Did you know I was my middle school’s very own weather girl back in the day?
True story!
I would watch the news in the morning to memorize the weather reports and during homeroom I would stand in front of a green screen and basically repeat them word for word. It was my 15 minutes of weather girl fame. 😉
Back then I had dreams of being a news reporter or journalist (I think this was around the same time I wanted to be an actress), but over time I quickly came to realize the A) I am not articulate enough to read a teleprompter, B) I naturally talk way too fast, and C) I had other dreams to pursue.
Still this morning it was fun to relive those dreams at the WESH news station this morning.
A little birdie had told Amy Sweezey, WESH’s meteorologist, about my little celebrity spotting last week. Amy Sweezy found me through twitter and asked if I wanted to come by for a tour this morning. Of course I immediately jumped at the chance to have a private behind the scenes tour of my favorite morning news program! (Take that channel 9!)
I headed over to the WESH studios around 6:00am this morning. At that point they were already well into the day’s show. Amy told me she typically comes in at 3:00am (!) to prepare for the day.
The first few hours of her morning are spent prepping the graphics she will use in that morning’s cast. Once those are prepped she can easily interchange the current temps as they go up and down during the news cast.
The morning news crew is comprised of only a handful of people including a producer, director, cameraman, teleprompter, two news anchors, traffic person, meteorologist, and a few reporters in the field. I was actually a little surprised how empty the studio was. Amy told me that even though the morning news is the longest and most watched news program of the day, it is the lightest staffed.
The two morning anchors, Jason Guy and Syan Rhodes, were kind enough to take a photo with me at the news desk.
Don’t you think I would make a great addition to their team?!? I look like I’d fit right in shelling out the day’s news, right?!?! 😉
Fun fact: I did a quick Wikipedia search on Jason and discovered he was a runner up in the third season of Big Brother back in 2002. Check out the old bio I found on the CBS website. (Don’t worry Jason I promise to keep all comments concerning the long hair to a minimum 😉 )
I had a blast learning about my favorite news show this morning! A BIG THANKS to Amy Sweezey for inviting me along this morning!
Before I headed to WESH this morning I had a very early breakfast of Orange & Almond Butter Cereal
I started with a base of Shredded Wheat and Kashi Honey Sunshine that I topped with fresh Florida orange.
And since you know how much I love the combination of almond butter & orange, I mixed a heaping spoonful of almond butter with plain yogurt that coated the orange and acted like a cereal icing. I finished the bowl with the last of my peanut butter granola.
Don’t be scared of adding fresh orange to your cereal! Trust me, its amazing! Especially with the addition of almond butter ‘icing.’ 😉
Alright time to get my butter to work!
Don’t forget to check out the Gasparilla Video I posted last night. I’m actually quite proud of my semi-editing skills with this one. I am slowly learning my way though iMovie one video at a time.
omg! you are so lucky. i my earlier life i wanted to be a weather girl… then i discovered i am not good at science… hahaha. i too am obsessed (i am not sure you are obessed) but i am obsessed with KDKA in pittsburgh. i feel like they are my friends 🙂
Wow! How fun! Another amazing story from you based on your blog and twitter!
how fun to see a real new studio! I actually never watch the news – i’m always to rushed in the morning. occasionally i catch the 5:00 news at the gym
haha I do recognize him from Big Brother!
OMG – JASON! He was one of my favorite Big Brother contestants. I had no idea he was an anchor in Orlando now. So funny. I’ve actually met him a few times (the company I used to work for in Los Angeles produced Big Brother) and he was always so kind and willing to share about this BB experiences. Glad to see he’s doing well for himself.
You are TOO cute, hehe. Sounds like you had a blast getting the tour.
I was actually an anchor and reporter for my university’s TV news. It was the university news channel, but it’s on cable for the whole city to see. I loved it, but quickly became hardened by the “hard news” and knew I had to get out before it sucked the soul out of me! It doesn’t do it to everyone, but then and there I knew it wasn’t for me…
I definitely watched that Big Brother! Very col that you got a tour of the newsroom! You definitely look like you fit right in 🙂
I just watched your video and your voice totally sounds like Drew Barrymore! It’s so funny hearing the voices of people you’ve only seen pictures of…looks like a fun morning for sure!
What an awesome morning!
I know what you mean about being star-struck. I saw one of Columbus, Ohio’s more popular news ancors in Barnes and Noble one afternoon. I couldn’t stop staring at her! 🙂
you are a celebrity! at least in my book.
