What I’m doing now

Posted on April 16, 2012 by themoderngal

Today marked the start of my third week working for Scripps Networks Interactive, the company behind HGTV, Food Network, Travel Channel, DIY Network, Great American Country and the Cooking Channel. When I informed my former coworkers what company I was joining, several of them asked me to where I would be relocating. The answer was nowhere. The company that brings you all of those cable networks just happens to be headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, and so am I.

Specifically my job is that of content manager of the company’s home-branded mobile apps. In less-technical terms, I wrangle the articles, photos and videos to be published on the apps, which at the moment include the HGTVtoGo, HGTV Color Guide, DIYtoGo and Dream Homes of the Past apps — a collection that will be expanding very, very soon. (Ahem, I invite you to download any and all of those apps. They’re free.)

I’ve done enough complaining here about the hours and demands of being a reporter here, that it might seem as if leaving AP for Scripps was a means for escape. Yes, that was some of it, but I’d had my eye set on Scripps ever since I discovered it was located in Knoxville and had heard what an awesome company it was. And it is. The people I work with are smart, creative and easygoing. The work environment is fantastic. The subject matter is engaging and fun to think about. (Have I ever mentioned how obsessively I read design blogs and watch HGTV? No? It’s an obsession.)

I might have been glad to escape the life of a reporter, but I don’t know that I could have hand-picked a better fit for a new chapter in my career.

So now you know what I did and what I do. And in an effort to keep my blog minimally Googleable, this likely will be the only time I mention my work in such specificity. Unless I decide to hound you more about downloading our apps. (DO IT, NOW) This is a good time to remind the world that any views expressed on this here blog are mine and mine alone and do not represent the views of Scripps Networks Interactive, any of the aforementioned cable networks or The Associated Press.

Also, I have nothing to do with the TV programming and cannot get you on House Crashers, House Hunters or any of the other shows you want to be on, but you can check out HGTV’s on-air opportunities here and DIY Network’s here.

Posted in employment, home | 8 Comments

Weekend warrior

Posted on April 9, 2012 by themoderngal

As evidenced in my last post, I was already aware how a change in jobs would require me making certain adjustments. What I did not expect was not being able to handle a normal, Saturday+Sunday weekend. Oh, I know now.

knoxville’s old city at approximately 2:30 a.m.

When you’re a sports writer, you tend to work while the rest of the world is at play, so my weekends rarely happened at the actual end of the week, and they hardly came with two days off in a row. During football season, my “days off” were typically Friday and Sunday, but I pretty much worked seven days a week. During basketball season, my days off were sort of anything goes — like, say, Tuesday and Friday.

So not counting my four-day stretch of unemployment last week that came with a trip to Memphis, this weekend was my first with two days off in a row on traditional weekend days. And like a kid in a candy shop, I could not control myself when it came to eating, drinking, shopping and compulsive couch sitting. My weekend consisted of the following:

  • Purchasing a new iPad (for workish purposes)
  • Eating lots of extremely decadent sushi on Friday night
  • Passing out from decadent sushi overload
  • Eating a very large unhealthy breakfast on Saturday morning.
  • Giving the sister-in-law a tour of the local university, where she’ll be attending in the fall. Walking, a lot.
  • Polishing off a meal at my favorite restaurant (among the Modern Love Machine, the Modern sis-in-law and myself, I was the only one to finish my meal).
  • Eating pita chips for dinner on Saturday proceeded by drinking about four glasses of wine and a cocktail.
  • Seeing 3 a.m. on Sunday
  • Getting up at 8 a.m. Sunday for Easter Mass
  • Eating chicken and waffles for Easter brunch
  • Spending five hours on the couch watching the Masters
  • Staying up late to finish homework that I neglected all weekend.

chicken and waffles, chez liberty, knoxville

Yeah, this may not sound like a lot to some of you who do this on a regular basis, but going from zero to 60 is not the smartest idea when it comes to weekend indulgence. I sort of screamed at my clock radio this morning when it popped on (and then screamed again when I discovered it’s pledge drive week at the local NPR station). It took about three cups of coffee and an Advil to get me going this morning. I’ve met many tasks at work today with a “this is making my head hurt.”

