After being away for 20 years I knew I was about to embark on an adventure.  In the days leading up to our trip I reminisced about my old friends, teachers, the baseball games where the entire town would come together, my old house, the college where my parents worked, the country stores where I use to shop, the grainery downtown, the smell of grain, the quiet streets.  There’s something about South Dakota that makes your feel rejuvenated.  The big sky county, the FRESH air, the sound of cows “moo’ing” in the pastures, the empty highways, the sound of nature.   No hustle and bustle.  It’s beautiful.

     Even after 20 years, I was amazed at how it was as though time stood still.  Everything in the same place it was back in 1988.  There were only a few changes, but not many.  And the people?  The people, as friendly as could be.  As adults we think how simple our lives were as children.  In South Dakota, it’s more than simple….it’s carefree…the way it should be.     

     We had a great time!  The production was wonderful and the company was even better.  At almost 10:00 I found myself starting to get sleepy, then my daughter let out a huge laugh and kept giggling at what happened on stage.  I suddenly got another burst of energy and smiled at how much she was enjoying her evening.      

     After the show, we waited in the lobby to chat with the actors.  I have performed with the theatre in the past and knew several of the cast members.  Justice thought it was so cool being introduced to them.  I guess at that moment mom wasn’t so embarrassing.  It’s those moments that I’ll savor.

     I ran into the studio, as fast as I could run with heels on, and grabbed duct tape and started wrapping it around my leg.  Ouch!  OK, that hurt a little, but I was desperate.  My co-anchor Donald was quick to grab his camera and snap a picture in my frantic moment.  Floor director Erica yelled, “30 seconds!”  Oh no!  The boxes were still unattached!  Yvette came to the rescue and secured them.  Just another glimpse of “BEHIND THE SCENES.”  Thanks Yvette for coming to the rescue. 

      Last night, was my second encounter with Sen. McCain.  Only this time he didn’t know I was there.  There I was, waiting patiently inside my commercial flight, on the tarmac at Chicago Midway International Airport.  All went smoothly until the unexpected delay on the runway.  What was taking so long?  The pilots voice came over the intercom, “Ladies and gentlemen, sorry for the delay.  We’re waiting for Senator McCain’s aircraft to take off.  We are next in line.”  Sure enough, I looked out the window and there was his airplane.  How could I miss the big logo “MCCAIN?”  As I watched his plane take off only feet away from my window I couldn’t help but remember our one on one interview a couple of years ago.  He did it, he decided to run for President of the United States.  Of course, he didn’t notice me.  How could he?  This time I wasn’t the journalist interviewing him.  I was just one of the faces staring out the window trying to catch a glimpse.

     Who knows, maybe one day I’ll interview him again.  I’ll be sure to remind him of our close encounter…that rainy evening on the tarmac.

     I also remember going to have lunch with her at elementary school and the excitement on her face when she saw “mommy” walk through the door.  She’d run and give me a HUGE hug and her little friends would do the same.  They’d yell, “Justices mommy is here!”  The teacher would have to calm the class down.

     Last week I surprised my now middle school daughter for lunch at school.  She grinned, but didn’t show the same excitement she use to.  I know she was happy to have me there, she just expresses it in a different way.  Her friends (now young ladies) no longer yelled, “Justices mommy!”  Now I’m greeted with smiles and little wave.  “Hello Mrs. Tazewell,” they’d say.  As we sat at the lunch table my daughter hardly noticed my existence.  She spent most of her time chatting with her friends.  I realized my little girl, now a young lady, had moved on to another stage in her life.  When lunch was over, I knew better to not give her a hug.  Heavens, I didn’t want to embarrass her.

     As I drove home I thought about what had just happened.  Sure, I was a little sad…mommy wasn’t the center of her world anymore.  It made me realize that this was just the beginning.  Next would be high school, then she’d leave and go to college.  At the same time I was also happy for her.  Happy that she had blossomed into such a beautiful, wonderful, independent, young woman.  I guess I can take some pride in having a hand in that.  Maybe all those surprise lunch visits over the years made more of an impact than I’ll ever know.  

     After that experience, I didn’t know WHEN I’d have lunch with her again.  However, on the ride home after school she said something that made me realize my little girl wasn’t gone yet.  She said, “Mom, next time you come can you bring Zaxbys?  That was so good!”  Hmmm.  Next time.  In my mind I thought…”she said NEXT TIME.”  I smiled.  Next time I’ll surprise her with Zaxbys.  Yeh, next time. 

