Summer on the go

Sept. 14, 2015

Bittersweet day today as my younger son starts 4th grade. It's officially the end of summer now. And what a great summer it was. 

Being out of work allowed me to travel to many wonderful places with my family as we learned about our new area.

I was going to do an entire blog on our visit to the Denver Zoo but I decided it would be more interesting to write about several different places that we were able to visit, usually for free, during the summer months.

So here are a few of the fun stops we made in the Denver area:

**Celestial Seasonings free "tea tour" in Boulder...one of the first tours we took after we arrived here in June. We had done this tour years before but wanted to come back. When you first arrive you get to sample from dozens of different types of tea while you wait for your tour to start. You are given a hair net and watch a 9-minute video about CS history before you embark on the walking tour of the tea factory. Everyone loves the stop in the Mint Room where your sense of smell is overloaded with peppermint and spearmint.

**Downtown Aquarium. The 9-year-old loved this and really wanted to gofor his birthday (we had been once before years ago) so my parents took him and I when they visited. There are tons of animals (mostly fish and other sea creatures) on display and it's always fun to see the jellyfish and the sea cucumber and various other marine life. I think I like the shark tank the best. They swim right up to the glass and their are windows on the ground so you can see them under your feet. The "mermaids" show is pretty cool too and just before you leave you can feed the stingrays in their tank.

**Denver Botanic Gardens. Hubby and I had been here on my first trip to Denver back in 1999 so it had been a while. It's only gotten better since then. Many varieties of flowers and plants in bloom, beautiful water areas, lots of sunshine and places for kids to explore, a gift shop, a small cafe, a library and inside you can visit the famous corpse flower.

**Denver Zoo. Like all the other places, we had been here once before years ago but my 9-year-old animal lover really wanted to come back. This zoo is great: Big, fun, educational. I imagine in the fall when it's not so hot it will be even more amazing. We love penguins and didn't realize they had 2 penguin exhibits. The elephant presentation was great. There's an area where you can feed the giraffes. Peahens and peacocks as well as ducks and other animals run free. There's lots to see and do here: a train ride, a food truck, indoor and outdoor displays and other activities.

**Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Not far from the zoo, We've been here twice since June, thanks to free admission days. I think my kids like the science area the best, seem to spend most of our time there. We have yet to check out a movie in the Imax theater there but the building also offers great views of the city and a nice planetarium. There was a temporary exhibit on Poison last time we went and it was interesting to see how they worked pop culture (Snow White, Harry Potter) into it.

**Lakeside amusement park: the boys love going here (and their dad loved coming when HE was their age), some cool old-school rides at this longtime attraction. There are inexpensive snacks, a train ride around the park, a giant Ferris wheel, several county-fair type attractions and arcade games as well as a beautiful view from the lake.

Some of my previous work

Some of you, mainly potential employers, have requested to see some of my work in the past.

Here is my linkedin account: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/lisa-kohlbrenner/8/951/4ba

I have included below links to the works I could find online.

Clay Today reporting links:

http://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/00/02/84/16/00380/01-12-2012_archive.pdf

http://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/00/02/84/16/00379/01-05-2012.pdf

http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00028416/00376

http://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/00/02/84/16/00375/12-08-2011.pdf

Times-Union blog links:

http://jacksonville.com/users/lisa-kohlbrenner

Link to story I wrote for T-U on Denver band Big Head Todd and the Monsters: https://www.questia.com/newspaper/1G1-130415581/big-head-todd-still-rockin-after-20-years

My Facebook pages, personal and professional:

https://www.facebook.com/LisaKohlbrenner

https://www.facebook.com/LisaGKohlbrenner

My resume

Lisa Kohlbrenner     multimedia journalist and editor 

EXPERIENCE 

Assignment editor  FOX 30/CBS 47 Action News, Jacksonville, Fla.  August 2012-June 2015Runs assignment desk, pitches stories, maintains contact with outside sources, police and fire departments, assigns news units. Helps department heads to coordinate production activities. Help to write and edit online stories and social posts. Books interviews and satellite time as needed. Answers viewer calls, sends nightly daysheet, tracks court case, events, government meetings.

Copy editor   Times-Union, Jacksonville, Fla.   June 2000-July 2001, Feb. 2003-Sept. 2011
*Print duties: Edited news, feature and business stories for grammar, style, content, and consistency. Wrote headlines and photo captions. Served as a chief and/or pressroom liaison several times a week, working directly with pre-press and printing staff to ensure deadlines were met.  Regularly designed seven community news zoned sections in addition to editing the stories. Wrote stories for print and blogs for Jacksonville.com.
**Non-print duties: Posted stories to and moderated comments on Jacksonville.com; managed five-person TV team in coordination with news partner First Coast News; served as on-air talent for 11:15 p.m. “Tomorrow’s Headlines Tonight” live TV segment; read and produced weekly radio teases for WJCT 89.9 FM.  

