FUN WITH SCISSORS

Did any of you know that baby scissors can cut hair?

Guess how the Shepherds found out?

How long do you predict before her nonexistent bangs can pass as normal?

THEATRE ROCKS!

     We finished the second weekend of Snow White at Beef and Boards and the audiences were awesome.  I’ve never in my life seen so many awestruck little girls in princess dresses.  

    I was especially happy to see my late coworker Don Foss’s family at the show after I got them some tickets! Here are Zach and Megan at right (my post-show hair had gotten a bit “wiggy” I’m afraid)

   Megan’s one incredulous question for me - did you REALLY  kiss the prince??  I love the collective EEEWWWW we’ve heard from little kids, especially the boys,  at some of the performances. Priceless!

FINDING THAT MAGIC  

 I sort of worried when I committed to this 8-week run that I’d be drained and exhausted, but getting back on stage (after about a 4-year hiatus due to kids and career demands!) I realized that I’m actually drawing more energy than I’m expending somehow from this process!  Yes, at the end of the second show Saturday, after a full week of newscasts and a long Friday of theatre in the morning, news at night, I was pretty beat, but I was smiling.  I have to say, after some of the darker news in the world, it’s not so bad living in a magical, musical fairy tale for an hour.

     There’s always been something magical that live theatre has done for my soul that nothing else quite can match.  I wish everyone could find that one unique thing that does that for them, and find a way to carve a spot for it in their life.

  It is good to be back.

A MONTH OF BIRTHDAYS

  I have two October babies, Clara’s early in the month and Calvin late, so it seems like the birthday celebrations keep going.  This weekend, I had lots of family in town to see the play, and we threw a mini b-day bash.  They are officially spoiled so rotten they’re starting to stink.

Cal LOVES his new superman suit. Can you say - ABS OF STEEL?

He tried flying.  Didn’t work for some reason. Probably the cape.

THE STORYTELLER

 My Grandad (from central Illinois at far left in the photo as everyone sang happy b-day) and his wonderful wife Elaine made the trip over. Grandad managed to mesmerize the kids with the stories he told to go along with the wooden gifts he’d made them.  He is a retired minister and along with being a gifted carpenter, has always been an incredible storyteller.  I’ll be lucky if I’ve inherited an ounce of his talent in that department. It was really good to see them and especially to see my kids caught up in his spell, even just for a moment.

I know my “Greatest Auntie Corky ” (second from right) who also came for the show, took a bunch of photos so I’ll add them as soon as she sends them my way! 

HD DIFFERENCE

  Are any of you watching in HD? We just switched our cameras and system last week. Can you tell the difference?  I applaud all our engineers and technical staff who are working their tails off to get us looking as smooth as possible. I’ve become increasingly paranoid about my makeup and flyaways, worried that every little flaw looks 10 times clearer! 

Thanks for checking in - see you on the air!

Trish

If you’re in the eastern part of our viewing area you may be interested in a fun family event this weekend that will benefit some of our Indiana National Guard troops serving in Iraq. 

    Tina Carico, whom I interviewed along with her husband, Shane as he deployed to Iraq last spring, passed along the information:

There’ll be a carnival this Saturday, Oct 18th from 10a.m. to 2p.m. and Sun. Oct 19th from 9a.m. to 2p.m.   at 1200 W. Main St. in Richmond. All proceeds will go to the soldiers of the Richmond Unit.   

  Tina says she and their two children are holding up okay, just very anxious for Shane to return home.  I pray he and all his fellow soldiers with the 76th stay safe, and wish everyone the best with the carnival this weekend!

  Trisha

Today has been like a weird dream. 

I went from dancing with seven dwarves to hanging out with Charles Gibson outside the ABC News bus in the span of about an hour and a half. (I swear I’m not dipping into my husband’s post-surgery painkillers!)

The ABC World News bus tour of battleground states stopped in Indy today to cover Barack Obama’s rally, so Todd and I seized the opportunity to spend a little time with our network’s top news man.  He was more than gracious, warm and comfortable, and very easy to talk with.  (Although I’ll bet I’d feel differently if I were a candidate being interviewed  by him rather than an anchor interviewing him about his experiences covering the campaigns)

Charlie talked with us about our 7pm newscast (the only one in Indiana at that time slot, in case you hadn’t heard) and the fact that today’s news viewers are so busy that there is a demand for news at later times.  He even said the networks have considered putting their evening newscasts as late at 10pm - wouldn’t that be something?  It was great to pick his brain about the evolution of our society and this TV business.

Now I’m off for a couple of days for the dress rehearsal and opening of Snow White at Beef and Boards Dinner Theatre.   I am exhausted from all the dancing, singing, and dwarf-wrangling so far in this marathon week of fast rehearsals, but I’m having a great time.  This version of the play is absolutely adorable, the cast and crew is rock-solid awesome, and I can’t wait for my own little dwarves (Doc and Happy, as they claim to be) to come see Mom in a very different (and unnaturally sweet) light.

