Where do i begin with this weekend!? Seriously, what a blast.  My grandmother and mom got in Thursday afternoon and met me at ABC so i could show them around.  Not too much to see but i introduced them to my coworkers and showed them the different levels including the studio.  It was a fairly short day, comparatively speaking.

 We went to dinner after the short tour and once mimi went to bed, mom and i explored the park behind my house.  It is beautiful!! I've lived here for a month and never knew how pretty it was!

      Friday we rose early to go to Fox and Friends.  Mimi loves that show and was very excited to see how the Friday free breakfast and concert went.  Turns out the concert was Kip Moore who sings "Something Bout a Truck".

It was especially fun because there weren't an outstanding amount of people there so it seemed like we were very close to the singer and the Fox talent that was circulating throughout the event.  Also, Mimi made her Fox debut on national television so that's very exciting!

     After the concert, we grabbed a coffee and headed the the American Museum of Natural History which i (and 5 friends) get into free with my ABC ID.  Obviously, that place is crazy large, so we only visited the exhibits that seemed intriguing!

     Spent about an hour and a half there and then decided to grab lunch at Gray's Papaya.  The hot dogs there are incredible! No place to sit though... which is a problem not only for Mimi but all of us after an already long day of walking and standing.

 We then decided to head to the Central Park Zoo.  We'd heard good things about the Polar Bear there but boy, were we in for a disappointment.  Out of the 8 angles of the bear exhibit... no polar bear.  But we did see some cute seals and some oh so rare central park ducks and turtles!! Those are worth a see... right?

    Still having almost a half of the day left, we decided to try out a NY bus tour.  We were pretty excited to figure out how to purchase the passes because we'd been thinking about it for a bit.  So we excitedly got on the bus and plugged our headphones and then after 2 stops... the woman told us we had to get off.  ummm??? so that was no bueno but we walked to find the next bus stop and that one was not air-conditioned.  So our first impression of this Gray Line Bus Tour was what a jip... but we got to use it for 48 hours and its far cheaper than fetching a taxi everywhere.   We toughed it out though and made it all the way to the stop by my apartment and their hotel. That was exhausting so we decided to take a quick nap!
     By then it was dinner time, so i taught mom and mimi how to use the subway.  We went towards Greenwich village because we heard the best pizza joint was there: John's Pizza.  It was so good.  In true new york style, it was a very cramped restaurant but very quick in getting your food ready! That pizza was so great!!
    That was a long day to say the least.  We dropped Mimi at the hotel and mom and I watched Dateline in my room.  Oh, and dealt with the Diet Dr. Pepper I exploded all over my bed.  Good times, eh, mom?

     On to Saturday Morning.  We decided to go to the Met.  Again, I get free passes with my ID.  We also, only visited a few exhibits because of the sheer size of that place.

We spent around an hour there and decided to catch our bus tour bus to Times Square because we had tickets for Lion King at 2.

We picked up our tickets and settled down at a diner until it was a good time to get lined up to go into the show.  That was the highlight of my weekend, i think.  Lion King is amazing.  To all you theatre snobs who think shows need to be in depth to be amazing, you are so wrong.  The staging is awe-inspiring.

     After Lion King, we headed back to our neck of the woods and ate dinner at a little diner on Broadway.  Mimi then went to bed and Mom and I met a friend of mine for the night bus tour on the Gray Line that we'd been using.  That was another highlight.  It seemed like it was going to be lame but then we crossed the bridge as the sun was setting.

So beautiful! We got to see all sides of the city and do the tourist thing for a bit.  We then caught the Times Square subway back home and got some very well deserved rest.

     We slept in this morning and met for a late... very late.... breakfast at Good Enough to Eat on Columbus.  Once breakfast was over, we chatted in the lobby of my hotel until they had to catch a cab to La Guardia.
     It was such a blessing to have them this weekend.  Seriously, not that i would ever forget this summer anyway, but i never forget a trip with my grandmother and mother.

    Sorry for the belated post.  I've been coming home exhausted.  In a good way, though.  I've made great friends here and they keep me pretty busy! This past weekend, i went to the MoMA (modern museum of art).  It was... interesting.  I went with my friend Christian and i think we both only liked a few sections.  It's just a little much for me.  The art doesn't make sense.  Projectors of strange diseases, food made out of bean bags, things made to look like guns that aren't... its just weird!!! But we enjoyed making fun of the art together so that was good.

     Yesterday i went to a concert in Central Park in the pouring rain.  It almost made the whole experience cooler though.  We danced to a band i had never heard of that is now my favorite.  Airborne Toxic Event... check em out!

