I owe you a bunch of blog posts

I know.  It's been a long past week, filled with out of the ordinary events, long days at the office, and feeling a bit under the weather which has led to major blog regret.  I apologize...major literary party foul on my part.  I'm just going to jump right in so bare with me.  

PARAB: Saturday, October 16, 2010

        The Clemson vs. Maryland game was my first time working for Raycom's production side, and I must say that I could not have had a more positive experience.  As a Clemson fan, the ultimate experience is to get to stand on the field and watch a game.  The ultimate experience is to be in borderline inappropriate proximity to C.J. Spiller throughout the entire game.  The ultimate experience is to get to listen to the Dabo Sweeny and his boys talk football in there huddles.  The ultimate is to watch the Tigers cruise to victory...in short, the ultimate is to work the Parab on the field during a Clemson game.  I had the ultimate Clemson (and work, for that matter) experience that Saturday. 

        But let's start from the beginning of the day.  We were expected to check in at the Raycom truck by 8:30 and head up to the Press Box for breakfast.  The first person I ran into in the press box was Mike Hogwood (Raycom sideline reporter), and I got to introduce myself to him, which was cool because he is actually a friend of Uncle Chip's from Greensboro.  We got to meet a lot of the people on the Raycom production team during breakfast while we were waiting to hear our assignments for the day.  Several of those people were ones I interacted with throughout the day and the entire production staff for Raycom could not be more accommodating and fun to be around.  By 9:15 we were told our assignments: Sarah and I would be working the parabs that day, which I later found out is short for Parabolic, because of it's shape.  I don't know if you are familiar at all with this...and again, this is a rookie explanation, as are every one of my production explanations...but the parab is the bubble like shape that you will normally see guys holding on the sidelines of a football game.  

This picture was found on the following website: http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_13674073.  Photographed by Michael Owen Baker, Daily News staff photographer.

        More about that later.  We didn't have to report anywhere until 11:15 so we had a large amount of time to simply hang out with the production staff and walk around the stadium which was one of the many highlights of the day for me.  The production truck had a lot of people going in and out of it, and everyone was working on some kind of job, whether it was organizing the pregame show for the broadcast, or editing graphics that would appear when players were being discussed during the game.  We also walked into the "First and 10" truck.  Yes, there were 2 guys who's sole purpose was to move the first and 10 line throughout the game.  Most of their work was done before the game ever started, and needless to say, their is potential to get quite bored if you are working first and 10 for a game in which you are not emotionally involved.  I suggested they bring an extra laptop next time and pull up other games on the Internet to keep themselves entertained throughout the 3-4 hours of isolation in a truck.  SO if in the next couple of weeks you are watching a Raycom Broadcast that seems inaccurate, it could be my fault.  

        We still had plenty of time so I walked out to the empty stadium and looked out over the perfectly manicured field.  The sky was clear and blue and the balloons had all been secured by Central Spirit at the bottom of the hill and were ready for release when the time was right.  There was no one out there, no fans, no football players, and yet you could still tell it was game day.  Death Valley has that intangible quality on a game day and I got chills just walking up and down the steps.  When I stepped out on the field, I got that feeling that I used to get before a lacrosse game in High School.  I don't know if it was that I have never stepped on that field on Game Day, or that I knew I was about to work a device that I had no idea how to operate, or that we had lost the past 3 games, and I could feel the added pressure to win, but I got a nervous feeling that I haven't felt in a long time when I realized that I would not be heading up to the comfort (and I use that term loosely) of the student section. 

        I reported to my station at the 20 yard line 45 minutes before kickoff for a quick rundown of what I was going to be doing during the game.  I found out that I would be holding a Parabparab.  The things you want to pick up are any clear contact with the ball (kicks, big catches, etc...), tackles and fumbles, and banter on the field and in the huddle among coaches and players.  It was like discovering a whole new part of the game the first time I heard each of these sounds.  I found myself experimenting with the best way to capture the most clear sound.  I found that I almost wanted to try and get up AND over the sound, so for me holding the parab up higher and tilting it slightly forward often worked best.  You have to be careful about where you point it, because if you are aiming at a play, but the parab is also in line with the band, that is all you will hear.  I mean, this device picks up a clap from across the field, so you can imagine what a marching band would sound like in your headphones. 

