Man on the Street

Its all about Dogs

While briskly walking around the streets of downtown New York, I find that it seems to be missing a very essential element to life. It is almost as if Times Square has an age limit of fourteen years or older. In an unofficial way, I suppose it does. I understand how dangerous the city is. I wouldn’t bring my children here either. But I think what interests me most, is that hardly any of the people in New York have children. It is obviously a very career oriented city, full of high profile business men and women, foreign tourists, as the homeless dot the corners of sidewalks. But in the midst of high profile people, to busy for a family, I have seen a few children on the subways. The mom or nanny usually looks completely frazzled dragging the little kid in by the arm telling them to sit and be quiet. One slapped her son’s hand when he reached in her bag for some Pirates Booty. I wondered what they would do if they saw a Utah mom and her six kids. That would be a culture shock. Now, if you walk around the parks or playgrounds, you will see dogs that are impeccably groomed. The poodles have collars with bling, a chiwawa was pushed in his own mini stroller. Today on my run, it was sprinkling outside. A woman had put little yellow raincoats on her three dogs. I tried not to laugh. It seemed almost ridiculous. Some people are kind of mixed up. Dogs are not children and children are not dogs.

My Addiction

Yes I got better...luckly it wasn't swine flu;) A producer at work did tease me about it later on. But I feel I am lucky for more reasons than just my recovery. Being an intern during the prime time news, I have more responsibilities than interns who work during the day with five other students on one show. I not only observe a national broadcast being produced everyday, but I feel like I am part of what they call the "Greta team", it consists of all the producers, APs, editors and camera crew for Greta's show. Networks aren't as glamarous as I had imagined them to be, in fact, its not glamarous at all. However, I find a different satisfaction and value working with a network news station that I never expected. During the day, I spend my time finding and cutting video through a system called Ardome. I watch other news programs like the View, that air in the morning, to see if our station's competition had any news we weren't getting, or if we wanted to use any of it for the kicker at the end of the show.
But out of all of my jobs at Fox, I would have to say, my favorite part is the last few hours of the day when I go into the control room. You see hundreds of flat screen T.V.'s flashing CNN, NBC, ABC, and any other station that airs during the same time as On the Record. Then on the rest of the screens you see Fox cameras at every angle and shot getting ready for the show. I sit down to a desk with my headset and begin cueing in guests at other fox affiliate stations. Suddenly the show comes to life in a way that I've never expierenced network news before, not because I am watching it from the Fox station, but because a producer sitting next to me sighs when Greta finishes an incredible interview. I ask her if she was the one that put it together and she says, "yeah, I had to edit that so fast." I am shocked when a booker tells me how much Fox paid the guest on the show to get interviewed on national television, and how many phone calls it took to reach her. I talk to the people who just realized thier brother in law is a murdurer, as I cue them into the show. I suddenly feel like I am a part of something greater than myself. I become a piece to a large puzzle that news directors, editors, producers, reporters, and photographers piece together everyday in order to keep millions of people informed. I find myslef looking up news just for fun and researching breaking news from other stations. This is precisley when I know I am just like everyone else...who is addicted to finding the next breaking news story.

It was once said that a black man would become president when pigs fly...now there's swine flu

The worst possible thing that could ever happen to a person working in the news is catching the epidemic that is talked about 24/7. The people they work with are experts about the disease, how many people it has affected, and what states have had the most contact. New York happens to be at the top of that list for swine flu. I don't know why, its pretty far from Mexico. But everyone here, except for Brad (a producer), is terrified of catching the dreaded disease. Tracey (AP) came in two days ago and said, "I am scared to ride the subway after what Joe Biden said. Someone next to me sneezed and now I'm probably gonna die." The story meetings are filled with jokes about banishing all people who have the swine flu. And finally, we find that a boy in Texas is now dead. Two days ago Brad asked me if I was scared to get the swine flu now that I moved to New York. I said, "I'm not freaking out about it. But I don't want to get it, especially because people are dying of this disease." He said, "Psh...one person in the united states died and he was probably Mexican. No cases have been reported in Manhattan." What he doesn't know is that I got an email from the house president that someone in my building went to Mexico on spring break and has swine flu. This person lives in Manhattan. But like I said, I'm not freaking out about it. Yesterday I went on a run and for some reason felt extremely exhausted afterwards. It took me forever to get ready and the pollen from the trees was making my nose run. I went into work and like normal signs were flashing all over the desktop TV screens about swine flu. I felt my nose running again and wondered how pollen could get to the eighteenth floor in the middle of a city. In the story meeting that day I constantly felt like sneezing. Have you ever tried suppressing a sneeze? First of all its not a pretty sight and second its almost painful when the reverse process takes place. I did sneeze and everyone looked at me, not really in a good way. Justin is a field producer and constantly goes out with Greta to whatever state she may be in that day. He wasn't there so they gave me his desk. I constantly tried to hide my running nose. But it was one of those things that couldn't be helped. Plus it was progressively getting worse. Finally I couldn't help it any longer and had to constantly run to the bathroom to blow my nose. The sneezing couldn't be helped either and came at involuntary moments. Suddenly everyone could tell I was getting sick but they didn't want to say anything. I felt like crap, not only was my nose all red, my head felt congested, but my throat began feeling raw and my body ached.
I felt exhausted and would realize that I was zoning out when Gissel was trying to get my attention, "Erika? You ok?....Can you email that info to Sam?" By the time the show came around, I wanted to die. I was glad that the control room was dark so no one could see my suffering pain. I sat like a zombie with a tissue, frozen in one position so my nose wouldn't start running all over again. Brad kept making jokes and talking to me, but I accidentally ignored him for half of them. My goal was to just get through the show. I sneezed and everyone in the control room said, "bless you" during the middle of a commercial break. Final it was over and everyone started heading out. The executive producer, Meade, said, "How do you like the show? Good. Have a great weekend. And try to recover." Try to recover?! All my attempts to hide my sickness never got passed Meade. She is aware of everything going on around here. Journalists just have to be more aware I guess. I was embarrassed, the subway took eternity to take me home, only to have the worst night of my life. I was in misery. My body hurt, my nose kept running, my throat was raw, I wished I was dead. I don't think I slept much last night. Today all the BYU students went to the Statue of Liberty. I told Kathrine to tell them to leave without me. How Depressing!!! I've always wanted to see that, but I don't think I would have survived. I walked to Rite Aide and bought day quill. The lady at the counter laughed. I turned around and saw disposable masks on sale. I really didn't think anything was funny.

