OMG I missed it by FOUR days!!

So here I sit, un-employed, wait I mean SELF-employed and looking forward to celebrating my D-Day (The one year anniversary of my Departure from KSN.)  Honestly, I thought it might be tomorrow, so for giggles and grins I looked it up…..yes on my calendar it reads, LAST DAY AT KSN.  Here’s the funny part, it was April 24th.  That day that so defined the end of one of my lives and the beginning of another went by unnoticed!  I completely brain-farted.  I could have sworn it was the 29th.

The question I ask myself is am I happier?  The answer is easy.  Yes.  I miss one part of being Anita Cochran more than I should, but the rest of her I don’t miss at all.   That part that’s missing is feeding off  an audience and “performing.”   In some ways I still do.  Teaching in front of students at Wichita State University, allows me to have an “audience” of sorts.  It still allows me to produce and write and tell stories, just in a different capacity. I perform in front of the camera still with some freelance commercial work (Okay, Gregory Agency I’m ready for my next gig!!)  It’s just the DAILY being on TV that I miss.  (Not that I ever saw myself, since TV News is live and I rarely watched the newscast after …..I really only caught glimpses of me on TV anyway! )

I don’t miss news like I thought I would.  A big story breaks I find out about it on Twitter, and typically google the latest details IF, and it’s a BIG IF….IF I am even interested in it.  My news mind is completely different now that I’m not responsible for getting all that stuff to you.  Mostly now I just understand why most of you didn’t care about much of what we served up on the TV for you.

I don’t miss having to be somewhere (aka full-time job) EVERY single day, or in my case NIGHT.  I love having the power to decide whether I will work a day here or there or take on a project strictly based on whether or not the money is worth the time I have to invest.  It’s the ultimate luxury.  I wish for all of you a chance to live like that at least for a year.

I don’t miss being the TYPE A Supermom who really wasn’t present.  My relationship with my girls has grown 10-fold since I stepped out of the newsroom and back into my own home.  I never let that news anchor guard down at home, and didn’t even realize it until the first time I was in bed with my daughter tickling her when I normally would have been back at work prepping a newscast.  I had NEVER done that before bedtime because I was too busy, wait I wasn’t even home for bedtime.

I don’t miss the back-biting of the industry, the rumor mill that we so heavily supported, or the physical work that it took to actually get a newscast together.   I don’t even miss the paycheck as much as I thought I would.  I guess that’s why I missed my D-Day Anniversary the first time it rolled around. I really don’t miss it.    I’m in a better place, one that would be perfect if we just had some damn TV cameras around!!

Hermit Tendencies

I’m staring at a blank page, thinking I can say anything I want.  Oddly enough, I don’t want to say anything.  Sometimes, I don’t even want people to see me.

I joked before leaving TV news that I was going to become a hermit and live out my days on the beach.  At the time, me going anywhere alone and without an audience seemed almost impossible, now I’m starting to worry that it looks better every day!   Not that I’m thinking of escaping my home life, I wouldn’t want to do that….but there are times where I just want to be alone, all alone.

I couldn’t find a soul to lay with me in the sun yesterday, so I went alone and it was delicious.  I thought what the heck is wrong with me, here I am alone and quite enjoying it.   Maybe I am experiencing hermit tendencies after all….too bad, I don’t have enough money to be a really good one like Howard Hughes, or enough talent to disappear like Johnny Carson did and be missed by millions, I guess a hermit I’m gonna be pretty mediocre.  Unless of course, you never hear from me again.  I’m Anita Cochran, and that’s what I really wanted to say.

 

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Everything Old is Old Again

   Everyone always asks what are you doing now that you’re not on TV anymore.  The answer is a little bit of everything.  I work for me.  One of those projects, is a TV show that will showcase the jobs in Kansas hooked to the use of composites, you know those cool materials that are being used to make planes and wind turbines, even it seems body parts!  The great thing about it, during a shoot this week it was like old home week.

    I was reunited with two of the best photographers I have ever worked with.  Curt Rierson and Ted Lewis are legends really in the realm of  news photography and are like family to me.  When the three of us got in the room it was just like 20 years ago, except we’re all old now, quite hot for our age, but still old.  

   It made me rethink something I said about the people you work for  not being your family.  I have to stand by that, or you like I, could fall into the trap of thinking loyalty at work extends to the people who write your check.  It doesn’t.  That’s all business.  However, family-like ties can be made at work and for me were.  I was reminded of that when Curt, Ted and I giggled like little girls for the first 20 minutes of our reunion.  

    Work relationships are a tricky thing.  Especially in the competitive world of TV news, but I ran into a former Producer over the weekend, and Glen is one of those people who for 20 years I’ve had a bond with.   He’d call every now and then from Houston or where-ever he happened to be working at the time, and it was just like we had never been apart.  I guess what I’m finding out after leaving a LONG TIME employer is that unlike family, you can leave them behind….or you can choose to take them with you.  I’m feeling really blessed today, that the ones I chose to take, are for the most part coming with me.  I’m Anita Cochran, and that’s what I really wanted to say.

 

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On the same path

   I ran into a friend of mine at the Gay Pride awards this weekend, and it reminded me of how two people can be so much alike, and yet so different.

    Jason Dilts is so hilarious, if you’ve read his work in Naked City you know exactly what I’m talking about.  Jason is the author of “Homo on the Range.”  Yes, he’s gay, and he’s happy to tell us all about it.   The really weird thing about Jason is he and I are in the same place right now.

   Okay, what does a red-headed single gay guy have in common with a blonde former news-anchor, who’s married with two children?  Turns out everything.  Career-wise we are both on the back side of very demanding yet rewarding jobs.  Jason was involved in politics and that’s a lot like the world of TV news.    We both gave up 9 to 5, or maybe we should say 24/7 jobs to find a more scenic path.  

    As we caught up this weekend we both agree the only thing we miss about our old lives is the money, and at this point, neither of us is willing to give up what we’ve gained to get that back.  So for now, at least, we’re planning to meet at the pool, not to discuss get rich strategies or map out our master life plan…..we’ll probably just grab some rays and talk about the path we’re on, and whether it’s leading to happiness.   My guess we both will answer Yes.  I’m Anita Cochran and that’s what I really wanted to say.

 

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