Sleeping Beauty

When I first started working in television my back was constantly sore. I know a 26 pound camera on my shoulder, a 10 pound hip pack on my waist and a 15 pound tripod in my left hand may cause some of the problems, but I found out later most of this pain was caused by something else. After four years in television I had enough money to buy a new bed. I went to Big Sandy Superstore in Hurricane, West Virginia and found a very nice mid priced mattress and box springs. Three days later I felt like a new man. My old bed, which I used since high school, was awful and causing all the pain, well most of it, the camera still hurts a little.

So why am I tell you this? Well, even though our temporary place is nice, the bed is the worst bed ever, well maybe not as bad as this. Since The wife is now here it is even worse. You fall into the middle of this queen bed so we are always on top of each other, plus we are both stomach sleepers so it becomes awkward with you feet on the edge and your back sliding into the middle. It all came to ahead today when I wake up and I feel like someone has taken a large hammer to my back. All day I have not been able to sit comfortable all day today. I can not wait till Wednesday when my bed come in.

New Place

As I mentioned in passing in the previous post The Wife and I found a place to stay. It's a three bedroom duplex just across the county line outside Wake Forest. We are so happy with our new place, it's not that much more expensive than what we were paying in Columbus and the complex is paying for water, sewage and trash.

Everything is great, except for one thing, the name. We now live on Apple Berry Court. Did you get that? Apple Berry Court! I mean that is one of the weakest names for a street ever! I know they are taking in to account females like apples and berries and court makes it sound small, but come on! Why does it have to be that feminine? I understand that all the "normal" street names like Elm, Pine and Washington are all taken and you don't want streets running up to the 1000s but give us some other name than Apple Berry Court. I want more manly names like Fried Chicken Drive, Football Court and Ham Sandwich Street. That is why I will no longer refer to our new place as The Duplex or any other names like that. It will only be called Fried Chicken Drive, a name anyone would love to have (except those people who don't like eating meat... I'm looking at you Gostomski!) it just sound delicious!

The Other Shoe Dropped

In my life any time something good happens I will always expect something bad to follow. A sort of ying yang thing; karmic justice even. You may think that I am lying but trust me it is true. I might find a great deal on something and find out it was stolen or it breaks two weeks later. Over the last few months I have had an unbridled good luck streak, so here is what has happened over the last few months.

1. Found a new job.
2. Was given a great moving bonus.
3. The Wife has just started her new job here.
4. We just found a new (and I mean new as in we are the first tenets three bedroom apartment.
5. We only have to pay a security deposit for the first month.
   
6. I get paid this Friday
7. With in two weeks I get a check that will help with any unusual moving experiences.

So with all this great things happening I was thinking everything was going to be fine. As you hear the ominous music start I get a call from the wife that my car's check engine light is on and it is sputtering every time she accelerates. Oh yeah, and I find out that her car's check engine light is on and is making a grinding noise.

I start to freak out and actually missed a turn and got lost for the first time since I've been here. I regain composure and start to get a plan. We are going to take my car in first for repairs, I think it's just the spark plugs, but it could be the fuel injectors. We fine a car shop and about two hours later I get the news, luckily it is just a broken spark plug. Here is the twist of this story, my brakes were starting to go bad, but now they have to be replaced. So the news went from pretty good to bad again. Luckily the cost is only $550 dollars for 4 new breaks and new spark plugs.

Hopefully I get my moving check soon so we can take her car in a get it running. Stupid karma.

3 Long Days

My new schedule has official begun, and since I am the "newbie" I get a bad schedule. Monday-Wednesday 9am-6pm, which is not too bad but I then work Saturday and Sunday 2am till 11am. I have not had to work regular weekends since I lived in Toledo back in 2002. So here is a tape delayed live blog of the past three days

FRIDAY

6:00AM The alarm goes The Wife wants to go shopping for a GPS system for her car. With the deals at Best Buy it was a good time to buy it and it can be used as a tax right off WOO HOO!

