Oh Daily News, I'll miss you when I'm gone!

Monday was my last day of anchoring for the BYU Daily News at Noon. It was a sad day for me, but hopefully I'll have another chance to anchor when I get home from my mission. But thanks to our awesome sports anchor, David Durange, it was a memorable last show!

Click here to watch the show and keep an eye out for a couple of special guests during the sports block!

Check me out on Dooce!

Over the summer I discovered Dooce which is apparently the most popular blog on the internet. Dooce author, Heather Armstrong is incredibly funny and witty. I will warn you that she can be slightly vulgar at times so you have to be cautious when reading her site. However, she is also very honest and insightful in her writing.

A few weeks ago I was reading some of her archives and I found a post that talked about her appearing on the Today Show over the summer. And in case anyone forgot...I was at the Today Show over the summer! So I start scrolling through her pictures and I see this one of Kathie Lee wearing a dress that I totally remember her wearing. And I say to myself, "I think I was in the greenroom that day! What a coincidence! I probably saw Heather without knowing who she was!" So then I scroll down a couple more pictures and guess who is standing in the background of one of her photos?!? Ummm....could it be me?!!? Oh yeah! It was! Click here and scan down to the 6th photo and you might recognize someone in a red jacket. I know you can't see my face but I was still pretty excited. It's just kind of crazy seeing yourself on someone's website that you've never even met before. And back when that picture was taken I had never even heard of Dooce and now I read it almost everyday!

But anywho...the other pictures are kind of cool too because you can see the fabulous Today Show greenroom. I don't think I have any of my own pictures from there because the interns weren't really supposed to take pictures. It was fun for me to see these pics too because I recognize a lot of the people in the background. Ohhhh how I miss 30 Rock...those were the days.

A lipstick has stolen my heart.

I'm not usually a big product kind of girl but I've recently fallen in love with Covergirl's Outlast All-day Lipcolor. This stuff is amazing. I usually scoff at those commercials that show some gorgeous girl eating and kissing without her lipstick coming off but this stuff actually works like that! First you put on the colored gloss and let it sit for a minute and then you put this clear gloss on top. The color lasts forever and it doesn't get on your teeth. You practically have to scrub your lips to get it off. Plus it comes in all kinds of delicious colors. I especially love this awesome deep red called "eternal flame".

Sasha Fierce

So Beyonce is pretty much my hero. I've seen her "E! True Hollywood Story" more times than I'd like to admit. She really is everything a woman should be. Intelligent, strong, immensely talented and with a smokin' hot bod to match. I'm basically addicted to her two latest music videos. I've watched "Single Ladies" at least 6 times in the last two days. So consider this post my tribute to Beyonce. The following are some of my favorite Beyonce videos. Watch and be amazed at her sheer awsomeness.

*Embedding is disabled on all of her videos so you'll just have to click on the links to watch them.

1. "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" - Beyonce at her absolute best.

2. "If I Were A Boy" - I love how vulnerable she looks in the video, just absolutely gorgeous.

3. "Irreplaceable" - This is the song that got Anne addicted to Beyonce. I can't even count the number of times we listened to this our sophomore year.

4. "Beautiful Liar"- Does it get any better than Beyonce and Shakira in the same video! When I was younger these were the two singers I would try to imitate when I was alone in my room...and when I say younger I mean like last week.

5. "Crazy in Love" - Classic Beyonce. This was her first single off her solo album. Gotta love it.

6. "Naughty Girl" - Another one of my favs. Beyonce and Usher heat up the dance floor.

7. "Baby Boy" - So I was kind of addicted to this song in high school. I know this isn't exactly the most wholesome video but it's kind of a guilty pleasure. And there is just something about Sean Paul that I love.

8. "Me, Myself and I" - This video is just so clever. I love how she is going backwards throughout the whole thing.

9. "Check On It" - This video cracks me up. I love all the different pink outfits!

10. "Cater 2 U" - I know this is technically Destiny's Child but I couldn't resist posting this one. Anne and I were addicted to this song our freshman year. Best line, "I'll put your do-rag on." Classic.

11. "Lose My Breath" - One more Destiny's Child song. My freshman year at BYU my girlfriends and I loved this song. When they played it at stake dances we would all get in a line and we'd do our sexy walk and then we would attempt to do Beyonce's awesome booty shake. It didn't work as well with a bunch of Mormon white girls.

And finally this and this for your viewing pleasure. I'm not even going to tell you what they are. Just watch because they are pretty much the most awesome videos ever. You won't be disappointed.

Just wondering...

Would a job as a Christmas music video director be a legitimate career choice?

and

Does the fact that skittles are fruit flavored make them a balanced breakfast choice?

The Carat Test

Anne's cousin got engaged last night! Exciting, right?! So on our way back from the library we stopped by her cousin's apartment so she could congratulate him and his fiance and of course check out the ring. When Anne got back to the car the following conversation ensued.

Me: So what did the ring look like?

Anne: Oh it's really pretty! Nice and simple. It's a solitaire, round cut diamond with a thinner band. And it had three small diamonds on each side of the big diamond.

Me: How big is it?

Anne: I'd say it's about half a carat which is perfect because she is just a small person and has small hands.

Me: Oh nice.

Anne: Yeah the ring really just fits her overall. It's perfect.

Me: So she has a half carat size hand and a half carat size personality.

Anne: Yeah basically.

Me: How many carats do you think I need?

Anne: Oh I'd say you're definitely a two carat personality.

Me: Definitely. And you're probably about one and a half carats.

Anne: Yeah that's about right.

Me: I have an awesome idea! We should start judging people based on how many carat's we think they are!

Anne: Omgsh we totally should!

So basically Anne and I now have a new and exciting way to judge the people around us. Which is probably not good seeing as Anne and I are already some of the most judgmental people I know -- but I swear we're judgmental in a good way! I'm not even sure how the carat test works...it's more of a gut-feeling kind of thing rather than a scientific measurement. Like Anne and I can just tell from our instincts how many carats a person is. Brillante would definitely not approve of this...sigh...I miss that girl.

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin passed away last night at 91-years of age. He will definitely be missed by the entire church but it's comforting to know that he is in a better place now and that he has been reunited with his dear wife, Elisa. Click here to see KSL's story and for other great links about his life including an interview with his son, Joe.

Just spotted...

A grown man skating down my street on Heelys. You know those ridiculous tennis shoes that have wheels that come out of the heels? Here's a newsflash...if you're over 12-years-old you should not be wearing those shoes! I mean really people...

And right after I saw the Heely man I saw the even more awesome unicycle man that frequents my neighborhood. Gotta love him. He once ran smack-dab into a tree while riding his unicycle. My laughter lasted for hours...

Called to Serve

Look at me getting all ambitious and posting twice in one day!!

I'm really just avoiding doing homework...

So as most of you know I've been called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the South Carolina, Columbia Mission. I am soooo excited!! I go into the MTC on January 14th and I can't wait!
I'll admit when I first read my call I was a little disappointed. I was really stuck on wanting to go to Europe, specifically London. I told myself I would be happy where ever I was called (as long as it wasn't Provo) but there was still that initial disappointment when I didn't get called where I wanted to go. But the Lord calls you where you NEED to go not necessarily where you WANT to go. I just needed to remind myself of that. And here is the really cool thing -- my mission president was the bishop of my ward when I was born! How crazy is that! And my Mom told me that I have a whole bunch of ancestors from her side of the family that were from South Carolina and she still has non-member family living there! Soooo cool!