I wanted to tell you that I watched your Gasparilla video and it was really good! You are blessed to be a pretty runner. 🙂 No red face sweatiness for you my friend! 🙂
That’s so cool you got to do that!
how fun! that’s so cool you got to go to the studio and see everyone at work…i bet that was an awesome experience. p.s. i LOVE the video 🙂
That’s so much fun! I’m jealous 😛
i still haven’t tried orange and nut butter! i can’t imagine it! i promise i will try though 😉
i think you would be an adorable weather girl 😉
From a newspaper reporter’s perspective … the TV folks are a little less impressive. That’s all I’ll say. 😉
That is so fun, you do look like you fit right in!
Haha…what a fun morning!
So cool that you got to visit the news studio!!!
The funniest part is that at first glace I thought you were wearing only a brown cardigan in the first photo with no cami. 🙂
Ooohh delicious breakfast!!
And lucky you getting to visit a weather/tv studio, how fascinating! I’d love to do that 😀 aah the benefits of Twitter 🙂
What fun!! You’re going to have so many great memories when you’re older due to the opportunities from your blog. I think that’s so fantastic!
This is awesome!!! The photo of you with the team looks so professionally done. As if it’s an advertisement for them in the local newspaper or something.
I love how you memorized the weather report word for word–so smart!
That is so awesome! I studied broadcast journalism in college and still kinda wish I’d been able to pursue broadcast over print 🙂
How cool!!! I used to want to be in broadcast journalism, too. I did a bunch of newspaper and TV internships during/after college and even had a few stories broadcast on TV 🙂
Wow that is so awesome! How nice of the local studio to invite you for a tour.
I think you would make an excellent weatherwoman 🙂
That is so cool! I used to live next to our weather guy and I babysat his kid. NOw he’s the weather man for some huge network in Chicago. I feel like I know a celebrity!
how cool! jealoud you got to do that!
That’s so cool! It looks like you had a lot of fun. Jason’s from my hometown. 🙂
3:00am?? I couldn’t imagine starting that early! But I suppose it means that they get the entire day off mostly! Looks like you had a lot of fun!
That’s so fun! I always watch WESH2 news when I am in Orlando for work – that is so nice they would invite you for a tour!
That’s so cool! One of my secret dreams is to be a host of the Today Show 🙂
You are SO cute! Thanks for sharing!
How fun! You DO look perfectly natural there 🙂
I too had childhood dreams of being a weather girl / tv reporter after becoming obsessed with the movie Up Close & Personal, but 3am clock-ins are enough to make me happy I didn’t pursue that. Very cool you got to get a full tour and meet everyone though!
haha I love that you just memorized the morning news. That’s great.
I remember going to visit our local news station for a field trip when I was little. It’s weird to get star struck. Then our sportscaster became our high school FB coach, and seeing him every day was like brushing arms with a celebrity. crazy.
Glad you had a fun filled morning 🙂
xo-Molly
http://www.givinganythingbutup.wordpress.com
That is too cool!!! You lucky girl you.
And I so remember Jason from BB… wow!
That is really cool! As far as orange in my cereal…isn’t it chewy? I just think it would be hard to eat for some reason. Or maybe I’m just a weirdo.
My fiance is a producer for one of the local news channels. It is really cool to go into the newsroom and see everything.
For the record…Jason is hot! :>
I always wanted to be on the news too…but hearing about the 3 am start time kills me! I have to be up at 3:30 AM once a week and it is a killer. I give them major props!
Courtney
adventures in tri-ing
Great morning!!
How cool you were the middle school weather girl! My hubby wants to be a weatherman so bad…he gets mad when the weather comes on now because the weather guy never wrote him back about interning with him in high school…talk about holding on to a grudge haha!
That’s so awesome! It’s amazing what opportunities present themselves due to blogging, twittering, and other forms of “cyber” interactions.
I LOVE YOUR JOB!!! Do you add milk to your cereal even with the orange? My family knows about my blog but I’m always too nervous that I will be ridiculed for my hobby by my friends. I had cereal this morning and was mad because it lasted me a grand total of three hours. There is NOTHING like a bowl of oats loaded with almond butter, jam, fruit, nuts etc. I swear that stuff holds me over the best!
I don’t add mile to my cereal in the morning. 🙂 And I tend to eat a lighter breakfast because I enjoy having a mid morning snack.
looks like you had such a fun morning!!!! so cool that they invited you in
How much fun to go visit a news studio!
What an awesome opportunity. It isn’t often that a busy TV personality invites someone to visit!
I interned at a studio when I was debating doing broadcast with my meteorology degree. It is so fun! But not what I wanted to do with my life. Grad school was a much more suitable choice. The weather is so fun! And yes there is way more science to it then you would think!
What a fun morning. I love that grey sweater – the floral embellishments on the side are adorable.
I was just there yesterday. I had a friend who had an internship there and I got to see everything! It was great.