Baby steps.

Posted in food and drink, life, sports | 9 Comments

Adjustments

Posted on March 29, 2012 by themoderngal

I turned in my company-issued Blackberry yesterday, which means I’m down to my one and only iPhone. For about four years, I’ve double-fisted phones in an effort to keep work and life separate and not give up my personal number which I’ve had since college. Plus, even the $20 iPhone** was better than the Blackberry and its non-functioning rollerball.

When the Modern Love Machine left for dinner last night, I thought I was missing a phone in my purse. At dinner I noticed my compulsive urge to check my work e-mail and text messages on the Blackberry that was no longer there. These are things I have to get used to. I’m no longer on call 24/7, but the psychological effect of keeping a constant eye on my beat — one that involves about 150 18- to 21-year-olds — does not fade easily. On that note, I moved my phone charger out of the bedroom for the first time in years. It will now permanently reside anywhere but the bedroom.

I’ve spent the past week and a half trying to get used to a far earlier wake-up time too. The Modern Mom and the MLM have long given me crap for “sleeping in” until 9 a.m. many days, but as a sports writer you have to be a night owl or else your brain won’t work too well on that 10 p.m.-midnight postgame deadline. I’ve been gradually bumping my alarm clock earlier, and I’m glad to say I’ve been getting out of bed the past few days in the 7 o’clock hour, albeit late in the hour. I’m sure I’m in for a rude awakening Monday.***

The Modern Dogs, on the other hand, are not getting up any earlier if they can help it. These dogs don’t realize they’re in for a big lifestyle adjustment when the human they’ve been supervising for the past couple of years will no longer be working in the home office. Granted, they sleep a lot during the day, but they’re also used to demanding to go outside at any time they please. That hasn’t been the case this week as I’ve only walked them in the morning and let them out when the MLM gets home from work. No accidents so far, but they’re definitely giving me attitude.

**In that post I talk about how much I hate Apple. I don’t hate Apple nearly as much anymore. I’m a full convert with a Macbook, an iPad and an iPhone3 that’s about to get upgraded. Unrelated, my new job involves the iPad.
***I’m not holding out telling you about my new job to be an ass. I just want to make sure there are no crazy company policies about personal blogging. I don’t think there are, but I would hate to get dooced on the first day of a new job, one I’m particularly excited about. That would just suck.

Posted in employment, life, personal experience, pets, sports | 6 Comments

What I’ve been up to for the past decade

Posted on March 26, 2012 by themoderngal

Every year some research firm ranks 200 kinds of jobs from best to worst, and being a reporter is usually within 15 spots of the bottom, ranked among low-paying industrial jobs and garbage collectors. The stress is high, the pay is low and the industry is shrinking, more rapidly than any out there.

So it seems like a no-brainer to leave a reporting job behind, right? And yet somehow it isn’t.

I’ve been a reporter for a decade now. Adventurous Kate astutely guessed correctly: for the past five years I’ve been a sports writer. Three previous years were spent mostly as a political reporter while occasionally covering the courts system. But really, in this age where reporters are expected to do increasingly more with fewer resources, my career has been a cornucopia of experiences, ranging from the mundane to life-and-death.

I worked at newspapers for three years, and the last seven have been at one of the world’s largest news agencies. You probably encounter work by the AP on a daily basis without even realizing it. Maybe on Huffington Post or on your local nightly news or on Google News or in your local newspaper. (One of those stories is of my doing, and it shouldn’t be terribly difficult to figure out which.)

me, upper left.
john wall crushing demarcus cousins post-2010 SEC tournament win, lower right.

As I was cleaning off my desk in the office I rarely see, I went through a stack of old newspapers that included some of my better work or most intense assignments. Dunkin’ Donuts’ first Southern test market (six years later, they’re everywhere). The trial of a woman who killed her preacher husband by shooting him in the back in Selmer, Tenn., which hadn’t seen so much excitement since Buford Pusser roamed the streets (the jury determined it voluntary manslaughter, not murder). Two sessions of the Tennessee legislature, back when it was run by the blue-dog Democrats (the Republicans are in charge now). The U.S. Senate race to replace Bill Frist, featuring now-Sen. Bob Corker and former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (I choose not to link to any remaining online versions of my stories, because most of them come with nasty, polarizing commentary). And the tornadoes. So many tornadoes.

