Goodbye Today... Hello Tomorrow!

Unfortunately my hard drive gave out on me a few weeks ago.
I am still trying to get over my big loss and am now just getting back to the blog.
So here we go - here is the update.
One Republic visited the Today Show and it was a blast!
I was totally shocked by their talent.
I think I might need to buy their cd.
But the biggest news was when JB visited the show.
No, not the REAL JB (james barker)
But Justin Bieber.
The place was madness!
No joke.
Screaming girls, women, and men - like you wouldn't believe.
As I took care of the VIP's I literally had one of these questions,
"Do you know who I am?"
I know one thing for sure.
Asking for a "VIP's" name is not my favorite job.
In our last few weeks in NYC we decided to really go for it as far as food goes.
Boy oh boy did we eat ourselves sick.
Miss Nicole gets married in less than 40 days!
Can you even believe it Colie?
I can't!
I am SO excited for her.
I really really wanted to throw her one heck of a bachelorette party.
But as luck would have it that didn't really work out so well.
Dinner at Serendipity didn't feel like quite enough.
So the next day I took Nicole to get some pedi's.
Of course chocolate and cosmo was needed!


One night we decided to really go all out.
I swore I wasn't going to do this on this trip.
BUT I found myself at Max Brenner -the famous chocolate restaurant put me into a food coma.
When I went to work the next morning I joked with my fellow interns saying -
I may not drink but I have food hangover.








We were all incredibly sick after -
but it was well worth it!
Adorable Karly Kimball came to town for a week.
It was so much fun getting to go around the city with her.
New York wasn't the same after Karly squared wandered the streets!
One of the best things about BYU is that all of the alumni reach out to the students.
Meet Kimber Crandall.
She is a reporter in the New York market and just won her second Emmy at 25 years old.
She is incredible.
Her husband is an investment banker and the bishop of their New York ward.
They are the definition of a power couple.
She spent an entire night making us dessert,
telling us her story,
giving us all hope,
listening to all of our stories including dreams and love life.
She truly inspired all of us that we can do it!
I can't tell you how much of a boost she was for all of us broadcasting girls.
Speaking of which -
Aren't I lucky to go to school with such incredible girls?
These are the 6 broadcasting girls out here for the summer.
I adore each of them more than they know.
They make me want to be better every day.
I know we are all going to be friends for life.

Christina came to visit the show.
She blew me away.
She is so talented it's amazing.

Evanne and I became really good friends with one of the security guards.
Probably the best move we ever made.
He placed us so close!
Only problem - he placed us right in front of the paparazzi!
I have never been yelled at so much in my life.
Evanne and I got good laugh out of it though.



Ironically one of my favorite days of my New York excursion wasn't in NYC.
In fact, it occurred in small town USA.
Last weekend we decided we wanted to go to Boston for the day.
Everyone here in the city talks about the Fung Wah bus and how it is the way to go.
You head to China town
hop on the bus
and before you know it...
you're in Boston.
I laughed so hard when we walked up to this window at 6:00 am.
I knew it was going to be an adventure.

Of course we arrived a few moments late and so we were all split up.
I sat next to a man who was clearly on some kind of sleeping meds.
He was out the entire time.
Kate sat next to a man who was clearly hung over.
He was sleeping on her shoulder,
putting his feet up,
and smelt like a drunken man.Kourt and Collie got to sit by each other.
The little bums.
The first 30 minutes on the bus were slightly rough.
I found myself tossing and turning trying to sleep.
And then suddenly....
The bus came to a screeching hault after about 45 minutes.
We were had a dead stop for basically 3 hours.
Literally.Dead.Stop.
So much so that our bus driver put the bus in park and took a potty break.
The freeway was closed.
We pulled off into Connecticut and by this time I had the giggles.
And if you know me - there is NO stopping the giggles.
Nicole started singing 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall under her breath.
We figured we had already been on the bus for 3+ hours and we had at the very minimum 3 more hours left to go until arriving in Boston.
I started racking my brain for anyone I knew in Connecticut.
Of course I knew there was a Jones girl (Elizabeth Adams family) in the area.
When in doubt - you know there is a Jones near by.
I knew that if we were in a bind we would find someone whether it be a bishop of a family friend to help us out.
Before we knew it Kourt was begging the bus driver to let us off.
Naturally the entire bus was up in arms demanding that 4 blond Utah girls could not find there way back to the city.
But we just needed off that bus and we needed off now!
And so - he opened the door and we all started singing sweet freedom!


We had NO idea where we were.
We knew we were in Connecticut but that was about it.
We found this darling little diner.
Learned that we were in Norwalk Connecticut and that there was one little street that was considered down town.
We opened the menu at the diner to find a full out breakfast for $4.
We all laughed our guts out.
We ate like Queens because it was the cheapest food we had seen in months.
We literally spent the day exploring this random city.
Not having a clue where we were going - and we loved every second.
We stumbled across the cutest furniture store and met a woman named Sandy.
Sandy is a Mom and offered to drive us anywhere we needed.
She even offered us her home and told us the whole story of her 3 carat diamond ring.
We couldn't have loved her more!