7:00AM We get to Best Buy and the place is PACKED! We weave our way through the masses and NOBODY were near the GPS units. We find a clerk and he tells us the best ones. We end up picking a Garmin. The unit was fairly cheap and was very user friendly. We attempt to look around the story, but after a while I was tired of wading through humanity.

7:45AM We get in line.

8:20AM We finally it the register and get to leave. I've had rides at Cedar Point that didn't take that long.

8:30AM - 10:00AM We drive around Raleigh then Wake Forest and back towards downtown Raleigh looking for apartments. We found three we liked and a bunch we did not. This was lasting longer than I thought.

10:30AM We are hungry and stop at Biscuitville. In the south they love biscuits and have stores that make sandwiches out of biscuits. Growing up near West Virginia we had Tudor's Biscuit World. I enjoyed the Bacon, egg and cheese biscuit and The Wife had the same but sausage instead of bacon. The sandwiches were awesome, but definitely not something that I should eat a lot. I don't want a coronary by 35.

11:00AM 12:30AM We look at more apartments. I never want to do this again, also no one was open. I guess most people are not shopping for new houses. Only things that will buy them love from family.

12:30PM- 2:30PM I'm starting to get tired, but I can't go to sleep. I need to get up at 1:00am so a nap will not allow me to sleep at night. We get home and unload The Wife's car and start to put everything away. The Apartment is packed and over stuffed.

2:30PM-4:00PM I go play disc golf while The Wife finishes putting her clothes away and take a nap.

4:00PM-6:00PM We use our new GPS to find a Blockbuster to get a couple of movies and go to Qdoba for dinner.

6:00PM - 7:00PM We start to watch X-Men 3, but I can't stay awake, which is a good thing so I go to be.

SATURDAY

1:00AM This comes way too soon and I struggle to get ready for work.

2:00AM-10:00AM I train with T-Dog and he gets me started and editing is not that hard, but it is repetitive and since I've only been editing on this system for a week and a half so I'm still slow. Not a lot new things happen since the last show at 11pm so it's mostly what was on during the 11 and stories that would not work in the 11 (national stories, anything about health and Jay-Z and Beyonce breaking up, that kind of story).

10:00PM - 12:00PM For some stupid reason I thought it would be a good idea to go shoot a football game. The game started at 1, but I had to leave at noon so I got paid to wait for a reporter.

Caffeine count since 2:00AM

2 20oz Mountain Dews

1 20oz Monster energy drinks

1 34oz Mountain Dew Code Red.

12:00PM- 5:00pm The game was the second round of the Division II playoffs between North Carolina Central and Delta State. NCCU was the #1 seed and looked like the #5. They came out flat and could not get anything going. I started to crash in the third quarter and I had problems standing and holding the camera up. I kid you not this was one of my worst shot games. I was slow to react and could not feel the game. For me that's what makes it great, being able to predict what is going to happen. We get post and start back to the station.

6:00PM I finally get off work and I feel like this. I get home eat a little dinner and finally go to bed at 7:00PM.

SUNDAY

1:00AM The Alarm goes off and I wanted to throw it through a wall. I struggle into the shower and finally get going.

2:00AM-9:00AM Sunday was a lot harder than Saturday. I am struggling plus I have an extra half an hour to cut. To keep the simple, for some strange reason our server kept pulling up the wrong video after I send it. So I had to keep resending video that was already cut. I finally get the shows done, but I am not finished editing. Sports has a half hour show at 11:00.

9:00AM-11:00AM I struggle through another half and hour and it was harder than news. Everything seemed to be somewhat abstract. I'm use to editing sports, but there were not any scripts, but lots of video.

The rest of the day was a little bit of a blur. I think we ate at a China Buffet and bought tennis rackets and played a little.

So what have I learned. Caffeine can save your life, I need more than 6 hours sleep, I hate show editing, I should not shoot sports on a day that involves me getting up at 1:00AM.

Turkey Day

Now that I am fully of turkey instead of what I'm normally full of I thought I'd sit down and write a little entry before the tripdiphan kicks in. The Wife has finally arrived and she can not grasp that we now live in North Carolina. So with her here I am thankfully that she made it safe and is happy to be with me, so now here is a list of things I am thankful for today:

• The Simpsons DVDs, without you I would have been horribly bored the past two weeks


• The Internet, Oh how have I missed you!


