You know you need to throw away the half-eaten protein bar in your work bag when a little piece of it easily acts as an earring back. Don’t judge… I was desperate. One of my hoop earrings fell out at an active scene, and while I shockingly found it in the street an hour later in the perfect little asphalt crater left behind by wear and tear, the earring back was M.A.A. (Evidence Above).

My photographer that day, Joey, who has since gone to the dark side aka a competitor station, helped search for it, cheered me on when I found the hoop in all of its glory, and didn’t judge when I revealed my half-eaten protein bar after we made it back to the suv. As to not scare him with my weird, I asked if he had a pencil so I could snag the eraser, the ideal surrogate earring back, as I started to kneed that protein bar bit into a cube with the tips of my fingers.

After a quick search… no pencil. No surprise. It’s just tap. tap. tap… on your phone keyboard in today’s world. Who has a pencil anyways? They’re nearly as prehistoric as the single cassette tapes that some of us grew up with. My first one was Sir Mix-a-Lot’s ‘Baby Got Back,’ but that’s a conversation about taste for another day.

We were ‘live’ twice more that day with both earrings in place. I felt proud with the brown goop stuck to the back of my ear as I stood there waiting for my cue. A smirk took over at one point, and I let out a little giggle. It felt good. In a strange way, I felt accomplished, and at the least, resourceful.

Life’s Bitty Woes – 0. Ann – 1.

When big hurdles come along… when outside forces of nature, bad luck, mishaps, accidents and/or crazy humans, who are determined to mess with your chi, rear their ugly head, those tiny, tiny, tiny moments of pride, laughter over nonsense, and appreciation for the little things like that forgotten protein bar, well, they all become natural bumpers… layers added to a hardened shell. THEY propel us forward during the complicated, the painful, the exhausting, and the heartbreaking.

And when you have someone by your side that gets it… gets YOU, it makes it even better.

So, often, I force my mind to stop in the midst of the madness, talk to myself about what really matters (of course not out loud)… AND if I’m with one of my favorite photographers at work, I simply look to my left or right at the poor fella’ stuck in an SUV with me all day grinding it out, and I feel the warmth without saying a word.

I wish you could meet them like you meet us… the guys hiding behind the lens. I’ve been working at WSVN in Miami since late July of last year, and I can tell you, I have met a talented and dedicated bunch who tirelessly fight to keep you all informed every day… every hour… every second, and to do that, they work hard. They work doubles and extra shifts. They are the oil in our gears, and I am proud to call some of them more than co-workers. They are my friends. They are men I can count on, and for that, I am very lucky.

Oh, and by the way, it takes a lot to even talk some of them into a photo, but I am quite the determined reporter.