        Highlights of the game were: Actually enjoying the parab (many find it boring but I found it fascinating!) Getting to enjoy a game day experience at Clemson on the field.  Standing next to C.J. Spiller for the vast majority of the game...I didn't reach out and touch him, against the wishes of many of my friends, for fear of being fired.  Almost getting tackled 3 times!!!...So close to making sports center.  The last time it happened I seriously considered NOT running backwards out of the way.  Overall, I learned a lot that day and enjoyed every tiring minute of it!  

TBC...with more adventures from this week!

COMING SOON (as in hopefully tomorrow):

Monday Night Amazing Race with Charlotte Sports Commission and Visit Charlotte

ACC Media Day: Basketball

Clemson Game

Peer Mentoring...is that a stretch?

        OH! I forgot to mention that we had a peer mentoring session today as well.  Will Webb's friend's daughter came into the office today to talk to him about breaking into the sports business.  She is a senior at USC (as in University of Southern California) and wants to be a sideline reporter, so really...she had a lot more in common with Sarah as far as career aspirations.  Those of us who want to break into sports are pretty much all in the same boat.  At least those of who choose to do something about it.  I'm sure I've mentioned this before but one of my BIGGEST pet peeves about the entire job search process was talking to my guy friends about what I wanted to do with my career, and listening to them laugh at me and say "oh yeah, I used to want to work in sports too, and then I stepped back into reality".  There are quite a few of you, and you know who you are.  It's a matter of taking initiative, calling and emailing everyone you know, getting your name out their in multiple markets, feeling like you are being borderline annoying (while managing that fine line so that you stay on the right side of the border).  It's about being slightly talented, knowing the right people, working hard, and REALLY wanting it.  So I'm glad i never stepped into the reality of my friends, and I hope that the girl that came by the office today steers clear of that reality as well.  Sarah and I talked to her about volunteering for everything she could, sticking her hands in ALL things sport (whether in television or not) and trying to learn everything she can.  That is what we are doing after all.  We also gave her each of our cards.  For the first time, even before landing a full time job, I felt like I was giving back an opportunity that had been afforded to me by all of the contacts that people helped me out with.  We encouraged her to stay in touch.  And IF she does get in touch, I am going to promise never to neglect to respond.  If she can't get in touch with Sarah or me, who CAN she get in touch with?  Anyways, talking to her brought back a lot of feelings about the terrible job search process, and made me remember both the good and the bad, the productive and unproductive meetings I had.  I hope she felt like this was a productive meeting.  Also, it reminded me that I could be doing this exact same thing, again, in a couple of months.  YIKES!

University of Charlotte Collegiate Football, at Raycom Sports

        Sarah really set the tone for the day this morning when she sent me a BBM that read "Can we be casual today on this rainy morning?"  I was off to work in my jeans before you could say "Brooks Brothers".  When we got to work this morning, we realized that we LEGIT had nothing to do, so we had to get creative.  And thus began my learning experience at the UCCF RS (University of Charlotte Collegiate Football at Raycom Sports).