Regardless to say, I'm totally stoked about serving the people of South Carolina. The day after I got my call I started Googleing info about South Carolina and I found out all kinds of cool facts. I would now like to share a few of my favorites with you:

-South Carolina has the 24th largest population in the United States.

-One of my all-time favorite movies, The Patriot (R.I.P Heath Ledger), was filmed entirely in South Carolina!
-The average high temperature in the winter is 55 degrees and the low is around 35 degrees; in the summer highs are in the 80's and lows are in the high 60's to low 70's.
-Nowhere in the state averages more than 6 inches of snow a year! Woohoo!
-The largest city is Columbia.
-The last time South Carolina voted for a democratic president was Jimmy Carter.
-James Brown, Stephen Colbert, Andrew Jackson, Jesse Jackson, and 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson are all from South Carolina.
-The first time a British flag was taken down and replaced by an American flag was in Charleston in 1775.
-Golf was first played in the city limits of Charleston.
-South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860. Ohhh the south...
-There is a temple in Columbia! Isn't it pretty?And my personal favorite...
-South Carolina is freakin' gorgeous! Ok, so I know that's not exactly a fact but after looking at a tons of pictures of the state I came to that conclusion. Just check out this plantation!! Gorgeous!!

And you can check out the rockin' state song here.

I also happened upon the South Carolina tourism website and ordered myself a visitor's guide which came in the mail this past week. It came complete with a full color guide to the state with amazingly gorgeous photos and a map of South Carolina which will soon be on my wall!

And finally, just for kicks and giggles, I bring you, Miss Teen South Carolina herself, Lauren Caitlin Upton.



Mario Lopez's face is priceless! I think we should help THE Iraq and the U.S. Americans too Lauren! Ohhh I never get sick of watching that video.

What are those flashing lights behind me?

I've been absent from my blog for a while and I apologize to all one of my loyal readers. What can I say? I'm slightly ADD, so I'll be really into blogging, and then I just get bored with it for a while. However, today signals my return to the blogging world.

About a month ago I'm getting into my car to go to work and I see this index card on my window. On it was written a girl's name and phone number. I automatically assumed somebody must have run into me so I walk around my car but don't see any damage so I don't think anymore of it. Then a few days later I'm walking out to my car again and realize that my left taillight is totally bashed in. And I notice that there are pieces of my taillight allover my parking garage floor. I don't know how I didn't notice it before! Luckily I still have the index card so after work I give the girl a call. I explain the situation and she tells me she has no idea what I'm talking about. I ask her if she even lives in my complex and she says no. She also tells me it must have been some kind of joke and that one of her friends must have left her name on my car. What a load of crap. But I have non way to prove she's lying so I hang up the phone and I'm fuming. What is world coming to!! How can someone just completely bash in your taillight and then pretend like it never happened!! People are just so rude these days!! But anyway, luckily my light was still working despite the plastic being smashed so I put off getting it fixed until I had the time.

Now fast forward to this past Sunday night. I'm on my way to pick Anne up from the airport at 11:45 pm. I'm singing along to my favorite Christmas music and I'm just about to get on the freeway when I see these flashing lights behind me. Yesiree, I was getting pulled over, for the first time ever. Luckily I was able to handle the situation without bursting into tears, which I always thought would be my reaction if I got pulled over. The officer was very nice and asked for my license and registration and if I knew why I had been pulled over. I told him that I didn't know, and he then asked me if I knew I had a broken tail light. I told him I did know that the plastic part was broken but I thought that since the light was still working that it shouldn't be a problem. He told me that since the red was no longer covering the light that my taillight was basically blinding the people behind me.

So then the officer goes back to his car and to run my information and I'm left sitting in my car experiencing a tide of different emotions. On the one hand I'm completely embarrassed to be sitting on the University Parkway freeway onramp as people drive by the poor sucker who got pulled over. I'm also trying to keep myself from crying because I hadn't had a great couple of days and this was just the cherry on top that was about to push me over the edge. And finally, I was trying to keep from laughing because the situation was actually quite funny. I was just imagining what the officer thought of me. I hadn't showered since Saturday night and I'd spent all of Sunday afternoon laying on my couch -- thus my hair was a disgusting, greasy mess. I was wearing no makeup, and I was dressed in flannel pajama pants that are three sizes too big and a sweatshirt (Stacy London and Clinton Kelly would have had a hay-day with me). I was also blasting my favorite Celine Dion christmas CD and singing at the top of my lungs when he pulled me over. I'm probably not the typical person to get pulled over late at night. I really wish I could have taken a picture. It would have given everyone a good laugh.

Luckily, all the officer gave me was a "fix-it" ticket. Basically, what that means is I have to get my light fixed and then go to the courthouse to prove that I got it fixed and have this paper signed. So it didn't turn out too bad in the end. And I have an appointment to get the light fixed on Wednesday morning. So it was probaby a good thing I got pulled over or I would have never gotten it fixed.

What I'm wondering now, is if it's weird that I feel like my street cred has improved now that I've been pulled over? I feel oddly cooler now that I've had a run-in with the law.

Popcorn

I would like to share two little gems that my Mom emailed me tonight.

First this crazy video...which might make me rethink the amount of time I spend on my cell phone:

Pop Corn téléphone portable micro-ondes
Uploaded by sassiere

And then this little ditty...gotta love it:

Just an observation.

Has anyone ever noticed that the when you have like 300 pages of reading to do that you also have a sudden urge to color coordinate your closet and perfectly fold all of your jeans?

Case in point...I was doing this:


When I should have been reading this:

But no worries. Despite the fact that I'm only 33 pages into a 294 page book that I have to write a paper on and turn it in by Tuesday morning at 8am, I will have no problem finding an outfit to wear when I turn in said paper.

p.s. Something I forgot to mention...so my roommate loves Shawn Johnson and while I was perusing Facebook this morning I stumbled about this little ditty. Love it.

p.p.s. I also love this.

I'm an Office addict and I'm not afraid to admit it.

So I haven't been doing much blogging lately cuz I've pretty much been spending all of my time watching The Office. I recently discovered the "Watch Instantly" feature on my Netflix account and it's pretty much the best thing every. I instantly watched the first four seasons of The Office right on my computer over the past two weeks. I didn't really get into The Office craze until last season, and even then I only occasionally watched it. I decided I probably wouldn't really get into it until I started at season 1 and saw where it all began. Now I'm totally addicted. For the past two weeks, if I wasn't in class, at work, or sleeping, you could find me in my room watching The Office. I just couldn't pull myself away from the computer. That show is hilarious but really touching at the same time. Like at first I really hated Michael, but I've learned to feel for the guy. He really does mean well. And I can't get enough of Jim and Pam. And don't even get me started on my love for Dwight. And now everything reminds me of something I saw on the office...and the other day I walk into my job and The Gap and the thought pops into my head, "I wonder where they buy their paper?" Seriously. I'm not even lying. Do you think they have a twelve step program for Office addicts...cuz that is just ridiculous.