It was almost Like An Affiar to Remember

I have noticed several things about New York City, particularly now that I am becoming more used to the area. People here cross the street even if the light is green, everyone is recycle crazy, pigeons should be the new state bird, for being one of the top fashion capitals of the world no one ever gets ready for the day, better yet dress up, the subway route has an express train that we unfortunately found by ending up at the wrong destination, and we saw every breed of dog that exists outside on a leash this morning. Which brings me to today. Kathrine and I went on a gorgeous run this morning. Yesterday, next to the Hudson river, we found a trail that took us to a rather trashy area of Harlem, so we decided to start running in the opposite direction today. On on side you could see huge trees along the Hudson river, taller than the Provo trees that line south campus apartments. And on the other side were giant apartment complexes. Bigger than the apartments in Salt Lake. Some even remind me of the enchanted ones. Soon enough we came to a part of the trail with flowering trees on both sides, it was gorgeous. That was our last run together. Now the party for the past couple days is over and the real work begins.
Kathrine and I went to our stations for the first time today. She went to Dateline and I went to Fox. Other BYU students also go to dateline, Dave goes to Fox's morning show, and I am the only one that goes to Fox news at night. My job is to work with a show called "On the Record" hosted by Greta Van Susteren. It is the top rated news show for the 10pm hour in the nation. Months before I came I researched information about Greta and watched the show constantly. She seemed pretty down to earth so I was excited to work with her. My first day, someone had to let me into the building because Fox is located in Avenue of the America's, a highly secured building. I started talking to this person and found out she has been working for Fox for 12 years. Little did I know, she was the Executive Producer for Greta's show. Her name is Meade and is obivously very successful in what she does. I found out the first day...she is very passionate about the news. You kind of have to be in order to sell your nights, weekends, holidays, and birthdays to it. In my producing book they tell you the description of a power producer, someone who works under pressure but doesn't freak out, someone in control who isn't bossy, someone who knows how to work with a team and let other people do thier jobs. I didn't think a person like that actually exsisted until I met Meade. I found out that Greta's show had another intern but she was leaving the day I came in. During the story meeting they had cupcakes for her going away party. I decided I was going to like it here. Meade had told me some things in the elevator before we actually reaced the 18th floor. I was extremely depressed to learn that Greta lived in D.C. and her show was sent to New York for editing. I asked if Greta ever came to New York and Meade said, "I think Greta likes New York. She has an appartment near here, and comes to the new york studio often." It was a relief until I talked to the other intern who said, "Greta hardley ever comes to the New York studio. I only met her once in the time that I've interned here." Before coming to New York, I was so excited to meet Greta, now I was just depressed. As the day wore on I became more and more ok with the fact that the anchor lived in a different state. The old intern trained me on several things and told me the ins and outs of the show. She also told me about the people I would be working with and what they do. She said that Meade was like the Wedding Planner, extremely successful, but she goes home to an empty house every night. Personally I don't think Meade ever goes home, it seems like she lives off of AP wires and show graphics. I don't know if I could ever do that, but I think she is incredible for it. Justin was the producer in the field. He travels a lot and sometimes gets air time. I guess he wants to be an on air personality someday. But then again, who doesn't. Tracey and Gissel are the people I would be working with most, they are Assistant Producers for the show. Tom and Sam are booking producers. Brad is one of the real producers. The writer lives in Los Angeles California and communicates by phone. Sometimes we have to put the speaker next to the phone so he can listen to an entire interview. That would be a hard job. I think it is also wierd that he can't get Ardome video. We were allways taught to write to the video. But the writer is accross the country and sometimes I'm the person picking the video. Anyway last night I was finding video off ardome when I met one of the editors. He asked where I was from and I said Utah. He said he had a friend that moved to Park City for a banking business because a lot of mormons lived out there and they like banking. I was like, what? We like banking? He then could tell I was confused and said, "Are you mormon?" I said yes and Tracey said, "did you know that Glenn Beck is a mormon? I went to one of his dinner conferences when I worked on his show and he said that it turned his life around." I think I like Glenn Beck more now. Then Tracey said that I should get into the banking business and be the economy reporter for park city. I think she is hillarious. Everyone told me that I would be freaked out when I came to New York. That it was this huge scary place I would never fit into. But now coming here, I realize that even though this place is different from what I am used to, people are still people and that will never change. I love the people that I work with. Everyone is so nice. I love walking through the city looking up. I like working in the editing room looking out the window to the hundreds of buildings below. It is different, but that doesn't mean I don't like it and could never understand a new york lifestyle, its just different and thats what I like about it.