The past five years have been spent mostly focused on college football and basketball, with my primary beat the University of Tennessee’s athletics teams. I’ve covered nearly every football and men’s and women’s basketball game that’s happened in Knoxville in that time, and I’ve covered sporting events ranging from NFL to NHL to the NCAA golf national championship in a three-hour radius. Between the time I turned in my notice to AP two weeks ago and now, I covered two rounds of the NCAA tournament, which is kind of an intense assignment to have during a period where most people phone it in.

the view from my seat during the 2009 NCAA tournament Memphis regional. that’s Clark Kellogg interviewing UNC coach Roy Williams and Ty Lawson about being headed to the Final Four. they would go on to win the national championship that year.

Journalism was never something I dreamed of doing as a kid, but I figured it to be a way I could get paid regularly for my writing. The paychecks were decent; the prestige of writing for a national (and at times international) audience was even better. The hours have always sucked and have slowly taken their toll, the bosses can be crazy and some of the assignments have been brutal. But there have been just enough fantastic moments to keep me doing it. Succeeding as a woman in the male-dominated sports writing industry is something I’m immensely proud of, but it isn’t enough to make me want to stay. I am simultaneously crushed and relieved to be leaving it behind.

i once got paid to spend an entire week sitting on a golf course. it was one of the better weeks of my life.

I’m taking most of this week off to rest, to catch up on the doctors’ appointments I’ve put off in the crush of basketball tournament time, to get some stuff around the house, to possibly see some family I haven’t seen in a while and to effectively mark this major change in my life. A week from today I’ll be starting at my new sort-of writing job in the non-daily news segment of the media industry. Deep down in my gut, I’ve known for a long time that journalism wasn’t the right job for me, and I think I’ve finally found something that is a far better fit.

Posted in basketball, employment, football, life, personal experience, sports | 18 Comments

I have news

Posted on March 14, 2012 by themoderngal

The Modern Love Machine and I went over to our friends’ house to help celebrate a birthday this past weekend, and while driving over there we plotted how we’d share the news with our friends. The revealing went down as planned. The hostess, our dear friend Sarah, chatted with us a bit and then offered us beer. The MLM said, ‘Well first we have some news,’ throwing in a long dramatic pause. Sarah, who is about as disinterested in having kids as a person can be, doubled over and then backed away slowly, as if whatever was going on with me might be contagious.**

No, we’re not pregnant. I’m not even going to mention how much we don’t want to be pregnant because I don’t want to remotely tempt or dare the universe to make me eat my words. Suffice it to say, modern babies are not in the plans for now.

The news that has kept me quieter than usual here, on Facebook, on Twitter and in life in general lately is that I have a new job, and not just a new job, but a bit of a career shift. This news may seem relatively benign compared to being or not being pregnant, but I’ve been in my current job for five years, with my current company for seven years and in this particular career for a decade, so this is a major flux in my own personal universe.

I said at the end of 2011 that I expected this new year to be a relatively static one for me, as in no major life changes. I also said I would start working on more subtle changes in my life that might lead to bigger things. I had no idea at the time that small, subtle steps would open me up to a major change so soon. Apparently all the universe needed was a nudge, and through a few left turns I discovered my soon-to-be new job. It’s a fantastic opportunity that I think is going to prove to be a great fit for me — so great that I’m having a hard time believing it’s all worked out so swimmingly. (Seriously, what’s the catch, universe?)***

I’m experience such a range of emotions about the transition that I might as well be pregnant, though. I’ve been bursting-at-the-seams excited about the new job and frustrated that I haven’t been able to talk about it until now. I’m thrilled about working with some smart, creative, cool people in an exciting field. At the same time I’m already sad about giving up certain aspects of my current job and am fairly traumatized about parting ways with my current manager and some of my co-workers who are like family to me. Not to mention, with my closest colleagues being 200 miles away and some much, much farther, ‘giving notice’ and letting everyone know I’m leaving has been a painful, drawn-out process of awkward phone calls and e-mails, and that process has made it hard to sleep for several nights in a row.****

I’m not going to be a total tease here and tell you I’ve got a new job without (finally) telling you what I have been doing all these years and what I will be doing moving forward. I want to give that info its own due in its own post, which I’ll do once I’ve wrapped up a few more things at work. I’m excited about sharing some major context about my life that’s been missing from this blog ever since it transformed from an impersonal blog to a personal one. I guess my universe is shifting in more ways than one.

