RILEY VISIT 

Just when I thought I’d taken my final curtain call as Snow White, I got an invitation I simply could not refuse.

This morning I “suited up” one last time and visited the kids at Riley Children’s Hospital.

I’ll admit I got myself a little worked up about this appearance - I was worried that instead of being cheery Snow White, I’d be a teary-eyed mess! 

    Even before I was a mom I always had a hard time keeping my eyes dry when meeting with kids battling any kind of illness or injury.  (I had pretty major surgery for scoliosis at age 13, and although it was not a life-threatening condition, the surgery and recovery was a difficult and life-changing experience.) Now that I have kids of my own, it’s even harder to see kids facing health battles. It seems so unfair to have to deal with the really hard stuff when you’re so little!! 

  Before I met with the larger group of kids I visited a few of the children who weren’t able to leave their rooms. The first little patient I met really got to me.  Abrianna is 4 years old and just had a kidney transplant 2 days ago.  Seeing her so little in that bed, and in pretty obvious discomfort, wasn’t easy.  I couldn’t manage to get a smile out of her (or to keep my eyes completely dry )but I hope at the very least my visit was a welcome distraction from everything else. Sweet little girl.

After that I colored some pictures with the kids, posed for more pictures, and sang them a few songs from the show (that closed last weekend at Beef and Boards Dinner Theatre). 

    I think I only choked up once while singing…I got pretty determined to make this a happy visit. After all, while it’s not fun to be in a hospital, it is great that kids in Indiana have access to such a world-class facility.  I could see how much the staff cared about them, and how hard everyone worked to make things less tense and more playful for the kids and families.

   As one friend told me, if you need a dose of perspective on what really matters, step into Riley for a few minutes and you’ll get it.

    Thanks to Riley for the invitation, and to Beef and Boards for lending me the costume one last time!  I will never forget today.

Trish

     This past weekend was the moment my four year old, Kennedy, had been waiting weeks for.  Finally, finally, it was time to see Snow White at Beef and Boards Theater.  Of course, it just so happens that my co-anchor, Trisha, was playing Snow White.  This of course was even more exciting to Kennedy because it meant she knew Snow White “personally.”  (She still blends the pretend world with the real world.  It’s kind of cute unless you’re tyring to explain the difference between the two.  Sometimes she   gets it.  And sometimes…  uh!!)  This was the problem I ran into when I tried to explain that the Evil Queen in the play was not real. I mean, she kind of understood, but then she would still look at me with that “Dad, are you sure you know what you’re talking about?”

  At any rate, the play was a hit.  During the entire performance she was transfixed on the set, singing, dancing, and even the rotating stage.  But the highlight may have been when she got the actor’s autographs after the play.   It was so cute.  they wrote “Queen,” “Snow White” or even “Mirror” for the names.  That explains the rather blurry photo above.  In case you didn’t recognize her, that’s Trisha holding her.

  I hope you got a chance to see the production.  It was really well done and Trisha was excellent.  Admittedly, I may be a little biased but I believe anyone who saw it would agree.  Encore!  Encore!

It was truly a case of two worlds colliding Wednesday evening.  My fellow cast members from Snow White (at Beef and Boards Dinner Theatre) visited the TV station for a tour and to see the 7pm newscast! Our producer, Chris, even invited my new theatre friends onto the set for a brief appearance as Kevin wrapped up the weather. (We mentioned on the air that my co-anchors should make an appearance on stage just to turn the tables, but we weren’t sure which one of them could be “Prince Charming”???)

From left that’s our director, Jeff, Michael who plays The Magic Mirror, JT who’s the Prince, Lara who understudies Snow White and plays Liesl in the Sound of Music, and Jill the Evil Queen. If you’ve seen any shows at Beef and Boards chances are you’ve seen some of them in lots of other roles!

   Lara was busy snapping photos of all the “behind the scenes” stuff in the studio.  The parts of our job that have become very routine and even mundane always seem more interesting when we have visitors seeing them for the first time!