      The other intern joined me at the desk today and she is awesome.  It was nice to share the spot as the low man on the totum pole with someone.  She's funny and really looking to make friends and i really appreciated having her there!  Tonight, I'm meeting up with the Nightline interns and Christian for dinner.  I would have gone straight from work but i got off early!

    Yesterday, I went to Newtown.  It was very eerie being there.  Such a poor little community that will never be the same because of the actions of one.  It was the 6 month anniversary of the shootings at Sandy Hook and it was very emotional.  Many families and friends gathered outside the town hall and of course lots of media (including Josh, David and myself).  I was actually included in the list of journalists covering this event in the ABC email coverage list. 

We arrived later than most and weren’t able to plug our audio into the usual place.  We had to MacGyver our wireless mic onto the stand that the people would be speaking at.

     A moment of silence was held for 26 seconds at the start of the ceremony to honor the 26 lives lost.  The first speakers that asked for this moment of silence were two girls who lost their first grader sister at Sandy Hook.  They did fairly well remaining composed until they left the podium.  Then they were escorted into the town hall.  The next speakers were advocates for a group against gun violence.  The ceremony was to last 12 hours because they were reading off the 6,000+ people who have been killed by gun violence in the 6 months since Newtown.   We listened for a bit then interviewed a few families of victims.  Then we were done and started to make the hour and a half trek back to the station. 

      We drove around Newtown for a bit.  Both David and Josh had covered Newtown when it happened and had vivid memories of it.  They showed me where angels were placed to commemorate the children, the volunteer fire station where some children ran, the little diner where they edited everything for the shows.   They are leveling the school so we couldn't drive there but we could see the road that led to it.  

     Once back, we imported the footage and I went back to the desk for a few hours.  Not too shabby.

      I have nothing planned this weekend really.  I may meet up with a few friends but I’m not at all opposed to having the weekend to myself.  It’s been a non stop time for the past couple of weeks and It may be nice to veg out for a weekend.  My mom and mimi are coming next weekend and that should be fun filled and busy weekend so I’m not killing myself to make plans this weekend really.  

      PS i got a new room today in my extended stay... not a bad view. 

     This morning i was rushed.  I'm always early (as i've stated before) so this morning i thought ' i can leave my apartment at 8:45 and get there by nine'.  Turns out it works... i got there at 9 on the dot but me in my 'must be on time' mindset was freaking out the whole time.  Probably won't try that again.  I arrived at work a little flustered.   Almost immediately Greg (if you don't remember that's the guy that hired me and who i consider to be my boss... i have a lot of bosses) asked if i wanted to go on a shoot.  Uhhh of course.  So i ran downstairs to meet Josh Haskell in the field producer's office.    
      We were covering a city council meeting at city hall about a bill a council woman is trying to pass concerning counterfeit bags.  We grabbed a taxi and headed there.  It took about thirty minutes and we were there.  We showed our credentials  at the front and headed up to the room where the meeting was being held.  It was tiny and we were the only TV press there.  This was especially odd because we were late... some local affiliate showed up later and what appeared to be Asian American broadcast students but that was it.

      The bill she was trying to pass wants to penalize not only the vendors of counterfeit goods in New York but the buyers as well.  Penalties could be as severe as one year in prison.  We shot a mass majority of the seemingly never ending meeting.  Josh had to leave because they decided to make it a package and he had to take calls from correspondents and the producers for World News.  Since he was gone, i got to run the camera!  It was pretty cool knowing i was shooting something that could air in World News.  Josh really let me have a hand in the whole process.

      We did a few interviews after the meeting and then we headed to China Town to get some b-roll of the vendors.  Our cab driver was quite the character.  I think Josh made him a little mad because he wasn't having the typical taxi driver trick of taking longer routes.  For the rest of the ride, the driver was grilling Josh about NYC facts such as how long is broadway street... why is it called canal street... blah blah blah.  I got one answer right so clearly i'm an expert now haha.
      It was raining today so vendors were scarce in China Town.  Josh asked me to go act like i was shopping in a few stores to see if any of the purses were fake.  Most of the shops were very nervous about it.  If you've ever been in one of those shops, they have very obvious fake handbags.  Things that look like Coach but with G's, Louis Vuitton's with two L's instead of a V, etc.  So they, for the most part, told the truth and said they were not designer.  Except for one.

