In my latest blog post Back to Broadcast Media Sales! of the Broadcast and Media Industry series, I ended with how much the media industry has changed over the past 35+ years and how it continues to evolve due to the impact of the internet and streaming channels. You should really read the aforementioned blog post before you continue with this one…
But I need to back up now because my real beginning in the Media industry was at the tender age of 22 at a community led public broadcast TV station in Bridgeport, CT.
I graduated from college back in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Media Studies from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT. Media Studies was an interesting field because we were taught a little bit about different media industries such as Public Relations, Television, Radio, Newspaper, Magazines and Photography. It was just enough to peak your interest in what you might want to pursue further. In my case I was fascinated my both Broadcast Television and Broadcast Radio.
However, once I earned my college degree, I continued to work the next 3 to 4 months in the same sales support position I held in college. It was at a Bridgeport, CT financial services firm. I also continued with my internship from the Summer before where I worked at a Bridgeport, CT Public Broadcasting TV station for a Minister from a local African American Baptist church. Minister John and I collaborated on this gospel TV show called Lifeline Gospel Videos. He was the host of the show and I was responsible for interviewing gospel artists over the telephone, writing up and editing their biographical stories and broadcasting these stories on air in 2 to 3 minute increments. My segment was called Bio-Line Gospel Videos. And it took me all week long to write, create, produce and serve as the talent for one segment. This was back in the 80s so the videos stories were saved on Betacam and converted to VHS for home use. Working on these video stories with the gospel artists was truly a labor of love. I am particularly fascinated by everyday peoples’ stories and I also love to share them with others so this opportunity was Win/Win. What wasn’t Win/Win was that this was an internship so I did not get paid one thin dime and as much as I loved my job, it did not pay the rent or the bills so consequently when it came time to put in my notice to the financial services firm so I had time to devote to the field I just earned a degree in, I quickly shed the public broadcasting TV station internship as well.
In my mind I was still on the right track though as the goal post college was to gain as much experience in the media industry as possible so by starting early with the Public Broadcasting TV gig, I had a little leg up on building my resume. I called myself being “paid in experience” so I could command a certain salary for when I entered the field of Media. In my opinion, back in the 80s, the media industry was like a closed fist. There were lots and lots of people looking to get in and very few openings. So it took a lot to pry open that “fist” and receive an open position (and this was both behind the scenes and in front of the scenes) as the supply of jobs truly exceeded the demand. And this was at a time where the pay scale in Media (especially for behind the scenes positions) was extremely low but this did not deter people from trying to get into what was perceived as the “glamour field.”
As I mentioned, post college was when I discovered that living in Bridgeport, CT was not working for me anymore as I needed to be closer to a TV station and the closest, WTNH “Action News 8,” was located in New Haven, CT. As luck with have it, my sister Casandra and her husband Alfredo were living in New Haven, CT at the time. They had not yet purchased their forever home in Ledyard, CT so they were living in a large 2 bedroom apartment in the Edgewood neighborhood. I asked Casandra (since my plans of moving to the Washington, DC area after college and working in Media recently imploded) if I could stay with her and Alfredo until I got on my feet and they both graciously agreed. I stayed with the two of them all Summer long rent free while looking for work as well as looking for an apartment. Casandra was instrumental in finding me my first apartment, a Studio apartment on Whitney Avenue in the East Rock neighborhood of New Haven, CT. The rent was $375 a month plus utilities for essentially one large room with a teeny tiny kitchenette, a teeny tiny dining area and a separate full bathroom. I bought a tiny dining table and chairs for the dining area, a daybed for the living area because it served the dual purpose of a couch in the daytime and a bed at night. The kitchenette was way too small to fit in any furniture. Oh and yes, housing was very affordable back then and this unit was perfect for me (smile).
My apartment was located right on a bus line which was ideal because my car had died on the Merritt Parkway earlier that Summer and I really had no other way to get around.