So I'm done watching seasons 1-4 and now I have to wait an entire week between episodes. I'm going to have to start watching the British version (which is also on Netflix Watch Instantly) in order to deal with my Office withdrawals in between episodes.

So in the episode called "Safety Training", from season 3, there is this awesome clip where Kelly is explaining how Netflix works to Ryan. I couldn't find just that clip so this is like a 10 minute excerpt from that episode. Go to about 4:40 in the video and that's when Kelly starts talking about Netflix. I thought it was only appropriate to share this clip seeing how Netflix has fueled my Office addiction. Enjoy.

The Letter

So a week ago Saturday my amazing roommate Kaitlin and her boyfriend Skylar got engaged. These two are totally perfect for each other. They've been dating since our freshman year at BYU and Kaitlin wrote to Skylar through his whole mission and now they're getting married! Yay! The wedding is January 3rd in Mesa, Arizona and I can't wait!

So the Monday after Kaitlin and Skylar got engaged, my friend Daniel Woodruff reminded me of this totally awesome video we made with our friend Brittany Allsop back before we were world-class journalists. We had to do this project in our Introduction to Broadcast class where you had to make a video without any dialog. We decided to do our project about Kaitlin waiting for a letter from Skylar. At the time Kaitlin hadn't yet gotten a letter from Skylar since he had left the MTC to go to Mexico. She was pretty depressed all the time and would religiously check the mail everyday at the same time. This was during a time when I think everyone in our apartment was writing to some missionary somewhere so we knew exactly what time the mail got there. We were all pretty pathetic...but in this age of email it was really exciting to get an actual letter in the mail!

Anywho...I digress. So like I was saying, Daniel, Brittany, and I made this sweet video that I would like to share with all of you.



Don't you think we perfectly captured the emotion of waiting for a letter from your missionary? I can't believe we didn't get nominated for an Emmy or a Dundie or something...

Quote of the Day

Just overheard as I'm walking into the library...

"Can we do the periods?"
-Girl with a scarf tied around the middle of her forhead talking to her equally stylish friend

I'm assuming she talking about the periodicals...but who talks like that? I mean really...is this just a really cool phrase that I'm completely unaware of? I have a feeling they were freshmen.

Quote of the Day

"This would be soooo much easier if you were all naked!"
-Girl in my clogging class

Don't ask...

"Shoeseum"

I absolutely love, love, love, love this woman.



Sophie Kinsella is my sister from another mister and the author of my favorite book series in the known universe -- the Shopaholic series of course. I have been addicted to these books since high school and every time I don't have another book I want to read I go back to my trusty Shopaholic books.

So tonight I'm sitting at the movies, enjoying the previews before my feature film begins ( I saw Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist with my roomies. Totally cute movie by the way.) and what suddenly comes on the screen...



...but the preview of the movie version of my favorite book! Yay! This was the first time I had seen it and I was sooooo excited that I just had to share my joy with the rest of you! I had read that the movie was going to be pretty different from the book so I was a little skeptical, but from the looks of the trailer I think the movie should be really funny! I can't wait to see it!

Just One

My roommates and I totally adore this video. We go through stages where we quote it constantly, in really bad Vietnamese accents.

I never realized how much we say the phrase, "just one," until after we saw this video. Now every time we say, "just one," we start cracking up.

As I'm typing this, that scenario doesn't sound all that funny but I assure you -- it is oh so funny.

So while Brillante, Kaitlin, and I were in PA for Molly's wedding we hit up a nail salon for some pre-wedding mani-pedis. This hysterical Asian girl was doing our pedicures so we decided to ask her if she knew what "critol gel" was.

And just so everyone knows, she had already been making fun of typical Asian stereotypes so we knew we wouldn't offend her with our question.

Anywho...so we ask this girl about "critol gel" and she's like "Oh my gosh do you mean, crystal gel? Have you guys been watching Anjelah Johnson?"

And we're like, "Oh my gosh, she's actually talking about crystal gel?"

And the girl is like, "Yeah totally. It's a real thing. I even have a video from the lady who invented it!"

And then we proceed to watch this hour long video detailing how to apply "crystal gel" to your nails. It was quite a riveting production. And the woman who invented "crystal gel" had really nasty nails. Kind of ironic, dontcha think?

P.S. I should also mention that Brillante's little brother does a dead-on impression of this video.

"Honey...why you no liiiikkkeee?" Oh AJ...

Kaitlyn's Guide to New York, Chapter 1 cont.

Last week I promised a review of all the shows I saw in the big city and now I'm finally getting around to writing it.

Mamma Mia: This was the first show I saw and I loved it! My friend Sarah and I went to the box office a couple of hours before the show and got standing room tickets for $21.50. I know standing room doesn't sound that great but it is sooo not as bad as it sounds. The area you stand in is just right behind the last row of floor seats. You have a kind of bar/ledge thing to lean on the whole time, and I got so into the show that I kind of forgot that I had been standing for so long! Mamma Mia is a really fun show that is based around the music of ABBA. The acting, dancing, and singing are phenomenal and I would definitely recommend this show!

Legally Blonde: If it hadn't been for Wicked, I would say this was the best show I saw in New York! I was a little nervous about it because I had seen some of it on VH1 and didn't love it. But seeing it live was totally different! It's everything you want in a Broadway show! Fun music, big, bright sets, and great actors. I got to see it with the amazing Laura Bell Bundy as Elle but Bailey Hanks was just picked as the new Elle on an MTV reality show. From what I've seen, she's great too! It's a really girly show so I wouldn't recommend it to the guys but all of the ladies will love it! I still listen to the soundtrack almost everyday! For this show I got student tickets on the front row for $26.50.

A Chorus Line: I didn't love this one and that's all I'll say here. You can see my previous post to hear more about.

Cry Baby: This show is actually done on Broadway so you can't see it anymore, which is really a shame cuz it was a cute show. The plot is really similar to Grease, where the good girl falls in love with the bad boy. It's definitely not the best show I saw but it was good enough. Fun music and dancing. A couple of the scenes are a little more scandalous than I would have liked, but it was an all-around good show. I got rush tickets the night of the show, front row for $26.50.

Mary Poppins: Disney always does an amazing job of taking movies to Broadway, and Mary Poppins was no exception. The sets and costumes are amazing! I'm still trying to figure out how all the magic tricks worked! If you love the movie you will definitely love this show! It's hard to stand up to Julie Andrews but Ashley Brown, who plays Mary, does an amazing job! And Gavin Lee could not have been a better Bert. The only criticism I had was that they add a couple of scenes that aren't in the movie, that are a little bit strange. Other than that it's a great show for kids and adults! The kids will especially love when Mary flies over the audience at the end! And "Step in Time" is fantastic! Oh yeah and I got pretty good box seats for $30 the night of the show.

