few minutes of that game.

It started at 5:07, well that is 3:07 here in Montana. There was a ground breaking for a new FedEx Freight Facility just south of Butte scheduled for 3 p.m. here today. So I already knew I'd be missing the beginning of the game but I hoped to get back and be able to turn it on in the newsroom. Well the plane the developers were arriving on was delayed. So groundbreaking did not start until closer to 3:50. I got my video and the interviews that I could while waiting. Then it was time to check the phone for score updates. One of the newspaper reporters at the scene is a Reds fan so once the Phillies were ahead it was much more fun to ask him for score updates. After the shovels hit the dirt for the ground breaking is when the Phillies were suddenly up by 4 instead of just 1. It was great.

When I got back to the station it was a little after 4:30 and I still had to put a story together for the 5:30 news so there was no way I was able to turn on that tv it was crunch time. I worked on the story as my boyfriend texted me updates. This is when I learned about the no hitter through the 7th. I had one more step to go in the story. It was done then the tv went on, without sound of course so our anchor could read through her scripts. As soon as she was on set the volume went up. Now I have a job in the control room during the show and at 5:30 (when the show starts) it was the bottom of the 8th and the Phillies were 3 outs away from winning. I then spent the next 15 minutes sprinting between the newsroom, where the game was on, and the control room to push my necessary button but still catch the end of an AMAZING game. At one point I lost a shoe mid sprint. I left it and picked it up later then took the other one off to continue my sprints barefoot. I luckily did get to see the last 3 outs before a mad dash back to the control room. I was ecstatic but held it in to do my job, then during commercial break I let everyone know what my Phillies had just done. And during this whole process my news director is in an edit bay just off the newsroom and my general manager is in the lobby watching the show. I sprinted back and forth past him many times. I'm sure he thought it was for the good of the show. Really I was just trying to watch my baseball team and feel close to Philadelphia for a few minutes but sshhhh. I'm just hoping sometime in the near future I get to watch a full game. GO PHILLIES!