• Family, they may annoy me... a lot, but with the passing of Mr Uncle Kenny it makes me wish I could be with them this day.


• The new job, Hoozah! I am no longer stuck at The Network.


• The Wife, she loves me for the "delayed" guy that I am


• Pumpkin Pie, I can't get enough of it.


• Friends, you guys remind me that I am a dork and I am thankful for that.

For now that's all I have. Starting tomorrow I'll be looking back at what I've been through the past two weeks and maybe my shopping experience during BLACK FRIDAY!

Mr Uncle Kenny

I didn't want to do a third post tonight, but my heart is telling me I need to do this.



This past Sunday I was driving around town when I get a call from The Wife and she sounded distraught, "Uncle Kenny committed suicide." My heart sank and I pulled over and sat there and talked with The Wife. I really like Kenny, he was one of my favorite people form her adopted side. He was a big burly bearded man that made you think either he will crush me or he's a big old teddy bear. The first time I met him was almost three years ago at church The Wife and I had been dating for a few weeks. I felt a tap on my shoulder and a loud authoritative voice boost "Are you the guy dating my favorite niece?" I thought, "Oh crap, I'm dead." Then with a smile and a jolly tone "Hey welcome to the family I heard you where a good guy, take care of my niece." From that point on I always called Kenny Mr Uncle Kenny.



Up until our wedding he always had a smile and seemed like a pretty happy guy. He had many demons in his past that included drugs, alcohol abuse and personal neglect. He let a promising NFL career pass him by and from what I have been told he cleaned up his act about five years ago and seemed to be right with the Lord. For some of you you might remember him from the wedding. He helped Megan the fainting bridesmaid off stage with my father.



Now looking back the wedding was the first signs of trouble. He was suppose to introduce the wedding party at the reception, but as we were about to walk in he got cold feet. Then two months ago he was placed in the hospital because his meds where not working and he seemed to be struggling. Then this past Sunday everything I guess came to a head.



There's part of me that thinks I could have helped more. I knew he was struggling and maybe one phone call would have be what he needed. There were Sundays that I wanted to go over to him and just sit with him. Were those opportunities that I didn't take that might have made the difference. I will probably always have to live with that as probably many other family members.



So in closing I will miss you Kenny I hope you are now at piece and your demons have left you. You will be missed but not forgotten.

Personal addiction

I will admit a personal insight that many may not know. I have an addictive personallity. This is why I will never do any mind altering drugs and try not too drink that often (I do work in TV so not that often is still probably more than the average person).

This time of year however my biggest problem arises and I will announce my problem loud and with shame. I am addicted to pumpkin pie. Stop laughing, no seriously stop it! For some strange reason starting in late October and ending around middle of December. This year the Baker family went north to visit my brother and his fiance and the fiance's mother brought a pumpkin pie and it was GOOOOOOOOD. I had one piece then half an hour later i had another and ten I snuck a third.

For the most part I curbed my addiction for the next week or so. Then I went to a store called Deals and they had small pies for two dollars. I bought one and it was gone on the next day. So from that point on any chance for pie I was there.

Then there was this past week. I move into the temporary apartment and go grocery shopping and I do not know how I got there, but I ended up in the frozen pie section with a whole pumpkin pie in my hand. I take it home, bake it, let it cool and started eating it. I called the wife told her I had a pie and she says. "That better last till I get down there." Well it didn't. It last 4 days. Then I bought a second, it wasn't as good so half of it is still there.

Now here is the biggest problem, The Wife is driving down and will be in Raleigh tomorrow for Thanksgiving and she has three pies. Two of them are pumpkin! What the hell am I going to do? I can't eat that much pie! Well I can and probably will, but come on I shouldn't. Are there twelve steps for pie addiction or are they slices.

If you are wondering, no I am not eating one right now as I type. I'm waiting till 9:00. Who am I kidding 5 minutes from now.