In the Heights: This show was fantastic!! I definitely liked it as much as Legally Blonde. This year was its' Broadway debut and it won the Tony for Best Musical. The show is about people living in the New York neighborhood of Washington Heights. It's a mix of rap, hip-hop and Latin music. The lead girls have some of the best voices I've ever heard! And Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the show and also stars in it is amazing! The show has the perfect mix of comedy and drama and the story really draws you in. And of course the music is great! It's another one that I listen to almost every day. There is a lottery for front row tickets a couple of hours before the but I ended up getting half-price, partial view tickets for $56.50. It was worth it to me to see the show but I didn't love the partial view. The only thing I couldn't see was the tops of the sets but it was kind of annoying when the main characters were up higher on the sets. But anyway, the point is you need to see this show if you are in New York! I guarantee you'll love it!

Wicked: What can I say about Wicked! It's pretty much the best show out there and you need to see if if you get the chance! I've seen it twice with two different casts. The first time I got to see Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda and Idina Menzel as Elphaba -- and it doesn't get much better than that. I wasn't sure if the Broadway cast would match up to those two ladies but they totally exceeded my expectations. Kerry Ellis as Elphaba and Kendra Kassebaum as Glinda were fantastic! And it didn't hurt that I had front row seats for $26.50! My friend Allison Barker won the lottery our last weekend in New York and I got to go to the show with her! Yay!

I'm thinking about taking up tennis.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I walk from my apartment to the RB for my clogging class (don't mock me. clogging is hardcore.) My walk takes me right past BYU's outdoor tennis courts. Whenever I walk by I can't help but glance at the men's tennis team who practices there in the afternoons. Up until yesterday I had only seen the guys through the net-covered fence and had only gotten an obscured view of their toned chests and wash-board abs.

Well, yesterday as I'm walking to class this incredibly gorgeous man comes walking towards me carrying a tennis racket. The guy was shirtless, sweaty, and oh-so sexy. He looked so much better without the fence to obscure his bulging muscles. I seriously had no idea tennis players were that good looking -- except for Andy Roddick, who I've always known was that good looking.


Oh baby.

Anyway...the thought of those hot men running around the court has gotten me thinking about taking up tennis. Who knows I might even be the next Venus Williams. Maybe that man walking towards me, enticing me to take up tennis was really a sign that I have this hidden tennis talent.

I mean when I was like 12 I totally took a summer tennis class and I was basically amazing.

Well, maybe not amazing, but I was pretty good.

Ok, I actually kind of sucked, but that just means I've got tons of room for improvement!

And besides the sexy men there are a lot of great things about tennis. I even made a list:

Great Things About Tennis
1. It's a great workout so I would have a really hot bod.
2. You play tennis outside so I would have an amazing tan to go along with my hot bod.
3. Tennis players wear those adorable skirts so it would be an excuse to go shopping.
4. Tennis players also wear a lot of Lacoste polo shirts so I would have to buy some of those to fit in. Which means yet another excuse to go shopping!
5. I don't currently own a tennis racket, or any tennis equipment for that matter, so that's one more excuse to go shopping!
6. If I got really good I could compete at Wimbledon and I've always wanted to go to England. (And I bet British tennis players are even sexier than American tennis players.)

That's all I've come up with so far, but I think that's a pretty dang good list. This blog entry will probably spawn a nationwide tennis frenzy because of all the amazing reasons I've thought of to take up the sport.

See you all on the court!

Snooze

This weekend I had my room completely to myself. It was a totally glorious experience. I thought I might get lonely but it was quite the opposite. Not that I don't adore my roommate...but it's great once in a while to have your room totally to yourself. I turned up my music, read with the overhead light on until 1am, and generally threw my stuff all over the room.

But you wanna know the best part...

On Sunday morning I snoozed my alarm for a solid 45 minutes -- guilt free. For anyone who has ever lived with me you know I have a love affair with my snooze button. But I've learned that roommates don't tend to love it when your alarm goes off every five minutes...for an hour...at 7am -- it just creates a lot of unnecessary tension. Despite not wanting to create drama with my lovely roommate, Little Kaitlin, I occasionally slip up and in my groggy, early morning state I snooze my alarm a little too much. And of course guilt for waking her up inevitably follows.

But this weekend that guilt was unnecessary, and I milked my snooze button for all that it's worth.

Ahhhhhh...sweet bliss.

Kaitlyn's Guide to New York, Chapter 1

I originally started this blog while I was interning at the Today Show this summer, but I got a little distracted in NYC and only put up like three posts about. My plan was to keep this blog up so I wouldn't have to keep a journal in New York -- because I am awful at keeping a journal. Obviously my plan failed because I didn't keep up with my blog. But I've decided to remedy that! The time has finally come for me to tell you all a little more about my time in New York. So every few days my plan is to write about one of my favorite things about the city or about a fun day or experience I had this summer! This will be a great way for me to reminisce about my time in New York and hopefully you'll enjoy reading about the experiences I had in the greatest city on earth! So here it goes...

The best thing about New York City is...

#1: Broadway Shows

While I was in New York I ended up seeing seven shows! I freaking love musicals! In order of best to worst the shows I saw were:

1. Wicked
2/3. Legally Blonde/In the Heights (I couldn't decide which one was better!)
4. Mamma Mia
5. Mary Poppins
6. Cry Baby
7. A Chorus Line

The best part was that I didn't have to pay full price for a single one of these shows. I didn't know this before this summer but practically every Broadway show has a way to get discounted tickets. "Talkin' Broadway" is a great website that lists all the shows that are currently going on and what the different options are for discounted tickets. Some shows offer student tickets (like Legally Blonde which gives students front row seats for $26.50) , rush tickets that you buy the day of the show (Mary Poppins does decent rush seats for $30), standing room when the show is sold out (I did Mamma Mia standing room for $21.50), or a lottery a couple hours before the show (the Wicked lottery gives you amazing front row seats for $26.50).

Another great option is TKTS which offers half-priced tickets for some of the most popular shows on Broadway. The way TKTS works is the shows give their random single seats to the TKTS discount booths and then TKTS sells them for about $60. You might not get to sit next to your friends but the seats are usually great! The TKTS website tells you the exact locations of their booths but the most popular one is right in Times Square. A great tip is to go to the booth at South Street Seaport rather than the Times Square one -- not as many people know about it so they sometimes have more tickets left.

If you are trying to get show tickets at the last minute I also reccomend going to straight to the box office and just asking what kind of discounted tickets they have for that night. I had some friends who got Hairspray tickets for $26.50 just because the box office had a ton of tickets left for that particular night. It never hurts to ask!

Anyway that's all for my rant about discounted tickets. They are really the coolest thing ever. When you are an LDS girl in the big city there just isn't anything much better than front row seats to Legally Blonde or Wicked for $26.50...except maybe a fake Gucci bag!

Stay tuned for my next entry when I tell you a little bit more about my favorite shows! I know you can barely stand the anticipation!

Everything is sexier when you're wet...

I'm totally obsessed with this scene from "Step Up 2: The Streets." When I'm bored I put on a sports bra and some baggy sweat pants and the Reeboks with the straps...haha...oh boy I really crack myself up sometimes. Like I was saying, I put on my most gangsta outfit and dance around my room trying to perfect Andie's dance moves in this scene. I've never been able to make them look quite as good and I think it's all because I'm not wet while I'm doing them. At least that may be one reason...another may be that she is just a tad bit hotter than me and a slightly better dancer. So next time I'm in the mood to boogie I think I'll grab a spray bottle and get a little spritzy before I get down with my bad self.

