Trisha and I had one of those “I can’t believe that” coincidences the other day.  I was telling her that my daughter, Kennedy, wanted a fish as a pet.  I told Trisha I used to have a pet fish as well.  I kept him on my desk and the entire newsroom adopted him.  “He was a blue Beta,”  I said.  Trisha said, “I had Beta in my old newsroom too.”  I told her the name of my fish was Joseph.  She said, “Oh my God, that was the name of my fish!!” 

  That was kind of weird.  Of all the names.  So the following day I told my wife about our conversation and the strange coincidence that we both had fish named Joseph that were pets for our respective newsrooms. 
Then my wife said “Well you know honey (I may have added the honey part) my pet fish was also named Joseph.”
Wow!!!!  That kind of freaked me out.  Cue the Twilight Zone music.  Where is Rod Serling?  Three fish named Joseph!! But wait.  There’s more!!

  We finally go to the pet store to get Kennedy’s fish.  She was so excited.  We looked for the perfect Beta for my baby.  I stopped to ask the employee for a little help.  And you can probably guess his name.  That’s right, Joseph!!  (I promise I’m not making this up). 

  By now you’re probably thinking that after my daughter got her fish, she looked at me and said “Daddy, I want to name my fish Joseph.”  Nope.   Her fish is named Samantha Steven, apparently after one of her classmates. We asked if we could call the fish “Sam” for short.  She said no way.  Our reasons were simple enough.  Samantha… is a boy.  (But at least his name isn’t Joseph). BTW, no offense to anyone named Jospeh.  But after three fish and a store clerk named Joseph, I was ready to move on. :-) 

     “Balance” is my Holy Grail.  The mountain I’d love to conquer (as my kids conquered this gravel hill). Sometimes I think the harder I try to find it the farther away it becomes.  Don’t get me wrong - I fully appreciate the wonderful opportunities and beautiful family I’ve been blessed with.  But there always seems to be a shortage of TIME.  For the kids, for projects at work, for my husband, for friends, for family, for hobbies, for just being alone. 

    Working nights and is both awesome - and tricky.   I don’t have a lot of time to stop and take inventory of all that I’m trying to balance - but looking at the photos I’ve been snapping in my cameraphone lately tells at least part of the story.

   Clara at her new preschool.  Today I was a parent volunteer.  Wiping noses, gluing, sweeping, serving snacks, zipping coats, leading a parade, making a big fuss over gorgeous works of art from nine tiny sets of hands.   I may be nuts but I just love kids this age. Nothing could be cuter.

  An outing to Steak N Shake with Cal and Clara’s former babysitters from Des Moines, “spring breaking” in Indy a week ago.  These girls are a trip and a half.  They were hugely helpful in watching the kids - they watched Horton Hears a Who and toured downtown Indy while I interviewed Barack Obama.  I think everybody won.

Here’s a rare adults night out a few weeks ago with our fun neighbors  (Alyssa and I here)  and their great group of friends!  I’m NOT  sushi fan - but I did manage to eat a few bites of it just for the sake of being a good sport and not a complete baby.   (I’ll confess, I’d have been much more at home with pizza, burgers, or enchiladas)

But the company was great!  Ian and I definitely need to do this kind of thing more often. I think it’s only the second meal we’ve had out on the town without kids in the past year. (not kidding)

Todd and I riding in the St. Patty’s Day parade.  Fun - but COLD!  I couldn’t help but thinking my late Grandpa Sterling’s Irish eyes would have been smiling to see this event.

Hosting a tea party playdate with Clara and her newest friend.  I’m so grateful she’s found a buddy whose mom and is so much fun to hang out with! Kristina and I actually got to chat and have a couple cups of coffee while our hilarious girls played happily. Cha-Ching!

At the Pacers game with my 5-year-old, Calvin.  (Doesn’t he look ecstatic?) He inhaled a jumbo hotdog, a pile of chips and popcorn, plus some M&M’s and a cookie that Bowser the mascot scored for him.  (obviously he’s making up for all the malnourishment at home)  We were the guests of the Pacers, since I’m part of their “All-Star Reading team” that travels to local schools to read to kids.  I figured this would be fun, but I had no idea we’d have such a great time!

   He even got to hang out with the very sweet Terri Stacy from WIBC, although Cal had no idea he was hanging with “local celebrity” types.  Boomer and Bowser left the biggest impression, I’m afraid.

     Just a little slice of life off the air.  Busy. Sometimes impossibly so.  But right now I’m more willing to give up sleep and quiet time to myself than these adventures. 

  And I’ll keep dreaming of someday when I’ll find time for all of the above.

    Best of luck to all of you searching for your own balance, and if you figure it out, please let me know how!

Trish

(6News Employee Terri Cope, along with Sen. Barack Obama and me)

 One of the most interesting parts of being a journalist is that occasionally, you get a chance to interview someone of great importance or public interest.  It’s not every day most of us get to even see a speech given by a presidential candidate, let alone shake their hand or speak to them.  And Saturday I had an even more unique opportunity - a chance to speak to Sen. Barack Obama one on one after his talk in Plainfield.  (by the way, Clinton supporters, don’t worry - we have the same request in with her folks when she visits later this week!) The link below will take you to the spot on theindychannel.com where you can watch the interview.

      http://www.theindychannel.com/showcase/index.html

 I’ll admit I had a few butterflies going in, as I do whenever I’m doing a high-stakes, important interview. But after listening to him talk, I knew the topics I wanted to ask him about. Like many politicians are, Obama comes across quite warm and personable, and our small talk upon meeting (we chatted about our common backgrounds in Illinois) helped get the interview off to a comfortable start.  

