Decided to take a moment this morning and describe something that happens quite a bit around here: waiting. This morning we shot the next installment of Al's VLOG (stay tuned!) with the Kratt brothers who are on the show a little later today. The Kratt brothers work with exotic animals, so Al decided to go behind the scenes with the animals and chat with the Kratts for the vlog.
This morning I met up with our camera guy, went to the scenic dock where the animals were waiting and made sure they were ok with Al "vlogging". Then we went back to let Al know the animals were here and ready to go. Then the Kratt brothers had to go up to hair and make-up (yes, even the guys have to do that so they're not shiny) so that left me standing in the lobby outside of the studio with a camera guy and pretty much no one else. Al was outside to do the weather, and Matt walked by and gave me a confused look. Normally there is not a lot of standing around in the morning, especially after spending about twenty minutes running around to make sure everything is ready. I have found that in live television there is always a scramble to make sure every detail is in place, but then there is also a moment - similar to the eye of a hurricane - when everything is calm, still, and loaded with anticipation for the chaos to follow.
Luckily, the Kratt brothers finished getting ready just as Al finished the weather, and we all walked through the studio during a commercial break to the scenic dock to shoot the vlog. Al, as always, kept things spontaneous (including pointing the camera at us behind-the-scenes staff) and also caught some fans that had started to gather on the street. One thing I hadn't anticipated was getting Al back to the studio through a rapidly forming crowd on the street. Like the rest of our anchors, Al always takes time to take pictures, shake hands and talk with the people that come out here to spend the morning with us...so it took us a little longer to get everything finished, which is usually the case.