Anyway, if you haven't seen "Step Up 2" then you need to run to your nearest Red Box and pick it up -- and if you have seen it then you should watch it again -- I promise it gets better every viewing. Also, if you are a fan of the movie then you need to watch this and this -- which you've probably already seen but just like the movie they get better every time. And this one is fun too.

When I grow up...I wanna be famous!

Watch out Anderson Cooper....


Step back Katie Couric..

Here comes Kaitlyn Thatcher!

This semester I will be fulfilling a dream I have had since I first walked onto the set of the BYU Daily News back in August of '05...

Yes, I, Kaitlyn Joy Thatcher, admitted shopaholic and Diet Coke addict, will be anchoring the Daily News at Noon every Monday.

I'm not really sure what my superiors in the Communications Department were thinking but I'll try not to let them down.

Be sure not to miss my debut, Monday, September 15th at noon on KBYU (channel 11 in Provo).

Who knows this may be just the beginning of an illustrious broadcast career. Someday I could be as big as Walter Cronkite and my face will be all over commercials and on the sides of city buses and you'll all say, I knew her back before she was famous.

But I won't really care about the fame because I'll be concentrating on hard-hitting stories and I'll be interviewing the President of the United States and jetting off to Africa with Bono and Angelina Jolie to make documentaries about the plight of starving children.

Hey, a girl can dream, right?

Books > Real Life

So I finished reading Breaking Dawn last night -- and now I don't know what to do with myself. I literally spent the last two days sitting on my couch devouring this book, only taking breaks to eat and go to the bathroom. I pre-ordered my book on Amazon, being the deal-loving gal that I am. I thought my book would arrive on August 2nd, the same day everyone else was getting there book....but nooooo mine didn't arrive at my doorstep until August 5th at approximately 3pm. I almost attacked the UPS guy when he finally brought me my book. After I got my book I was totally useless until I finished it because my life could not go on until I knew the fate of Bella, Edward, and Jacob.

Now the real point of this post is not to pontificate about my hopeless devotion to the Twilight saga and Stephenie Meyer's amazing writing -- the point of this post is for me to talk about my devotion to any book I read. Whenever I get a new book I can barely put the thing down. It's not like I'm even reading anything that intellectually stimulating -- I tend to stick to lighthearted chick-lit most of the time. (I've read the entire Shopaholic series at least four times. Sad...I know) I get so into what I'm reading and I get lost in the world that the characters live in. For however long that I'm reading a book I become a part of that world.

For the most part when I finish a book I just move on to a new book that same day or the next and get lost in yet another world of fictional characters. However, when I'm reading something particularly fabulous, say Harry Potter or Twilight, I'm kind of a mess for a few days after I finish the book. It's not like I lay in bed all day with the covers over my head, sobbing over the fact that my book is finished -- it's more of a feeling that I'm still stuck in that book world and reality just isn't quite as interesting.

What I'm wondering is if anyone else ever feels this way -- or am I just completely crazy?

My obsession with books always reminds me of this line from You've Got Mail when Meg Ryan is writing one of her adorablely insightful emails to Tom Hanks.

"Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life. Well, not small, but valuable. And sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven't been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around? I don't really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void. So good night, dear void."

I totally understand how she feels! I'm not complaining about my life or anything, I'm extremely blessed and have a great life...but isn't life always so much cooler in books? And maybe like Kathleen Kelly I don't really want answers to any of the questions I've posed in this post. Rather I'd just like to see if anyone else feels the way I do about reading. So get to commenting my dear friends.

Leggings + Bandanas + Diet Coke with Raspberry and Lime + Red Vines = Crazy Delicious (I think that's how the songs goes...)

Last Friday night at about 8:00 pm MST, Anne and I had absolutely no plans -- because that is just the kind of girls we are (the kind who have nothing to do on a Friday night). So we thought we would try and better ourselves in order to attract more Friday night fun by going running...but first I decided to rent Provo's favorite movie...(according to the people who work at Blockbuster)...the heartwarming story of a girl born with a pig nose who comes to love herself and finds a way to break the curse that gave her a snout and weird little flappy pig ears.

After going to two different Blockbusters I finally returned home triumphant, with my DVD of choice in hand. Then Anne and I decided that we didn't really want to go running and that we would rather just go to Maverick and get Diet Coke.

As we were getting ready to leave the house I said to Anne:

"Anne, if we are going to be uber-cool blogging girls from now own we really need to spice up our weekends. I propose we start having THEME nights."

Anne responded:

"Kaitlyn, I think that is a grand idea! What should our theme be tonight?"

And I said:

"Well it's a little too late to have a theme tonight so why don't we just wait until next week."

To which Anne replied:

"It's never to late for a theme night! Let's just think of something!"

Well...since I was already wearing my treasured black Gap Body spandex leggings I suggested that our theme be the ever popular Legging Night! Which, upon the discovery that i had a plethora of colorful bandannas, became...dah dah dah dum..."Legging and Bandanna Theme Night"!

Anne and I were sooo excited! We promptly called our trusty sidekick, Brillante, and informed her that she too had to wear leggings if she were to participate in the evenings activities. Then Anne in I jumped in my truck, turned up "I Kissed A Girl" (which is really the only song you can listen to on a Legging and Bandanna Theme Night) and sang our way over to Brillante's apartment and then on to Maverick!

After picking up some refreshing 32oz Diet Cokes and a $5 bag of Red Vines we jetted back to our apartment for a little pre-movie photo shoot.

So without further ado...ANTM -- Legging and Bandanna Theme Night Style.

Just look at those gorgeous girls all ready for theme night!

Watch out for Brijante!

Ummm...

IV Real!

B-L-O-O-D!!

Apparently holding on to a chair makes your butt look really good...who knew!

I just want to be alone with my Diet Coke.

Caffeine does strange things to Anne...

...and to me

Don't ever get between a girl and her Red Vines!

American Gothic...Maverick Style!

Things got a little wild when we decided to head into the great outdoors...
P.S. Did anyone notice that I suddenly grew a valossa raptor like thumb?

Brillante just had to sit on top of a parked car...

...forcing us to run from the Provo po-po!

But just when we thought we were cornered...

...we busted out our amazing leaping moves!

Which, of course dazzled the po-po into letting us go!

I guess all those years of dance class finally paid off!

And finally the feature presentation!

NYC Whole Foods = Grocery Store Heaven

Is it wrong to have a love affair with a grocery store...because I do. It all began in New York City. One night my friend Allison and I were searching the streets of Manhattan for an affordable dinner option when we stumbled across heaven in a grocery store right in the middle of Columbus Circle. That heaven was called Whole Foods Market and it became one of our favorite places over the next few weeks.

