Missing You; Part Three

The final part of my photographic trip down memory lane is with the people I spent my most enjoyable times with (weekends), the - eh - weekend crew.

Paris Ervin, the majorly hot reporter I teased you with yesterday, sometimes worked as a reporter, some times as a producer.

I had so much fun working with Paris. She and I had the same taste in music, so anytime we'd have to go far, far away we could jam some Ying-Yang Twins or some other music far louder than my Jeep should have been playing and cruise to whatever it was.

She always pissed me off because I'd go pick up lunch and she try and pay and I wouldn't let her. Then I'd get mad, and forget why I was mad and then go buy a Pepsi.

She and I would have a couple of go a rounds at times. I didn't like it when people got on my ass about editing and stuff like that, and I let them know. Paris, not one to take my shit, would give it right back and whip the hell out of me. It was a lot of fun!

Asides from being hot, there are tons of reasons I miss Paris. But I am happy because she's the only one who's come to visit me out here, showing me that I am, indeed, her one true love! Yay!

I'm going to die next week. Why? Because Anita Roman is going to see this picture and kill me.

Anita was our main anchor on the weekends and the one I spent most of my weekend time shooting with (when I wasn't chasing spot news or on VOSOT patrol).

She was tons of fun. I enjoyed working with her a lot. We have a good old time. I think what I liked best about her was that she never assumed I wouldn't get the video she wanted. She didn't look over my shoulder. For some reason, as a photographer, we don't like reporters saying 'shoot this!' and 'shoot that!'.

Regardless, we were both big fans of Walgreen’s, so I knew that if I needed smokes or caffeine, we could stop there and she'd be thrilled. We got along really well, which always helps, especially on the occasionally long drive.

Of course when we take two live trucks to some wacky state park that's on lockdown, just because I was afraid the older one was going to explode (and the generator on the new one didn't work), it was great having this tiny little thing handling that oversized van like a pro! I miss ya, 'Neeters!

Kirk Parker, another person who is going to kill me when he sees the picture I took, was our weekend sports guy.

Kirk, a dirty rotten Cubs fan, was a cool guy. He was like the weekend version of Steve - well, I guess he was the weekend version of Steve - but he farted more.

Kirk was one of those people who made work fun. He'd chat ya up about football, baseball, whatever. Plus when ever he could, he sent me off to shoot the Jr. Blues hockey games!

Kirk used to be a 100% GA reporter before he took over weekend sports. One of the stories that got to me the most, the story that kicked me in the head and told me 'This is not a game, these are real people' was one I did with him. While I will not tell you about that, since I think it's best kept to myself for now, I saw an amazing side of Kirk during that. He made the story personal and I really think that he helped the family of drowning victim through their ordeal because of the way he acted.

Kirk's a complicated guy, and that's one of the reasons I miss him!

Our super director, Scott Larson was my favorite smoking buddy in the whole world!

It was funny. He would walk into the room and I would appear out of no where and we'd head outside and dodge bird poopie while we killed ourselves slowly!

Scoot was cool too because he helped me learn how to time a show. I doubt I could do it anymore since the shows here are more complicated, but it was nice to learn.

He and I would chat about movies and music and occasionally I'd get a chance to go downtown and watch him and Justin (one of our floor people) jam in their band. It wasn't really my kind of music, but they did do one hell of a rendition of Snoop Dogg's Gin and Juice.

I miss Scott! No one will come and smoke with me here! Damn health nuts.

Last, but not least is Chad Mahoney.

Chad was king of the weekends. He was the producer of all our shows and anchor with Anita.

Chad demanded perfection. That's probably why he left. You weren't going to get perfection from us. But it was still fun trying. I have never met anyone who can combine serious, hard-core newsman and hilarious, fun tall dude so perfectly.

One of the things I liked about Chad the best was the fact that he put a lot of faith into me to handle what he assigned me. He would leave after the 6 for dinner with a basket full of things that needed to be edited and potentially a list of assignments that needed to be shot.

He didn't worry about it because (I assume) he had faith that I could get it done. That's important to me. That people feel like they can rely on me, and Chad did.

Chad was also a good person. I never got to know him outside of work, and that was probably on purpose. He really tried to keep work and play separate and I don't blame him. He told us about his kids, and I got to see pictures of his cool model trains, but I think if I'd have shown up at his house I would have been met with the business end of a shotgun.

Chad now works for FOX in Tulsa. I'm going to try and go there because I idolize him so much!!! Well, not really but I do miss him!

So.

You weren't included in this list? Does that mean I don't miss you? Of course not! t just means I don't have a picture! Send me a picture and I will put you on here. Be advised though, being mentioned by me could lower your credit rating. :)

XOXOXOXO!