The mad dash to the holidays are here already. Anyone else ready to ask Congress for one more week in December? I sure could use one!

Why right here, in front of the Starbucks at 66th and Columbus Avenue, of course. Best of all, you can’t see the sign from here but:

They even bring it home for you. Free. I didn’t check out any price tags, so I’m not sure how prices compare, to be honest. I was just tickled that you could pick up a peppermint hot chocolate AND your Christmas tree, right here.

So that was last Friday, and after an adventurous trip home that included missing my flight, flying to Raleigh instead, renting a car (all the computers were down NATIONWIDE and they were renting by HAND), and driving home late at night, I made it. My presence was really important because we had big doin’s Saturday.

The Christmas parade! That’s my tween in the pink coat, holding the banner for her dad’s news station (where I used to work too.) And behind her, the big Nutcracker balloon the News2 crew was guiding down the street.

That’s my hubby at the extreme left. They had to help the Nutcracker recline to make it under the light poles and street signs at the corner, before letting him rise back to vertical. I didn’t get to see this, but they also ran around in circles under him so the Nutcracker twirled down the street! Tween says that’s when the crowd really cheered — even louder than they did when they threw candy.

And then later this night, Disney on Ice! I’ll spare you the pictures, but we had a great time. As expected the toddler was enthralled until intermission and then she was DONE.

My office had a little Halloween party and costume contest. The party involved all of us, the costume contest was truly just little. Four of us dressed up. I submit for your viewing pleasure, me in the winning costume.

I was sad to read today that the Little Rock anchorwoman who’d been attacked in her home died yesterday from her injuries. Here’s the story. The story quotes police who say the attack was random. My heart goes out to her family and friends.

When I was her age, I was a news anchor in a small Southern town. Luckily, nothing like this happened to me or my fellow anchors and reporters, mostly single girls who were living and dating. We had to consider our privacy and either pay extra to have an unlisted phone number or ask our roomates to put the phone in their names. And this was before Google and cell phones, digital cameras and Gawker-like sightings. It was like hiding in plain sight. I can’t imagine how much tougher it is to do today.

I had a great time at ConvergeSouth on Friday. Hosted again by NC A&T State University (Aggie Pride!!), the conference was a full day of ideas and accessible thought leadership, tip sharing and affirmation.

I’m sure it’s being blogged about more articulately than I am doing here, but it was really interesting to meet Robert Scoble (who is sure to add my business card to his 8 or 9,000 collection of them, even though they are just cold artifacts and old technology that does not add to the dialogue) and learn so much more about broadcasting. Because, you see, that’s what I am.

I’m a broadcaster without a studio, without audio, without video. And it sort of drives me crazy. After 20 years of “casting”, I stopped when I left TV. I think that’s why I’ve been dashing so hard towards web, new media, social networking and these tools. That’s why I say you can take the girl out of the newsroom but not the newsroom out of the girl. That’s why I’ve been telling people for three years (since BlogNashville 2005) that blogging is like our Founding Fathers — it’s like Benjamin Franklin getting his own printing press and spreading his message. (And didn’t I just feel so vindicated when Chris Rabb said blogging was like what Thomas Payne did with his pamphlets?)

What makes it so tough for me is that most nights, not five feet away from where I type is a Sony DSR-500. And I can’t pick it up or use it. My husband’s still in TV and shooting video. He’s editing stories and posting them to the web. And I couldn’t.

But, actually, I can. I own a cheapie digital point and shoot camera. A Kodak Easy Share. With a big enough memory card, I can shoot some stuff and edit it together. It’ll be kinda rough. No lavalier mikes = crappy audio. Oh well. No light kits, no mixing audio channels, I don’t think. But that’s okay. And now I’ve learned all the places I can post it on the web.

I sort of thought I was too late for the party. So many people are doing so many interesting things with these tools.

But Anil Dash spent a good part of his time at ConvergeSouth letting us know that it’s never too late to join the conversation, and that you have to communicate in the way you love to communicate. Some of it could be broadcasting, some could be social media, some could be blogging and it is going to converge so that going from platform to platform will be more effortless.

So I met some new people, regrouped with others I’d met before, found some new people to follow on Twitter and have had some more follow me. (Confession: I totally love Twitter!)

There is just one thing left to figure out. When the heck am I gonna sleep?