Whole Food lures you in with their free range chicken, organic strawberries, bags made from recycled toilet paper, and of course the $7.99 a pound salad bar! Why would a salad bar elicit so much excitement you ask? Well the Whole Foods salad bar is no ordinary salad bar -- it's row after row of couscous salad, rice, cold pasta, Indian food, soul food, crisp lettuce, fresh baked bread, homemade sandwiches, and the world's best mac and cheese. And it all costs $7.99 a pound! You just grabbed your preferred size of recycled container and load up on whatever you want! Then you stand in line for 20 minutes with all of the other eco-friendly New Yorker's until you can pay for and enjoy your organic rice with a side of orange Vitamin Water (it's all the rage in NYC).

Whole Foods is one of the things I've missed the most since I've left New York -- so how delighted am I to find out that they have one in Park City! And luck would have it I was in Park City with my family this week! So this morning I drag my parents to Whole Foods while espousing the deliciousness of the organic salad bar only to find that the Park City Whole Foods does not have one-tenth of the salad bar that the NYC Whole Foods has. I wanted to sit right down on the recycled floor and cry because I was so disappointed. But luckily I pulled myself together before I had a breakdown and settled for buying a box of all natural frosted shredded wheat, a bag of frozen organic soy beans, and a bottle of un-pasteurized apple juice -- oh and an organic oatmeal raisin cookie the size of my hand.

I guess those purchases will just have to tide me over until I can go back to New York and get my fill of the earth-friendly megastore that is the Columbus Circle Whole Foods...sigh...

Blogs Rock My World

I have a confession to make....in the last week I have become completely, and utterly addicted to blogs. Well, mostly just one blog...

My roommate, Anne, introduced me to a blog that is written by a friend of a friend and we are both totally addicted. I mean, I could spend days reading this girl's blog because she is so dang funny (Anne and I have this secret desire to be her best friend and model our lives after her's...which I guess isn't so secret anymore). My future best friend's name is Allison and her blog is She Blogs, She Blogs.

I knew Allison and I were meant to be when I read her post about Diet Cola -- for anyone who knows me, you will understand after reading this post why Allison and I are indeed best-friend soul-mates.

Alas, in my quest to be just like Allison I've decided I need to start blogging again -- because that is what all ultra-chic girls do. My blog will never be as cool as Allison's but at least it can serve as a creative outlet in my quest to reach my full ab-fab potential sometime in the next decade.

Hopefully someday, someone besides my mom and my grandma will read it....one can only hope.

P.S. To Allison if you ever read this -- I promise I'm not some weirdo, creepy girl. I do have friends who love me despite all of my eccentricities. But your blog speaks to me in a way that no blog ever has or ever will and because of that I find it necessary to publicly declare my love for you and your blogging ways. Live long and blog.

Wednesday, May 14th: Chorus Line - Mario Lopez = So not worth my $35

I decided to skip over Tuesday because it was a totally boring day...but Wednesday was fun. Nothing exciting at work to report on but after work I went with a bunch of the kids from BYU to try and get tickets at the Wicked lottery. All of us were unsuccessful in that venture but we ended up going to dinner at this fun place called Ellen's Stardust Diner. The place has been around forever and is famous for its' singing wait staff. The food is really not that amazing but the atmosphere is what counts. The whole time your eating, the waiters are belting out show tunes. Everybody that works there is trying to get onto Broadway and so halfway through your meal they bring around a collection tin where you can give money to help support the talented waiters. The diner uses that money to pay for singing, acting, or dancing lessons for the members of their staff.

After dinner some of the kids went to see Mamma Mia, but I already seen it so Allison and I decided to go try to get tickets to A Chorus Line. We literally walked up to the box office 20 minutes before the show and ended up getting student rush tickets for $35. Mario Lopez is performing in the show this summer but he was on a short hiatus when we saw it. The show was very well done but it just wasn't my cup of tea. I thought it was set in the 40's but it's actually set in the 70's and is pretty sad a depressing. The first half is pretty funny, but then the rest of the show is mostly monologues and sad songs. It just isn't a very uplifting kind of musical. There aren't any elaborate sets or costumes, and the kick-line (which is what I thought of when saw that Chorus Line was playing) lasts all of about two minutes. I wills say that the actors were very talented but I probably would not recommend this show to anyone.

Sorry I don't have any pics from this day! Allison took them on her camera and I haven't gotten them from her yet.

I heart New York!

Ok guys so because I haven't posted in a week I'm going to give a very brief description of what I've been up to since Monday...

Tuesday:
-Work = boring
-Found out I was supposed to go in early to help with a fashion segment on Wednesday but got a call from the producer saying she didn't need me anymore (yo = muy triste)
-Went shopping with Allison at Anthropoligie and H&M and then to dinner at Chipotle which made the day much better!
-After dinner Allison and I watched Gossip Girl online!! And I totally called it that Serena had killed someone!!!!!! We were freaking out!!!! Love that show!!!

Wednesday:
-Got up a 6am to call my internship supervisor to find out if I could still come in to help with the fashion segment -- found out the first segment had been canceled so I went in at 9am instead and helped with another segment. (If anybody watched the show it was the one about getting your legs ready for summer.)
-Ok funny story -- I was in the green room and the guys walks by me and one of the models for the segment was like "Oh I just saw you on TV!" and the guy was like "Oh actually that was just a video of me playing, I'm about to go sing right now. By the way, I'm Dierks. It's nice to meet you." It was totally Dierks Bentley the country singer! I totally didn't recognize him and he was standing right in front of me! Crazy huh!?!
-Went to a NYC LDS Professionals meeting that night where all the LDS Professionals came and talked to the interns about their experiences in NYC. The meeting was pretty sweet and they gave us some great advice. Only problem was that almost everyone who spoke was in advertising so it got a little boring after a while.
-Oh and I almost forgot that before the meeting Allison, Sarah, and I went to the American Girl Place on 5th Ave and relived our childhoods!! That place is soooo cute!! They even have a restaurant that is all decked out in pink and polka dots and you can apparently get food there for your doll!! Seriously if any girls come to the city who had an American Girl doll when they were little you have to check this place out!

Thursday:
-Work = not too exciting. I just did the normal stuff like logging tape and making dubs.
-I went shopping after work to get a mother's day present for my Mom and my Grandma at Anthropoligie. Also went shopping for myself at H&M and Banana Republic:) and I went and explored Saks. That place is AMAZING!!! Totally waaaaay too expensive but amazing none the less.

Friday:
-Got picked up by a chauffeured car at 6am to take me to work! I have to say I felt very cool driving through the city in a black car with tinted windows. It was very NYC.
-I helped with the Ambush Makeover segment. I didn't actually get to do that much but I got to be in the studio for a while. I did get to see Al Roker, Anne Curry, Kathy Lee, and Hoda Kotb up close which was very cool!! I also saw Mary J. Blige doing her soundcheck! She sounded awesome life!
-That night I went out to dinner with Allison, Sarah, and Jared at this sweet bar-b-que place just a couple of blocks from I-House. It's called Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and the food was really good and not too pricey.
-After dinner we had a surprise b-day party for Christ Cutri, our faculty advisor, and then I went up to the ESPN zone in Time's Square with Allison, Monica, and Tara and watched the Jazz beat the Lakers! Woohoo!