     I walked into one kind of discouraged and was snapping a picture of some knock-off Louis Vuitton luggage.  You aren't supposed to take pictures so when the shop owner walked up behind me, i hid my phone and picked up the bag nearest me.  It was a fake Coach bag.  She, in her very heavy asian accent, said "you want coach".  I said "Well i've never bought a coach bag outside a department store.. are you sure it's real?" "Yes, Yes. It Coach. You buy?" I was a tad flustered that i actually found a liar so i stupidly said, "Well let me go find my dad and see if he'll buy it for me." On a side note, Josh is maybe 4 years older than me and looks nowhere near old enough to be my dad.  I just didn't expect her to follow me out... which she did.  Josh said we'd think about it and he wanted to buy it for my birthday but we had to meet some friends first.  Then we walked away.
      At this point we were waiting for Lindsay Davis and a WN producer.  Once we found them, we walked back to the shop.  Here's the video of what happened when we walked in:

     So... change of story.  We went in a few more shops but figured we'd have better luck with the typical stands you think of with this sort of thing, rather than the shops we had been exploring.  So we took a cab to SoHo to see if they had any stands.  Nothin.  We ended up walking all the way back to China Town and splitting up.  Lindsay and the producer went to see if they could get a store.  Josh and I got man on the street interviews. 

      Once we had finished, we headed back to log the footage and get it to an editor in time for World News.  Pretty cool to watch something you saw being made on national television.  I would also like to point out that Josh was like the best person to go on a shoot with.   He let me help so much and thanked me for being helpful, which of course made me feel great! I'm going to Newtown for the 6 month anniversary coverage tomorrow with him and the other producer i went on a shoot with earlier this summer.  I'm very excited, though, it's going to be rainy and i don't exactly own a lot of rain gear! Wish me luck!

     What a weekend.  I spent it exploring the city and hanging out with new friends.  On Saturday, I explored SoHo with a college friend named Hillary.  We pretty much figured out how to get there on the subway then got ourselves lost exploring.  Thank God for google maps!!!! We stumbled upon several fun things.  First off, vendors everywhere selling jewelry and hats and treats.  There was an ice cream truck on every corner... or we kept passing the same one (we never did figure that out).  We then stumbled into the Kardashian store DASH.  Security was tight.  Most people there were solely interested in the photo op because the clothing was so expensive.  Saying that, i don't fully understand why security tensed up each time a photo was snapped.  Either way, it was fun!

 And then... it happened Kate Spade NY.  I was like a giddy child.  It is my absolute favorite designer.  When i am rich and famous... which obviously won't take long (kidding...) everything in my home and closet will be Kate Spade.

Hillary's aunt and uncle are from New Jersey and told us about a place called "Big Gay Ice Cream Shop" so obviously we had to go.  We spent a good part of the rest of the day trying to find it, stumbling across the occasional piano, park, or garden.

 And then... it happened... our destination and oh my gosh, i am so glad we went!  Such funny people and the most amazing ice cream i've ever had.  Mine was chocolate ice cream dipped in roasted coconut.  Yum!

     We had plans to meet up with some people that night for dinner and a comedy show, so we headed home after our ice cream to rest our feet and get ready.  We met some other NY interns at an airplane themed place in Chelsea.  It was really fun.  Everyone was really funny and relaxed and we were really excited about the show we were seeing that night.  It was called "grandma's ashes", the actors asked people to anonymously write down their most embarrassing secret.  They then drew these out of the hat and created scenes from the secrets.  The secrets ranged from raunchy to just... weird.  One was "I'm just really excited about the Puerto Rican parade." They then made a scene where a woman faked her husband's death to get out of work so she could go to this parade.  Everyone in the office secretly wanted to go and they all tried to make up lies to get to go.  It was very funny!

After our show we just wandered NY with our group of 6... we made it all the way to Times Square then to NY.   After that we called it a night.
     I met up with Hillary again on Sunday to see The Purge.  She hated it... like a lot.  But i really liked it.  Then again, i'm a nerd for that genre.  We had dinner at this very cheap but good place called The Hummus Place.  We happened to be sitting next to some fellow Texans so we talked to them as we ate.
     The reason i am mainly writing about my weekend is because work today was nothing to write home about (literally).  Unless you are fascinated by New York rain... in which case i could talk for days about it.  Sparks note version: it's awful.

