I talk to Vampires

Yesterday I was pre-interviewing a man about his new book about vampires when he told me that he is a vampire. Well, what does one do with that sort of information? Apparently he is not "undead" but is alive and doesn't drink blood. Instead, he sucks energy from people. A psychic vampire.

Now, I'm trying to track down a man who says he has been teleporting for several years and who says there is life on Mars. He has met Martians.

This is the strangest job I have ever had.

And 3 months later...

Wow -

3 months since I've last blogged. Have I fallen prey to the simple-mindedness of Facebook? Perhaps I can only think in short soundbites now.

Took a walk through the U-district today and once again marveled at how easily my new heart pumps. Going uphill is not a problem at all any more. Of course, I've been walking nearly every day for 16 days. I had hoped to walk every day for an entire month but I missed last Sunday. I do notice that I feel happy, as soon as my feet hit the pavement. The MBT walking shoes make walking so much easier, like gliding or rolling. And my knees don't hurt!

I also saw the documentary, "The September Issue" all about Vogue editor Anna Wintour and her creative director, Grace. Women in their 60's dictating fashion to women in their 20's. Grace came out the clear winner but Anna wasn't far behind.

Now I'm back home, having just leafed through my guilty weekly pleasure, "Entertainment Weekly".

I didn't work too hard this week and even turned down a shift at Metro - it was the killer Heather shift. I figured I didn't need the stress. I just don't handle it as well as I used to.

Bad Cheese

Don't go to the farmers' market and buy some cheese just 'cuz it looks sooooo good it has to taste good. Sigh. Learned my lesson. The WORST cheese I have ever tasted - bland and bitter at the same time. Can't even imagine melting it and putting it in a dish. I had a nice conversation with a young local farmer about his meat and eggs and milk and I just saw this wedge of cheese and it was so pretty. Reminded me of something I saw in France. Well, I paid $5 for the experience, I guess.

Cute little farmers market in the parking lot of the Wallingford Center. About as many vendors as are in Lake City's but different people. There's a home made take-home pizza place and a winery and a Russian pastry guy as well as several fruit and veggie vendors. Also, a few meat people and a fish guy. But their prices are so high. $19 a pound for Halibut and Salmon. $9 for a pack of home made sausages. Who can afford this stuff? And I saw the most beautiful heirloom tomato - but it would have cost $5! For one tomato. I'm all for the local and organic food movements and I want to support them.

Maybe if I don't spend $5 on bad cheese I can afford 1 pork chop.

Payola Test - FAIL!

I have been trying to take the corporate online payola-plugola test for 6 weeks now.

Everything is done online and none of it works from my computer at home. Today, I even drove downtown to a corporate-owned radio station to take the test on one of their computers. I had to wade through the 40-minute online training BEFORE I could press the button that says "Take the Test". Each time I pushed it, I was sent to a screen that read "This page is not found".

Fuck it. Corporate knows I have tried to take the test 5 times. I've wasted about 10 hours of my life on this. No more.

I have not failed the test. The test has failed me.

Dancing at the Country Bar

Last night - believe it or not - I drank my very first Budweiser! Never even tasted one before and I grew up just an hour or so away from the Anheiser-Bush brewery. It wasn't horrible. I might drink one again some day.

Yesterday, I filled in on a traffic reporting shift, broadcasting with a DJ I hadn't worked with in 20 years. He invited me to join him at his favorite night spot, The Little Red Hen, a country music bar in Seattle's Green Lake neighborhood. Most of the bars in this part of town are more upscale. "The Hen" has probably survived all these years because it is one of the few bars that cater to the older crowd. Lots of people my age were there. And it was clear that EVERYBODY was there to dance.

The Little Red Hen has live music 3 or 4 nights a week, all of it Country. Luckily, I used to work at KMPS for 3 and 1/2 years and am no longer shell-shocked by the sound of a steel guitar. Where else can you go to hear live music 4 nights a week - with NO cover charge? An hour before the band plays, there is a free dance lesson. Unfortunately, I missed that part. Next time (and there just MIGHT be a next time) I'll make sure to attend.

Despite that, I got asked to dance several times. 8 times, I think, and didn't do too horribly. I was surprised at the numbers of men who know how to dance and who like it. Very different from my memories. I was mesmerized by one black-hatted portly cowboy who twirled me in his arms around the parquet. He was a master, and paid no mind to the fact that I didn't know what to expect next.

