Wow!  So much has happened since I last updated this almost a month ago.  Over my two months here at the station, I have slowly filled up my “bucket list” of what I wanted to accomplish personally while spending the summer in Pittsburgh and at WPXI.

One of my goals was to shadow one of the meteorologists here to get a sense of what it takes to build a weather forecast.  So for one afternoon I was Stephen Cropper’s shadow.  Stephen was especially helpful in answering my questions about weather, and used several analogies to explain weather terminology.  He told me that delivering a weather “story,” and not simply a forecast to the viewers was of most importance.  After showing me the basics of how to work with the data on the weather computers, he let me tell my “weather story” by having me type in the forecast in the headline ticker.  The last time I had to interpret weather data and come up with a forecast was probably back in my high school earth science class, but this time, my quick forecast blurb would be seen by hundreds of thousands of viewers, and not just my teacher.  Thankfully, the forecast was simple, “sunny and pleasant, high 77.”  As someone that has been an avid weather watcher for a long time, this was a big deal to me.

My first “am-I-seriously-doing-this?” moment came shortly after my quick lesson on how to animate the keyframes on the weather map.  I guess Stephen thought I was proficient enough to handle the graphics program, because he told me, “I’m going to check on something.  Check and see if the map is animated correctly.  I’ll be right back.”  So for approximately five minutes, I was in charge of the entire weather center.  I could have changed the forecast to, “Considerable cloudiness, with a 35% chance of Godzilla.  The Dark Knight rises at sunrise at 6:04am.  High 877,” but Intern 5 knows better than that.

Cross “meet a meteorologist” off the bucket list.

I was once again a shadow last week, this time for Creative Services where they needed a production assistant to help with a promo shoot.  Basically that involved getting up in the middle of the night (for college students, 5 a.m. is the middle of the night) to pick up breakfast for the production crew.  The news promos say to “start your day early with Channel 11 News,” so I can say that I did just that, quite literally.  Plus, my car smelled like Panera Bread for the rest of the week, so it was well worth the early start time.

Anyway, I dutifully filled my production assistant duties by standing under the bright studio lights at eight in the morning with no less than eight people crowding around a monitor deciding the best way to light you.  They were shooting morning news promos to air during the Olympics, and I was the stand-in for the talent while they got ready.  The morning news anchors were energetic, hilarious, and interesting to observe, and I still don’t know how they manage to stay that way in the morning.  If I were here longer, I would not hesitate to assist on another promo shoot.

Cross “oversee a production shoot” off the bucket list.

Last Tuesday was Skylights Media Day at Heinz Field, a major promotion event for the station where high school football players and cheerleaders come for team photos and interviews in preparation for Friday night football games in the fall.  The rest of the interns and I helped take their photos, and were rewarded with a treat at the end of the day: a guided tour of Heinz Field, which meant we got the chance to admire the perfectly manicured grass and go inside the locker room of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Cross “go behind the scenes at Heinz Field” off the bucket list.

Finally, the latest addition to fill my bucket was during a trip to Idlewild Park where I teamed up with Meteorologist Scott Harbaugh for a meet and greet (to meet him, not me).  In addition to Scott appearing at Idlewild, there was also someone else that was there that I had been eager to meet for a long time: Mr. McFeely, who played the mailman from “Mister Rogers Neighborhood.”  Scott hadn’t arrived yet after I set up, so I made a beeline to the Land of Make Believe to see if I could get his autograph and a picture with Mr. McFeely.  Along with myself, there were also several other people in their 20s in line too.  And by that, I mean 22-month-olds, not 22-year-olds.  Mr. McFeely is exactly the same in person as he was on TV, meaning that he completely stays in character for his appearances and tells everyone his famous line, “speedy delivery!”  He gave everyone an autograph inside an envelope with a hand written stamp.  On my stamp, he wrote “WPXI,” a fitting tribute to my internship experience here thus far.

Cross “Meet Mr. McFeely” off the bucket list.

In two weeks, I will have to cross, “WPXI” off my bucket list too.  Although I am sad that my time here will be over soon, I hope that it is temporary and that I can uncross “WPXI” sometime in the future.