     I received a phone call this morning from a viewer concerned that Barack Obama is forgetting who he is.  It’s being repeated over and over again in the media, “Barack Obama makes history as the first AFRICAN AMERICAN elected as a presidential nominee.”  Our viewer made a point that Barack Obama is half white.  He was raised by his mother who is white, however that’s rarely mentioned.  The media focuses on his African American side primarily. 

      Being multi-racial, I can understand where this viewer is coming from.  My parents always taught me, “Don’t forget where you came from.”  BUT I also understand WHY there is such a huge emphasis on “African American.”   This IS the FIRST time in history an African American has been nominated as a presidential nominee.  

     Let me ask you something, if you saw Barack Obama on the street would you think he’s a white man?  Let me answer that for you…no.  There are many shades of black.  Someone else half black may have very fair skin.  Genes are amazing, aren’t they?  I could go on and on about how some people say, “if you’re point one percent black, your black.”  Or, how others say,  ”you are what your father is.”  Well, in this case Barack would black.  I don’t want to dilly dally with the many different race arguments.  Again, I believe my parents nailed it on the head with the simple sentence, “Don’t forget where you came from.” 

     Do I think it’s important to stress Obama as being the FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN presidential nominee?  Absolutely, because it’s history.  However, its been mentioned and now it’s time to move beyond skin color and concentrate and focus on the issues at hand.  We are preparing to make a monumental decision….elect a new leader of our country…our president.  A leadership role that has NOTHING to do with whether your skin is orange, black, white, purple or yellow.     

     Just about everyday he holds up a shoe and asks us to guess the sport that shoe is used in.  See if you can guess today’s shoe.  Good luck!

   Track and Field record holder Carl Lewis was the name that rolled off of everyone’s lips during the 1984 and 1988 Olympics.  Even I, at the time a 10-year-old girl, had a full-length poster of Carl Lewis on my bedroom wall.  I had the biggest crush on Carl, my brother Larry’s Olympic competition.  I HAD to get his autograph and my brother Larry was my key to getting that for me.   

     I had ordered a pretty autograph book through my school book club… using my allowance money.  I vividly remember it.  It was very colorful and girly.  A white background covered with crayons of every imaginable color.  Larry, the sweet big brother that he is, put it in his bag.  I could only hope he’d have the time between training to get it autographed.  24-years later I think about that moment and chuckle.  Could you imagine being a competitor in the Olympics, sucking up your pride, carrying around a kiddie autograph book and asking your competition for an autograph for your little sister?  I guess when he saw the innocence in my face asking for Carls autograph, how could he refuse?  After all, Larry had to know I was HIS biggest fan, right?  I mean, he had to know that HE was my true hero.  Carl was just “the guy in the poster.”  Wow!  That’s some brotherly love!  As I reminisce, I feel bad that I put my brother through that. 

     When Larry came back from the 84 Olympics….in his bag was my crayon autograph book.  Did he get it signed?  Sure enough, there on the front page read, “Carl Lewis.”  Wow.  Carl Lewis touched my autograph book!  Wow.  That was one happy little 10-year-old Sharon.  But, an even prouder little girl of her big brother Larry…..the Olympian.

You have to watch in several times to capture all of our looks.  Even our reporter Yvette Yeon, seen sitting behind us in the newsroom, did a sudden head turn.  It’s hilarious!  Again, LIVE TV….all you can do is make the best of a situation.

Take a look.  And if you don’t believe me that I wasn’t picking my nose…watch it again.  Seriously (smile).

     If you missed it, here it is.  Ah, the world of LIVE TV.

     Now picture this…the day of one of his three big races.  The 400m event…Larry in his starting blocks…silence….anticipating the instant the gun would go off.  Those moments felt like an eternity for me….for him probably a life-time.  BAM!  He was off, Larry striding the entire track like I’d never seen him do before.  This was his moment, his moment to show the world what he was capable of.  His stride, the look of pain on his face as he pushed himself towards the finish line.  I’m sure he didn’t hear the cheers of the crowd…just the sound of his breathing, the sound of his track spikes ticking, ticking, ticking on the turf.  As my brother ran focused on beating his record…in a foreign land across the world from me, I jumped up and down frantically screaming, “Go Larry!  Go!  Run!  Run! Run!  Faster!  GO LARRY!!!  GO!!!”  Words I had yelled a thousand times before as I stood on the sidelines cheering on my big brother….in Antigua, South Dakota, all over the United States and now THE WOLD OLYMPICS.  I was his biggest fan.

     In 1984 and 1988 Larry competed in the 200m, 400m and the 4×400m relay.  Larry made it to the semi finals…in the end, he was the 7th fastest man in the 400m.  Amazing.

