My First Radio Ad as an Outsider

Over the past few months this blog has shifted from being a place for me to showcase my on-air work in radio and musings from my daily life to a place for me to post my thoughts whenever I can. Many of my previous posts that were work related celebrated work that I had done, a lesson learned as part of my job, cool things that I got to do as part of my awesome job or rants that started as a short 45 second radio break.

I’m going to try to continue posting here about the things that impact my life. I don’t think I’ll be blogging about the jerks at table 61 who did not tip, but I will be blogging about things I learn or find challenging about my new career path in marketing. I’ll continue to post my random workout thoughts, because I believe being health conscious is a very important part of my life and when things are working out (no pun intended) in that area of my life everything else falls into place.

Even though this is no longer a blog that focuses on my life as a “radio personality” today’s blog is featuring a little piece of work that I did for radio for my marketing job. I am the Marketing Coordinator of Valley Credit Union here in the Annapolis Valley and one of my tasks for our RRSP/Investment Season Campaign was to write and voice our radio ad. This took our radio advertising in a new direction that people around the office really seem to enjoy. It challenged me because my wisdom teeth are slowly breaking through my gums and I had not realized that I was having trouble annunciating until I heard my first run through. Yikes, it was bad!

Writing and voicing this ad really forced me to get out of my radio comfort zone and experience advertising from the other side of the table.

I have been thinking a lot about retirement these days (I guess it comes with the job) and I have
decided what I would like to do about 30 years from now. I think I would make a fabulous "Fairy Godmother". I would love to cruise around Disney Parks hanging out with kids, adults and super fans. I think it could quite possibly be the best job to do during retirement.

Are you going to cut loose from the work world when you retire or are you already planning to have a side job? I'm so worried that I will be bored with all the free time that comes with retirement and I have a fear of being old and cold so I think that being "Fairy Godmother" is the perfect fit!

Here is the ad, I hope you like it!

My Thoughts on Middleton for Kraft Hockeyville 2015

Last year Kingston had an incredible experience running for Kraft Hockeyville. I am green with envy that I was living in BC and missed it. I am so happy to be home in the Valley for my home rink's Hockeyville celebrations.

At first I was a little hesitant about Middleton's nomination for Hockeyville. The thought of sharing a place I find so sacred with the country was a challenge. Growing up the rink was my second home and honestly most of the time I preferred to be at the rink than at home.

I have heard people say that here in Canada we over romanticize our relationship with hockey. I've played hockey across this country and I can tell you that there is nothing like being the first person to hit a freshly cleaned sheet of ice at your home rink. The ice crunching underneath your skates as you push off, the cold air hitting you in the face and let’s be honest, sometimes in Middleton it was more like a warm foggy air that you could not only feel but taste and smell as well. It is such a personal, individual moment that is part of a sport that truly teaches you how to be part of a team.

When I look back at my childhood and teenage years that feeling was a key part of growing up; learning how to skate by sprawling onto the ice outside dressing room #2 and being equally as excited to see the tractor clean the ice as I was to skate, tripping on my skate guards getting onto the ice outside room #1 for figure skating and finally jumping down from the home bench too many times to count outside room #5 hosting hockey games for my seven seasons in minor hockey.

Everyone in Middleton has a memory of our rink:

- The late 80s mix-tape that was played well into the 90s during public skate

- The excitement and anticipation of your first Rink Drink

-Getting an extra penny candy (or two) in your bag from the canteen

-Bicycle rodeos

-Saturday night double-header high school hockey games

-CanSkate lessons with lots of marker scribbles on the ice

-Waiting for the Zamboni to come out on the ice (they really seem to blow young children’s minds)

-Walking into The Pep, knowing every face and struggling to find a seat

- The annual parent-child hockey game

-Taking two bags to hockey so that when you finished at the rink you could head over to Sampson’s pond

-And getting to the rink with enough change in your pocket and time on your hands to get Adrian to sharpen your skates. I swear Middleton kids had the sharpest skates in the Annapolis Valley because of that man! It didn’t matter if we were heading off to another rink for an away game we always made time to stop off and get our skates sharpened by our Pro Adrian. 

I had to take a break; I have now just come back to this blog after a few days.

I want to finish this blog by reflecting on my experience with Middleton Arena and playing hockey in Middleton. I started playing hockey much older than kids normally do. I was eleven and held back on the Atom team; taking the year to develop the skills and work my butt was one of the best decisions my parents ever made for me. I was in Grade 6 that year and it would end up being the only year that I played on a single hockey team. I cried when the season was over; I never wanted it to end.