Saturday:
-Left the house at 10am to get Legally Blonde tickets. Allison and I got front row seats for $26.50 with the student rush discount!! For any students coming to NYC this is such an awesome deal! You just have to have your student ID. Check out this website: http://www.talkinbroadway.com/boards/index.php?rush=show for a list of all the shows that do student rush or discounted tickets. It's totally the way to see all the shows.
-Allison and I then went up to 5th ave and explore Bergdorf's which is the coolest looking department store ever. The place is seriously gorgeous! Then we went to Tiffany & Co. and looked at all the amazing jewelry.
-We then met up with a bunch of other BYU kids on Canal Street (which is the place for the all cheap designer knock offs) We walked through SOHO and Little Italy and then had lunch in China Town. My friend Monica speaks chinese so she ordered us lots of yummy food at this chinese restaurant.
-Then we wanted to buy fake designer purses. What an experience! So like everywhere you go in China town there are these little Asian ladies that stop you and are like "You want purses?" and if you say yes they lead you to where they are selling these purses. Monica is an old pro at this so she knew what to do. The first lady she talked to leads us to a van parked on the side of the street and Monica pushes Allison and Tara and I into this van!! The van was full of fake designer purses and this lady was like pushing them at us trying to get us to buy some!! It was seriously crazy!! Then the next lady takes us into this office building and into a room that said "Attorney at Law" on the door to throw off the police. So in this office they have all these purses and there are all these women buying these designer knock offs. It was seriously the weirdest experience. And these Asian ladies are so worried that they are going to get caught cuz it is totally illegal. These purses are like the best knock offs I've ever seen. But what's funny is that if the cops wanted to bust these people it would be totally easy because they are everywhere in China Town. It was seriously an experience to remember!
-After China town we went to Ground Zero and saw the WTC site. They've rebuilt a lot of the surrounding building but they are still working on getting the building up that will replace the two towers. It's really sad to go and look at all the destruction that took place. There was this funny guy there that was telling the story of 9/11 and had all these pictures and he had a bucket around his neck that you could put money in. There were also street vendors that were selling books that told the story. It was sad to see all these people making money off of such a tragedy. It's like you want to hear the story but you don't want people to be profiting off of it.
-We all went to this awesome yogurt place called Pink Berry after ground zero. They have delicious yogurt! It's kind of like Yoasis for those of you back in Provo but a little bit better.
-That night I went and saw Legally Blonde: The Musical and it was sooo cute! The music is really fun and happy and the dancing is great. I would definitely recommend it to anyone!
-After the play Allison and I went to the Carnegie Deli and got cheesecake! Sooo yummy!!

Sunday:
-Just church and relaxation after a long week!

The Fun Continues...

Ok so I guess the last time I wrote was last Thursday so let me update you all on what I've been doing since then...
Friday I went to work of course. It was kind of a boring day. The only interesting thing I did was help one of the producers get some of his b-roll for a segment he's working on. He's doing a segment on like the health of your teeth or something and he needed shots of someone using this Crest mouthwash. So watch the today show for a story on mouthwash and you might see my hand pouring the mouthwash and then my mouth swishing it around.
That night I went to the Museum of Modern Art which I highly recommend to anyone who visits the city! It is seriously awesome!! And the best part is that every Friday from 4pm-8pm the admission is free!! The place is seriously huge. There are six floors full of amazing artwork. I barely saw three floors in 2 hours. A lot of the stuff is a little bit weird but the permanent collections include tons of Andy Warhol, Monet, van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, Pollack, and about a million others. "Starry Night" is just sitting there on the wall with hardly any protection and you can take as many pictures of it as you want. I seriously stood there staring at it for a good five minutes because it is soooo gorgeous in person. The prints just do not do van Gogh justice. I seriously could not talk enough about this museum. I just have to say do not miss out on it if you ever get to visit New York.
After the museum, my friend Sarah and I went to the very famous Carnegie Deli for dinner. It's just a few blocks away from the museum on 7th ave. We had sandwiches the size of our heads that were so delicious. And for dessert...the best cheesecake of my life!! Like seriously, the stuff was incredible!! It would be impossible to describe. Just come to NYC and try it for yourself...you won't regret it.
Saturday I slept in late and then it the grocery store to get a few snacks for my room. Then that night Sarah and I went and saw Mama Mia and loved it! We got standing room tickets for $21.50. I know standing room sounds pretty sucky but it really was not bad at all. I wouldn't recommend doing it for a lot of shows but it was great for Mama Mia. The bottom level of the theater only has 21 rows and you stand right behind the last row. We were dead center and they have this bar thing that you can lean on the whole time. Plus, you are paying attention to the show so much that you don't think about your sore legs. The price could not be beat -- the cheapest normal seats for the show are about $67! So we saved a ton of money and saw a really awesome show!
Sunday was pretty typical. Church wasn't until one so I got to sleep in. We would normally go to church in the Manhattan temple building but it's under construction right now so we're going to a building on the upper east side. It's a little tricky to get to but it seems like it will be a pretty good ward.
Today I went back to work after a very nice weekend. I went in early to escort a guest from her hotel to the green room. I was supposed to be able to stay on set but they didn't end up needing my help so I hung out at the front desk and watched the show from there. My internship coordinator later told me I should have pushed to stay on set but I didn't realize I could do that. I felt a little stupid after she told me that and it kind of ruined my morning. I guess I'm going to have to learn to be pushy if I'm going to make it in this business. I think she was kind of disappointed in me for not being more aggressive. I was also bummed out that I didn't stay on set because right after I went back up to the office Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher were on the show!! I totally could have seen them!! And then later Christina Ricci and Emile Hirsch were on the set as well. But I did get to see Matt Lauer! He came into the office and walked right by the front desk a couple of times so that was actually kind of cool. I also found out today that I'm going to be helping out with the Ambush Makeover segment that they do every Friday, which should be really fun, and...I'm scheduled to help with the Fergie concert!!! I'm soooo excited for that!! That was the concert that I really wanted to work on!! So that was basically the highlight of my day. I was on front desk duty all day so nothing too exciting happened. Hopefully things will get more interesting this week. Peace out ya'll!!

I've only taken and couple of pictures so far and here they are! This is 30 Rock -- the building where I work! Pretty sweet looking isn't it?!? I'm going to try and take some pics inside tomorrow and get some of I-house so you can all see how pretty it is! The picture underneath is the ice skating rink! During the summer they turn it into a restaurant. If you are standing in front of 30 Rock you just turn around the the ice rink is right below you. It's pretty cool getting to work in one of the cities most famous landmarks. Just wish I could be here are Christmas and see the gigantic Christmas tree! That final picture is me out in front of Cafe Lalo -- the one from You've Got Mail! I just realized you can't really recognize the cafe from this picture so I might have to go back and take a picture of the whole front of the restaurant but if you look closely those picture that are hanging right behind the gate next to me are of the movie! It was just the cutest cafe. It's on 83rd street between Amsterdam and Broadway and super easy to find.

