Medal of Honor

Last week I gave you a preview that I was going to exciting places such as Raynham, MA and Fort Drum, NY but I really couldn't say why. I was traveling to do a profile on the recipient of the Medal of Honor that was bestowed this week by POTUS. While I normally travel with POTUS, this trip was unique in the fact that it had little to nothing to do with him. Instead of the WH making all the arrangments, I planned it all. And even though I don't particularly like traveling commercially, everything went soooo well!!

Let me back up and say that I absolutely loved being a part of this story. SFC Jared Monti was killed in Afghanistan in 2006 when he tried to save one of his soldier's lives. It's truly an amazing story that I hope you will read. In my usual day to day work, I don't get too emotionally involved in a story. It's not that easy to get drawn in by economic numbers or a missile crisis or heatlhcare bills. Even to be honest, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But you put a face and a name to something and everything changes. We went to Ft. Drum to interview one of his commanding sargeant. While we were there, I found a couple of guys who were in the firefight with SFC Monti the night he died. To hear first hand accounts of what these guys went through and to see how difficult it was for them to talk about it three years later was something I'll never forget. Oh yeah, and these guys are 22 years old now so they were experiencing this when they were 18 or 19. It was truly inspiring.

The next day, we spent the day with SFC Monti's father in Raynham, MA, about 45 minutes outside of Boston. I'll be honest, I wasn't sure how successful the interview was going to be but once we got going, Mr. Monti told some of the most inspiring stories about his son. I was in tears several times during the interview because I could see just his raw emotion from losing his son. I don't want to ever experience what he's gone through but I was honored to get to know his family in a real tangible way. I was soooo honored to be a part of this story.

Like I said, I very rarely get emotionally involved in my work but this was an exception that was well worth it. I hope you'll get to watch my piece here. I'm not posting it to brag. I really want you to see the exceptional life of this honored fallen soldier. Here's the other part I also worked on. I hope you enjoy it.

Labor-less Day Weekend!

I just had the BEST weekend!! It was the first time in a long, long time that I have not been working on a holiday and had a three day weekend like the rest of the working world. So I spent it in style. Three of life's greatest things packed into one weekend- Virginia Tech football, the beach, and a wedding!!

My friend Dana, whom I strive to be as funny as, got hitched this past weekend in Nags Head, NC and I was pleased as punch to be invited to the festivities! Let me back it up for one second... I haven't known Dana for a particularly long time in life but the moment we met up for lunch a couple of years ago, we clicked and never looked back. We're basically the same person. Well not really but we have sooo much in common and we both L-O-V-E to talk. So it should come to no surprise that our first lunch together lasted something like three hours!! She is sooo funny and we always have so much fun on our outings!

Anyway, Dana and Michael got married on Sunday and the weekend was full of awesome fun! First of all, I made a new friend- Jessica! I met her on FB a week ago through Dana and I knew immediately if she was a friend of Dana's, then she'd easily be a friend of mine. PLUS, she's a Hokie so that meant she was an automatic friend. We also hit it off quite quickly and had sooo much fun rooming together and just hanging out!

Speaking of just hanging out, one of our first activities was to go to the beach! As you may be able to figure out, I do not tan. It's just not completely possible unless I get burned to a crisp and then let the red turn into tan. And since I'm not a fan of skin cancer, I generally don't do a lot of laying out. But it was absolutely perfect weather and laying out is such a relaxing activity. So I lathered up on the sunscreen and laid down and took a nap on the beach. It was so peaceful and relaxing! And I didn't get too burned!!

After that, we went to the rehearsal dinner which included a most beautiful sunset (see picture below) and good food and meeting more new people. We convinced our new friends (the term "we" is quite ironic because at this point Jessica and I had known each other for approximately 14 hours) to go watch the Virginia Tech football game with us! We ended up at a Tex-Mex bar and when we walked in, there whole bar was full of Hokies. We knew we had gone to the right place. The outcome of the game wasn't that great but it was a great game and we had a lot of fun!

Sunday was the wedding and it was absolutely beautiful!! Dana and Michael got married on the gazebo outside the hotel we were staying at and it was just a really nice ceremony. Dana was a most beautiful bride and she said that it was even better than she dreamed it was going to be! The reception was a lot of fun too! Dana, being the awesome TV producer she is, produced a great video of their relationship and lives and I think I only cried for about half of it. It was so incredibly sweet! Later came the toasts which I pretty much bawled through. Sooo sweet as well! Basically at the end of the day, there was no question that God in His faithfulness, had brought the two of them together specifically for each other. These two are destined to big things and I'm glad I was able to witness this big moment in their lives!

It wouldn't be a true Becky blogpost if I failed to mention any food. So I will. Only because you expect it. On Saturday night, my new BFF Jess and I went to this great restaurant in Nags Head called the Lone Cedar Cafe. That might possibly have been one of the best seafood meals I've ever had. As soon as I tasted the cornbread when we first sat down, I knew Jessica had picked a great place! My pan-seared Spanish mackerel topped with lump crab meat was divine. OOOhhh, and the whipped sweet potatoes were incredibly yummy...and the crab dip... and the Hershey chocolate cake. Seriously, my mouth is watering now remembering how great it was! I really didn't want to eat yesterday because I was still pleasantly full from our meal! I definitely recommend that place to others! Do I sound like a commercial or what?!? Anyway, suffice it to say that it was really good food!!

So now I'm back to work and out of the dream world of not working. I have a fairly busy week with a bunch of travel for the rest of the week. I'm going to the hotspots of the world like Fort Drum, NY and Raynham, MA. Oh, and New York City too!