I have been sick for a week now, which is extremely rare for me. In fact, the last time I can remember feeling like this was years ago, during my last semester of grad school, when I was sick for roughly 1,871,874 consecutive days.
OK, it was more like three weeks, but it certainly felt like forever. It was a busy time — I was working basically full-time in our Capital News Service television bureau, taking a class on Monday nights and also working a part-time job on Saturdays.
I got sick just before Spring Break, which wasn’t really a break for those of us in the bureau. Instead, part of our experience was taking that time to do a long-form package, one we could spend an entire week on. My story was about a proposed housing development on Maryland’s Eastern Shore that critics said would greatly harm the nearby Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.
I took my sick self to the statehouse in Annapolis, where I interviewed state lawmakers and representatives from environmental groups. Then it was off to the Eastern Shore towns of Easton and Cambridge where I spent a few days working on the story.
I remember getting to my hotel the first day and going for a meal at the Denny’s next door before passing out early in the afternoon. I was still holding out hope that somehow a little extra sleep was going to get rid of the sickness before I really got to work the following morning. It didn’t.
The next day I interviewed the mayor of the town where the development was going and also talked to a ranger at the wildlife refuge. Then I did exactly what any doctor would tell you to do when you’re already sick — I spent an entire windy day outside at the refuge with temperatures in the 20s.
Content-wise, I think the story turned out pretty well. Even my narration track convincingly hides how I was feeling, though I remember the first few takes being rejected by our bureau director. Apparently sounding like I was in a coma or had just woken up in the middle of the night were not acceptable.
Fortunately for you, I actually have a tape of this entire show, so you can see my exquisite anchoring skillz along with the story. I’ll even leave in the tease after the story, so you can see me totally mistime how long Aundrea’s part of the script is and turn to the camera way way way early. Enjoy:
In case you’re interested, in 2007 the state purchased more than two-thirds of the land from the developer, who cut the number of houses in the project by 75 percent and contributed about $2 million for restoration efforts.
I also eventually got better. All it took was deciding I was actually going to visit a doctor. I woke up the next day completely fine.