        We decided to head up to the production hall to do some voice over work for fun.  Unfortunately, our trusty production intern, Duzan, was in God's Country (Clemson, for those of you who are sadly uninformed) today, and he was the one who offered to set us up to do some VO practice.  Instead, we decided to mosey around the production area to see what we could learn.  Luckily, they were feeding the ACC Football Impact show.  Don't worry, I didn't have any idea what that meant either, but I'm going to take my best stab at explaining it.  So they were "feeding" the show to a network in Atlanta.  I am not going to be able to describe this technically right, but my best understanding is that essentially, they are running a show from our raycom office and sending it to a the local network, which in this case was located in Atlanta.  So when we (as in Raycom) run it, they (as in Atlanta, or other local network) have the ability to record it, and they have 2 recording options from which to choose, HD and SD (standard definition).  From the Raycom end, Peter Rolfe was sitting at a desk with a phone, waiting to answer any questions or respond to any problems that the Atlanta network might have dealt with.  During the feed, they noticed a little glitch in the show.  It was so small that it almost seemed like an effect, but it was indeed something that needed to be fixed before it aired.  Luckily, Raycom feeds it twice with a couple of hours in between each feed, so they have time to fix any glitches.
        And I finally figured out the commercial thing.  So you know how there are all these different commercials some local, some that you see nationally?  Have you ever wondered how they are placed during commercial breaks? I have. But it's cool.  So the larger, national or regional companies make deals with networks like Raycom and so Raycom has those commercials "on file", pull them, and place them in the show BEFORE it gets fed to local networks.  Now the local networks have deals with local companies and so they have the local commercials on file.  When Raycom feeds the show to Atlanta, it is fed with the larger company's commercials already placed in it.  So those are set.  But it also has room for local commercials that the Atlanta companies can place at their discretion.  The space just is fed as a period of black. I'm sure I have massacred TV language and the general explanation of how a television show is run, but that is my general understanding.

        After our lecture, Sarah and I took a field trip to South Park mall to perform some research on clothing pieces that we might use for several CCF events.  After surveying a few floors, we found several options that I am sure will work well, so we decided to treat ourselves to a lunch break at Arther's.  Going through the lunch line, ordering simple sandwiches, I remarked to Sarah about how terribly we used to eat at the start of this internship, and how much better we had gotten.  That lasted through lunch.  On our way out of the mall, we took a convenient wrong turn that led us right past Yoforia, a frozen yogurt joint ( I tried to write "Fro Yo here...it just doesn't sound right coming from me).  I'm still contemplating whether or not to hold a grudge against Sarah for 'making' me walk into the store. But I'll be honest...I did not put up much of a fight.  

        When we got back, we went to our next 'class' with Professor Pitts on Sponsorships.  He showed us the contracts and presentations he has come up with for each of the prospective sponsors.  I asked Will if it was hard to be a Sales Person, like whether it's not easy to sell something that people are not necessarily excited about buying.  He said it was hard, but he enjoys what he does.  We talked about how it was hard to sell something that is not so much a physical product, but more of an experience.  We also talked about how to target prospective clients.  For instance, why would Bank of America want to be a title sponsor of the Bowl game?  Their logo is literally on every piece of collateral we use for both of the games already because we are using the Bank of America Stadium, so they would be paying extra for advertising that they are pretty much already enjoying the benefits of.  We also brainstormed some more innovative ways to cultivate relationships with prospective sponsors.  Productive class.  

        Our last lecture was with Chad Swofford on marketing strategy.  We have 1 pair of tickets to give away during the entire period leading up to the game.  What I want to figure out is how to best utilize the tickets in a way that is fun for our followers, but also promotes increased followership...Have I mentioned that I reserve the right to use questionable words in these posts?  One option I discussed was maybe putting it out there that we need to reach a certain number of followers and once we do that we will be giving away tickets.  We could use our current followers to invite their friends to the site, in the hopes that we will have this contest...the problem is that we don't know if people will care enough to invite friends.  It's frustrating because we are trying to promote 2 games that are essentially irrelevant until at least November.  Anyways we had some interesting conversations about all of this.  If you haven't already PLEASE follow us on twitter: @MeinekeBowlGame, @ACCFOOTBALLCLT, and @ExtraPointPass and "Like" us on facebook.  I'm trying to reach a social media goal here people.  Help me make the grade.  

