Well, the week is over. No, not the marathon but the week. In some sort of way, it feels like an achievement since the weekdays and weekends have two different feels to them. So to get through the week is an accomplishment.
Waking up today wasn't bad. It kind of came in phases. First, the alarm on my phone. Then, the second alarm on my phone. And then, when my cable decided to go out for a couple minutes while I was trying to watch British Open coverage. Eh well, it got me up. Just like yesterday, getting to work early isn't a big deal because I have a story already. All I need to do is edit it and there's two minutes practically. So I decide 2pm is good enough and roll into work then.
Editing today is completely different than the day before. Instead of jumping from one bay to another, I stay in one and get my story done in about an hour and 30 minutes. I will say, having to hear teenage girls say the work "like" every 5 words get kind of annoying as I listen for soundbites but the story ends up pretty well. In fact, I got an e-mail from the coach saying it was "perfect" so I guess I did a good enough job. For the rest of the 6pm, I add British Open again and bang, cast is done. Not gonna lie, I love being in a golf-friendly market because no matter what tournament there is, I can use it for almost a minute's worth of highlights but that's especially true during a major.
For the 11pm, I need one more minute of material but that's easy tonight. Add Braves and Greenjackets highlights and it's done. So I get to the baseball game around 7:05 and am outta there at 7:45. Since I really only needed one highlight, I got two and called it a night. Before I left though, I had a quick chat with my "competition", the ABC station. The weekend anchor was doing a story on that former MLB player who is meeting the President on Tuesday. Her story is not running until Monday so I get to thinking. Do I try to run one Saturday or Sunday? Do I even trying to do one Tuesday when it happens or am I now at risk of copying? The more and more I think about it, I remember just how much it doesn't matter. Instead of trying to stretch myself too thin by trying to do 2-3 stories, let me just stick with one until I really feel comfortable with everything. So I concede the story to the ABC station, which has 2 anchors right now, and give myself a pat in the back though still for turning in 3 packages in 5 days by myself.
I get food at Chick-Fil-A, again trying to eat somewhere different and then head back to the station. As for the 11pm cast...well, it was fun. I got so caught up in my lack of having to do anything that I decided to archive video for the week. Something that was really overdue. I get a lot of it done and when 11pm comes by, I feel nice and relaxed. I mean, my cast has been done since 9:30pm. So I sit down at on the set, ready for my cast when the director tells me that after my second story, I'm on my own cause she has no scripts. I laugh cause I think she is kidding but then I look at my scripts. I forgot to write intros and tags to my stories! That's not good, especially when we're talking about the whole second half of your sportscast. Thankfully, I use my best ad-libbing skills and make it work but man oh man, talk about dodging a bullet. That could have been a lot worse.
After work, it's off to Somewhere In Augusta for some brews. A good time yet again and allow me to almost forget that I have 3 more straight days of work before that priceless day off.
WHAT I LEARNED TODAY: Learned a couple things tonight. First, I learned that even ad-libbing in the real world just takes some guts and some experience. Thanks to the many times I had to ad-lib at WOUB, doing it on a Friday at 11pm newscast with the possibility of over 100,000 people watching was not a big deal. Also, I learned that trying to produce high-quality stories with just one person is tough. And it's even tougher when you have no sources because you're new to the area. Hence why I am so proud that I made 3 packages out of stuff I had just learned. I could have just packed it in but I tried to push the limit. But yet, when the old MLB player was there, I knew what my limit was and how that would just not work for me and my time. I gotta look out for my well-being after some point. I still have three more days to go and tiring now is not an option.
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