It runs every Friday at 10am and Saturdays 10 and 1 thru Nov. 15th - so bring your kids and stick around for autographs afterwards - I would love to meet you!

Thanks to Ian (my still-one-armed-husband) for putting up with my insane schedule this week, and to his wonderful mom, Susan,  and stepdad, Paul for coming in from Georgia to help hold down the Shepherd fort and spoil all of us within an inch of our lives. 

    I will have plenty to write about next week! See you Monday IN HD  - Until then, I’ll leave you all in Todd’s capable hands.

Trish

We at RTV6 have lost a dear friend today.

Don Foss, RTV6’s creative services photographer and a father of two,  fought bravely against cancer.  He and his wife, Susna, never once wavered in his faith during a difficult battle.  Susan tells us he passed away peacefully overnight while sleeping.

Many of us here will be forever changed by witnessing Don and Susan’s strength and grace in the face of such an unexpected challenge.  Their choice to share their story on television  was brave and generous, and has touched countless people with information and inspiration. (Please see the original Prayer Warriors blog by scrolling below this entry to watch the video and read the many inspiring comments)

Thanks to all of you who have lifted up the Foss family with your beautiful and supportive messages.  Todd and I and many of our co-workers have heavy hearts today,  but we feel very lucky to have had the privilege of knowing a person as remarkably kind, upbeat and unblinkingly positive as Don.  

   He is now at peace, and his spirit and message will continue to touch and bless the rest of us.

We will miss you, Don. Thank you.

HIGH SCHOOL REUNION - DON’T MISS IT

Apparently I just earned a few points toward the “coolest wife ever” award.

My one-armed husband and I just got back from his 20 year HS reunion for the Belleville (Illinois) West HS Class of 88.       

     Instead of finding excuses to skip it (like most reasonable spouses who don’t know any of their husband’s long-lost classmates) I practically FORCED him to accept the invitation. 

 ”You can’t NOT go to something like this,” I insisted.  “We’re going. You won’t regret it.”  So we called in some grandparent reinforcements to man the house and kids, packed up his portable ice cooler/arm sling rig, and headed toward greater St. Louis.

And guess what - we both had a great time.  For Ian, it was a chance to see people he literally hadn’t seen or heard from at all in 20 years.  Former basketball teammates, close high school buddies, even a few ex-crushes (he had pretty good taste, I’ll admit) 

TRISH PLAYS REPORTER  

 For me, a nosy journalist by nature, it’s a fascinating social situation to witness.  I had amazing conversations with total strangers who seemed incredibly willing to dish detailed information about their lives, their choices, their families, their struggles and joys.  It was a smorgasboard of stories, and I’ll never be able to resist an opportunity like that.

 WORKING MOMS BOND

 I had a GREAT talk with one of his former classmates, Lynne (left with Ian) who’s also a working mom - a physician with twins! 

     I was almost on the floor laughing at her descriptions of the ridiculous overachiever extremes she went to in juggling the professional demands of her career with perfectionist parenting…before finally getting real.  Ian said it looked like we were long lost best friends. 

What I had trouble getting was any DIRT on Ian - it seems he was very well liked and at least publicly, well-behaved. Back then.

 OH..LOOK GUYS, THOSE AWFUL METAL DOORS!!

 We went on the tour of the aging school. I kept thinking how incredulous these kids would have been at age 18, if you would’ve told them that 20 years from now they’d be looking at mundane things like chalkboards, lockers,  and the cafeteria tray shelf, getting all nostalgic.  One gal on the tour actually stopped to take a photo in front of the ugly metal doors to the cafeteria, because they brought back so many memories.

   It was one huge chorus of “Oh, remember this….remember when we…. I remember!….” 

 IAN’S MEMORY?

Ian tried opening his old locker and ALMOST remembered the combination. Maybe after a dozen more tries…

HOOPS, ANYONE?

He and a very cool former basketball teammate, Brian, who was also class president, stood in amazement staring at the old hoops in their gym. (Good thing there was no ball around - I’m sure my one-armed man would’ve given it a try to see if he still had the stuff.) Brian, if you happen to read this, great job organizing a fun weekend!

INDY CONNECTION

I even met someone with family here in Indy - Beth took a photo with me to see if her relatives would recognize one of their news gals.  (If not, maybe I’ll recruit them to RTV!)

     In the end, it was awesome to see Ian re-living some fun memories, and to see how many people had such wonderful things to say about him.   Someone told me, “Ian is one of those guys who you always wondered what happened to, and I’m so glad to see he’s doing so well, still playing music, and has ended up with someone so cool.”    Quite the compliment. I can’t wait till the tables turn - 4 more years till my 20th!

Feel free to share reunion stories if you have a good one. Thanks for reading-

Trisha