Radio host/intern    WHLG-FM Coast 101.3, Stuart, Fla.                                        February 2002- February 2003
Served as on-air personality. Voice-tracked the midnight to 5 a.m. shift. 

News copy chief     The Stuart News, Stuart, Fla.                                            July 2001-February 2003
Served as nightside editor on all stories and as liaison with pressroom to ensure deadlines were met. Edited stories for grammar, style, content and more. Wrote headlines and other display text.  Designed section fronts.
Edited stories, wrote headlines, designed section fronts and designed inside pages for 50,000-circulation daily.

Journalist     Palatka Daily News,         Palatka, Fla.                       October 1998-July 1999
Served as reporter/photographer/copy editor/website editor for daily paper serving 20,000  people. 

Writing samples: http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/lisa-kohlbrenners-blog  OR  lisakohlbrenner.blogspot.com

Education and training 

University of Florida, bachelor of science degree in journalism, 1998
Newsplex in Columbia, S.C., convergence training. Week of training on various media, May 2003

It's been an emotional roller-coaster of a week

This week has been a very difficult one for me, emotionally. Not only am I really missing Florida but I feel like my patience is being tried from every angle. If this is a test, I am not sure I am going to pass. I know there are people out there who have it harder than I do (I'm praying for Lafayette right now), I get that, but sometimes you just have to get it all out and this week is my pity party.

I had two job rejections this week and probably a few more I haven;t even heard of yet or won't hear of because the company doesn't have time to send replies. We also got a lot of our bills from the Florida property and they were a lot higher than we expected (Realtors left lights and water on in the home and we are the ones who end up having to pay). We have zero income right now and no money. I do not know where the funds will come from to pay these bills or the ones we have coming from our time here. I am about to file for temporary assistance (when I said we had no money I meant it) but I'd rather not go that route. I read the long, drawn-out application and I don't want to spend half a day in the office filing it out and waiting for the money to come. I have faith.

I have never missed Florida more than I have this week. I miss having a house and job and two cars and food and our own bedrooms and a backyard for the dog to run in and all my connections and the free pool and all the fun, free stuff to do. Everything is more expensive here. Oh and I really miss the beaches! Our new community won't have a pool or amenities center. Our new house costs twice as much as our Florida one and it's about the same size. We sold one of our cars before we left so we are down to just 1: our 2007 Honda Pilot with hundreds of thousands of miles on it and a bad leak that we can afford to repair.

Now we find out Ben doesn't even have a school he can attend. DH was hoping he could take the boys to his school with him but 6th grade is full. Ben is on the wait list for a nice k-8 here but we haven't heard back yet. DH doesn't want him going to the school our community is zoned for because it has a below average rating. I really wish we were back in Florida, everything was so much easier and cheaper back there.

On a positive note, I did get 1 phone interview and unrelated, I got invited to visit CBS Denver next week and meet some of the staff. I am excited for that. It's not a job interview by any means but it will be cool to be back in a newsroom again, however briefly. It's a step in the right direction as I try to start over.

Also, one of the fun things we did get to do this week was the free admission day at the Denver Botanic Gardens. It's one of the top-ranked botanic gardens in the U.S. and it's easy to see why. The weather was great for a tiptoe through the tulips and watching the bunnies and bees move among the various flowers and plants. There were quite a few new additions since our last visit many years ago and the kids had fun checking everything out.  They also have some great concerts there this summer!  I recommend stopping by if you are ever in Denver.

Here's hoping something new blooms for me soon! Fingers crossed ...

Back from hiatus!!!

Hello again!

OK, so I have been HORRIBLE about keeping the blog up to date this year (like I said I would) but in my defense, this Mom On The Go HAS been very busy. Allow me to explain.

In June, I quit my assignment editor job at Action News, sold my Jacksonville home (the boys' first home, where they grew up) and moved to the Denver area: 2 kids, 1 dog, no money, no home, and no job prospects (not for a lack of searching). The 3-day drive out here was rough, the month-plus of job searching and house hunting has been brutal. The weather has been hotter here than we suspected. This native Floridian misses Jacksonville almost every day. But I am adjusting and it helps that my best friend was already out here and she is just a short drive away if I ever need to talk.

However, more than a month later and I am still without a job.I apply for at least two jobs every day and I have had a couple of interviews but so far no luck. Even so, the available openings are not for positions I really want. Despite my age, I really want to be a TV host. I don't have much experience in it but it's always been a dream of mine. I always tell people I want Mario Lopez's job on "Extra."

