JT's Journal

Someone to think about…

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:24:40 GMT

First of all, I want to say again I don’t think Friday the 13th's are unlucky days. I always seem to have good luck on them.

I could list a number of things today, but let me just begin with the SUNSHINE. It felt so good to get the clouds out of the way for an entire day, and be able to step outside without the scarf and big winter coat. (I actually opted for a sweater today … walking on the wild side!) The forecast calls for increasing temperatures through the weekend and we may hit 50 by St. Patty’s Day. I’m thinking that’s all good.

Speaking of sunshine ... I want to share a link from a story on one of our local on-line publications. It’s about one of my favorite people in the world. Darcy Pohland is such a fun friend.

She is also a daily reminder to me that we a lot of life is what you make of it. Darcy is one of the best reporters in the Twin Cities, and she does it all from a wheelchair. She lives with daily challenges to do the things most of us take for granted, yet she rolls in to our morning editorial meetings every single day as a burst of positive energy.

She is funny, upbeat, and creative. Dennis Douda and I often refer to her as Little Miss Sunshine, because every time she enters the room, you get a dose of light. It comes from within, and we all could take a lesson from Darcy to look for the good in every day, and get on with it. So take a moment and check out the article.

I’m honored she credits me with such a happy memory. It was just as fun for us, and I loved her overcoming her fear and saying “Why Not”? Life is always more fun if you can remember those two words.

And Darcy is putting her optimism into full gear these days for her beloved Gophers. Today she is wearing her dad’s letterman’s sweater.

He earned it in track and field. She’s feeling quit optimistic that the Gophers will be part of March Madness and the NCAA Tourney. Why not? After all, it is a lucky day.

Have a great weekend my friends!

Enough Already!

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:10:04 GMT

I love the Twin Cities. I really do. In fact, I get kind of defensive when I run into old friends back in California and they ask me "Why?" when I tell them I'm living in Minnesota these days. But last night, I seriously was asking myself that very same question.

The last few days have been a little too gloomy for me. I want sunshine. But it's bearable this time of year because you know things are about to change. And so when I left work last night, to a nice little snowfall, I really didn't mind too much. The temperature wasn't too bad, and most of the snow was melting when it hit the ground.

However, by the time I got home, checked the mail, got the make-up off, and the appropriate clothes on for walking the dog, things had changed dramatically. The cold front Chris Shaffer was talking about all day had moved in. The temperature had dropped dramatically, and the wind had seriously picked up. Madelyn is a husky and doesn't mind it, but even she was squinting into the gusts of icy cold when they hit us head-on. At one point she looked up at me, looking as if she was wondering if I was okay. I'm thinking she realizes that when she's cold, I've got to be freezing.

She was right. My winter coat was doing the trick for my upper body, but my exposed face was in pain. And though I had gloves on, I was losing all feeling in my fingertips. I wanted us home as fast as possible.

We were parked not far from where that car smashed into a building on Excelsior Blvd. in Minneapolis. I was checking it out from across the street when I heard a woman waiting for the bus nearby yell "Look out, look out." Another car was sliding down the road and heading right toward me. I ran to get out of the way, but Madelyn was perplexed why I was moving so fast and wasn't coming with me. I was dragging her by the leash and collar as fast as I could run on the slippery sidewalk down a side street.

We barely managed to get out of the way as the car slide right into the pole where we were standing a few seconds before. The poor woman who hit the pole was so concerned about us, she didn't seem to care she had smashed her car into the pole. I asked if she wanted me to call someone, and she said she was just so afraid she was going to hit Madelyn. As we watched car after car slide through the intersection, she opted to just back out and deal with the damage to her vehicle later and get herself out of harms way. Smart move. (The pole, by the way, was just fine.)

I ran home and was so thankful to be indoors and safe. I took my cold wet clothes off, bundled up and put some fuzzy mittens on so my frozen fingers could thaw. It was at that moment I thought "And why am I living here when most of my loved ones are probably firing up the barbecues with the arrival of Daylight Saving Time?

I'm not going to end my love affair with Minnesota and the Twin Cities because of one bad night. I love the music, the theatre, the Vikings, the Wild and the Twins. I love that I can see a rock concert in St. Paul and be home and in bed by 11 p.m. I love how Minnesotans "embrace winter" with events like the City of Lakes Loppet, the Winter Carnival and the Pond Hockey Tournament. But these are the days that test strength of a relationship. And when I got up this morning to go work out, and heard my friends on the radio telling me it was still 2-below, I was ready to call the whole thing off.