**We are awful people, but her reaction was predictable, hilarious and worth it.
***No, seriously, what’s the catch?
****This post brought to you by a 4 a.m. sleepless spell.

Posted in employment, life | 25 Comments

Merry Leap Day

Posted on February 29, 2012 by themoderngal

Four years ago, back in the days when I posted to this blog not once but twice daily (those were the days), I decided to do 29 new things on Feb. 29. Rereading that post is like looking at a time capsule of my life. That day I discovered my now-favorite sushi restaurant and now-favorite movie theater and launched an obsession with Domino magazine (may it RIP). I’m also blown away by how different and how much better my life is four years later.

As luck, I suppose, would have it, I have this Leap Day off of work again. I smell a tradition. Unfortunately, because having a day off during the week means I’m working through the weekend, I’m going to have to spend a chunk of the day dedicated to homework and packing for a little four-day trip for work that starts tonight, so I don’t think trying 29 new things this Feb. 29 is feasible.

But in the spirit of celebrating Leap Day, I’ve decided to mark 29 things that make me happy this Feb. 29. Gratitude is a good way to stay centered, and with as crazy as my life has been lately I’ve got a few qi leaks that need plugging.

29 things that made me happy on Feb. 29

1. Waking up to find both dogs snuggled up to me like a stack of spoons. I’m sure if someone had seen us, they would have found it really freakin’ adorable. That is, until I started screaming because of an intruder in the bedroom.
2. Not having to roll straight out of bed and into my home office to do work.
3. Having a piece of dark chocolate bacon bar with my coffee this morning. It doesn’t so much taste like bacon as it does a salty dark chocolate Nestle Crunch bar. Trust me, it’s amazing.

bacon chocolate candy bari really need to get placemats that don’t clash with my coffee mugs

4. This discussion on A Practical Wedding about successful women and anxiety. I think more and more women experience this as they try to have it all, so these discussions are so important.
5. This entry on my Lenten calendar.
6. Having the windows open in February. Not to be confused with the actual weather, which makes me terrified about the chance of tornadoes and makes my sinuses crazy.
7. I wasn’t necessarily happy but instead thankful about a former colleague opening up about his struggle with depression and his decision to seek help for it.
8. Discovering I got three unexplained bonus points on a class assignment from last week that I half-assed and turned in with three minutes to spare.
9. Getting all the homework done for one of my two classes (and next week is Spring Break, woot! Bring on Cancun! Happy Hour!)
10. The Modern Love Machine coming home from work early today, especially pleasing after he came home so late yesterday.
11. Being goofy with the MLM.
12. Get cheap Chinese food for dinner.
13. Not getting an upset stomach from the cheap Chinese food.
14. Seeing a video of my 13-month-old Goddaughter toddling around.
15. Wearing my Toms shoes and a sky-blue velour hoodie all day today (being a fashion victim is a choice we all have to make.)
16. That the threat of severe weather is keeping me from leaving for the aforementioned work trip tonight, therefore allowing me an extra night in my own bed with the MLM.
17. My ability to comfortably pack four days’ worth of clothes into a small piece of luggage. There was a time in my life when I was unable to pack for an overnight trip in a small suitcase because I didn’t know how to pack.
18. Polishing off a week’s worth of Apartment Therapy house tours.
19. Having quiet reading time wrapped up in a blanket in one of our comfy living room chairs.
20. Having a dog join me in the chair and keeping my lap warm.
21. Getting half of the homework done for my other class. Midterm week is turning out not to be so bad, after all.
22. Being spared by the threat of severe weather for another unstably warm evening.
23. Staying up to watch a basketball game that turned out to be a really good game.
24. Looking forward to seeing my mother this weekend. She’s going to accompany me on my little work trip, which isn’t as odd as it sounds.
25. The picture on this Cute Overload post.
26. The Grizzlies won tonight, six wins in seven games. (BTW, I’m a Grizzlies fan now. I grew up in Memphis, so it’s acceptable, though I’m still coming to terms with being an NBA fan.)
27. Appreciating just how much better and happier my life is now than it was on this day four years ago.
28. Getting to curl up in a comfy bed with the MLM.
29. Finding 29 things that make me happy in a single day.