     By the way, Larry also competed in Commonwealth Games, Pan Am Games, Yale University Track Captain and has several undefeated track records all over the nation.  During his time at Yale, Larry won three outdoor and one indoor Heptagonal titles, while breaking a record for the 600 yards.  He’s phenomenal.

     Stay tuned to Tazewell Today.  Throughout the weeks of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, I’ll share more of my personal experiences with the Olympics.

     It takes a crew of about 12 people to make a LIVE newscast run smoothly.  Most of those people are in the control room pushing buttons.  BUT, in the studio we are fortunate to have Scotty.  OK, his real name is Scott, but on a sleep deprived morning someone started calling Scott Scotty.  That’s been his name ever since.

     Scotty is our robotics operator.   He’s the person who sets up our camera shots during the newscast.  The joke during commercial breaks today was that we’re going to have a party at Scotty’s parents home (that’s where Scotty lives since he recently graduated from college.)  The only thing is Scotty’s folks don’t know about our spur of the moment plans.  We’ve already decided it’ll be a pool party.  The only glitch is Scotty’s parents don’t have a swimming pool!  So, during the 4th commercial break we came up with Plan B.  Peter Kunisch is going to bring his never fail fun Slip N’ Slid!   Donald and I both have inflatable water slides so THE RACE IS ON!!!!!  Woo-hoo!

     I hope Scotty’s parents don’t mind us taking over their backyard.   Thanks Scotty for volunteering your parents home! 

     Anyhow, lately I’ve been on an oatmeal kick.  Donald on the other hand brings in heavy home cooked meals that his lovely wife Janice makes the evening before.  (It smells like he had lasagna this morning.)  Bill doesn’t eat much for lunch.  He’ll usually bring fruit.  What makes his lunch so interesting is his lunch bag.  It’s not your typical lunch bag.  We could all learn from him….he’s being eco-friendly.

     So, without his knowledge for three days I took pictures of his lunch.  Take a look.

     Being the sweet friend Bill is, he brought in some for us to taste test.  Needless to say, we had a good time during the show with them.  We did everything from marking the tomatoe we wanted by licking it….to finding pecular poses with our tomatoes.  Take a look at these photos. 

     My favorite is “Tomato Head Bill.”   Which one is your favorite?  Mmmm.  Juicy!

     Again, just another fun day on the TODAY show set.  Now I can’t wait to eat my tomoto.  Woo-hoo!!!  Thanks BILL!!  Check out Bill’s blog to track the growth and his tomatoes and other interesting topics at On The Rehdar.

     Everytime he wears them we talk about his choice in socks.  And everytime we bring it up he asks, “Oh, are these not in style anymore?”  As we chuckle he says, “Well, I don’t care.  They’re perfectly good socks.  It matches my tie, doesn’t it?”  We share laughter and shake our heads thinking, “Oh, that’s our Bill.”  We wouldn’t change his free spirit for the world.

     But wait!  It gets even better.  Check out Bills socks in this picture!  My co-anchor Donald decided to join him in the “interesting” sock challenge.  OK, OK, in Donalds defense, he was about to head out to a cycling event right after the broadcast.  So, he wore his racing socks.  I tell ya….those are my partners.

     At 5 am on the dot…our floor director Rhiannon instructs “stand by.”  I take one last glance in the mirror to make sure my hair isn’t sticking out and one more sip of coffee.  Donald glances down to make sure he’s standing behind the piece of tape marking where he’s to stand.  Bill is feverishly typing up his weather graphics for the show.  “In three, two, one.”  The show open is potted up.  We’re on.  “Hi there, thanks for joining us for NBC17 Today.”   That was just the beginning my friends of a wild and crazy ride.  Keep in mind it was a Friday morning and at that point we were already on our second cup of highly caffeinated, dark coffee (not Bill, he doesn’t drink coffee) AND it was a HOLIDAY!  The madness started early.  Trust me, commercial breaks are ALWAYS “interesting.”  Here are some behind the scenes pics courtesy of Erica Bustamonte. 

     Check out the pic below.  Bill and I were just having a normal conversation (as I use the word normal loosely), but little did we know Donald was giving us bunny ears. 

     And, how about my co-anchor Donald Jones’ tap dancing?  When he was a child he wanted to learn how to tap dance, but never took classes.  To this day, ever so often he’ll grace us with his wanna-be-moves (smile).  Take a look.  Oh, make sure to check out the facial expression of our floor director Rhiannon.  Also, check out Donalds socks!  After you watch the video I’ll explain why he was wearing those.

     Not bad, huh?  It almost sounded as though he was wearing tap shoes.  As for the socks, on a regular workday he wears dress socks, but after the newscast he was heading out to a cycling race.  You can read more about it on his blog Donalds Daily Draft.