***Disclaimer: I am fully aware that the analogy was QUITE corny.  Thanks for baring with my sad attempt at creative writing.***

Getting to know the family, on this side of 20

        I forgot to mention yesterday how much I enjoyed going to dinner with my cousin  Bobby the other night.  Like I've said before, I am loving my job, and really enjoy living with Big Bobby and Ann, but I don't have much social interaction outside of work here, and really don't get out of the house much besides my weekend trips, which have been happening quite consistently this fall...thank you college football. SO when little Bobby called to get food at the Pizza Peel, I was very excited.  We had really candid, really great conversation about everything.  Girls, guys, worries, family, and Faith were among the many topics that occupied our conversation.  Coming from a big family, closeness among the cousins has been cultivated in us since the beginning.  But in the past couple of years, I have really enjoyed getting to know personally some of my older cousins on a more adult level.  It is really special when you realize, these are the people that I would be LUCKY and honored to have as my friends, even if they weren't in my family.  Bobby is both an Excellent women's high school basketball coach, and a religion teacher at Charlotte Catholic.  I knew how much he loved coaching.  Seriously, he is talented, and the girls really respond to his coaching methods.  I honestly never thought about how invested he was in teaching these kids about faith, and helping these high schoolers struggle through figuring out where they stand from a spiritual standpoint. I've had this experience with several cousins in the past couple of years.  While I do miss the days of being carefree kids, and Carrie, Erin, Lander, and I being known as the 'little girls' (we're still pretty much referred to that way), I am really enjoying this new 'Adult'  where I am getting to know who everyone really is...whether that means finding out how dysfunctional we all are or not.    At the same token, growing up means dealing with different struggles and I want my family to know that I am praying for each of you.  
        On this whole family note, Uncle Bobby was at home for the first time right after work in I don't know how long.  We were testing out his new iPad and decided to watch a few YouTube videos.  Ann and Bobby both had great choices, and I wanted to share one of those with you now:

Ladies and Gentlemen: Georgia Congressman (D), Mr. Hank Johnson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs23CjIWMgA

...and the "Brother and Sister Dental Odyssey":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig-pZ4OyidY

 

Enjoy!

 

 

       

Working and Tigers and Bears, Oh my!

        So tonight I'm going to play a little catch up.  Only because Friday was full of interesting little tidbits that I left out in the previous post.  I had to make my Friday night post short for two reasons: 1, because I had limited battery use while traveling, 2, because I had two very distracting friends in the front seat while I was trying write, and 3, because when I mentioned that I couldn't talk too much in the car because I needed to blog, Blake told me it was the dorkiest thing he had ever heard me say.  I will admit, It's a little embarrassing every time I have to say the words 'my' and 'blog' together.  So here is the rest of it...
        Friday started out as just one of those days...except a couple of hours earlier.  We had another Hood-Hargett monthly breakfast.  At this breakfast, there was no legendary Hugh McColl speaking, but there was a man named Chip Bell, a consultant based in Texas who essentially based his entire speech on customer service on his love affair with the the Jack Daniels distillery and how they keep their customers loyal.  He had some valid points, like involving your customers in your process.  Make them feel like their participation is specifically important to the success of your business.  Actively and personally seek feedback, and when you are seeking feedback, shy away from the defense mode.  Essentially, make your customer's feel like you are personally invested in them....I think.  His speech really wasn't the most memorable part of the entire breakfast.  The Jerald Melburg Gallery was the sponsor for this event, and the sponsor always has the opportunity to speak.  Mark Packer, better known for his work as the Packman- a sarcastic sports talk local radio celeb in Charlotte, has been MC'ing these events for seven years and as the MC, he must introduce the both the speaker and the sponsor.  Well, if any of you are familiar with Mr. Packer's tone, you would not be surprised that when he gets up to speak at these events, you can kind of feel the tension rise, like no one knows what he's about to say, and it could be get a little hairy.  Sure enough, it got hairy on Friday.  Mark Packer introduced the sponsor with a story about his latest trip to France, where he visited the Louvre.  He recalled the moment when he saw the Mona Lisa and said "Art, I just don't get it.  I mean that thing was tiny, and there were about 50 people standing around it!"  We got an email later that day that said the Hood Hargett Breakfast Club would be going in a different direction for their MC choice at any further Breakfast Club meetings.  A lesson in social graces for sure.  

