Hey, I'm alive!

Hi everyone. I fully realize that I have been MIA (all I wanna do is pop pop pop pop... you get it right Dan Dan?) the past couple of weeks and I humbly apologize. You can blame beat reporting for taking up all my time and making me not want to write another word at the end of the day.

The past couple of weeks have been AWESOME. I am the government/politics/public services reporter for Evanston and I have been busy little bee going to every city council/committee meeting in town. I've covered everything from the new budget, the downtown plan and elections to big ugly ATT boxes on street corners that people are really pissed off about for some reason.

I am going to try to get some of the multimedia I have been working on up here so you can see a little of what I've been up to. I'm also going to post some of the stories I have written for your viewing pleasure. You can view one of my videos here:




I think one of the coolest parts of my week was definitely taking part in broadcast day when Team Awesome and I got to invade a Medill studio and put on our own news production. I wrote my own story and reported in my own live shot. I also did a little anchoring and camera work. Twas amazing.

In other news, I also went home weekend before last for no other reason than the fact that I missed my boyfriend and my family. I had a fantastic time and was kind of resenting the fact that I had to return to dead, flat, cold Illinois after being reminded how beautiful my Northwest is.

I got to go to school with Ian one of the days I was home and it was a very interesting and hilarious experience. He's such an incredible teacher and really knows how to communicate on their level in a way that makes sense to them. I think he will do really well in his chosen profession that's for sure. (See picture of Ian being one of the kids.)

I also got to have a delicious dinner with his parents and just about died laughing when his dad - who is shorter than me - stood on a footstool to give me a hug when I left. Jess-kah, who fondly refers to me as "Ogre," would have been proud.

I'm currently about to enter finals week - woohoo! I cannot believe how fast this quarter has flown by. I have a Journalism by the Numbers (AKA Journalists are dumbasses when it comes to math) final tomorrow and an editing final on Tuesday. After that, I'm working on my final video on voter registration and a long piece about the Evanston budget. Meg, Monica and I are going to write about how Evanston did a lot of creative budgeting this year and basically, it's going to royally eff them over next year. Suckers.

I also...drum roll please...got my first apartment. It's a fairly large studio a stone's throw from Wrigley Field. I move in next week. This is the first time I will have lived on my own and I'm super excited. (You can see the view to the right. It does look a little dark. Blame my camera.) Although, it probably won't be for long, because Ian is moving in with me and bringing my kitty Gabby too- yusssssssss. I'm kinda being a big dork and getting excited about picking out rugs and crap. I'm a nester that's for sure. Plus, it will be beyond amazing to have my lover boy here every day. I couldn't ask for life to get much better than that.

I promise I will write more later. I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with this thing.

I love you all!

As always,

Peace, love, baby animals.