Southern Comfort

As you may have been able to decipher from the lack of post I have officially moved into the south (North Carolina representing!). I've been in my temporary apartment for a week and a half and I've been enjoying my new city and state. Over the next few days I'll give a more detailed analysis of what I think of Raleigh and the new station (Plus there maybe a contest to decide what I shall call the new station).

Plus I will do a retrospective on The Network, what I will miss, why I am glad to be away from that place and maybe a funny story. So this post and the one that will appear tonight just above this one.

Favorite Season: Post Season End of an Era Part 2

Marion Pleasant 43 Reading 7 These two games are my last games shooting high school football. I may do some in Raleigh, but it will not be the same. I've been doing high school football for six years and I will dearly miss it. In order of things I will miss the most it is number 2 behind friends and family. So how do I go out tonight in style baby! I'm in the chopper! The Network obviously does not have a helicopter but our sister station does and it is a treat for our photographers to go up. I get to the first game and I soak in the atmosphere, well it was a Division V game, so there wasn't a huge amount there, but still enough to get me by. Reading came out firing and scored on the third play by a 76 year screen pass. I'm thinking this might be a good game. Well Pleasant average play drive was this 3 yard run, 4 yard run, 4 yard run, 3 yard pass, 5 yard run, 4 yard run, 1 yard run, 5 yard run, 4 yard run... 3 yard run up the middle for a touchdown. WOW that was numbing and it happened for the entire first half. If it wasn't for the fact that the helicopter can't leave while the game is in progress I would have left 20 minutes earlier, but was forced to stay.

Johnstown 30 Stewart Federal Hocking 0 Because the first game took so long to get to the half we fly in and there is only 3 minutes left in the half. I'm not too discoursed because Johnstown has one of my favorite nicknames the "Johnnies." Two other schools do this in Ohio Smithville Smithies and the Fredricksville Freddies. It's truthfully not very creative, but at the same time ingenious! I get to the field and my third play is a touchdown to make it 23-0. Not much happened after that, I did pick up a good defensive stop and then there was a weird pass that turned out to be a lateral and was returned for a touchdown. It was hard to shoot, most of the team jumped in front of me so I had to go onto the field just to shoot it.

Am I liked?

Ok this is a post I'm trying to burry a little bit. I want to write about it for carthartic reasons. I am leaving for Raliegh and generally in the TV buisness if you are liked by your co-workers you are given a party. I had one in Toledo and a halloween party in West Virginia was inpart a going a way party. So with that said I'm down to my last two days and nothing is planned. Their is a gathering this week for another co-worker. He is leaving the station to move to Cleveland, he has been at The Network since the beginning and everyone loves him.

This got me thinking. "Do people really like me?" I've always had a mental problem with people. I always feel like I'm a bother and that people don't want me around. I never call people any more because I'm afraid to bother them and they might be busy. I just don't know if what I am thinking is true or is it my neurosis gone a muck. I have been very unhappy with work and regretfully I have a tendency to have my emotions on my sleeve.

I know right after I got married a production guy got married and there was a collection for a gift for he and his bride. I truthfully was a little hurt by that, and that started this little thought. "why is that guy getting a station gift. I don't want a gift, but it would have been nice though." I'm hoping I'm just over thinking this, and it's just because another great guy is leaving so I kind of got left on that back burner. I'd rather have that than for people to be happy I am gone.

I hope that if people at work happen to read this that I am not asking for a party now, it's just questioning how I will be remembered. I hope this does not make me sound petty and with a case of Sour Grapes.

Favorite Season: Playoffs End of an Era Part 1

Pickerington Central 42 Canfield 37 This is my final week shooting high school football. I am a little sad and as my final Marquee Match up boy did I get a doozie. During the first half Pickerington Central just dominated the game. They had a huge run then Chazz Anderson (pictured) threw some nice passes and his receivers ran all over the place. Also Canfield had WAY too many penalties, I think at the end of the game it was about 12. The second half started and it was pretty much the same thing till there was six minutes left in the 3rd quarter. It was 21-7 at that point and then at the start of the 4th it was 42-22. This slowed the tempo of the game down to a crawl. It was very cold and it only got worse.