Posted in basketball, college, family, food and drink, holidays, life, love and relationships, marriage, personal experience, pets, sports | 11 Comments

Possibility

Posted on February 18, 2012 by themoderngal

My life has been very full of doing things lately, as prescribed by my phrase of the year. I can’t say my life is terribly balanced at the moment. I haven’t done any legit physical exercise in over a week and I miss eat. My body is giving me hell for not taking care of it much lately. The house, it needs a good, deep cleaning. We’ll get there. Baby steps.

Much of what I’ve been doing outside of work is studying. Those college classes I signed up for started out quietly, giving me the false sense of, ‘Hey, this is going to be no sweat,’ and grown into a heavier load with each passing week. I can’t say the content is stretching my mind too much at the moment. I’m learning things here and there, but really the classes I’m taking at the moment are more refresher than anything.

studying

But oh, the busy work. So much busy work. It’s eating into what little free time I already have and serving as a reminder that even small changes require sacrifices. To get my work done might mean not indulging a novel or blogging or running every single day. It won’t be in vain though when what I’m doing now leads to bigger, more fruitful changes.

The beauty of it is that as little as six months ago I saw frustration, stagnation and the unattainable, but I’m now seeing potential and opportunity. Some of that potential may be revealing itself faster than expected, which blows my mind and excites me. And the tipping point was just deciding to sign up for some college courses to expand my skill set and then doing it — that somehow changed my entire worldview.

Posted in college, life | 10 Comments

Old Dad

Posted on February 1, 2012 by themoderngal

I’ve taken to calling the 61-year-old Modern Dad “Old Dad” because of his near constant remarks on our trip about being too old to ski the way he used to. He just can’t ski as fast, and he just can’t ski as long without stopping because he’s not as young anymore.

I’m here to tell you Old Dad is a walking contradiction.

We found ourselves riding Vail’s Eagle Bahn Gondola up the mountain one afternoon. Gondolas are fantastic breaks from ski lifts because you ride in fully enclosed cars and they’re typically long enough rides that you can take off your gloves and goggles and rest.

On this particular ride, we were joined in the car by four other people, three of them appearing to be younger than I. Those folks were commenting about a guy below who crashed on the slopes (because that’s what you do when you’re on a lift) and about various injuries that could be had.

“Just pour some ‘Tussin on it,” Old Dad interjects.

The younguns stare at him blankly, clearly having no idea what he’s referring to. Meanwhile, I start staring out the window, knowing good and well where this is going.

“You know, like Chris Rock?”

More blank stares.

Old Dad proceeds to act out Chris Rock’s Robitussin bit from “Bigger and Blacker” show. He does it with a decent Chris Rock voice. It’s, of course, not the first time he’s recited this. The man is a licensed MD, so you know he’s done the routine for dozens of fellow doctors and nurses, and I’m willing to bet even a patient or two has been subject to it. We occasionally get the “Big Piece of Chicken” bit at dinner, something I even find myself reciting from time to time.

I swear to you, Old Dad skied a little bit faster after we got off that gondola. Meanwhile, I’m willing to bet those younguns shared with their friends over a beer the story of the old white dude reciting Chris Rock.


Warning: might be NSFW, depending on how uptight your workplace is about swearing.

Posted in celebs, family | 4 Comments

My blue sky, my sunny day

Posted on January 30, 2012 by themoderngal

I’ve had two good sleeps since returning home Saturday at 3 a.m., so I’m feeling much more like a human again. I promised photos, and I’m here to actually deliver.

