Ellen Bryan

The mileage counter is adding up on my car (almost to 23,000 miles), but I put a few "flyer miles" on the Miss Ohio traveling meter too last week. I spent the week in Washington D.C. at NOAA Headquarters and at the Capitol Building where I met Speaker of the House John Boehner.

I'll never get tired of telling Christina's story to NOAA employees and weather enthusiasts in general because they are never tired hearing about it. They are simply the best audience and ask the best questions afterwards. What a great support system for our family to be part of!

Other than traveling to D.C., I covered a good bit of distance in Ohio too... This includes: Dayton, Chillicothe, Delphos, Mansfield, Ashland, Anna, Celina and Columbus (several times to Columbus) in less than 10 days.

I've been doing more speaking too. Over and over I keep thanking my Dale Carneige classes for preparing me for these days when I'm giving keynote speeches every other day.

And though my official broadcasting career hasn't started yet, I have had some incredible opportunities to be on TV. The WLIO half hour special ran on ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX and I hosted a hour of a telethon in Mansfield.

Things I've been doing when not on official appearances are meetings with the Ohio Severe Weather Committee, National Weather Service Offices in Wilmington and Cleveland, Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Ohio Parks Department. We're working on very exciting things for this spring and summer to promote Ohio and lightning safety!

I also forgot to mention that Christina's story was mentioned in USA Today last month too. The link to the article is: USA Today Lightning Article.

I'm up to 11 books now that I've read since coming back from Miss America too. Mostly biographies and motivational books.

And finally, I've been loading up on sugar in anticipation of Lent starting in a week. 40 days of fasting are right around the corner. :)