The following year I was off to MRHS and not only played on my minor peewee team, but on the first version of the Middleton High School Girl’s hockey team. Many of the girls had never played before and the leadership from the senior girls who had played before was something I will always appreciate. For the next two years we lost brutally to teams that would go on to form our High School Girls Hockey League and other senior female teams in our area. When the league finally did form we started to reap the benefit of having younger girls leaving elementary school and moving on to MRHS. Yes, our league was dominated by young experienced hockey players who helped a large number of the more senior players develop. There were some seriously skilled female players playing that were older than me, but again the majority of the older female players were newbies.

There it is! 

The moment that will always stick with me in a Middleton Hockey jersey was huge. Unfortunately it happened in Barrington Arena in the spring of 2007, my graduating year in high school. Our MRHS girl’s hockey team faced Kings Edgehill at Regionals. KES is one of the first actual high school teams I can remember playing. I was in the 8^th grade, it was before there was a high school girl’s hockey league and we met them at one of CK’s first Christmas time tournaments.  They killed us 17-1. Beating them at Regionals and advancing to provincials in one of my last games wearing blue and gold was such a vindicating moment; it was the first time we EVER had beaten Kings Edgehill and (I like to think) it was a big moment for the league. We may not have won the banner in the Middleton rink, but all the work to bring us that BIG “W” was done at home in our rink over the years it took to get us there.

I have many more photos from the era before Facebook at my parents house to dig up, most of them are during very awkward stages of life that teenage Kate hid strategically. 

There ya go! My thoughts and my moments on why Middleton is Kraft Hockeyville 2015!

Use #khv_middletonnsforhockeyville and #MiddletonNSforKraftHockeyville to join the conversation, visit http://www.khv2015.ca/en/nominations/profile/middleton-district-arena-7/ to share your story!

Middleton for Kraft Hockeyville 2015!

I am so excited! My hometown Middleton, Nova Scotia is in the running for Kraft Hockeyville 2015! Here is a little video from Valley Credit Union’s Head Office of myself, and a couple others doing the “Kraft Faceoff” Challenge with Oreos. I am pretty pumped that I won; I was horrible at it during the practice round.

I am so happy to be living close to home during this exciting time for one of the most special places to me. More on that to come…

Here is the Youtube video:

To support Middleton’s bid check out the Kraft Hockeyville nomination page and use #MiddletonNSforKraftHockeyville and #khv_middletonnsforhockeyville.

Midwinter New Moves Fitness Challenge: #1 Deadlifts

In my last blog I talked about all the dope stuff that was under my Christmas tree and why I am motivated to sty fit in 2015. It has been a busy month with my new job, my old job and the puppy but I have still been in the gym every week (or playing sports) 5 out of 7 days each week. New Years Eve I actually worked one job and then went to the gym, had a healthy lunch and then finished the day at my second job. It was a very productive day.

Going from working at a restaurant in the evenings to working 9am-5pm everyday has been a struggle. I used to have all the time in the world to workout everyday and maintained a very specific training plan. Things have changed; now my workouts have to fit in between work and supper, most days supper comes pretty late in my house. 

Now my workouts have to be quick and thorough. One thing I am doing is breaking out of my comfort zone more and moving away from single muscle group exercises. I am challenging myself to do new workout moves that are more productive for my body. As I mentioned in the previous blog I am easily intimated at the gym and now that I am becoming more comfortable at my new gym I think it is time to learn some new moves for my new lifestyle.

In December I started doing squats and now they are one of the key parts of my training routine. I see and feel the impact squats have on my body. I am so happy I moved past the short-term awkwardness and now can feel the long-term gain.

January has been all about deadlifts. Again, I am so happy I have added the deadlift to my program. I had been disappointed with my efforts over the first few weeks of working my new job and fitting in time at the gym. Now with squats and deadlifts added to my training plan I am feeling like I am gaining back what I lost.

Here is a great video of some tips that helped me feel comfortable enough to try deadlifts for the first time at the gym. Check it out.

From now until the end of February I am going to try to do something new every time I lift.  I am thinking that will be about 20 blogs. Give or take. For example today I should have soccer and would not be having a full weight lifting session and at least two days a week I work both jobs (making it impossible to get to the gym).  I’m hoping to not get sick again (I am sick at home right now, moping around because I was too sick to go to work). Also, I will have to have my wisdom teeth removed over the next month or so too.

New Move #1 -> Deadlifts

New Move #2 -> Lumberjack Squats

Check them out here:

 

I’m a girl in love with squats right now so I am pumped to try doing Lumberjack Squats! That’s what it is all about right?

Also, I love the “Buff Dudes” channel on Youtube. I like these videos so much that I am able to get past being called a “Dude”.