(I did call the work-out off and opted for leisurely coffee and the paper in my warm bed.)

I realize every relationship goes through it's highs and lows. I'm just ready for some highs above zero.

May I Suggest...

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:50:42 GMT

I love having a music archeologist like Carly helping me suggest musicians or groups to check out, as she spend a lot more time than I do seeking out new and different finds.

But I went to see one of my favorite live performers last night, and I thought I’d make my own "Pick of the Week" today. (Those of you on Facebook or Twitter already got my recommendation to go see the concert on Saturday... sign up friends!)

I first saw Susan Werner in this little bar called the "M-Shop" on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames. She was a friend of a friend, so I went to check her out.

At the time, I was in a state of mourning because I had been offered a pretty cool job somewhere far, far away from Iowa. But the station I was working for wouldn’t let me out of my contract to take it. I was feeling stuck, and a bit bitter that bigger and better things were calling and I couldn’t answer. I wanted more back then. More money, more challenge, more opportunity for, well, more.

Well as I stood in the back of the M-Shop with a group of friends, I was moved to tears by this one song Susan wrote and performed. It’s called "May I Suggest To You." You can see what appears to be home video of her performing it here:

It’s basically a song about stepping back and seeing how good your life is, just where it is. I realized that first time I heard it I was focusing on all the wrong things at the time, instead of the amazing life I was living right where I was.

So when she played it last night, I got to thinking how things have changed since then. And how I never would have predicted I’d be living in an ever colder climate than Iowa, even farther away from home years later. And yet, I was so thankful for how things played out ... how truly blessed I have been.

In a time when we all have friends and relatives losing jobs, homes and any sense of financial security, it’s easy to focus on the tragedies of "these troubled times." The way it works in life is that things rarely go as we had planned. And whether you believe in God, or universal forces or choose not to believe in higher powers of any kind, the truth is there is good to be found even in the worst of times.

I’m not trying to say losing your job or home is something to celebrate. But who knows the blessings that may be hidden in this moment in time. The strength of character we might find when we have to adjust our sense of identity, change our priorities some, let go of the old plan. There can be a sense of adventure in making new plans.

So may I suggest Susan Werner as JT’s Pick of the Week. Check out some of her other music in the video section of susanwerner.com.

And while your at it "just turn your head, and you’ll begin to see, a thousand reasons that were just beyond your sight. The reasons why, why I suggest to you, why I suggest this is the best part of your life."

Thanks for the reminder, Susan.

"Don’t miss out on what you have, by wishing for what you have not." - Author unknown

Happy Friday Everyone!

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 23:02:18 GMT

Happy Friday Everyone! You had better be playing by now.

Its 4:38 and I really shouldn’t be writing a blog 20 minutes before air time, but I really shouldn’t be working right now.

I started early this morning filling in for Governor Pawlenty on his morning radio show. I don’t get paid when I do that gig, so the Governor lends me his proclamation powers instead.

I made a few this morning, but the one that likely effects most of you is the one I’m having no problem getting people on board with. It is that today is half-day-work-day Friday. If you are able to slip out early of your job, you were supposed to do so at 1 this afternoon. I’ve already received some e-mails from listeners who took the proclamation to heart and tell me I have to explain it to their boss should he/she notice.

The second part of the proclamation was: if you have a boss who notices when you slip out early on Fridays, that you have my permission to wind it down after the 1 O’clock hour. That means, play on the computer, make personal phone calls, go on long coffee break excursions. You get the idea.

I won’t say how much I’ve followed my proclamation because my boss has to approve these blogs before they’re posted.

But let’s just say I’m well-caffeinated, caught up on some correspondences, and well, I’m having to dig deep to find the energy to do the 5 p.m. news.

Have a great weekend. I hope it started early for you!

Gov For The Day ... Again!

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:41:58 GMT

Hi Friends!

Just wanted to give you a heads up; I’ll be acting as "Governor for a Day" again tomorrow on WCCO-AM (830).

Tune in starting at 9 a.m. We will be talking social networking, and I’ll be sending out “tweets” along the way. And I’ll no doubt be making a proclamation or two!

Read JT's Blog The First Time She Was Gov. For The Day

Tweaking On Twitter

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:48:36 GMT

I must be losing my mind…taking on all this technology in a matter of two weeks. I’m definitely losing bits and pieces of it in the process. The rumors are true. Not only am I a Facebook Friend but I’m sending Tweets on Twitter.

