Better Late Than Never...

I had so much fun on my quick trip to Arizona... I wanted to "journal" my adventures. First up: Jan and Meagan Klingler. The Klingler's are Byron's Mom's cousins-- and even though they are not that old-- Jan and Ken are second parents to Byron and I. We always stay with them and I always get spiritually rejuvenated from my talks with Jan. Meagan, if you'll remember, came up to Idaho and took care of the girls for one of the weeks while I was in the hospital. My main reason for going to Arizona was for my friend Bianca's memorial service. She passed away this summer (we talked on the phone to each other while we were both in the hospital). She was one of the most courageous women I know-- she died of Cancer after battling it for 7 years. Her parents held a Memorial for her in their backyard-- the same place she had been married just 10 years earlier.

Here's Sherry (Bianca's Mom) and one of my bestest girlfriends in the world, Stacy. The memorial was beautiful-- Sherry gave a moving tribute, there were talks, musical numbers and then dancing and lots of eating. Bianca would have loved it!

The next day my girls-- we like to refer to ourselves as "Vintage Moms" (thanks Karen-- we missed you) met for lunch at Macaroni Grill. That's Maria on the left--she was the first of our group to get married. She's a shrink-- and we all love to burden her with the drama in our lives and listen to her calm, sage advice. And that's Anita behind me. She and Stacy are like sisters to me. We talk way too much and they know just about everything about me (and they still love me :).

We all went to see the new Twilight movie-- New Moon. It was fun. We'll leave it at that. Stacy brought us all these special chocolate bars-- half of them had "Jacob-- the hunky wherewolf" and the other half had "Edward-- the leading Vampire who wears more lipstick than a Revlon model. If you look close, you can see the credits behind us.

Finally, on Saturday night, Stacy and I went to the big KPNX - Channel 12 reunion. There were some 275 people there that had worked at the station (NBC in Phoenix) over the years. It was a total BLAST!!! Some of these folks I haven't seen in 10 years! Below-- starting on the left is Mary Kim Titla (she was a reporter), Victoria Schriener (a producer and one of the reunion organizers), Stacy (who worked on the assignment desk) and me.

Me, Cheryl Parker (a reporter at the station for many years-- the party was at her house-- no strike that-- her estate), Mike Deac (doing his best impersonation of Grizzly Adams. Mike was our Operations Manager) and Lin Sue Cooney. Lin Sue is the main anchor and a legend in Phoenix. She's as nice as she is beautiful-- and my little brother has had a crush on her since day one.

That's me with Jim Penland and Terry Juntti-- two photographers who have retired and are both living on the beach down in Mexico. Terry hasn't changed one bit-- he's as handsy as ever.

Let's see.. that's Shelly Hansel on the left. She was our weekend or morning weather person. She's living somewhere really cold and had a baby about a month before I did. So I'm not the only one my age still dealing with diapers. Next is Chuck Emmert-- he was our chief photographer and one of the coolest guys ever. Second from the right is Rick Debruel-- one of the nicest reporters in television. He retired three days after the party. And on the end is Steve Filmer-- he was our consumer reporter. Chuck, Filmer, my producer, Krista and me used to sneak out monthly for what the boys dubbed "The Princess Lunch Program". Ah, the memories.

Here's Stacy, Kim Stafford-- who was my producer-- the producer for the Investigative Team-- she's awesome, Cathy Downing and Tim McSpadden-- from the Promotions Department. If you can't tell, we were one close group of friends. I was at Channel 12 during the time that everyone refers to as the Golden Era. It was an amazing time to be in television. Of course, lots has changed now and most of us have been smart enough to get out...

This is Juliette Falevitch. Everyone LOVES Juliette. She is the one who sent me the huge box of gourmet brownies (that I shared with everyone who came into my room) while I was in the hospital. Juliette was also constantly at Bianca's side during her last few weeks of life. Juliette also just got engaged. We're all so excited for her.

Anita Luera on the left was our 5pm producer. LJ worked in promotions and Sue Green was our Senior producer. Anita and Sue have jumped ship and work in the Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. LJ's a very busy mom.

This is Mitch Truswell-- he was our weekend anchor. Carrie Lake was his co-anchor until she went over to the Fox station where she's the main evening anchor.

Sorry for the sticky thumb print below. On the left is Ron Hoon "the Hooner" who was our morning anchor. He's now at Fox. Steve Filmer, me and then Sean McLaughlin. He was our main weather anchor, left to go be the weatherman for the Today show on Weekends, then came back to Phoenix and is now the main news anchor at the CBS station.

This is a picture of Gary and Kim Stafford (when I first arrived at 12-- Gary was the Chief Photographer and the Photographer for the Investigative Unit. Kim, was my producer. And that's Catherine Anaya on the right-- she was one of our weekend anchors-- then she came to my same station in LA where she anchored weekends or mornings (my memory sucks). Now she's the main female anchor at the CBS station in Phoenix.

Ahhh, and here was the person I was most excited to see-- Chris Jolly (the Jolly Llama). Chris was one of my very favorite photographers in the world and was responsible for a lot of the creativity in many of my pieces. We have spent a chunk of our professional lives-- together-- sitting in a van, an editing room or on location. He came to my unit in LA and worked with me there too-- and is like a brother to me. That's Julie Watters on the right. She was a reporter at KPNX and was working with Chris on the day he lost his leg. Long story-- but Chris losing his leg was one of the main reasons why I took the job in Phoenix over Philadelphia. And of course, Phoenix is where I met the love of my life-- Byron. So you can see why Chris-- we all call him Jolly is so special to me!
Once again, sorry for the smudgy lens. This is Julie Pascente on the left. Her husband, Steve was one of our Sports Anchors. He was killed in a car accident covering the Cardinals while I worked at the station. Julie and Cindy Bloch on the right started the Steve Pascente Memorial Foundation to among many things-- help widows and widowers and their children deal with their grief. I became pretty close to these women working on the golf tournament and other events. Julie surprised me in the hospital this summer and Cindy called me weekly.

And as we were walking out at midnight (sorry Stacy)-- we ran into Bruce Cooper. Coop is one of our sports guys at Channel 12. It was so good to see him. You might remember, Coop's son, Marquis was one of the NFL football players killed in the boating accident in Florida several months back. I was so glad he came.

If you stayed with me this long, you're a real trooper. As I mentioned, Stacy and I left around midnight-- and we were probably considered party poopers. The party was supposed to go until noon on Sunday!