        Sarah wasn't at work on Friday so it was just me in that big office, and I actually got a lot more done.  Will and I went to meet Mike Crum, Chief Operating Officer of Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, at the Mint Street lot where we would be designating space for a tailgate for 600 people from the CRVA.  They had a great idea to do their Christmas Party at the ACC Championship Game.  They are using the money they would spend on a big Christmas party and purchase a large block of tickets for their employees and family members instead.  The Baseball Lot is one that Will decided to purchase for the games so that we would have control over the use of it, so we have decided to use it for Tailgate space for clients like the CRVA.  Other than that, a large portion of Friday was spent on ticket programs (ones which, I found out today we might not be using).  I feel like this has been happening a lot lately.  Sarah and I will work on something for weeks, drafting it and getting it approved, and then changing it (upon request), redrafting it, changing it again, and then dropping whatever it is (upon suggestion).  I guess that is the life of the intern...use them as the guinea pig to see what works. 

       Like I mentioned, I went up to Chapel Hill this weekend, thanks to the generosity of Blake and Bridwell.  It was a nice trip, minus a couple of hours. Saturday there was this Clemson game.  Enough Said.  But on Saturday night, we stopped by Greensboro to have dinner with my parents.  Mom made Shrimp and Grits, which were awesome, and it was nice for my parents to get to meet some of my friends.  I did find myself laughing about nothing...for no reason at some points.  It was very awkward TV show moment of me, but I just couldn't help it.  I was waiting for either my friends or my family  to share SOMETHING with the other part of the group that I did not want shared...Luckily, that didn't happen too often.  Essentially, they just all agreed I was sort of a smart ass, and the conversation flowed naturally from there.  

        Kevin Conrad, Chris Conrad(the Conrads' cousins from Chicago), and Kevin's girlfriend  had come into town this past weekend for the Chicago Bears vs. Carolina Panthers game this weekend, and Uncle Bobby managed to scramble up lots of tickets to the game, so we all tailgated and went to the Bears VS. Panthers game on Sunday.  After a bad weekend of football, at least from my perspective, I decided to forget about my home team loyalties and cheer for a winning team.  Go Bears.  Ryan and I got to sit in Club seats, which meant that we had the best seats in the house to watchwatch ANY more football for the rest of the weekend.  

        This week has been a busy one, even in just 2 days.  We had Meineke (Like actual members of the company) join us for our Monday bowl game meeting for the first time since I've been working.   I had almost forgotten that Meineke Car Care was an actual company, with an identity outside of the bowl, because this is the only experience I've had with Meineke...even though I've probably said and typed the words several hundred times over the past couple of months.  

        Colin, over in Raycom invited Sarah and I to sit in on their New Media meeting which was actually interesting, because it got some ideas flowing for things we can be doing better with Bowl and Championship media.  Last week I noticed that we have really dropped the ball on our attention to our social media pages, and so we've tried to be more intentional about our social media use this week. 
        Ticketing has been the other item on the agenda for the week.  And with a few new projects, I feel like I have gotten a crash course in Ticketing, mapping availability, and pricing over the past 2 days.  
        Alright, a police man just knocked on the door.  He had the wrong address...but bottom line, it's time to go to bed after a scare like that!

Live, from the Mariott in Chapel Hill

As I am writing this blog post, I am sitting in the car with Blake and Bridwell on my way up to the Clemson/ Chapel Hill football game!  It was a very last minute decision , that I made as I was packing up my work space this afternoon, when Bridwell called me for one last invitation.   For anyone who needs leverage to get me to do something: if at first you don’t get a yes…ask, ask again!  Chances are, you can convince me.

I felt really good about the last few days of work.  On Wednesday we met with the General Managers (team captains) or the Leatherheads, to discuss ways to encourage leatherheads to sell.  There is an enormous amount of pressure to make the ACC Championship a sellout during its first year in Charlotte.  We came up with a challenge for our leatherheads that should be an awesome incentive for increased sales during the month of October.  The October ACC Ticket Challenge will start on Monday and will go as follows.  Everyone who has sold 200 tickets  throughout the entire sales period (January-October) will be entered into a pot.  Everyone who sells 200 tickets during the challenge period (October 11-October 31) will be entered into the pot.  Leatherheads are eligible to be entered twice, but only qualify for one prize.  If leatherheads sell more than 300 tickets they will automatically win one of four prizes, based on the number of tickets they sell.  The prizes are things to REALLY get excited about. 