The Big Apple

So I'm finally sitting down to tell you all about my adventures over the past couple of days. I flew to New York on Monday night at 11:45 pm. I had the nasty red eye flight but luckily JetBlue gave us free flight vouchers so it didn't cost me anything! I got into New York at 5:45 am. Then I met up with the other BYU interns that had been on my flight and we all took a shuttle together to our apartment complex. We are staying at the International House at Columbia University. It is this really awesome kind of dorm thing were Columbia graduate students from all over the world come to live. It's in this really old building that has been here forever. It's on the Upper West Side of Manhattan right next to Riverside Park and just a couple of streets over from the Hudson River. It really is an awesome location and the subway is about 2 minutes away from our building.
So anyway after that nice tangent...it took forever to get to our building on the first day because the traffic was so horrible but we did eventually get there. Once we got to the building we checked in and got set up with our rooms. I'm on the eighth floor of the building and my room is pretty much the size of a closet. I'm getting used to it thought and I guess it really isn't that bad. I'll have to post some pictures of it. The view is actually kind of neat and it does have a bed and a dresser and a desk. So after I put my stuff away I had breakfast in the cafeteria and met some of the other kids from BYU. Then we had an orientation meeting to learn all about I-House. After the meeting was over I was pretty much dead tired so I took a little nap and then got ready for some afternoon activities. Our faculty adviser had planned a scavenger hunt so we all met to get ready for that. Before the activity a couple of the kids and I went over to the subway to get our monthly passes. It's $81 for a month long, unlimited use pass. It's probably the best $81 I've ever spent because the subway is pretty much amazing -- I think it will take me a while to get used to driving again in Utah.
Ok, so then we got into groups of three for the scavenger hunt. I got with these two awesome girls named Allison and Monica. We decided that we didn't really want to do the scavenger hunt so we just went and explored for a while in the city. We headed downtown and found my internship which is with the Today Show. The office is in the GE building at 30 Rockefeller Center which is pretty much amazing!!! After we found that building we just kind of wandered around the city and explored for a while. It was a really good way to kind of learn our way around the New York grid system. We even got library cards at the New York Public Library -- which is pretty much the sweetest library ever. It is soooo gorgeous inside. We also tracked down Monica's internship spot which is in the oh so cool fashion district of NYC with all kinds of awesome shopping. After that we found a K Mart and got a few things for our rooms - including towels that actually cover your body and fitted sheets for our beds. Then we had dinner at this cute little sandwich place called Cosi. After that we just came back to our building and hit the sack and got ready for our first day of work!! yay!!
So my first day of work didn't really go as planned. I left 4o minutes before work thinking I would have no problem getting there. But of course I got completely lost like I always do and ended up being 30 minutes late for work. The story is almost to painful to retell but I basically got off the subway way too early and then I couldn't figure out which way was east, west, north or south. I got completely turned around and found the place when I finally asked for directions. Then once I got checked in at the security desk I got lost again because I didn't know which elevators to take. I finally got up to the office at about 10:30. And of course I was practically in tears! It didn't help that my eyes were watery from allergies and the sun and I was so upset that I had gotten lost. I felt so unprofessional because I was half crying and I was soooo late. But in the end it turned out all right.
From there the internship coordinator took Mallory and I around the office and introduced us to people and just kind of got us familiarized with the place (Mallory is the other BYU intern at the Today Show). We did a lot of arbitrary paperwork and talking to people in the morning before lunch. We had lunch at a cute salad place that is in the food court underneath the building. A good tip actually if you ever visit the city and need a place to eat -- if you just go to the concourse level of Rockefeller Center there are TONS of good restaurants that are pretty reasonably priced -- meaning like $9 for sandwich. After lunch we went back up to the office. My job for the rest of the afternoon was to sit at the front desk and answer the phones. I would forward people to whomever they needed to talk to or talk to the viewers that called in with story ideas or comments about the show and then send them to the appropriate place. The phone calls you get are pretty funny sometimes so it was a fun afternoon. I also got trained on how to do a couple of other things by some of the other interns.
I just have to say it is going to be so cool working for the Today Show. Everyone is really nice and I'm going to get to meet lots of amazing people. Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira's offices are right in our area. They are both out of town so I haven't seen them yet but I have seen their offices! Haha...exciting I know! The executive office suite is on our floor too so the President and Vice President of NBC have their offices right by our front desk. I did see the Vice President today and I saw the back of Brian Williams while he was talking to someone in the hall!
Anyway -- I got off at 5 and then decided to do a little exploring around the city. I knew there was a subway I could take on 59th street right by Central Park so I decided to walk down 5th avenue and look at all the amazing shops. For dinner I ate a hot dog at the park and I saw some sweet break dancers that were doing show on the corner by the Plaza. I got home around 7 and just kind of hung out in my room the rest of the night because I was sooo tired. But it was a good first day of work!
Today was my second day of work and it was a really good one too. I of course got lost again and was a few minutes late but nothing like yesterday! Thank goodness! Luckily after work today I found the best fool-proof route for getting to work that I'm planning on taking tomorrow. Anywho -- when I got in this morning my first job was to learn how to dub tapes which is something the interns do a lot. The basic idea is that producers often want copies of their segments that air on the show either for themselves or for one of their guests. It's the interns job to get the tapes of the show from the tape library and then make DVD's of the segments that the producers want. Today I was also in charge of filing everyone's mail in the mail room and I also learned how to log tape. It was a pretty basic day but I was able to get the hang of jobs that I'll be doing on a regular basis while I'm here. Oh the one highlight of the day was that our internship supervisor took Mallory and I on a tour of the Today show studio. We got to go on the set and we even saw Kathie Lee Gifford live on the set! I didn't get very close to her though because they were actually on the air when we went on the set. The set is a lot smaller than you expect it too be which is usually the case for any news set -- but it was really neat to get to see all the behind the scenes stuff.
After work I headed back to I-House. Then I met up with another one of the BYU interns named Sarah, who is on the same floor as me at I-House. Neither of use know very many of the kids that are here so we decided to go out to dinner together. Sarah had found the address of Cafe Lalo, which is the cafe in You've Got Mail that Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks meet up at for the first time -- you know the part where she sits with Pride and Prejudice and a red rose and then he sees who she is and acts like a real jerk to her? Yeah that's where we had dinner...pretty cool, huh? It was a tad pricey - about $20 for dinner and dessert -- but I guess that's cheap by New York standards. I had this Morrocan egg dish thing that was kind of interesting. It was different than I expected it to be and I'll have to say I was a little disappointed -- it was still good but it didn't really fulfill my taste buds the way I wanted it too. I did have a really yummy piece of cake for dessert though -- it was white cake with a creamy filling and topped with all different kinds of fruit. If I ever went back I would probably stick with just dessert which seems to be their specialty. After dinner we just came back to I-house. It was a pretty full day and I am totally exhausted and ready for bed. Tomorrow I have work again from 9-5 and then all the BYU kids are meeting up to go to the MOMA (museum of modern art) -- which I am sooo excited about. It should be really fun. Saturday I'm hoping to hit up Canal street to buy some fake designer purses and then maybe catch a Broadway show. You can get special student tickets for about $20 to tons of the really popular shows so I'm planning on taking advantage of that! That's it for today! I'll try and update this again tomorrow or Saturday! I hope you aren't too bored reading about my stay so far in New York. I know I haven't done anything too exciting yet but I know I will eventually!