We shot our intros thinking the game was pretty much over. We thought wrong, Canfield would not die. They converted three out of four on-side kicks and kept the tiger offense off the field. The big side note to this game was Pickerington Central was number 1 in our state power poll and anytime our Marquee guy was at a game where the number 1 team was playing, they lost. So the "Curse of the Chud" looked to be rearing it's ugly head.

I started to shoot the game again and the next thing we know it's 42-30 and Canfield converts another onside kick. I look at a still photog and say "Holy shit, Canfield might win." They score to make it 42-37. By this time the game is nearing the three hour mark. I'm not wearing gloves and my hands are bright red.

Canfield scores again to make it 42-37. Pick C looks to kill the clock and guess what happens. FUMBLE! The curse is alive and looks hungry. Canfield drives and is within striking range of the endzone, but can't convert on a 4th down and the tigers win. The game lasted over three hours and we had to haul tail back to get our highlights on.

So my first Marquee of the year was in the mid-eighties and lasted over three hours, my last Marquee was in the 20s and lasted over three hours. Everything came back full circle

New Man Law

You know you have seen these commercials. A bunch of guys in a plexiglass cube at a square table decieding what men are allowed to do. Like you can't date a friends ex, unless she is hot then it's six months or no hiding beer.

Well I have an addition to the man law that needs passed. Lift the seat up to go to the bathroom. Here is why I want this a law. I finished last weeks football game and wanted to get dinner at the local McDonald's and use the bathroom and I mean that as a urinal is not enough. A guy is in there so I wait till he is done. I hear the flush, he walks out and I go in. He only had to go #1 and left the seat down and lets just say he needs to work on his accuracy. I he's talking to a friend as I yell, "What a jerk, at least raise the seat! JERK!" He may not have heard me, but still I don't want to sit down now. No matter how much you wipe the seat off it still takes time to dry.

Just be a little more courteous to your fellow man. Just raise the seat. If you don't want to use your hand at least use your shoe and lift it up that way.

So man law court, do I hear a second on my motion?

You Killed Mr. Ecko! You Bastards!

Why is it this year every single show I enjoy either has my favorite character leave for a portion of the season or they kill them off. Tonight's example of this evil trend is Mr. Ecko from lost. Ever since they started to show him last season I can't get enough of the religious lovable bad ass. So what did they go and do? Have a giant black cloud come and kill him. I thought it was a very interesting flash back with Ecko. You learned what happened to him after his brother was shot and how he got out of Nigeria.

I've made comments about how I have learned nothing this season and I've started to loose interest. Damn it Lost has done it again with one more new episode till June of 2015 or something like that. The others are about to go into a civil war and Jack is in the middle, and death maybe coming for all so without further adu here is what I learned, figured out, and thought about tonight's episode:

-You see dead people inside tents on the island

-Ben is not liked by the people on flight 815 nor anyone else on the island

-Ben needs to work on his brainwashing skills, kind of hard to brain wash someone with the look of fear on your face.

-Do not get on the bad side of Juliet, she'll kill you

-OK they are using industrial grade Beta machines, so that means her little INXS moment was shot on Beta SP. Did they hire a freelance photographer for that? "OK so let me get this straight I'm sailing to some island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to shoot you flipping some cue cards?" "Alright, but you have to pay for lodging and protection from any weird black fog creatures."

-What the hell was with the guy with the patch! That gave me a chill... it's giving me a chill now! Will there be pirates?

-They finally brought back the creepy music when something happens. I was wondering where it went.

-If I was Bernard I'd be watching my back. He's the only person left from the tail section.

-Who the hell are the new people from the beach camp? You can't just have some woman and guy just come out of nowhere! If this was Star Trek I believe they would be wearing red.

-Finally what happened to the segment out graphic and sound effect. You know the one with the out of focus then in focus lost logo or the BONG! to black. This episode needed a few BONG hits going into a commercial break... ummm seriously that was not a drug reference.