I have purposefully jumped out of fully functioning airplanes 6 times with another skydiver attached at the hip. It’s fun. You should try it. I’m also part of the 9G club. Not to brag but I did not pass out in the 9.2G maneuver (Thunderbirds F-16). They say women of short stature do really well with high g-forces.
I have been on multiple shark dives, as in I paid to see sharks while scuba diving, and snorkeled with whale sharks in the Sea of Cortez. The most epic experience was on a documentary trip with great white sharks at Guadalupe Island, Mexico. P.S. I was in a cage.
They were curious but didn’t do that crazy stuff you see on some networks. Sharks need protection. Don’t roll your eyes. Listen, if you get rid of the top predator in the ocean, guess what happens? Seal populations explode – forget enjoying your fishing trip, now you have a seal on the back of your boat waiting for a handout or worse they’re stealing fish off your line.
I spent a year and a half with some of the brightest minds in aerospace, aviation, and engineering working on a project called Red Bull Stratos. I was the embedded reporter/web editor who witnessed and documented all of the milestones down to the day of the historic, record-breaking jump Oct. 14, 2012. Let’s just say I know a lot about balloon launches, Roswell, pressure suits, and the stratosphere. Incredible team of people I will never forget.
My husband and I jumped into a partially frozen lake in Minnesota to benefit the Special Olympics. Yeah it was cold. I grew some chest hair after that.
I have a blended family of twins age 4 and tweens ages 12 and 13. A friendship with my now-husband developed some time after his wife passed way from stage 4 melanoma. His wife was my dear friend I’d known ever since high school. I think she had a posthumous influence because I was not looking to get married with children, much less to someone who lived in Minnesota (nothing against 10,000+ lakes). Truth is stranger than fiction and often more incredible too.
I’m particular about my job title, not in a snobby way. Just as you would not call your doctor a medical lady, don’t call your local meteorologist a weather lady, weather reporter, or weather babe. I’m simply called a meteorologist because I went to college for these credentials. I don’t use a teleprompter and nobody writes a script for me or hands me a forecast. I come up with a forecast on my own. And yes we do our own hair, makeup, and wardrobe.
I’m an all or nothing kind of person, which can leave me feeling accomplished and exhausted. I recall in the span of 1 year I passed all my coursework and tests to earn my AMS (American Meteorological Society) seal in 2008 while also working full time on a morning show (3am wake up) while also flying and studying every day to earn my private pilot certificate (single engine planes). Now I oversee our weather department at KOIN working evenings, get to bed at 2am awake by 7am get twins to preschool, fly just enough to stay current, plan to go back to school to expand on atmospheric studies, and try to find time in there to brush my teeth and shower and show up for my family. It’s reality, it’s what I choose to do and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Except it would be nice to commute by helicopter. #Dreams
Back to that flying thing – I’m an instrument rated private pilot and owe a wealth of gratitude to the Ninety Nines for the scholarship that paid for my instrument flight training. Nothing in aviation is cheap but there are ways to stay in the game without breaking your bank. Ask me about it.
I graduated from Pepperdine University hoping to make it in Hollywood. Like Dan Tilkin, I embarrassed myself attempting to sing in public. Thank god nobody liked my auditions enough to keep me in that lifestyle. All those little failures got me to this point so I don’t regret nothin’.