As far as work, I chose to register with an employment agency so I could make money while focusing on finding a job in Media. Right after registering, I was sent by the agency the following day to Easter Seals Goodwill Industries in New Haven, CT to work as a Job Coach. As it turned out, the supervisors and Administrators loved me so much that they tried to convince me to stay and make a career of it. I made it clear to them that I was on a mission to break into the Media industry and nothing was going to get in my way (smile). I liked everyone there and I believed in their mission but not working in media was not an option (double smile).
As luck would have it, a few months down the road I spied a Want Ad in the Classifieds section of the New Haven Register newspaper for a Local Sales Assistant at WTNH Action News 8! I was overqualified so of course I got the job (smile).
I was elated. This was my first entry into Broadcast Media as well as my first real paying job in the Broadcast Media industry so life was good – for reference please read My Entry into Broadcast Media Sales.
In the next entry of the Broadcast and Media industry blog post series I will chat about the differences between working in the sales departments of Print Media, Broadcast TV and Broadcast Radio stations.
I was born in a blizzard in Newport, RI on Valentines Day, 1962 so it comes as no surprise to anyone that I have spent the majority of my birthdays bundled up in winter coats, gloves, scarves and snow boots. So this year, as my 63rd Vday Bday was fast approaching, I decided to switch things up and spend my special day sunbathing in the United States Virgin Islands.
For our 7 days/6 nights island getaway, James and I departed Bradley International Airport on Sunday February 9th and returned on Saturday February 15th. By the way, it snowed in Connecticut both ways (smile).
St. Thomas was our island dream destination, but we had previously discussed that while on this island we would travel by ferry on day trips throughout the week to both St. Johns, USVI and Jost Van Dyke, BVI. My mother-in-law Irene, who was born in St. Thomas but grew up in Jost Van Dyke, reminded us to bring our passports. I’m so glad she did as we would not have gotten on that island without them. Jost Van Dyke is part of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) so you need your passport to get through Customs and Immigration.
We rented a car for this vacation which we picked up at the airport (it makes sense to rent a car on St. Thomas because there are no Ubers or Lyfts and taxis can get pretty pricey pretty quick) and James drove us on the wrong side of the road (smile) to our hotel, the Island View Guesthouse. We normally stay in resorts when we travel to tropical islands and if necessary, we get around by Uber or Lyft so it felt different staying in an actual hotel and using a rental car. What really sold me on this particular hotel was the free daily breakfasts, plus the hotel’s proximity to downtown Charlotte Amalie which featured a waterfront, local shops and restaurants and nearby beaches.
Our rental car in St. Thomas – a brand new 2025 Nissan Sentra
Our hotel suite at the Island View Guesthouse – a funny story – not so funny at the time…
Since I used a 3rd party app (Expedia) to book our travel, I chose the bundle package which in our case consisted of airfare (United Airlines), a hotel (the Island View Guesthouse) and a car (Budget Car Rental). I would not recommend using a 3rd party app to book your travel anywhere because as I found out from Libby, the friendly and accessible owner of the Island View Guesthouse, the 3rd party app folks take 20 to 30 percent off the top of your bundle packages which in my case meant we were put into the tiniest room at the hotel with no amenities and the car we rented came without GPS. James quickly took care of the hotel room issue the very next morning when he had a talk with Eileen, the Island View Guesthouse Manager. Eileen was a dream – she not only upgraded us to the largest suite in the hotel for 3 nights, but she also managed to upgrade us into 2 more spacious hotel rooms over the final 2 nights of our week long vacation. Libby, the hotel owner, arrived with her Executive Chef Husband Marshall on the Wednesday of our vacation and ensured that the remainder of my Vday Bday week went off without a hitch. Libby and I hit it off right away and even shared a similar sober conscious story that begun at the height of the Pandemic. I can’t begin to thank both Eileen the Manager and Libby the Owner for attending to all of our needs and would highly recommend anyone looking to book a hotel on St. Thomas to make their reservations at the boutique style Island View Guesthouse.
