A Southern Girl's Lessons from a Snow Storm

Let's start this off with two basic facts that are important to this story:
1. I'm from Texas where winter temperatures rarely go below 50 degrees.
2. 2009-2010 is the first winter I've lived off campus.

Last week, Columbia received a winter storm that dumped 9 inches of snow overnight. My producing professor said it's the third largest snow he's seen in the 10 years he's lived here. It started Wednesday night when I was producing a newscast. I have never driven in snow so I was taking anyone and everyone's advice; I made it home okay.

This is what the car looked like after my preliminary brush-away from the bottom of the car.

The next morning was quite an adventure: it was the first time in my life I've had to dig my car out of the snow. The plow had pushed a pile of snow as tall as my bumper against the back of my Honda Accord Coupe. My roommates and I weren't prepared for this snow storm so we didn't have a snow shovel! I improvised with a broom. I needed almost two hours digging and a nice neighbor's push to get the car out. But I made it where I was going and managed to not drive the rest of the weekend!

The red stripe is the car roof. This is the most snow I've ever cleared off my car!

One side effect of not driving over the weekend that I didn't expect was ice in my wheel-wells! I noticed the tires were making a strange noise when I turned so I got out and found the ice. I got my ice scraper out and went to town! After many minutes of chipping, my wheels could move without being blocked by the ice.

From these new snow experiences, I've learned many lessons:
1. When you drive a front wheel drive car, it's a good idea to back into a parking spot. Then you can pull yourself out over the ice, instead of trying to pushing your back wheels over the ice.

2. Buy a snow shovel at Walmart when there's no threat of a big snow storm. If you go after the storm, they'll be out of stock!

3. Have two pairs of snow boots: one to wear while digging out your car and a dry pair for when you finally get out and on your way.

4. The boys next door will shovel all the snow off your front walkway and steps for two beers each.

5. Finally, don't roll down your windows thinking it's a good way to get the snow off them - all the snow will end up in your lap!

New Semester, New Role

As the semester begins next week, I'm looking forward to my new role in the newsroom: producer. Last semester, I was a reporter for the first nine weeks. I spent the end of the semester "sidekicking" a producer to begin learning that role. By the end of the semester, the producer had me putting the show together and they helped fine tune it. This was a stress-free way to be introduced to all the details that are involved in running a newscast.

This blog fell a bit to the wayside toward the end of last semester because I started a new blog. My boyfriend's dog had puppies and I started a blog that's written from her perspective. The goal with the blog was to ultimately help sell the puppies, but also to let puppy-lovers see puppies at a very young age (my first puppy post was within hours of their birth). I'm glad to say that the blog is living up to both those goals. The new families have told me they've loved seeing videos of the pups as they've gotten older and friends who can't own a puppy now have loved keeping up with the pups' adventures. The puppies will be going to their new families on Jan. 19th and I'm not sure if I'll keep the blog updated with pictures and videos from the families or just post a farewell message. I'll definitely be posting until all the puppies have new homes but, after that, I guess we'll just see how it goes!

This semester, I will be producing three shows during the week: Tuesday's morning show, Tuesday's 10pm newscast, and Wednesday's 5pm newscast. I'm excited to learn how each show is different and expand my producing knowledge. I hope to post here what I learn during the week so I can track how my skills are evolving.