Jen blogs with pictures!

Hi all! I thought I'd begin with the begining!

Sunday 9/16/07- I flew out to NYC and my old News10 coworker and new ABC Newsone coworker Chris Spitzer picked me up at the airport. He and his awesome girl friend Shirley were kind enough to let me stay with them for a few days while I went through some training at work and looked for an apartment. They live in Staten Island and have an amazing view of Manhattan from their balcony window. On Monday 9/17/07 I had to be at work before Chris so he dropped me off at the Staten Island Ferry where I was supposed to get myself to work. As I got out his car I couldn't even speak, let alone thank him for the ride. I was terrified. I was in New York, by myself and I have to get on a ferry and get to work? What? I had to choke back a fear tears (of fear) and navigate my way to the entrance. I sat on a surprisingly clean bench and looked around at all the people reading the paper, putting on make-up, typing away at their laptop and thought wow- I'm one of them.. a commuter! I know that sounds lame, but I have never lived more then 10 minutes from anywhere that I have ever needed to be.

In high school I live directly across the street from Rio Americano. In college I lived on campus my first year and then directly across the street the next 3 years and from Fox 40 and News10 it never took me more then 10 minutes to get to work.

So, here I was on a 30 minute ferry ride and then a 30 minute subway ride. All of the sudden I turned around and saw the Statue of Liberty. Then I went from commuter to tacky tourist. I went to the edge of the boat and asked someone to take my picture, explaining today's my first day at a new job and I had come all the way from California... no one cared, I think they just took my picture to shut me up!

On the way there... On the way home!

Once that was over and done with I made my way to the 1 train and then to ABC. ABC is huge presence in the Lincon Center area on a block of W 66th street from Columbus to Central Park West. I'm still not sure what exactly happens in each building, but I know the first building is where they shoot Regis and Kelly. The back entrance on 67th street is where all of the celeb guests walk in and out of. That's where Mike saw Brooks & Dunn. The street is lined w/ paparazzi. I walked in front of one of them once and got cursed at. It was cool! :)

Now for the important stuff. My building!! My building is the 3rd one in on 66th. The address is 47 W 66th Street. I'm on the 3rd floor in what they call TV-3. It's the main TV studio where they shoot World News Tonight, 20-20, and Nightline. The room is like one big rectangle and in the middle is a smaller rectangle. The smaller one is the studio set and the outer one is all of the Assignment Desks for the network and ABC News Now. We are on the Left side of the rectangle. It goes network desk, international desk, then regional desk (North Central, Southern, Western). My desk is the last in the whole row and part of the camera 1 and 3 shots. Whenever there is a reporter on set the desk and monitors behind them is my desk.

We have strict restrictions about what we are allowed to put on our desk and over or chairs. We can not put jackets on the back of our chairs or anything taller then about 12 inches on top of our desk because it will be in the shot.

Charlie Gibson is nice and every now and then looks over at us and cracks jokes. I've seen Bob Woodruff in the hallway and Liz Vargas. Today Joaquin Phoenix was on the set doing a taped interview for GMA. He was literally like 8 feet away from me. The girl sitting next to me was so excited she could barely work.

The job is going good and I'm slowly getting the hang of it. It's challenging right now because we don't have all the equipment we need at our desks yet, but that should be resolved by the end of the month.

It was so hard being here by myself the first few weeks. It's so nice having Mike and Cooper here to share it with. Cooper has adjusted amazingly well already. He's riding the subway like a pro!

I hope you enjoy staying updated on our adventures through this blog. Drop a comment and let us know what you think!!

We miss you and love you all so much!