The view of Charlotte Amalie from our hotel room window
Sunday — Day 1 – Travel Day
All things considered, the trip to St. Thomas, VI from Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, CT was not too shabby. There were no delays and the time spent in the air was, for the most part, uneventful. We flew from Windsor, Connecticut to Washington, D.C. in record time and the same can be said for our 2nd flight from Washington D.C. to St. Thomas, VI.
The very first restaurant we ate at was The Greenhouse – it was okay – popular for tourists because of its location…
My dinner at The Greenhouse – I was starving so anything would have tasted good – and St. Thomas is one hour ahead of Connecticut so I was “hangry” by then (smile)
Monday – Day 2 (Coki Beach at Coral World on St. Thomas)
Coki Beach is a small and very quaint public beach on St. Thomas (one of the 11 beaches on the island!). The sand is silky smooth and the water, crystal clear. We rented a large beach umbrella and 2 beach chair loungers for just $40 dollars. Thank goodness we did because it rained off and on all day with blustery winds. The large umbrella saved us from running back to our car for cover.
All smiles in between the raindrops at Coki Beach
What I could not help but notice at Coki Beach were all of the yachts that were parked in the beautiful crystal blue water annoyingly blocking our view…
Tuesday – Day 3 (Trunk Bay on St. Johns)
The first of two day trips that week was to St. Johns. And everything I heard about it was true. It is truly paradise, the weather was picture perfect and it was not too crowded. We drove to the Red Hook marina to catch our island ferry – the round trip fare was only 16 dollars and the entire ferry ride took all of 20 minutes. We then caught a trolley/cab to Trunk Bay (one of the 10 beaches on the island!) and spent the entire afternoon there. Trunk Bay Beach is gorgeous with fine, silky smooth sand and crystal clear baby blue water. It was 80 degrees outside but the sun did not seem that strong so we laid out on our beach blankets and soaked it up.
Love the contrast of the green mountains against the crystal blue waters
This soft and supple sand feels so good between my toes
James taking a quick nap
The snack bar where we ordered lunch – the food was soooo good! There were outdoor Tiki bars selling exotic drinks but I did not indulge since I gave up alcohol 5 years ago at the onset of the Covid 19 Pandemic…
Wednesday – Day 4 – Downtown St. Thomas – Charlotte Amalie (Walking on the Waterfront, Shopping for gear and Lunch at Gladys Restaurant)
Wednesday was primarily a rainy day (way too much rain to dry up on the beach) so we turned it into a shopping day – there are a ton of shops downtown in Charlotte Amalie (mostly local merchants) selling lots of wares. By the way, if you are looking for any kind of jewelry, downtown Charlotte Amalie is the place to be to buy gold, silver and diamonds all in one central area and best of all everything is tax free!
James and I finally seated at Gladys’s Restaurant (smile).
Gladys’s Restaurant did not disappoint – I all but inhaled the brown stew chicken, plantains, fresh cabbage and peas and rice!
Thursday – Day 5 (Magens Bay Beach on St. Thomas)
We spent our 2nd to last day at Magens Bay Beach which had come well recommended by the trip advisors. It truly is a beautiful must see and do beach. Magens Bay was super crowded the day we arrived with rows and rows of beach chairs and umbrellas lined up in formation. There was also a sun and surf rental shop, a souvenir shop and an indoor/outdoor bar and grille. Lots going on. We were in the mood for peace and quiet that day so we headed further down the mile long beach where there were no beach chairs, and very few people. Another well thought out idea…
That evening we went out for a late dinner in downtown Charlotte Amalie to a restaurant that was recommended by one of the locals in town. It was called the Sugarcane Grille at Bunker Hill. It was way up a hill on a narrow winding road with no parking. We lucked out though because we managed to squeeze our rental car into a tight space. The restaurant was so cute. We had to walk a bunch of stairs to get there but at the top was the dining room with a view of a well-lit swimming pool. The food was awesome. Our super friendly waiter even talked me into a delish mocktail made with Ginger, yummy!
Love the ambience in the dining room and the Caribbean dishes were delish!