-Two tickets, 2 field passes, and a parking pass to the Carolina Panthers  vs. New Orleans Saints

- Two tickets to the BCS National Championship Game

-Two ticket books to the Men’s Basketball ACC Tournement

If that doesn’t get these guys to sell, I don’t know what will.  The Leatherheads are going to have to go through us (the interns) to make this sale so we’ll will be getting some great practice with ticket sales in the next month!

Yesterday we had a Meeting with Chris Clouden of the Charlotte Sports Commission to go over the ACC Night of Legends event, which was much needed and brought up some really good questions as far as food and decorations go.  The price points for the food are a little high.  I’m not sure I can talk price points in the blog, but it is shocking how much people can charge for a beef oscar with a crab meat garnish.  It is really interesting to talk putting on a dinner for 1000 people.  Essentially, the best thing to do is go to a the group and give them a price point “all in” meaning including tax and gratuity and ask them to get creative and give you the best they can for that price.  There is a difference in having an hors d’ouevres (if someone can tell me how to spell that…it’d be great) station and passing them around.  When you pass, people take less and it ends up being less expensive for the committee.  With wine, we have to pour so that we can manage tables with players at them.  All things you don’t think about while you are sitting at these dinners, but things that must be discussed in planning them.  I also had to talk to figure out who was taping the show at the night of legends and we need to figure how much space they are going to need to shoot.  I learned a LOT in that meeting. 

Stop the Flu BEFORE it stops you!

        Good news folks.  This kid will not be getting sick in the flu season.  I know what you Clemson people are thinking: 'Bryson can go through a year without getting sick? Impossible.'  But I'm getting 8 hours of sleep almost every night, and I got the key ingredient to health through the winter today...A flu shot!  Thank you, Raycom Sports.  It was funny to see everyone's reactions to the shot, until I got up to the front of the line and realized that the needle was 2 inches long.  Yikes.  Oh well, if I don't have an adverse reaction to the shot, I will be flu free this year!
        In other, more applicable, news, I have signed up to crew for the Clemson vs. Maryland game next weekend and I am really excited to see and work in the production side of Raycom.  From what I've heard, whatever responsibility they give to the utilities staff should be pretty simple, maybe even a little bit boring.  BUT, I'm just excited about working and being right in the middle of all of that game excitement. 
        I got the call today.  The wake up call.  I am 4 months out from being potentially unemployed.  I've started looking at job openings, but it's not like it was before I got this job, when EVERYTHING was potentially interesting to me.  I've narrowed down what I want to do, and there are not as many opportunities.  Also, I hadn't been searching for opportunities with other bowls before, and now I don't know where to go to find the available postings.  This is the bad part of being a glorified intern, as soon as you settle into one job, you've got to making your next career move.  Kind of scary!
        OK, y'all.  If you are living in the Charlotte area, I'm plugging it to you again.  Buy your Extra Point Passes.  If not for the benefits at restaurants like Fox and Hound, Morton's, and Ruths Chris, then do it because it's good for Charlotte and a great way to support the games!  We want to KEEP the ACC Championship in North Carolina, and we need to make the first year a major success to do so!  Go to www.extrapointpass.com to purchase your passes.

Monday, Monday...