Finally, ever since Seattle instituted the "no smoking in public places" ordinance, bars are much nicer places to hang out! Don't think I've been to one since they enacted that law, over 3 years ago!

Maybe I'll buy some dancing shoes. Just maybe.

The Sun Hurts!

My sun-loving friends don't understand me when I say this, but I'm physically in pain when I sit out in the sun for too long. And by too long, I mean just a few minutes.

I tried it again this morning, when I walked up the hill to my new favorite coffee shop, Irwins. They have great weathered Adirondack chairs outside - the left arm held my iced coffee and on the right one sat my toasted everything bagel with herbed cream cheese and fresh tomatoes (yum!!). I put on my sun hat and let my pasty white arms and legs soak up some solar juice.

Ouch!! After about 10 minutes, I had to cover my legs with a sweatshirt. I felt like needles were poking my skin - and not the teensy needles used by acupuncturists. Knitting needles, is more like it!

I have a feeling it is going to be a beautiful summer in Seattle with clear skies and temperatures regularly reaching the 80's. I'm kind of glad I'll be staying in my new basement apartment, under the earth - close to where the mole people live.

Mole people - please allow me to join your ranks.

More On My New Neighborhood

Wallingford is the land of middle-aged ladies, taking walks, wearing backpacks and hats! I fit right in! I passed 2 of us. I walked up to 45th again and down to Stone Way. Archie MacPhee is moving to the corner of 45th and Stone, where the liquor store used to be. I got a new eye pillow in the Wallingford Center (mine has lost almost all of its tiny buckwheat seeds). On the way back, I saw two sweet Australian shepherds and cried out with glee "look at the sweet puppies!". I was "busted" as their owner looked up from her chair. But, she told the dogs to run down the steps and say hello! And one of them carried a ball in his mouth. We played fetch. The other one wanted her 'tocks' scratched. Fun loving! And the owner was another nice middle-aged lady. This area is lousey with us! My walk was made complete when I had some serious lovin' with a sweet orange tabby with a little pink nose.

Hooray!

Gettin' Comfy In My New Place!

I love my new apartment.

Sure, it smells like gas right now, since the gas water heater is leaking (and the landlord is going to replace it), but it is in a neighborhood that I love and has a real, honest-to-goodness kitchen. After using a cutting board for a counter for the past two years, I don't know what to do with all the space! And so many cabinets and kitchen drawers! I finally have places to put stuff!

I have an actual living room/office and am soon getting a love seat. My good friend, Angela, gave me a TV with a DVD player that somebody just left, in her building. I have free basic cable TV AND cable internet! My bedroom is calm and soothing and has a good-sized closet. My bathroom doesn't have a tub but has a double-sized shower. And, the place is pretty!

And, best of all, I have my OWN washer and dryer!! And, the water heater is only used by me. Plus, the washer and dryer is in a storage room where I can put more stuff!

I walk outside and I see a glorious view of the city. I'm just a block away from the Burke-Gillman Trail and 2 and 1/2 blocks from Lake Union, the urban lake. I am within walking distance to a really cool coffee shop/cafe/bakery.

I love Wallingford and am thrilled to live here!

Unintentional Plagarism

Today is the 30th anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident.

Ian, whose shows I produce for the national radio show I work with, asked me to tell him what I remembered from that time. It was early in the morning and I am not the best writer in the mornings (I'm sure I'll be going back into Blogger and editing this post at some point). So, I had already submitted my memories on NPR's website, for kicks. I went there to cut-and-paste my thoughts into my email to Ian. Then I went to my sister, Lisa's, blog and saw what she had written. And, she had included details I had forgotten. So, I copied her words, too, and edited both of our little essays into one cohesive whole.

Ian asked me if he could read some of it on the air and I said yes.

I didn't know he would read THE ENTIRE LETTER!!! It was cool, but I felt horribly guilty that I didn't write the whole thing all by myself. Because I have world's most guilty conscience, I have re-printed the letter here, a co production of Lisa and myself:

It was my senior year of high school. My family lived just outside the 10-mile radius from the plant. That was important because officials kept talking about evacuating people who lived 5 or 10 miles from the plant. But, nothing was coordinated. There were only recommendations.