Sandy told us about downtown Norwalk and a shop named Franchescas.
On our way to the shop we stumbled across a movie theater.
We found franchescas and were in love.
The man told us all about his fav restaurants and even called and made us a reservation.
Then it was off to a movie!
We walked into a darling little movie theater to see the Killers when we were approached by a police officer.
He said, "You must be the blond Utah girls"
We were SO confused.
We asked, "Yeah - how did you know."
He responded, "Word travels fast in this town."
He then proceeded to give us his business card and said to let him know if we needed anything.
I think at this point we were so excited to be out of the city and in a hometown we were just in love with every person who spoke to us.After the movie we explored the city a little more and even went down by the water.
Then it was off to dinner and chocopolgie - another restaurant entirely dedicated to chocolate.
Eventually we made our way to a train station and boarded the train back to NYC.
Despite the fact that the Fung Wah bus did not take us to Boston
we were entirely thrilled with our day.
Nowalk Connecticut - I hope to visit you again one day!
You sure were a delight.
As my internship came to a close I had the opportunity to meet with many wonderful members of the talent.
If I learned anything about the people who make it all the way it's that they understand more than anyone what it is like to be an intern.
They know what it is like to not sleep,
dream big,
cry on the phone to your Mom,
get turned down a billion times,
and the list could continue.
None of them got there simply on luck.
They all worked for it.
But I will also say none of them got there simply on work.
They also all got lucky.
And every one of them would tell you that.
Personally I had the opportunity to sit down with Sarah Haines, Hoda Kotb, and Matt Lauer.
Each one of them inspired me in a different way.
But more on that later.
Evanne and I were instant best friends when I arrived on the show.
Poor girl is just starting to understand how terrible I am at texting!
If you know me you know calling is a much better option.
It is already difficult for us to keep in touch.
We were so sad to leave the show.
Both of us have dreams of being on air.
Which made us connect instantly.
On our last day we lived it up at the concert!

It could not have been more fitting for both me and Evanne that Rascal Flatts was our goodbye band.
Evanne is from small town USA - Ohio.
And I am from somewhat small town USA - Utah.
We both had our fair share of boot wearing, horse ridin, farm days.
And we both are obsessed with Rascal Flatts.These two became my morning buddies.
Katie and Julie man the Concert Series and boy are they incredible.
Thanks to them everyone at the concert gets a place and are happy campers despite the early hours.

This is Phil!
Phil is our bestie.
He is a security guard that we were lucky enough to bond with.
Thanks to Phil, Evanne and I had great spots at almost every concert.
He was so nice and even gave us his personal cell phone number in case we ever need anything.
This is our other handy dandy security friend Perez.
No not Perez Hilton.
He always kept us laughing.

Meredith was such a sweetheart.
She was always willing to talk with the interns.
She even gave me a kiss and a hug on my last day.
I truly was overwhelmed with how kind everyone at the show was.

Natalie is probably my favorite on the show.
I think she is just so darling and tiny.
(Note how huge my head looks next to her)
She runs marathons, is a Mom, and on the side she is an anchor of the show.
No big deal.Matt was nice enough to sit down with me and Evanne on our last day.
He asked us for a picture before we could even pop the question.
Of course Evanne was his favorite since they went to the same school.
But he still took time to hear about my education and future plans.
This is my supervisor Nassdja.
She got sick on our last day and had to head out early.
Luckily I was able to snap one last pic with her.
Evanne and I seriously think we will be back here one day anchoring the show together.
I am just certain we will be the first female team to anchor the show together.



Well, it's official.
I have left the concrete jungle where dreams are made.
It was an incredibly bitter sweet moment for me.
When I graduated high school I decided I wanted to be a broadcast journalist.
It was a dream that evolved from watching this special morning show every morning to watching my Mom in the news business.
It suddenly became my life and obsession.
And being an intern at my favorite show seemed like the tip of my dream.
It wasn't an easy road getting to this internship.
It involved hours in the news room, haircuts, essays, and lots of late nights.
But I made it.
I thought coming to the city and to this show would clarify every doubt in my mind.
I just knew without a doubt that this internship was going to inspire me to be an incredible journalist.
To continue to work toward my dream no matter the hours and no matter the sacrifices. And while it did inspire me to want to be a better journalist it also inspired me in a lot of other ways.
Now more than ever I realize how blessed I was to have such a wonderful family life growing up.
As I watched these producers and anchors work 12 to 13 hour days I often wondered how I would ever be able to have this life.
I always knew my hours would be difficult at first.
But I wanted to believe after so many years of working that I could have both a family and a career in the news.
I have seen many women do it in my life.
But what I am learning is that they are more often than not the exception to the rule.
I spent many teary nights wondering what would become of my life.
With James in Haiti, my Mom in Switzerland, and my Dad opening a new practice I suddenly found myself trying to solve one of life's biggest challenges on my own.
I think it was really good for me.
For the first time I realized how important family is to me.
For the first time I now understand that one day I will have to make a choice.
And I know what my choice will be.
I know that even if my dreams were to stop today I would feel fulfilled.
Being at the show really helped me fulfill my desire to do the news.
It filled my cup and I now know what it is like to be at the biggest news network in the country - on the top morning show.
It was my dream to work on the show.
And while I may have just been an intern
IF I never make it back to this level again I will be satisfied.
The show taught me to love journalism.
It really did.
But it taught me a lot more than I thought it would.
It taught me that at the end of the day nothing matters more than family and friends.
And for that knowledge I owe the show everything.
I know that I will always have this experience to reach back and count on.
I did it.
I made it in New York!
And as Frank and Tony said -
If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere!
So goodbye Today Show, goodbye New York City,
and hello to my new out look on life.
I couldn't be more excited to see what the future has in store for me.

PS
Blogging from the Barker home in Virginia.
Couldn't be more happy to be snuggled up next to James.
He promised me a blog post about Haiti - stay tuned!