If it all sounds like a foreign language, don’t beat yourself up. It’s all part of this thing they call “social networking” and it’s evolving as we speak. In fact, hold on a minute while I send a Tweet to my Twitter friends that I’m writing a blog.

It’s a balancing act, figuring out what information is relevant enough to share with strangers and what’s a blatant waste of time and energy. The same goes for reading what others put out in to the social networking world. But like it or not, it’s how a lot of people are communicating these days. And since I’m in the communication business, I’m on board. I’ll keep you posted on how the trip goes.

"In Heaven there is no beer…"

Sing a long if you know the words. If you don’t you had better make a trip or two to Nye’s on Friday or Saturday nights.

The rest of the song goes: "...that’s why we drink it here."

Well, some colleagues and friends and I have been making our preparations for the pearly gates the last couple of weeks. As you saw a couple of blogs ago, we brewed our own beer at Vine Park Brewing Company in St. Paul two weeks ago. Last night we found out how we did when we went back to bottle our brew.

It’s harder work than it looks. You get 72 24-ounce bottles for your $150, and that’s a lot of bottling and labeling when you made four batches! I’m happy to report that our brews turned out fine. Not sure if I’m so happy to report that we were working so hard, we really didn’t need the services of the designated driver we brought along. But that was good thing when I got up early this morning. And I was able to fully appreciate the pride I felt when I saw the cases of St. Paul home-brew in my basement just waiting for a spring barbecue. Come on sunshine!

BLAME IT ON FACEBOOK!

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:58:44 GMT

Has it really been almost a week since I checked in via this blog? Yes, it has. I have no great excuse, but I think my new addiction gets much of the blame. My name is Jeanette and I'm a Facebook addict. I was warned it would happen. It did.

Truth is I haven't had the time to do much surfing around, but I just love opening the "friend request" box and finding names I haven't heard in years. It's just so much fun to hear from friends from high school or Des Moines, or relatives I haven't seen in far too long. In fact, I've become so sold on FB-mania, I am now helping friends sign on. Who knew I could be so "socially networked"?

I'm a little worried about overexposure. Already I've told myself "Oh, I have to go back and check so-and-so's Facebook page, or send them a note," and by the time I log on to do that, someone else has made contact and I'm distracted. Have I mentioned before I have trouble maintaining focus on one task at a time?

So, I'm working on it. That's what I told a room full of social-networking experts last night at the "Wilde Roast" in Minneapolis. They were gathered at one of the WCCO Bloginar events. It's basically a gathering of bloggers in the Twin Cities, or people interested in blogging. It was quite an experience to be standing in front of a group that knows much more than I do, trying to explain my efforts. Especially since half of them were "twittering" the whole time I was talking, and the "tweets" that were coming in were being scrawled up on a screen behind me. Welcome to the future.

If you are interested in checking out the WCCO Bloginar meetings, send an e-mail to: bloginar@wcco.com

You can also follow us on Twitter: @wccobloginar

And while I'm at catching up on things I am behind on doing... here's a long overdue "Pick of the Week" from Carly! (For the record, she had fallen behind as well, but did send this recommendation on last week.) Better late than never: (This is a fun one!)

Carly's pick of the week:

It's a band born in D.C., based in Philly with a curious name: Jukebox the Ghost. They're upbeat and fun. Similar to Ben Folds Five in that it's three guys and the music is piano driven. My introduction to this band was a song called "Hold It In" and it sucked me in immediately. It's got an infectious beat, entertaining lyrics and is now a regular on my iPod. My two other favorites from the album are "Victoria" and "Good Day."

Hold It In

Victoria

Good Day

A St. Pauli Kind Of Story

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:02:35 GMT

Hi Everyone. As usual, I'm thrilled it's Friday.

UPDATE: Click here to watch the brewery video.

So I'm diggin' the Facebook world so far. It's amazing the people who find you and it's fun to catch up on people, what their doing, what their kids are doing, etc. The biggest challenge is not spending too much time on there. I have had to commit to not looking at it as I head to bed. I did one night and ended up spending two hours on there before I knew it.

I'm actually thinking of entering the Twitter world now. I can't explain why Facebook seems better than e-mail, but it does. And I find more and more friends connected with me on FB than via e-mail now. Weird. Times they are a changin'.

I worked on a Finding Minnesota segment that airs this coming Sunday that is kind of fun. It's about the Vine Park Brewing Company in St. Paul. It's one of those facilities where they help you brew your own beer.