News of the accident at the plant started trickling out in the morning of the 29th. But we all went to school and prepared to have a normal day. By the afternoon, though, the principal gave an announcement over the loudspeaker, telling all of us to stay inside and close the windows. We were going to be sent home early. Rumors were spreading and everybody was scared. A few of my friends ran around saying "I don't want to die a virgin!!!" (but in my choir-and-band-geek crowd, nobody accommodated anybody on that front) It was a beautiful spring afternoon. My sisters and I took the school bus home. The bus driver had all of the windows open and had no idea about the TMI accident. School remained closed for several days, as nobody knew what the heck was going on.

Over the next few days, the details began to emerge. Would we be evacuated? Would we be allowed to stay put? We were all finally allowed to stay in our homes if we wished.

Everybody in our family got sick from a cold or had a bad headache. I will never know if it was from anything that spewed from the plant or not. More likely, it was from all the stress. All of my friends left with their families to other places, far away. My family was poor and we didn't have anywhere to go. So we stayed. And worried.

I remember mostly the confusion and the fear. I also remember that we, living in Harrisburg, were not getting the same news about TMI that the rest of the country got from outside the region. Remember, this is in the days prior to CNN. I'll never forget listening to a local DJ talking to a nuclear official at the plant and asking him "what's the coffee situation"! (of course, nowadays, I don't know what I would have done in the situation on the air. How do you keep it together?)

My mother, in her infinite wisdom, took us all to the movies during this time to see "The China Syndrome" (it was so freaky that this movie had come out shortly before the accident). There's a line in the film that says something like "if this plant goes, it could wipe out the population in an area as big as the STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA!!" (talk about synchronicity) Leaving the theater, a reporter from The Boston Globe wanted to ask us questions. Mother refused, fearing the media, I guess.

But, what was most upsetting to me and my friends was that the Billy Joel concert scheduled a few days later at the Hersheypark Arena was canceled!! It was the biggest event of the year, and everybody I knew had tickets. About 15 years later, my sister actually got to meet Billy Joel backstage at a concert in Tacoma WA. When she reminded him, he said "I KNOW! It wasn't MY FAULT!" (The arena had canceled the show because officials thought they might have to use it as temporary housing).

What a crazy time.

Lisa, thank you so much for your beautiful words.

How to Solve the Economic Crisis

Ah South Park.

Matt and Trey are true geniuses who have summed up our economic woes and religious fanaticism in one fell swoop. All hail South Park.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/220760

Traffic Stress!!!

My god. What was in the air last night?

I've gone back on the radio, on the weekends, doing traffic reports. I agreed to this because weekends are far less stressful than weekdays. At least they USED to be!

Yesterday was hellish! Not only were there 40 minute delays to travel through a 3 mile stretch of construction, but we had a 9 mile back-up due to a fatality accident. And, I kept hearing reports over the police scanner about road rage, cars heading south in the north bound lanes of the highway and, worst of all, 2 separate reports of "rolling domestic": violence happening inside a car, between the occupants. One of these reports stated that the driver, a woman, was being choked by the passenger, a man, and that she was trying to jump out of the car!

I checked my horoscope yesterday and it told me to "check my anger" this week - apparently the stars and planets are aligned in such a way as to cause tension.

Or maybe people are coming apart at the seems due to the economy?

Whatever the case, yesterday was a day I don't want to repeat, any time soon.

My List of 25 Random Things

This is a questionnaire that has been circulating in Facebook. You are supposed to list 25 random things about you that many people don't know.

Here's my list:


1. I hate to shop - can't stand it. I will do very well in these troubling economic times.

2. I had to take Prednisone for a few months after my heart surgery. It made me want to shop. I ran up over $600 on my credit card. My doctor now knows I am "allergic" to Prednisone.

3. I once looked at a pig in a petting zoo and said to her "your ear looks so soft, I wish I could touch it". The pig then rolled her head over to the fence and stuck her ear out. Really.

4. I have owned 5 cars in my life, one I co-owned with my sister. The cars were: a Chevy Chevette, Toyota Corolla SR5, Volkswagen Golf, Toyota 5-speed Pick-up and a Nissan Sentra. All of the cars had a standard stick-shift.