So after much soul-searching (and talking to a friend who says that even though we are thousands of miles apart he can help me make a demo reel) I am going to pursue my passion. I know I have a lot against me: I am a bit late to the game in more ways than one, I don't have any current work and my old radio and video reports are on VHS or cassette tape. (Can anyone out there help me digitize them please?) But that same friend filled my head with the idea that my dream is STILL possible and I know anything is possible. I'm going to push forward and see what happens.

I am going to start blogging regularly so check back often. I'm going to find my old work and post it and create new videos. I've created a new Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/LisaGKohlbrenner) and a new YouTube channel will be coming soon too! Please let me know the kind of video topics that you would be interested in watching as I am looking for ideas on what interests viewers. Also, I am looking for any help I can get financial or otherwise (We have zero money right now). If you know anyone in Colorado who can help me launch my career or even just help spread the word and get my name out there, please let me know. You can email me anytime at lisa@kohlbrenner.com.

I appreciate you reading this and any advice or support you can provide. If nothing else, please keep me in your prayers. Thank you.

                                      (I will miss my time and my friends at Action News very much!)

The blog is back for 2015!

One of the resolutions I made earlier this year was to revive this Mom on the Go  blog. What better way to do that than with my encounter with Alan Thicke!

I have enjoyed much of his work ever since I was a child and he was playing Jason Seaver on Growing Pains. Among other things,  I used to watch Thicke of the Night and enjoyed 1987's TV move Not Quite Human where he played a scientist dad who created a human-like android that he tries to pass off as his son.

The actor and I have had exchanges on social media in the recent past-after he posted a photo of his knee surgery and I tweeted him a "Get Well Soon" message he replied with a comment about cupcakes I had made (I had Tweeted a photo of cupcakes I had made for co-workers).

Long story short, I recently Tweeted at him about wanting to meet him once I found out he was going to be in Jacksonville as host of the touring Dancing Pros Live show. He at some point Tweeted to me "Show me that smile again," a reference to the opening line of the "Growing Pains" theme song.

Some time on Sunday I get a DM from his Twitter account asking me if I need media passes to the Jacksonville performance. I am out of town and unable to attend (and unable to DM back) so I Tweet @ him my reply, including my email address for future contact. Later, I get an email with a name and number of someone I can text for tickets. 

By the time I got home from our out of town trip, the show was over. I assumed I had missed my chance to meet him but was too exhausted from the day to care much. I sent a polite thank you email and my apologize that I could not attend and really wish that I could have met him.

Just before 9:30 on Monday morning, I get an email, again from the Alan Thicke account: "departs Omni lobby at 10;30. can get photo then"  What? I can't believe what I am reading? Is this even legit? Everything else seemed legit. Then the panic sets in. I have about an hour to shower, get dressed and ready and drive downtown from my home one county down and about 20-30 minutes away.

I kept thinking I would lever make it but I pulled into the parking lot next to the Omni Jax downtown with time to spare. I walked inside and used the bathroom and checked myself in the mirror. Then I waited in the lobby, and waited. Kept thinking I heard his voice coming. 10;30 came and went and no sign of him.

I expected him to be escorted by an entourage of people or the other show performers or a hotel security guard at the very least. But when I saw him about 10 minutes later. It was just him strolling into the lobby with his wheeled luggage.

As I started to approach him, he said "is that Lisa?" (There was no one else in the lobby but us, a concierge and the two clerks behind the counter.)

I said "yes, hi! It's nice to finally meet you."

"I'm sorry I'm late he said."

"Oh that's OK, I know you are busy getting ready," Or I said something along those lines. 

And I gave him a hug (probably not what he was expecting but oh well. When would I ever see him again?)

I handed him my business card so he would know I was who I said I was and he said "oh assignment editor, you're an important person."

"Well... at least I like to think so," I joked.

"Maybe this guy can take our photo," Thicke said, motioning in the direction of a concierge standing there who had NO idea how to work my cell phone camera.

"I'm sorry you had to miss the show," he said to me.

"So am I,"  I said. How was it?" I don't remember his response. I also asked him where his family was but I don't remember his response to that either. In my rush to get the cameras ready and take up as little of his time as possible I forgot a few things.

I took one of Alan alone and handed it to the man, but it didn't take. So I took a few selfies but the quality was poor. The man finally took one and we checked to make sure it was there.

I asked him to sign my Growing Pains DVD and as I got the Sharpie ready he said 'here, I have these for you," and handed me a bag of Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies that I am assuming are a free gift in every hotel room at the Omni.

He signed the DVD and said a good bye and started out the doors, stopping for a newspaper on a table on the way out. When we were outside I asked to take one photo of him with my "good" camera and he obliged. Then he got in to a small chauffered car on his way to the airport for his next stop: New York.

And I got into my car, paid the $3 parking fee and went home. It was a great day for someone like me who is a huge celeb hound and who didn't think this meet-and-greet was going to happen.