Friday – Day 6 – My Vday Bday – Jost Van Dykes, British Virgin Islands
We popped out of bed at 530am that morning to catch the 730am ferry leaving from Red Dock marina to Jost Van Dyke, BVI. There are only 3 ferry rides a week to Jost Van Dyke so if you miss one, you have to wait a few days for the next one. It’s much more involved than going to St. Johns. First of all you need your passport. Second it’ll cost you $120 round trip per Adult to ride the ferry plus 10 dollars to enter the island and 20 dollars to exit it. Third, you have 7 hours on the island to spend as you wish and believe me, the time flies by. We spent half the day on White Bay beach which we had to catch a cab from the harbor to get to. White Bay beach was breathtakingly beautiful. I felt like I was in a Hollywood movie because it painted the picture of a true tropical beach scene. There was so much all at once to take in. And the beach wasn’t even crowded!
White Bay beach has beauty written all over it! By far my most favorite beach this week! So happy I got to spend my Valentines Day Birthday there.
I kept pinching myself – I could not believe how beautiful and uncrowded White Bay Beach was!
I had to take a picture in front of Gertrudes – a landmark and treasure – in spite of the perfectly set up photo op (smile)
The second half of our day was spent at Great Harbor – we were on a mission to grab lunch at Pinky’s restaurant and we could not leave without visiting the likes of Foxy’s Restaurant Bar and Grille!
Pinky’s Restaurant was easy to spot – love the Caribbean themed spot and enjoyed meeting and chatting with Pinky herself
Pinky herself cooked us her signature dish while chatting it up
Our official Ferry boat to Jost Van Dyke
Our ferry ride back from St. John to St. Thomas – feeling sunburnt but accomplished
Day 7 – Saturday – Travel Back Home
We purposely took our sweet time on Saturday morning because our flight was not leaving until 3pm and we would not arrive into Connecticut until 12midnight. We realized we had a long day of travel ahead of us which included 3 airplane trips this time around – St. Thomas, Virgin Islands to San Juan, Puerto Rico; San Juan, Puerto Rico to Washington, D.C.; and finally Washington, D.C. to Windsor Locks, CT. We spent the better part of the morning shopping in downtown Charlotte Amalie at one of our fav surf shops, Ocean Surfari, which,lucky for us, was having a huge storewide sale. Then we picked up our lunch at a local grocer. We arrived at the airport at 115pm and dropped off our rental car so we could relax, eat and soak up a little sun before we headed to Cape Air Airlines to check in. This is where the disconnect happened. Neither one of us realized that because we were flying from St. Thomas, VI to San Juan, PR it would be necessary to go through Customs and Immigration so consequently, after we checked in at Cape Air Airlines, we were told to get in line with the rest of the travelers. The said line was super long and wrapped around and around and around the airport about 3 times! I looked at my Fitbit and it said 215pm which meant we had all of 45 minutes to catch our 3pm flight. There was no way in Hell we were going to make that flight. After about 10 minutes panic started to set in and James said ‘why don’t you call Cape Air and see if there is something they can do to get us to the front of the line?’ I looked at my Fitbit again – it was 230pm now and I saw 3 missed calls from Cape Air. I immediately called them back and explained that we were stuck in line and was there anything they could do for us. They said they would send someone to get us but we could not find that person and ended up trying to move through the line ourselves as time was ticking by. I said a quick prayer to God and the rest of the time was a blur as we were pushed and pulled and stopped and started before we found ourselves at the point where you take your shoes off and load your stuff into gray bins. One of the airport workers familiar with our situation stopped us and told us that we were wasting our time, it was 250pm and our plane was now preparing to leave without us. We felt dejected but went through the motions of looking for and finding our original departure gate. When we arrived to that gate an employee mysteriously appeared out of nowhere and told us that this never happens but they had a backup plane outside and a pilot who would get us to San Juan well in time for our Washington, D.C. connection! The pilot had a Cessna 402 and James and I were the only 2 passengers on board. The pilot flew 6500 feet up in the air to San Juan, Puerto Rico in 35 minutes! Not only did we make our next connection to Washington, D.C., but we were only a half hour behind what would have been our original time of arrival to San Juan airport! I thanked God for answering my prayers so quickly and thanked the pilot of Cape Air Airlines for safely flying and landing us.