5. I think time has run out for me to ever find the right guy and I am almost OK with that.

6. I still like to objectify men, though.

7. I believe I was a guy named Billy Mitchell in my past life. He started the US Air Force, I think.

8 Oh yeah, I am a firm believer in reincarnation.

9. I believe that Lisa's dog, Dudley, is the reincarnation of our father. I have almost convinced Lisa of this fact. First time I looked at him, his doggie face looked EXACTLY like my dad's! (I never said my dad was a handsome man)

10. Some people think I am a little crazy.

11. I am a rabid fan of Project Runway. I don't know why. I know nothing about fashion and can't sew. I think I mostly love seeing the creative process unfold.

12. My TV only gets 2 channels and those will be going away shortly. I use my TV to watch DVDs, mostly. I get my DVDs from the library.

13. I watch some TV shows online, like The Colbert Report and Daily Show, as well as 30 Rock (and Project Runway - on You Tube)

14. When I was a teenager, I used to write weekly letters to Barry Manilow and he wrote me back from time to time - handwritten letters. When I was 17, I was flown to NYC for a party in his honor. Barry had me sit next to him all night. He was very, very nice. I wrote him until I was 21. The last time I saw him was in 1988.

15. Sometimes if I turn my head the wrong way very fast, I get a bad stinging sensation in my neck.

16. I now have a lovely scar running down my chest from my open heart surgery. It is "keloid", meaning it has a bumpy texture. Keloid scars are common in dark-skinned people. I am about as white as a person can get and don't even tan.

17. I am half Italian. Hard to believe, I know!

18. My sisters and I used to sing together. Our big "hits" were Mister Sandman and Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy from Company B.

19. My cat, Picasso, lived to the age of 19 and a half. My other kitty, Saturn, died when he was 16.

20. I am currently living in a "no pets" apartment. I am hoping to move out soon!

21. I have sung the national anthem 3 times for the Seattle Mariners.

22. I haven't sung in a long time. I should start practicing again.

23. I am most proud of going back to college at the age of 39 and finally finishing my degree! I loved college. Absolutely loved it.

24. I have about 30 paintings that I did, stored in a metal shed in Hillsboro, NC. No one has the key and my friend moved off the property. I am not even sure they are still there. Probably eaten by mice by now. Which is sad, because I really liked those paintings.

25. I think bacon waffles are delicious.

Success !

I booked a great guest for last Saturday night's show.

I heard about her from a listener's email. Just a random note, suggesting that we might find her work interesting. She compares the legends of ancient people to fossils of dinosaur bones in the region.

I thought it was a fascinating idea. So, Googled her and located her tiny website. I found her books on Amazon and contacted the publisher, Princeton Press, and asked for review copies to be sent to me. Once I saw that her book was interesting, I contacted her via email. She got back to me weeks later, telling me she was on an archeological dig and would return in a couple of months. When she returned, we spoke on the phone. I found her stories to be fascinating and her personality engaging - two very important components for a guest on my show.

Then, I had her books sent to the host of my show. He loved them, thank goodness. Finally we nailed down a date for her appearance on the show, a couple of months in the future, because she was going to be traveling again.

She had been booked for over a month when the host told me he was going to Mexico on that same day. I re-scheduled my guest.

I asked her to provide a series of questions to help guide the interview. I called her and begged her to do the show on a phone that had a cord, connected to the handset, for best audio quality. I convinced her to go to Goodwill to find one.

She was finally on last night and it was radio magic! The host and the listeners (and my boss, too!) loved it. My guest received a slew of emails from listeners asking for more information.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I do as a producer!!

The guest's name, by the way, is Adrienne Mayor. Her book is "Fossil Legends of the First Americans".

Crack!

I broke another tooth today. On a honey-roasted peanut. I hope I can chew into my 70's - but at the rate I'm going, it is NOT looking good!

I had to have a back molar pulled in late December, two teeth gone in one month.

I Want to Believe

Despite all of my past political activism, I have been surprisingly low - key in the days leading up to Obama's inauguration. I have been so sure that tragedy would happen before the fateful day.

But, as I sit here and listen to his first speech as president of this land, I have a little hope. But we have all been burned before. And raked over the coals.

I WANT to believe that change will happen and that a brighter day is at hand.