Breckenridge, Peak 9

I first skied as a 3-year-old, and I’ve never looked back. I try to ski once a year, though work has gotten in the way of that in recent years. It’s one of my few complete releases in this world … one of the few times I’m able to completely let go of the stresses of everyday life and just be in the moment. It’s me, the snow and slopes and the sky around us.

Vail, Lost Boy

My parents and I laid our heads in a condo in Frisco, Colorado, and my Dad and I spent two days skiing at Vail (our favorite) and two days at Breckenridge (my Mom doesn’t ski and was content to read in the condo or get out and walk around town). I’ve visited these places so many times in my life that it’s like coming home. At Vail especially, I know where the crowds are going to be at a certain time, I know where the softest snow will be in the morning and I know exactly what spot on each run can give me some air, if I’m in the mood to fly.

Vail, Mountain Top

I’ve gotten faster on my skis in the past couple of years while my Dad claims to be slowing down as he reaches retirement age. We meet somewhere in the middle. We chat on the lifts and at lunch about sports, past vacations, retirement funds, trivia and philosophies on life.

Skis

We’ve put up with a lot of early and late season crummy snow conditions and spring break crowds. This was our first time skiing together in January, and though Colorado and all of the Mountain West needs snow badly, there was just enough snow to combine with the lack of crowds and gorgeous weather for it to be damn near perfect.

Vail, Game Creek Bowl

**shout out to the Camera+ iPhone app (which is not the same as Camera Plus). Camera+ helped make these photos appear pretty dang close to the real view, which is really hard to do in sunny, snowy, high-altitude shots.

Posted in sports, travel | 5 Comments

Establishing residency at Denver Int’l Airport

Posted on January 27, 2012 by themoderngal

So while I was bitching about my day last Friday, what I wasn’t telling you was that I was also distracted by the fact that I was leaving for a week on the ski slopes about 36 hours later. It’s tough for me to get enough days off in a row during the ski season to squeeze in a trip without royally upsetting my employer, but I worked out four days in the Colorado Rockies.

Y’all, it was amazing. Except for two things.

I’ve been sitting here in the B concourse at Denver International Airport for nine hours. NINE. Four and a half of those hours were by unfortunate design since I had to be out of the condo by 11 a.m. but my deal-of-a-straight-through-flight didn’t leave until 5 p.m. (with a two-hour drive in between).

The other five hours have been an unexplained delay. There’s no weather issues here. The plane I was supposed to leave the airport on arrived on time, but for some reason got whisked away for another flight. The plane I’m now scheduled to leave the airport on is halfway between Denver and Louisville, Ky., after leaving four hours late. After changing three times, the departure time is now sitting at 9:45ish MST, which puts me arriving in Knoxville somewhere around 2:30 EST in the morning — assuming we depart at all.

Oh, and I have to work tomorrow afternoon. Yeah, whoops.

I’d had about 15 years of good flying luck until some wacky delays on our honeymoon in June. Every trip since has been screwy. I thought I’d nip it in the bud this time by going the straight-through flight route, but no such luck.

Aside from being panicked about getting to work on time tomorrow, I royally miss my husband. Yeah, I know, I shouldn’t have gone skiing without him. There was no chance of us being off work at the same time for six days in a row. I went with my parents because I love going skiing with them, and because they pay for a place for me to lay my head, which makes it affordable for me to go. I loved every minute I spent with them, and I loved every minute on the slopes. I also felt terrible about leaving him behind and have missed him like crazy every single day.

I usually love sitting in airports, watching the world go by. It’s as if time stands still while you’re sitting there and people are rushing to and from their gates, with overlapping PA announcements competing for their attention. But as the airport has gradually emptied and the hours tick off the clock, my heart just hurts more and more to be at home wrapped up in the arms of the Modern Love Machine. I don’t know if distance makes the heart grow fonder, but it certainly makes you more heartsick.

My parents, who were bound for Memphis by way of Little Rock, made it home four hours ago. In the mean time, I’ve done almost all of my schoolwork for the week, nearly cleaned out my blogreader, ate twice, edited some photos (I’ll share those in a separate post), listened to a podcast and blogged this post.

I just want to be home with my hubby.

I’d settle for a pillow and a teddy bear for the next two hours.

Posted in travel | 2 Comments