Stop and Smell the People

More Birthday Pics!

One year old today! About this time last year… I still had 12 long hours to go!!!! Look for that edition of The Baby Diaries tomorrow. In the meantime, I wanted to share Crowley’s birthday with you!

Nobody rocks the birthday cake like Charlotte baker Haines Barksdale, owner of of For Goodness Cakes! The cake looked awesome… and tasted even better!

Aunt Rebecca sent the table runner for Crowley which added such a festive and thoughtful touch! Here’s a pic of the Birthday Boy!

The only two people who enjoyed the Birthday song more than Crowley…Mom and Dad!!

Many of you have been right along with us for most of last year! Thank you for celebrating this day and all the ones before!

Last pic… what happens when Mommy isn’t watching…

I was away…

I’ll get back to talking about what it’s like to be on the inside of the television news business tomorrow. But today I must acknowledge the obvious: I fell off the face of the earth for a about five days.

Crowley's cake was shaped like a train... "All Aboard!"

It wasn’t planned. Anna and I went to Charlotte for three birthday parties on a four-day weekend… and ended up in the black-hole of Internet networks. Perhaps Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had his techies accidentally jam the Internet in the Southpark area of Charlotte.

Anyway, we left Friday. Got back last night. It was an incredible weekend. Here’s why: I consider Charlotte my home. It’s not the place I have lived the longest. I grew up in Ohio… spent 18 years there. I moved to California… lived 17 years there. Charlotte was my home for a mere 12 years. But it was the most fulfilling personally and professionally of my 49-year life.

I haven’t been back to Charlotte since we moved to Virginia on November 15 of 2009. It felt marvelous to go back and imbibe in some dear friends and family. Got some rock climbing in. Saw a horribly terrific movie. But best of all, I watched my little boy’s face light up as 40 people turned their focus onto him and sang happy birthday. That was rich.

I live one fun and weird life. I have a son learning to walk and I have a son learning to fly. Crowley, who wanted nothing to do with his first birthday cake by the way, took a record seven steps the other night. I captured it on video. Trevor, my #1 son, is in flight school at the Air Force Academy right now. Talk about odd. I’m sitting on the floor cross-legged watching Crowley do a wobbly balance on his own, drooling like a Saint Bernard and saying, “Da-da-da-da-da-da-da…” and right then Trevor sends me a text message that reads, “Nailed two landings! All is well.”

I wasn’t always but for quite a long time now I’m happy to be me… MR

A News Man…

I’m a writer at my base. But I’m a news man by training. I thought I’d try to give you an inside peek at my profession, Television News, over the next few weeks. Today let me set the scene.

Back off my right shoulder is our news set and at the taking of this photo we are in the middle of a LIVE newscast. Off to my left and out of frame is the newsroom. (Photo by Bruce Young)

I work surrounded by about 50 other journalists and technicians… Reporters, Web Journalists, Producers, Associate Producers, Photojournalists, Editors, Studio Camera Operators, Floor Directors, Sound techs, Satellite Feed Coordinators, Meteorologists and Anchors. We don’t often think of in this way but that’s an amazing array of skill.

I have an office but I’m never in it. I have a desk I use that sits out in the cross-hairs of the newsroom, the news set, the weather dept. and the edit bays. It’s the best seat in the house.

This is a discussion on a Saturday in the middle of a snowstorm. On the far right is Lawrence Young, our Chief Photographer, who slept on his office floor overnight. Standing next to me is one of the most knowledgable and talented Meteorlogists I know, Robin Reed. We're either talking about how to cover the storm or trying to find even one fast food joint that's still open. (Photo by Bruce Young)

News might be the most exhilarating and frustrating business I know. It’s exhilarating because many days, when news is breaking wide open, you thrive on adrenaline and 50 instantaneous decisions. The frustrating part is any one of the 50 people around you can screw the whole thing up. And I might be the one to do it.

Of course most days, when there is no big breaking news, its a slower process of deciding between stories like a school board trying to figure out how to deal with 10-million fewer dollars this year or doing a profile on a

The newsroom during the day when most of the journalists are out covering the news of the day.

27-year-old who was run over by a tractor trailer while riding his bike home from work in rainy weather. One story has widespread impact. The other only affects one family, tragically. But the school story will be around tomorrow and 20 tomorrows from now. The cyclist story is today only. These are the sorts of things we debate day in and day out.

News is the business of making decisions and then airing out your choices on LIVE television in front of tens of thousands of people. Good times.

I have to run just now… It’s my wedding Anniversary and I have to convince the coolest woman on earth she didn’t marry a total nincompoop… MR