DAY 5

DAY 5
7:30 am comes way too quickly. I wake up groggy from another night of tossing and turning. This time however, I can't blame it on stress. I drank a few glasses of wine last night which led to a less then perfect night of sleep. Sigh. Happy Monday to me.

9:05 am. I trudge into the newsroom a few minutes late, coffee in hand. There is time to savor one quick sip before I run to put my lunch away and load up the truck. I can't help but think that today is going to be a long day. Before I've even logged into the computer I hear my name being yelled from accross the room. "Can you be ready in ten?" Another sigh. Am I allowed to say no?? "Yeah, I'm ready now," I reply. Silence. Deep breath. Pray that it is something easy.

Then I remember what today is. Sweeps shoot number two... which just so happens to be two hours South East of us in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Great. A four hour roadtrip is just what the doctor ordered! (Please notice the hint of sarcasm). Well at least I'm out of the mix for the other chaos that is constantly occuring at this station. Heck! Maybe it won't be so bad! I gather my things and head out the door.

We're on the road... the ac is blasting, and I'm happy to be heading out of cell phone service. There is no turning back now. We are out of the shuffle. When you work in the news business, there is one good thing about being sent far away. Well two actually. The first, and most obvious, is the overtime. Every photog can use the extra cash. And since our overtime salary is still less then any decent paying job, the company has little hesitation to send up places. The second, and not as well known perk, is that nobody can call you. If the world is blowing up, you don't have to deal with it. On a normal day I receive an almost constant stream of phone calls from the desk, the producers, the person writing topicals, and a pluthera of other people who think it is their job to be continually checking up on my progress (and often letting me know that I am accomplishing far to little in far too much time). Sometimes I want to scream, "Well if you hung up the phone, stopped calling me, and let me do my job, I'd be able to accomplish a lot more!" But I don't, obviously. I just smile and tell them I'll do what I can.

When you are out of cell service, nobody can tell you how to do your job. They get what they get, and that's that. And most of the time that makes everyone happier. They don't have to worry about letting you know, that they know how to do your job better. And you don't have to worry about dealing with them. It's a win win situation. So I head South, a newfound smile on my face, looking forward to a day without interuptions.

I'd love to tell you how the rest of my day went, but our TSR hasn't aired yet, and I can't give away all my secrets to soon. Rest assured that the day went well, and our competition is going to be totally jealous when it hits air! We strategically got back just after the dayside crews had left, loaded video into the system and called it a night. It really wasn't as bad of a day as I had originally anticipated. Now it's time for Karate, and then I'm hitting the hay early... maybe tomorrow I'll be ready for action!