    
Here’s kind of a serious moment.  Bill is at the weather wall during the newscast.  In the next picture Donald and I are waiting our turn.  If you look closely at the third monitor behind our heads you’ll see Bill on TV.  Then, Bill joins us at the anchor desk so we can chat about the weather before we toss to traffic.  Ah, just another day at NBC17 Today.  What a great job!

     That’s where we went for the second half of our vacation.  The first half of the week I spent up in beautiful Manitoba Canada.  The weather there was absolutely divine!  No humidity and in the mid 70’s…and the daylight lasts FOREVER in the summer.  The sun is still setting at 11 pm!  So, you can imagine how for a child it’s wonderful when your parent says, “be home before it’s dark.”   By the way!  Yesterday was Canada Day (July 1st)…so I hope all you Canadians out there had a wonderful holiday.

     So, back to how expensive it is it travel!  Are you giving up a trip away from home due to the economy?  If so, what are you doing instead and do you feel cheated from your well deserved “break away from it all”? 

     What an honor to be selected out of 11 plays.  The awards dinner is set for Sat. June 28th!  I’ll keep you posted.  Best of luck to the other three nominees.  For a list of all 2007-08 nominees head to www.raleighlittletheatre.org.

     TONY UPDATE:  Our eyes were peeled to the Tony Awards last Sunday since my brother-in-law Paul Tazewell was nominated for Best Costume Design of a Musical (In The Heights).  He got beat out by Catherine Zuber for South Pacific.  Congrats to Paul…what an honor to receive such a recognition.

     BTW…be sure to watch the Tony Awards Sunday evening at 8.  My very talented brother-in-law Paul Tazewell (an amazing costume designer) received his 3rd Tony nomination.  This year it’s for  Best Costume Design of a Musical for Broadways “In the Heights.”  Last year he was nominated for The Color Purple…and prior to that Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk.  Good luck Paul!  We love you and are so proud of you!!

http://www.tonyawards.com/en_US/nominees/index.html

http://ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=25200

   Yesterday I blogged about travelling to Canada for a quick weekend.  Let me tell ya, that trip hit me hard in the afternoon.  My tired body (combined with triple digit heat) hit the pillow like a rock!  My normal 45 minute nap turned into 5 and a half hours!  I can’t remember the last time I napped that long.  So, how do I feel today?  I feel like having another 5 and a half hour nap.  AHHH!!!  How about you?  Do you find you want to sleep through this heat?

   Well, after a day of getting use to a high of 54 degrees in the great white north, I returned yesterday to Raleigh where I was greeted with 101 degree weather.  Yet another shock to the system!  Oh, COME ON!!  Are you kidding me?  I thought, “Here we go again!”  According to our meteorologist Bill Reh we should expect low 90’s in a couple of days.  It sure is sad when we think of the 90’s as relief from the heat.  So, if you can’t stand the heat…you may want to consider Canada? 

   How did you beat the heat this past weekend?  Oh, BTW gas prices in Canada average $5 a gallon!!!  To Canadians, our $4’s a gallon sounds pretty good.  Sad isn’t it? 

     Anyhow, as the instructions go, I had to pass along some of my Friendship Bread batter along to two people.  I chose my producer Carey (she wasn’t too excited about that) and our NBC17 Today Reporter Shirley Min.  She REALLY was not excited about that.

     Anyhow, their 10 days have come and gone…this is all that’s left of Shirley Mins bread.  And Carey went over the top by adding caramel and cinnimon toppings!  Mmmm.  Everyone devoured hers before I got a chance to take a picture.

     They did a great job!  Woo-hoo!

   As the words rolled off my lips, my mind wandered off to 3rd grade when I got elimated from a spelling bee.  It was early on in the bee and obviously to this day the sound of  “THAT” word brings back terrible memories.  I vividly remember my teacher saying, “Spell color.”  I thought to myself, “What an easy word!”  I quickly responded “C-O-L-O-R.”  She said, “No.  That’s incorrect.  Go sit down.  The correct spelling is C-O-L-O-U-R.”  Huh?  We lived in South Dakota…the U.S. version is generally COLOR!  That’s what we were always taught!  The British version is COLOUR, but NOT IN SOUTH DAKOTA!  I thought to myself, “What was she trying to pull?”  I wish I could have looked at her book to see how it was spelled.  To this day I still believe she intenionally tried to sabotoge me.  I think she gave me that word knowing that she would say the opposite of what I said.      

   Neadless to say, everytime I write the word COLOR, I second guess the spelling.  How were you taught to spell it? 

   I wonder if my former teacher in South Dakota is reading this?