As you’d expect, a bunch of actors on the loose with a camera is bound to get a bit hammy.

  Lara looks ready to take over my job!

With that coffee mug I think I’d hire Michael for the morning crew.  He’s a comedian so he should fit in just fine with Poteet, Davis, Grace and Dan!  I think Jeff may be trying to make the newsroom look busier by walking behind the shot. Can you come back at 11pm?

 Jill should be out reporting live in the field with her hat and scarf.  I will call you when the first blizzard of the season hits, okay Your Majesty?

   The cast even stopped to snap photos of my photo in the hall! 

The Prince apparently finds Snow White irresistible even without the black hair.  (Don’t worry, everyone knows Prince Ian is my real Prince Charming!)

    11-14 update:  Today Jill (the Queen) and I switched costumes for some pre-show photos! I was right - it’s FUN to be wicked!

    This weekend we’ll close the show after a 6 week run.  I’ve had such a great time working with all these guys, singing the beautiful songs composed for this show, and performing for hundreds of smiling little faces! 

   And I have to say, living in a fairy tale 3 times a week isn’t such a bad deal - everyone needs an escape right? Even though the show is about to end I have a feeling it’s not quite over in my house - my kids have the show practically memorized now! I expect their hilarious performances will continue in our living room for the next several months!   

  Thanks for taking time to read- back to my “day job” that happens to be at night!

Trish

Today I awoke to the sound of my 6-year-old yelling to my husband, “it’s not fair!!”  The uproar was over an episode of Sponge Bob he wouldn’t have time to watch because he was about to miss the bus.

Later my 3-year-old daughter talked me into taking her shopping at the mall with her new Dora purse.  Our biggest decisions were, pink or purple nail polish for Clara to carry around in that purse? 

  And should I splurge on the incredible jeans or not? Keep in mind it was 2001 the last time a great pair of jeans begged me to buy them made me fall in love with them. They’re in shreds now. I went for it. (Let’s pretend the photo to the right is me and not some 5′10″ stick thin model, okay?)

My husband Ian got a nice thunk to his injured shoulder when Calvin plunked down on top of it. (ouch)  I got a bad headache when a project I’m working on at work hit an unexpected snag. (it happens)

It’s Monday. And it’s cold out. Plenty of little things to get worked up or grumpy about.

Then I started watching the interviews I’d done recently with a group  of veterans.

I started thinking about all the families (some of whom I’ve gotten to know) of the 76th Infantry Brigade who are about to return from Iraq, and the guardsmen and women themselves who’ve been away from home and in great danger for most of the last year.

I started to think of the tears that streamed down my face just last night when Saving Private Ryan came on TV.  How much was given and taken.  How humbled I’ve always felt when meeting true heroes and hearing their stories. And how little I really have to worry about compared to the sacrifices veterans have made.

To those of you who have served, are serving now, or are supporting a loved one, thank you - may you feel the honor you deserve this Veterans Day.

No pressure, but the whole nation will be watching our state tomorrow evening.

Indiana’s 11 electoral votes could go either way, and those of us in the media are gearing up for an exciting (and likely exhausting!) election day/night.

I’m planning on making the coffee extra strong tomorrow! Our team will be on the air with election coverage starting at 5pm and lasting basically all night.  When ABC takes over network coverage on RTV6, Todd and I along with our field reporters will stay on the air on our digital channel, 6News 24/7, doing wall-to-wall coverage of Indiana races, including the presidential vote results in our state.

As news junkies Todd and I have talked about how cool it might be sit on the OTHER side of a TV with a remote and flip through all the networks to watch the coverage of this historic election. But I wouldn’t trade that for the privilege and thrill of being a part of election coverage, and having direct access to the information and experts as the evening plays out.

I’m also looking forward to seeing how ABC handles the national coverage - my expectations are high!

I hope your voting experience is (or was) a good one.  Feel free to share your interesting stories here!

I hope you’ll be with us Tuesday evening.

Thanks for watching!