    I had only a few minutes of time, and we covered the topics of support for military families, Iraq policy, funding for arts and music education, and how to bring a greater sense of unity to Indiana. 

    But for me, the most memorable moment was a little twist our discussion took when talking about the arts. If you watch the interview online, you’ll notice Sen. Obama made use of that self-depricating sense of humor, mocking his lack of music skills.  I wasn’t sure he was going to answer my  offbeat question about the musical artist who inspired him most - but eventually I pulled it out of him.  (you’ll have to watch to find out!)

    The experience made me grateful once again to be in the privileged position of having access to major players in the American political process.   As Todd and I looked around the room during the speech in Plainfield, it was impressive to see so many people so engaged in the process and enthusiastic about their favorite candidate.  What an American moment!

  Feel free to share your thoughs our questions here- as always, we welcome and appreciate your feedback!

Trisha

Update as of March 14th 10pm:

      This post has been up for a little while, but since we’re running a new piece from our coverage at Ft. Stewart, I wanted to leave it intact!  I am happy to report that Cpt. Carico, who was interviewed in this piece along with his family, has arrived safely in Kuwait and is in “pretty good spirits” according to his wife Tina tonight.  I am sure they and all the families of the 76th would welcome any thoughts you would like to share here.  Monday I’ll have some new photos and stories to share. Thanks for checking in!  Trisha

I’ve been a neglectful blogger lately and I apologize.

I’ve been dutifully collecting photos and stories in my head - I just can’t seem to find time to get them into the computer. So here goes nothing - the last few weeks of interesting happenings in my world, starting with the most important.

FAREWELL TO TROOPS

      I just finished an emotionally draining but incredibly interesting assignment to Ft. Stewart in Georgia.  3200 Indiana National Guard troops with the 76th Infantry Brigade are leaving for Iraq. (200 are with an advance team in Kosovo already). 

 The Guard flew in our crew (photographer Sue Foster and myself) along with maybe 20 or so others from an Indiana media delegation.   We traveled in a C-130 cargo plane, on loan from an Air Force unit in Tennessee.  The seats were mesh cargo-net style seating, facing each other sideways along the side and center of the plane.  They warned us it would be loud and cold inside. (It wasn’t nearly as rough as I was prepared for.  I’ve been in military aircraft before and I’d have to say this ride was downright gentle!)

       I won’t rehash of all our coverage there.  I will say I worked very hard at choking back my own tears while interviewing worried family members of deploying soldiers.  (And sometimes I just couldn’t) This is the Carico family from Richmond.  Spc. Shane Carico is starting his first deployment.  His wife Tina was quite tearful and shaken up as she talked to me on the last day they’d spend together as a family before his year-long deployment.

     The children didn’t seem as obviously affected by their dad’s deployment.  9-year-old Kalie wanted to show off all the seashells she’d collected during their sightseeing on his leave.  11-year-old Robert told me he wants to be a soldier when he grows up. 

    Spc. Carico told me he got great training and feels prepared to face the war - his only real concerns are about his family.  That’s the story I heard echoed again and again from these brave and often stoic soldiers.  “If you want to support the troops, take care of our families back home.”  I promised to repeat this message loud and clear.

       PERSPECTIVE

   It was the perfect time for me to be reminded of the sacrifices so many thousands of military families are making.   My husband Ian’s band (www.thenadas.com) is releasing a new album this week, and his touring schedule is exploding.  As hard as it is for me manage everything while he’s away, I know he’s safe, he’s doing what he loves, they’re ROCKING this music, and  - most importantly, he’ll always come back within a matter of days, weeks at most.  Our support network of friends in Indy is growing, and the kids and I will do just fine. 

SURPRISE, IAN!

   Saturday night my flight from Georgia touched down just in time for me to race over to Champaign to see the Nadas play.  (Here’s a shot of Ian and I with our friend Mindy - the matchmaker who introduced us 9 years ago! Sorry the photos are so dark - cameraphone issues.) My parents had the kids for the night, and Ian had no idea I was even going to attempt to make it there.  The look on his face when he saw me arrive was priceless.  We not only got to hang out with the band (from Des Moines), we got to introduce them to all our old friends in Champaign-Urbana (our previous hometown!) 

It was an awesome and crazy night - so thanks to Mike (pictured here with Mindy and I) and Jason, the Nadas singer/guitarists, who always seem to know how to make things  - um, memorable -  to Tyler, the band manager for putting out fires and having the funniest unquotable one-liners of the night, to Mindy for being the life of the party as always, to all our old and dear friends for being there and being themselves, to my parents for holding down the fort and the children in our absence, and especially to Ian, for being so darned happy to see me. 

  I’ll save some Cal and Clara updates for a future blog - gotta go do some news. Thanks for checking in, everyone!

Trish