Not now, but very soon!

Sometime next week, this blog will migrate over to Chicago Now, a popular community of bloggers overseen by the Chicago Tribune.  This web address will still direct you there and my blog will have a whole new title and look.  However, I’ll get to continue blogging about whatever I want, whenever I want.

As many of you know, I’ve worked on television here for nearly a decade.  I LOVE Chicago so it’s such an honor to get to blog about my adventures all over town and have a platform to spark conversations and allow people to share their opinions.

Thanks to the many of you who’ve followed this blog since its launch.  Now, come along with me to Chicago Now and spread the word!

Random photo for no reason.

Ever since I started this blog, I’ve gotten a lot of advice from a lot of people.  Write about this.  Don’t write about that.  Be sure to include keywords and embed links. Hello, Fox Chicago!  Have you seen my Cool Websites list lately? How about my crazy co-anchor Patrick Elwood?  I’ve learned a lot from other bloggers.  I’ve decided to put some of their advice to a test with this post.

I heard that certain celebrity names can really drive up web traffic since people are always searching those names and clicking on the results.  So, for no reason, let me mention Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Johnny Depp and George Clooney.  I’m going to throw in Rachel Uchitel (Tiger’s alleged mistress) since her name is everywhere this week.

Chicago. Just because.

I just made you click onto another page because that increases my pageviews.  I usually don’t include page breaks in my blogs because my posts are typically short and I know how valuable your time is. But I must admit, I get a rush from seeing a lot of web traffic in here.

I should really hold off on posting this because another friend told me the information superhighway is always busiest on Tuesdays.  People typically settle back into their work and class schedules on Mondays and then dive onto the internet in droves on Tuesdays.  I don’t know if that’s true.  It’s just what I heard.

Before I go, click here.  And let me also mention, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, President Obama, World Cup Soccer and SpongeBob SquarePants.

Mizzou's amazing J-school.

Graduates of the journalism school at the University of Missouri, Columbia, are known to be members of the Mizzou Mafia.  They are everywhere in the news business and members include Russ Mitchell of CBS News, Elizabeth Vargas of ABC News and Jim Lehrer of PBS. Here in Chicago, there’s Ben Bradley of ABC7, Judy Wang of CLTV/WGN and my boss, Fox Chicago News Director Carol Fowler!

I graduated from the well-respected journalism school at the University of Oregon but I married into the Mizzou Mafia.  Although my husband is no longer in the news business, he enjoys heading back to see friends and former classmates.   Ahead of the big homecoming weekend (and the big loss to Texas in an ugly game), professor Jen Lee Reeves organizes a “Mizzou Mafia Real World Lunch” to allow journalism students to converse with those of us working in the real world of journalism.  Jen and I are always in touch through social media so I got the pleasure of being a part of the mob lunch.

Future journalists.

I was quite impressed by students live blogging and tweeting with a #realworld hashtag during the event.  But, as they did, they heard about the grim situation in the real world. Some of the panelists had been laid off and they are looking for work.  The rest are working harder than ever. I stressed the underlying need to truly love writing and journalism.  Our business tools and avenues are changing but there will always be a need for effective storytellers and communicators.

My ongoing love for words has served me well during my career.  Though when I got out of J-school, I never envisioned that it’d also lead me to my own blog and an addiction to Facebook Scrabble.