Too Blessed to be Stressed – at this point of the trip I am still pinching myself as we travel on what is now a tiny aircraft from St. Thomas VI to San Juan, PR – this flight took just 35 minutes and was truly a Godsend…
So glad I finally got off my duff last summer and signed up for golf lessons for women (smile).
Here’s what happened: I was leafing through the Hamden/North Haven Adult Ed catalog when I happened upon a course listing in the Enrichment Class section called Golf Fore Women 101. It felt serendipitous as I have been talking about taking golf lessons for what felt like ages so I promptly called to register for the Saturday morning 5-week session.
Then I called my girlfriend and broadcast industry colleague Ginger, who, like me, owned her own set of golf clubs but still did not know how to play. Ginger was grateful that I thought of her and I felt lucky to know her (smile).
Me and Ginger on Day 1 of our lessons and the women we met in Golf 101
The reason why I felt so lucky was because I actually bought my own starter set of golf clubs 11 years ago but for some reason or another, nothing ever seemed to come together for me in terms of taking golf lessons or being consistent about actually wanting to play. Here’s the rundown:
2007
I purchased my own set of “lady” golf clubs for $105 dollars (down to the shoes, hat, gloves, pink golf balls, etc.) and although I initially had good intentions, this set sat in my garage year after year collecting dust…
My starter set of lady golf clubs
2011/2012/2013/2014
Since by now I stillhad not learned how to play, I spent multiple years volunteering as a “Beverage Cart Driver” at our News 8 annual golf tournament where we invited our clients out for a day of golf.
2015
I finally took two private lessons (a gift from my bf) at Lyman Golf Center in Middlefield, CT with John Wilson, who came highly recommended from a former News 8 co-worker and female golfer.
At the annual Travelers Tournament in Cromwell, CT (one of my fav live golfing events and spectator sports)
At the annual Traveler Tournament in Cromwell, CT. Always a good time. Turns out my cousin Bear from Rhode Island was working there that week
2018
By now I was so desperate I even fake caddied for my boyfriend last Summer while he enjoyed ‘the game’ (smile).
And it was right after this fake caddy momentwhen I happened upon the Enrichment course listing in the Hamden/North Haven Adult Ed catalog…
Golf Fore Women 101
The Saturday morning Fall classes I registered for ran from September 15 – October 13 (10am -11am) and consisted of about ten women. Our first session was mostly in the classroom where we talked about ourselves and what brought us there and then learned about Golf from a theoretical perspective.
My Saturday morning classmates – I’m gonna miss these ladies
Let me tell you, there is a lot to learn here. Golf is truly a game of and for life… Throughout our introductory 5-week course Marissa Kulig Crow, our LPGA Coach and Club Professional, very patiently taught us the following:
Essentials – equipment selection and appropriate golf attire
Golf Clubs
Golf Course Layout
Golf Terms
Golf Scores
Forms of Golf Games
Golf Shots
Networking
Stretching and Yoga
Golf Etiquette 101
Lesson 1– The Driving Range
Here we are lined up and on our way to the driving range
Lesson 2 – The Full Swing
The full swing – one of my favorite golf swings
Lesson 3 – Chipping/Pitching/Sand
Chipping Pitching Sand Wedge was probably one of the most difficult lessons we took – here is me and Mary Ann – one of my favs
Lesson 4 – On the Putting Green
Today’s practice will be on the putting green – the short game – where a lot of golfers struggle
Lesson 5 – The Apple 9 Golf course
It felt so funny because today’s lesson #5 (final lesson of Golf Fore Women 101) was actually golfing on the Apple 9 Golf course. We played 3 holes during our last lesson. It was so fun! I am looking forward to next Summer and Fall so I can take Golf Fore Women 201 and 301 and work on perfecting my game!
Me and my girls – enjoying our last day of Golf Fore Women 101!
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