    Breaking news day! We had two breaking news situations today as well as two press conferences to cover.  So saying it was busy at the assignment desk is a tremendous understatement.  About an hour or so into work, a building in Philadelphia crashed.  As part of my job, i fielded calls (because for some reason people call to ask the news rather than just watching it) and did research.  I called hospitals and tried to find eye witnesses.  This ate up my time until about 1:30.
      I broke away for lunch at this point and met my friend Gaby at the Brian Ross investigative unit on the second floor.  I don't get a break for lunch so i just chatted with her then ran back upstairs to continue my research on the collapse.  The weird thing about the collapse is that the construction company in charge of the project where the building collapsed was MIA.  We found the name of the company and couldn't find them anywhere online.... it was odd to say the least.
      After that, the lottery winner in Florida was announced.  An 85 year old woman if you can believe it.  Wouldn't you love to be her kin (that's awful to say!).  We started booking crews to cover it both in Florida and then a quick one locally.  We put Paula Farris and Carlos Boettcher on it and i got to go along for the stand up... which unfortunately was cancelled the second we arrived on location.
      I caught a cab home from the site since it was closer than walking back to the station but still just a little too far to walk.

    Today was by most accounts normal.  I woke up a tad late because I literally cannot get to work on time... meaning i'm always early (what were you thinking?).  If i'm early i have to wait for a desk in what the news director likes to call "time out" because the overnighter's shift does not end until 9 a.m.  Even still, i arrived at 8:35 despite my leaving at 8:15... the curse of being my mother's daughter (HI MOM!).
      So i sat in my time out then began my usual day of writing for the web and answering calls.  I made friends with Ginger Zee today.  She is the weekend meteorologist for GMA.  I had to email her about a story and we struck up a conversation via email.  She said to come say hi at some point so hopefully i'll catch her in NY and get to shadow. If you watch the shows, she has been traveling nearly non stop for the past month.
     Really the only reason today was noteworthy was because i really am starting to get in the swing of things i.e. making friends and connections.  New York was lonely for that first week. I saw Hangover by myself and just wandered like the lonely tourist i was.  I wasn't loving it but i think that's normal. It was quite the transition.  
      But now as my third week rolls in, i have gone out with friends i met on orientation day and had dinner with a college friend who just got in for her internship for GMA.  I'm becoming very close with some of the folks here and that makes me very glad.   It's nice to have people to keep me sane in the insane business that is TV News.  The hours are long and the pay a'int great but man, do we love it. I'm finally starting to enjoy my time outside the office and that's a fairly big step for me!

    What a day.  It started off as usual: fed my caffeine addiction with a caramel macchiato, caught my train, said hello to my ABC guard friends, and sat at my desk.  I wrote for the web some and did some research on bomb threats in Florida.  Of course, fielding the occasional crazed call: today's wanted the name of the president of ABC to issue a complaint (yah right bro!).
     Around lunch is when everything changed.  I returned, salad in hand, and began booking travel for Mike Boettcher actually and was trying to get the advisory form signed by finance.  I was getting annoyed because this group of people was blocking the narrow way to get to her.  So, as the newly initiated New Yorker that i am, i tried to push through them.  Once through, i got it signed, turned around and saw that who i had pushed through was the possy of Katie Couric and the lady herself.  Whoops!!  I smiled and tried to play it cool and she smiled back.
     Flustered, i return to my desk when Greg (my boss) stands up and says "Jess, you are going to a taping of World News today, they are expecting you at six."  I had volunteered to help with world news because many Desk Assistants are called in to help.  So my heart palpitations ensue again as i go through my mind what i would say when i meet her. "I admire you so much Miss Sawyer," no, "you have had a big influence on me," mmmm??? "can i have a picture??" haha no.  So i counted down the hours until i could go to the second floor to meet up with the crew.
      At 5:50 i took my leave from the newsroom and ran downstairs.  I was so flustered and focused on finding the producer i was meeting up with that i brushed past a woman as i entered the World News room.  Yah, that woman was Diane.  I didn't even realize it until i was introduced to the room and saw her face.  She's very involved in her show.

She helps with everything seemingly and it's not a diva thing... she genuinely makes the show better.  I helped run scripts and watched Diane shoot the promos.  She smiled and waved at me right before the live show began.  Day made.  I admire her a lot... mostly because her journey into journalism wasn't easy and for some reason i respect a struggle! Maybe because it shows passion.  

      I had two favorite things about the taping and they were my favorite because no one could know this unless we were there.  The floor manager holds a sign that says "Sit up straight, Diane :)" and holds it up every time she tends to slouch.  The other thing, watching Diane Sawyer watch Diane Sawyer.  She had some pretaped things that she watched and scrunched her nose and imitated herself as she watched.  What a cool day.  Not one i will forget anytime soon.

I worked my first weekend day today.  Sundays, in a word, are slow.  The subways, however, are not.  Same old, crazy station and trains just a little bit slower on the arrival.  So, i started off my day with my usual starbucks run and caught my train to a very slow day.  I made a few calls to verify tips, ordered lunch with the desk, and read articles online.  That's my day... sorry there's not more to tell.