        There was an unannounced meeting this morning for the bowl at 9 am, which was awesome because I had not prepared one thing for it, having not known about it.  Luckily, no one else got the memo either, so half of the regular attendants weren't even there.  It was a nice small group, and luckily there was no need for updated materials, as there was no one to present updated materials to.  Typically, we have a 9 AM Monday morning meeting with the Bowl, and a 10 AM meeting for the Championship.  By typically, I mean that we will have the meetings on some Mondays, but should apparently be ready for them every week.  Note to self.  Anyways, on our way to the next meeting, there was a traffic jam in the reception area of Raycom.  Literally, at least 30 people were standing in the reception area crowded around a 32" flat screen, watching the 21 year old American teammate on the Ryder Cup, Jeff Overton, make an incredible shot towards the end of the tournament.  It was pretty hilarious, actually.  Will Webb literally announced to the front office that our meeting was going to be pushed back 10 minutes.  When we finally made it to the board room, we opened the blinds to the window that faced the television, which meant that NO ONE was paying attention to the meeting, and that everyone, except for Will Webb, watched the US lose the Ryder Cup. 
        Other than that, we worked on some of our ongoing projects for most of the day.  One of those projects was to make sure people who've purchased ACC championship tickets have actually payed for them.  One of our fabulous customers didn't even realize she had purchased tickets.  She said she was an SEC fan and didn't have any reason to purchase the ACC tickets (although we had records of her doing so).  Any guesses as to which school this clever customer was a fan of?  That's right University of South Carolina.  Clever bunch of folks, aren't they?  Sarah's dad came into the office today to meet the group and take her out to lunch.  Sarah and I have actually talked a lot about family and friends.  It's been cool to get to know her on a personal level, and it was nice to put a face with the name of one of the people she's told me about.
At 4 we headed over to the Stadium to begin planning for the Coaches Reception in Suite 87.  Liz Ballenger took us around to show us how guests would enter, where each of the food stations etc...would be set up, and what we needed to order to bring in.  We talked menus too, and I am going to have their chef send us some different options to decide between.  We asked Liz about how they created meals for all the suites and she said that at the beginning of each season the chefs will cook EVERYTHING on the menu for any new suites.  That way the person in charge of that suite will know what each thing is supposed to look like and will no whether or not they need to send it back to the kitchen if it looks under cooked or whatever.  So they have this huge taste testing around June.  I told Liz that it is a possibility that I will be unemployed at that point, and if so, would be happy to be contracted out to taste test for a living.  Seriously,  people joke that all we do is go to meetings and talk food, but really...it's a large portion of the job description right now! 
        I talked to Will Qualkinbush, sports information extraordinare from Clemson, and it made me miss College.  Who am I kidding, I always miss college, but he made me miss the people there.  On the plus side, he totally helped me pick out my outfit for tomorrow.  If he ever reads this he will die, but folks, Will put a lot of thought into tomorrow's ensemble.  I'm pretty excited about it.

ACC Football Impact Shoot

        Note to self: do not ever skip eye makeup.  I didn't wear mascara to work yesterday and both Courtney and my Aunt Ann asked me if I was ok...yikes.  Tuesday night we went to the shoot for ACC Football Impact Shoot.  It is crazy how much stuff goes into shooting a 30 minute show.  Moving lighting centimeter by centimeter, wardrobe changes, anchor placement, etc.  Danielle Trotta, who is the field reporter for Nascar is the host of the show, and was SO sweet.  Sarah has actually had lunch with her because she's essentially doing Sarah's dream job.  It's funny because I went into Clemson thinking that I'd want to get into broadcast, but realized quickly that I don't have the look or the talent for that.  On top of that, I realized the other night that the broadcast thing is not for me.  Watching Danielle do her job really stressed me out.  First of all, production shoots 4 shows in one night, so she has to remember her lines for the segments, times 4.  Interesting fact: the last segment of the show is the highly entertaining ACC Roadtrip Footage.  Because they shoot the shows for the month before the games happen, Danielle has to pretend like she's seen what's been shot when it really hasn't happened.  Furthermore, the script has to be specific enough to introduce footage, but vague enough to allow for changes in the Roadtrip shoot.

ACC Football Impact Shoot

Daniel Trotta getting ready to shoot

        I don't understand how you remember all that material, and make it sound like it's second nature to you.  While it wasn't what I'd want to do with my career, necessarily, every aspect was pretty interesting..  For instance, the camera stand called a Jimmy Jib (ha...i liked the name), is set to move in the opposite direction of where you move your hands.  I likened it to steering with a rudder, but no one understood my sailing reference in the room.  Oh well.  I thought Dad would appreciate that.