There are lots of places out there and on the web that will sell you all you need to do so at home, but Vine Park is one of the few around that let you do it all right on premises. You don't have to buy any equipment, deal with the mess, or risk making a bad brew (I suppose that's always a risk, but they take a lot of that out).

Well it seems whenever I shoot a Finding Minnesota, I think to myself, "I have to come back here and check this out on my own." Well this time, I didn't waste any time. It likely helped a little that the photographer I shot with was as excited about the prospect of brewing his own batch as I was. By the end of the day, he had talked to another photographer and got him on board. I recruited a few other friends from work, and we called and made a date.

Jose and Bob find they need a lot of malted barely to make their “High-Octane Rattlesnake brew”.

But they said the aroma was worth the extra effort.

Chris gets his malted barely.

PJ makes sure he has just the right amount of glucose for his brew.

Jennifer adds the last of our malted barely.

The boys seemed to get perplexed by the scientific measurements….

It must be a boy thing because I really wasn't that complicated…

Neither did Jennifer.

Jennifer and I added the last of our hops to our "pale ale"

I found the gang across the street having a "research and development meeting" without me!

Mike from Vine Park said overall, we did okay. We'll have to wait a couple of weeks to see how our brews turned out.

So, we brewed four batches this past Tuesday night. We find out in a couple of weeks how it turned out. Stay tuned.

And tune in Sunday night at 10 to see how you can plan your own brewing adventure with friends!

Face-ing Up To It

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:29:50 GMT

I haven't done anything wrong. I'm just facing up to the fact that I'm behind the times technologically. Here I thought because I was making a run at blogging that I was getting with the program.

But now that I've seem to have the concept of what blogs are and how they work, I'm left in the dark when co-workers and friends talk about getting news on "Twitter." Or how I probably didn't hear about Angela's party because I'm not on "Facebook."

Seriously, it's tough to stay ahead of the curve in this new era of "social networking." In fact, it seems hard not to be left in the dust. Just last week I had someone point out to me that I didn't need to say "online social networking" because it is assumed that "social networking" is done on the Web these days. Really? I'm that behind the times?

The answer is yes, even though I e-mail, text, blog, and Google on a regular basis. In fact, I'm hearing blogs are "like, uh, 5-minutes-ago-dot-com, JT!"

So, if you just recently ventured into the "blogosphere", you're probably in the pool of people like myself who I call "Tweeners." We're interested enough in learning about new technology, we are just among the generations that didn't grow up with it dominating our lives.

So, I'm FACE-ing my next challenge. I've joined the masses who are on Facebook. It seems kind of repetitive of this process. I let people know what I'm doing. I post pictures. I get comments back from viewers and friends. But it is more immediate, and somehow more personal.

So if you are feeling inclined, jump on in the pool of people embracing this "Social Networking" tool. So far, I kind of like it. Even though I don't totally get it.

See you online!

Happy Presidents Day Everyone

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:00:15 GMT

I hope you all had a nice Valentine's Day weekend, and for those who have today off, I hope you are enjoying it.

We all complain at one time or another about our cold weather, but there were a lot of people out and about it in it over the weekend. I went with some friends over the Lake of the Isles ice rink on Sunday.

(Left to right: Jennifer Kasel and Heather Brown)

It was a celebration of our winter weather. There were pick-up hockey games going on, broom ball matches, figure skaters, speed skaters, kids being pulled around on their rear ends by parents holding hockey sticks, and lots of laughs and smiles to be found.

I bumped into (not literally in this case) a wonderful family out enjoying the afternoon on the ice. The Ramsay family has spent a lot of time out on Lake of the Isles playing.

(Left to right: Donna, Cy, Bill, Dave, Quinn)

Bill grew up on the west side of the lake, his wife on the other. They were young teenagers the first time they met in the warming hut. They were celebrating 45 years together as husband and wife yesterday on the ice. Their son Dave joined them along with his kids Cy and Quinn. (Cy is quite the hockey player, and Grandpa was helping him out with a few drills.)

It was one of the many wonderful moments recorded in my memory bank yesterday. All around me there were scenes that made me smile. If it hadn't been for the blisters forming inside my still-too-stiff-and-new ice skates, I would have stayed out there hours longer than I did.

Unfortunately, the City of Minneapolis is closing that rink, officially, today. One could argue that's a good thing ... a sign that spring really is on its way. But I would also argue there are plenty of opportunities out there to continue to enjoy winter, if you just bundle up and get out in it.

Happy trails, my Friends! JT