It’s December and that means the holiday season has officially arrived! Usually, I have friend’s parties throughout the month, but this year marks my first company one! I had to say I did not know what to expect – what do you wear, do you have a drink or do speak of work or not?! Oh the pressure!

When we arrived at The Hilton, it was so nice to see everyone in their holiday best! The party was filled laughter and genuine appreciation from everyone – what a relief! I can’t believe I was even stressing over it! I also loved meeting some of the spouses – they were so much fun! They had a full spread for dinner my plate was overflowing, and did I mention over six desserts to choose from?!

I was able to learn who has been with the company the longest and who won a cruise?! How do I sign up for that? To end the presentation we all got to enjoy bloopers from everyone, and I made the cut! Remember my Purdue drum incident?! Oh yeah, slow motion on the big screen for everyone to see! Thank you Audra!

Overall, what a fun night! I’m just going to have to sneak in next year!

So I think I have a new calling! I have been The Face for almost three months now and I have just competed in my third eating contest! I have always been competitive, so when a challenge arises, I can’t help my self!

It started off with Zup’s Rib Eating Challenge, where I finished 26 ribs in three minutes! I am not even a rib fan, but to receive that trophy from Big Joe Staysniak was worth it! Now it sits on my desk for the next year!

Then came breast cancer awareness month, and what better way to help out than by having a yogurt eating challenge! Sure why not! This one was only 90 seconds, where I finished five and a half yogurts! The winner had 11?! I am not worthy!

And last night at the Butler basketball game, I had the most recent challenge of QDoba burrito in 30 seconds. I almost got half of it! This one was tricky because I had to store everything in my cheeks and worry about chewing later – it  paid off though because I won!

All in all, I have no idea what I am thinking when entering these, but man do I love winning!

You can watch my latest eating contest on INDYTV.com under videos!

I used to always remember sitting and watching ads and promos on TV thinking I can do that! Since starting The Face job, I have been learning how to edit – what a wake up call! These editors know what they are doing! A 30 second ad can take two hours to put together. There is the clipping, the music, the dissolving – I could go on forever! I have been sitting with Amanda, who is an amazing editor, and we have been putting my Face packages together that you see on Indy Style as well as the website. Now it’s time to start on my own! What?!

By the end of my Face year, I will have such joy looking back on this post while laughing! Because, by then, I can be known as: Danielle, editor! Maybe!

To introduce D’Buzz to everyone, Janine and I went out around the circle to meet with fellow Hoosiers to see if they could say it. We met some very nice people along the way that were so nice to be a part of this. The most memorable would have to be those guys from Japan! They were such good sports about the whole thing and even liked my Facebook page afterwords! Good thing I was familiar about Facebook because it was all in Japanese. All in all, it was such a great experience, not only great weather, but having the opportunity to introduce myself to the public face-to-face!

Everyone keeps asking me, “What is The Zone?” To answer your question, The Zone is high school sports! Since Fall is upon us, that means football!! MyINDY-TV 23 along with WISH-TV 8 find the exciting game of the week and visit that school! There have been three Friday night games so far, two Horseshoe Classics at Lucas Oil Stadium and they have been a blast! The school spirit that the fans show has blown my mind! The Zone wraps up every Friday night at 11PM on WISH-TV with highlights and scores from around central Indiana. So if you just happen to be at your high school, past or present, and see The Zone crew come say hi! You could score a Zone t-shirt if you do! See you guys on the field!

So this is my very first blog!! Big thanks to Jason for showing me how to do this – hopefully I will make him proud!

I wanted to share with you my first co-hosting experience on Indy Style! After a whirlwind night of our live show to announce the next Face of MyINDY-TV, it was right to work the next morning! Still in shock from winning, I arrived bright and early to start my new job! What should I wear? What do I say? How do I interact with all the guests? These questions were plaguing my mind all morning! As soon as I walked on set I was greeted by Chef Jim from the Mucky Duck and Peggy the producer. Chef is a character making you laugh at anything and everything and Peggy was so nice to put me right at ease. What an amazing show to be part of! Everyone makes you feel right at home and have to give props to Andi Hauser! She made it seem like we were the best of friends just talking on a Friday night about what’s going on! Was there a camera even there? I want to truly thank everyone at Indy Style for making my first day one I will never forget!

Last weekend was amazing! Not only was I blessed enough to experience my first Emmy nomination this year for my work as the Face of MyINDY-TV… I won! The regional Emmys awards ceremony took place in Cleveland on June 11th. I took home the Emmy in the “Outstanding Talent – Host” category and I’m still in shock… the ceremony was a new experience for me and it was inspirational to be around so many talented media professionals. I also had the pleasure of meeting legendary meteorologist Dick Goddard. MyINDY-TV took home trophies in all three categories we were nominated in… I love working for such a great station!

Sooooo… I’m super excited because a really cool event is happening in Indy this Sunday!

Students from all over the city are coming together, partnered with industry professionals, for a cultural explosion of music, dance, fashion and art.

The event is going to showcase our community’s cultural diversity and the talents of area young people as they pursue their dreams against all odds.

Fight the Wackness and the COLORS program are putting on the event and I will definitely be in the house!

If you’d like to buy tickets to support and hang out, here’s some info:

COLOR THE RUNWAY
SUN, FEB 20
IUPUI CAMPUS CENTER ROOM 450
317-401-9225

Happy new year y’all! I’m so excited to kick off 2011… 2010 flew by and was full of blessings for me–including landing my gig as the new Face of MyINDY-TV. I can’t wait to see what this year has in store.

As far as resolutions… I have a ton (don’t we all?) but I’ll let you in on one that everyone will get to follow along with as I (if all goes as planned!) progress: GUITAR!

I started lessons with Fishers Guitar this past autumn and love it. I can be a bit of a procrastinator when it comes to practicing (anything, lol) but I’ll keep you updated and maybe even get some behind-the-scenes footage of my lessons… practice sessions… and dare I say, performance? I’ll have to work my way up to that one! (Way up…)

Well, anyhoo, hope your new year celebration was as awesome as mine–can’t wait to mix and mingle with even more of Indy in 2011!

Over and out!
Z