The next day I went in for my first "real" day of work with out the help from the other intern. Her time was over and now I was alone to start working by myself. I walked in the door and Tracey said, "Erika! Greta is coming to the New York studio today so you might get to meet her!" That got me excited enough to start the day. I went to the story meeting, waited for stories to start coming through so I could find video for them, and moved to the editing room. I asked tracey if I could sit in the studio and watch the live news cast. She said that I probably could.

Enjoy the moment

So we found the Fox News Building today;) It was extremely exciting for me.

Every thing in New York is compact, even the grocery stores...;)


Have you ever experienced something you've heard about, maybe read about, seen pictures of, but never quite internalized until you actually find yourself physically involved in that place? Lately, I've been feeling a lot of that, especially today walking through the church of St. Paul’s at ground zero. I always knew the twin towers fell, and I always thought it was important to our history. But when Kathrine announced that we were going to see a random church, and a hole in the ground, I wasn’t way excited, but I wanted the bragging rights of saying I went to ground zero. We headed out on the subway with Dave and Kasey to see the sights. The church happened to be where hundreds of people were housed during the time that the twin towers fell. So I began walking around the very very old chapel, looking at the several different memorials, until one in particular caught my eye. It was full of teddy bears stacked on top of each other, gathered from a local teacher to send to the children in New York. I read the tag on one of the bears. It said, "To a special person" written in scribbled crayon. I stopped and stared at it. Even a child understood how completely horrific something like this was and wanted to help someone else feel better. I realized that this was not just another tourist sight, but an actual place that once had two buildings, with hundreds of people, and many of whom had died. I realized the incredible amount of unity a country can have for one another, even if it is just comes down to sharing something as simple as a teddy bear.
That night I went up to the very top floor of my building to see Kasey’s room. I wanted to go because she calls her room the Harry Potter room. Apparently, she has the only room on the 12 floor and the elevator doesn’t even reach her level. So I had to find it of course;) the curiosity was gnawing at me. Walking up the staircase, we got to her room. When she showed it to me she said, “Do you want to go outside?” and she began climbing out her window. I guess she has a fire escape outside her window, so it is kind of like a balcony. When I climbed outside the window a gust of warm air rushed past me and I realized that you could see whatever you wanted from up there. If you walked to the right you could see the Hudson River and Brooklyn bridge lit up like a Christmas tree. If you walked up the fire escape ladder you could see the empire state building and all the city lights in their splendor. It was gorgeous, and I found my self never wanting to leave. It looked like it was a picture from a postcard that someone had sent me from New York. But no, this was real, completely real, and I soaked up every second that I became apart of this incredible place.

Beep...Beep...Beep...
My alarm brought more realization than a wake up call. Today was the day, there was no turning back. Five o' clock in the morning, and I would soon be reconstructing a new environment for myself thousands of miles away from a place I have lived my entire life.
Scared, nervous, and excited? The typical emotions never hit me, instead, I felt exaughsted, and mellow. To be quite honest, finals, packing, and moving an apartment can slowly suck life out of you. Finally at the airport my mom gave me another bag and said, "Are you sure you don't want me to park the car and come check in with you?" At the moment I must admit I thought about saying, "yes please come help me check in, I have no idea where to go". But instead, "no, I'll be fine" was all I said.
Kathrine and I met, boarded our plane, and after a boring five hour flight...ended up at one of the largest airports in the world...with all our stuff...trying to get a taxi. Imagine huge bags tipping over curbs, and two Utah girls looking confused.
Once Kathrine and I were in a taxi driving through Harlem, the driver noticed I was staring out the window and said in a thick accent,"Don't worry, there are some white people on the nicer side of Harlem." Besides having a city with completely black people, Harlem was not shokingly different like everyone told me it was going to be. In fact, it was just like I expected. Graffiti, houses extremely close together, small shops everywhere, and crazy traffic.
Then we started driving down a street with trees and huge buldings...this place would be my new home.

Kathrine and I ran around exploring...we found that you aren't in Utah anymore when you see:

So we have an old fashioned style...and found a phone booth that looked liked it was transported from the fifties.

And this is the street where we live: