Stop, Drop, and Roll…Or Not.

Wednesday, February 3rd.  7:15am.
I am just about out the door.  Cat is fed, laptop is in my bag, I am ready for my 8:30a-10p day.
I hear pounding on a door in the hall.  And more pounding.  And more.  I open my door and lo and behold, the hallway is filled with smoke and there is a parade of firefighters.  A poor woman stood in the doorway of the stairwell across from me, leaving for the day, asking what was going on.  No idea.  My poor neighbor across the hall opened his door, wearing only boxers and looking very bleary-eyed.  I ask a firefighter if I should, oh, I don’t know…evacuate?  Get my cat into a his carrier and go outside?  His answer?  ”OH, uh, I don’t think so…” and as he said that, another one comes out of the unit across the hall and down one.  ”It’s a pot of meat on the stove!”
To which I say (and pardon my French): “Fucking A.  AGAIN?!“
(I got quite the look from the firefighter next to me.  I relayed this to my mom and she said that Grandpa Bauer would be proud.)

Again? Oh yes.  Second time in six weeks.  The first time was the last Thursday of the semester when they left their toaster oven on and left.  That time my property manager caught it, but this time the fire department was called.

I am getting renter’s insurance.  I don’t trust this person.

And poor catface, he completely spazzed at the smoke alarms going off.  He kept looking at me with these huge eyes that just said, “WHAT is going on? Make it stop!”

 

And Yet, I’m Still 6 On the Inside…

I’m sure most of us are familiar with the fact that my spine and joints are all good at acting like they belong to a 63-year-old.

And now my hair is, too.

I decided to part my hair on the right (it’s been parted on the left for years!) and in doing so, I found quite the patch of silver-gray hair.

I am amused!

 

WWDTM Week 1

Here is the first installment in my little series on my internship with NPR’s Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!
Again, the plan is to share my experiences about the previous week on either Saturday or Sunday (or, in this case, Monday), as that is when the show airs.

Tuesday:  Having met the staff at Wait, Wait before I was offered the internship, I didn’t feel all too nervous about starting.  I was super excited and a bit ready to kick some ass (okay, I’m usually pretty ready to do that anyway, but you know what I mean).  I arrived at Chicago Public Radio at Navy Pier and Emily (producer, intern supervisor) showed me my desk and the intern folder with instructions on how to do everything.  First up on the list: checking the voicemail.  You know, the contestant line.
The first voicemail was in French.  Uh…?  Deleted it.  The second (and third) were in Spanish (albeit very broken Spanish, the sentences made no sense).  And then I saw a note from the previous intern: it was about a caller who calls several times a day.  Yep, this was the guy.  Roughly one-third to a half of the voicemails I listened to on Tuesday were from this guy (most in English, I might add, but none made much sense).  There were also people calling who were serious about playing on the show and I’ll admit, it was kind of fun listening to them.
Tedious, after a couple hours, but really interesting to hear some of the things people would say.  Stories, their own limericks, what they do and where they are from.
And I never noticed just how many times the number 2 shows up in a lot of phone numbers.  Not even kidding.  If I were a complete nerd and into numbers, I’d try to get stats on how many of the numbers I wrote down had 2s in them and how many times…
But, again, I’m not that much of a nerd.

Around 3 we had the staff meeting where we (Peter, the four producers, and I) sit around a phone on speaker with Doug Berman and confer about the upcoming show.  What’s in the news? What do we have so far? How can we improve it? Is it funny?

After the meeting, Peter sat down and talked to me about the Not My Job celebrity player.  Each week, we have a celebrity call in and play “Not My Job” for a listener to win Carl’s voice on their answering machine.  This week: Lucy Lawless, aka Xena: Warrior Princess.  I help out by researching the guest and then during the read-through on Thursday, I present the information I have found.  After talking about how to go about this, I went back to listening to voicemails until about 5:15ish.

Wednesday:  More voicemails! No, really.  I was going through about a month’s worth of voicemails.  I can’t even begin to imagine the number of voicemails that I went through and wrote down.  I have a big yellow legal pad full of voicemails.  I also found that my phone has this weird quirk: it hangs up after about a half hour or so of checking the voicemails: “Next message…from 9-1-7*click*” and I glance up to see that my phone has gone back to showing the time, not the number I had dialed.  Thanks, Phone.  I’m sure we’ll be friends anyways.  I finally finished the Great Voice Mail Purge of 2010 and sent the results on their merry way.  I started doing a bit of research on Lucy Lawless before it was time to go home.  It felt like such a short day, in comparison to Tuesday.   The Wednesday meeting went much the same as the Tuesday one.

Thursday:  First show!  For those that don’t know, the show is taped in front of a live audience on Thursday nights at the Chase Auditorium in the Loop in Chicago.  I got to the WWDTM office at noon on Thursday and it was a mad scramble for me to finish the Lucy Lawless research.  She trained in opera in college, but then decided to travel Europe and Australia with her boyfriend and wound up gold mining in Australia around the age of 18 or 19.  The more you know!  I also finally got my own login for my computer set up…and! My own NPR email address.  I feel fancy!

Carl Kasell came by around 2:30 for the final read-through before the show.   Carl Kasell!  He is super nice.  And awesome.  More on that later.  The read-through was done with everyone present (Doug by phone, as he is in Boston) and taken one segment at a time to iron out the wrinkles and rearrange stories and topics and the funny in the show.  It’s a pretty intense process.  I got to bring up my Lucy research for possibly interview questions/topics for Peter to ask.  I think it was here that I started to come out of my shell just a bit (yes, I do have a shell.  I tend to reside in it while I get used to the environment…good lord…am I a hermit crab!?).  I think it was the most I’d said all week.  Seems strange, for as wordy and verbose as I can get.  But again, I have introverted tendencies, especially when it comes to new situations.  After the read-through, we had a bit of downtime before we went over to the Chase Bank tower.  I spent a lot of it reading new stories.

We got to Chase and got settled in.  That night I met Paula Poundstone, Paul Provenza, and Kyrie O’Connor.  We all sat in the room backstage and had dinner (an array of delicious foods from Boston Market) and hung out with the producers and Carl.  I talked to Carl about what I’m doing in school and what my purpose of interning was.  And then he showed me his favorite apps on his iPhone…coolest one being the koi pond.  Seriously.  There’s no way I could function with an iPhone, I’d be too busy playing with it in order to live life.  The koi pond would only be the beginning of my downfall, Sally’s Spa would be next.
As the intern, I get to put Peter and Carl’s scripts on their podiums before the show.  Really kinda cool.  I went back into the sound booth where I sit with Emily and the other producers as well as the technical director (not sure if that his official title?) to watch and listen to the show.  It was a lot of fun to see the process from start to finish and how the research goes and what it all comes to.  After the show I sat with the house manager and sold WWDTM merch, which apparently we sold a lot that night.  Woo!

When I was leaving, I said goodbye to whoever was left in the auditorium, including Carl.  He gave me a huge hug and asked what I thought about the first week.  “I cannot tell you how excited I am for the rest of the semester.  Really.”
And I think it was then that it hit me just how right it felt to be working with this show.  It’s a really hard feeling to put into words, but I called my mom and gushed to her about how great my first week was was and then felt rather elated the entire busride home.

 

Wait, Wait…I am Knitting!

(Please slap me for that awful, awful title I just wrote. Really. And be warned, it’s probably not the last Wait, Wait… title.)

Week one of my internship with Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me! is over.  And it was pretty cool.  I am working out doing a weekly recap of the WWDTM experience while I am there because really, it’s so cool.

Also, Carl Kasell is amazing.  I got to meet him for the first time yesterday before the show.  Hee!  I’ll save the fun details for the recap post.  I am thinking that the recap will be posted either Saturday or Sunday following the week, as the show is not aired until Saturday morning.

I can already tell that I will not have a social life outside of school/work/internship this semester: 3 classes (10 hours), 20 hours of work, and about 20 hours at WWDTM.  Weekends are for homework…and sleep. Mmm, sleep.

On the knitting front: I finished Calorimetry!

It is wonderful to have when I wear my hair up…and by the end of the day, I have it pulled up because there is just SO MUCH HAIR (it has been trimmed in 3 months…and it’ll be about one more before I have the money to do so).
To go with it, I made a very simple K2, YO scarf that is short…but done…it only needs a button fastened onto it so it can become the versatile cowl-sort of thing that it is.

And currently I am knitting a chunky, hot pink K1P1 scarf because I’ve realized that I don’t have a bulky winter scarf.  And I live in Chicago.  In the snow.  And wind.  I think I’ve made my point.  So now I’ll be able to clash in an array of handknits: dark red mittens, a hot pink scarf, and a rust/blue headwrap. Sometimes a grey beret.  Hee!

 

A Coffee Cozy and Some Yarn

I finished my awesome coffee cozy, using the pattern His & Her’s Coffee Cozies, in about a week.  It would have been done way sooner had Filbert the Cyst not decided to be a pain the ass (wrist??).  I love the cable/smocking pattern, I want to use it in mittens or a scarf at some point.  ALSO! I was able to practice cabling without a cable needle with this project, using Grumperina’s tutorial.  Knitting goes so much faster now!

I was meaning to put a picture of the handspun from Mary Fran in that last entry but hadn’t gotten around to taking said picture yet.

The colorway is Oxide from Original Elements.  She dyes and sells the roving and spun it at the request of my cousin.  I am planning on winding it into a ball tonight and starting Calorimetry before I go out for NYE.

 

Christmas, Housewares, Knitting

Tomorrow, I leave to return back to Chicago…this break went by so fast.  I ate a turkey dinner three times (!) last week…it was grand.

Christmas was good this year.  I made it to family Christmas without becoming ill or falling down stairs or having any mishaps.  In fact, I haven’t been sick since June. Woo!

For Christmas, I got a rice cooker(!), two 8×8 cake pans, one 13×9 pan, a 24ct muffin pan, a Jelly Belly dispenser, a hand mixer, hand spun yarn from an indie roving dyer, and several giftcards.  Percy got a bag of cat food and a catnip toy from my aunt.

I also managed to find things to decorate my apartment, some wall decals (of the bird theme, of course) and I finally found curtains that I like.  After 5 months of living there, my apartment will finally look…lived-in, and not in the clothes-strewn-over-furniture sort of way.  My project for break will be rearranging my apartment.

That’s my hope, anyway, between working, taking Burt’s j-term class, and interning with Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me, we’ll see just how much free time I have.  I also have hopes for cooking and baking.  I’ve all this new kitchen stuff that I can’t wait to use and a hand-me-down crockpot from my mom.  Soup, anyone?

For Christmas, I knitted a few coffee cozies for Shannon, Mary and Tam.  They were well-received (yay!) and I am almost done with one of my own.  It’ll go nicely with the Starbucks card that I have.  And that coffee will go nicely and keep me alive for when I am opening at work next week, but I digress.  I have been using the remains of yarn from previous projects, it’s great for stashbusting.

With this new yarn that Mary Fran gave to me for Christmas, I plan on making Calorimetry and, if I have enough left over, Mustard Scarf.  I should probably also finish the never-ending Chevron scarf and then remember to never make a scarf out of sock yarn ever again…unless it’s lace.  But even then, lace and I have yet to work, so the chances of that happening are pretty slim.

 

I’ve Broken Up With the Fall ‘09 Semester

And that’s all, folks!

The semester has ended and I am on break until January 4th, when I start work again, J-term, and…AND! My internship.

…Internship, you say? Yes.  I applied for an internship with NPR’s Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me! back in November and had a phone interview with one of the producers.  This past week, I was asked to come by the studios and meet the WWDTM staff and on Thursday I was offered the internship, which I accepted.  I AM SO EXCITED.  Seriously, to have the opportunity to work with such an awesome show is…well, awesome.  I am super grateful that I’m able to do this internship and I cannot wait to start.

As of right now, two of my five grades are posted: both A’s.  I’ve looked back at my other classes and I see no reason why I shouldn’t see the same grade in the others.  Definitely a much better semester than last…and I managed to get through it without getting sick!

My plans for break are, in no particular order: eating a turkey dinner (Sunday, Mom is cooking it to celebrate me being home), sleeping in, eating some more, coffee with friends, seeing Erika, Allison, Clayton, Sam, and Matt and whoever else is around, baking and decorating cookies, and eating. Oh! And knitting!

I think I have the next two weeks planned out quite nicely.

 

It’s Universal

"Everybody, everybody wants to love; everybody, everybody wants to be loved." (Ingrid Michaelson)

My latest tattoo, Shannon and I went on Wednesday evening to get “Love” tattooed on our wrists.

To Write Love On Her Arms:

“You were created to love and be loved.  You were meant to live life in relationship with other people, to know and be known. You need to know that your story is important and that you’re part of a bigger story.  You need to know that your life matters.

We live in a difficult world, a broken world.  My friend Byron is very smart – he says that life is hard for most people most of the time.  We believe that everyone can relate to pain, that all of us live with questions, and all of us get stuck in moments.  You need to know that you’re not alone in the places you feel stuck.

We all wake to the human condition.  We wake to mystery and beauty but also to tragedy and loss.  Millions of people live with problems of pain.  Millions of homes are filled with questions – moments and seasons and cycles that come as thieves and aim to stay.  We know that pain is very real.  It is our privilege to suggest that hope is real, and that help is real.”

I think that this cause is wonderful and brilliant and it hits very, very close to home for me (Shannon, as well).  It is a reminder that not only am I loved, but the love I have for others in my life.

This is my third and most visible tattoo (the others are on my left shoulder blade and my right foot, a constellation and bird, respectively).   It was also the most painful (that long, scrolly part of the L? Yeah…OUCH), but not so much that I wouldn’t do it again.  It was really cool to watch it being done…I couldn’t watch the one on my back being done (obviously) and the one on my foot was farther away (again, obviously).  Right now it’s all raised and scabby-looking and rather gross to touch, but I can’t wait until it’s healed completely. (:

 

My Two Favorite Topics: Radio and Food

This past week has been full of crazy.

I found out on Tuesday that the applications to intern with WBEZ (Chicago Public Radio) were due on Friday.  There’d been some phone tag going on while we were trying to figure out which internships are available so it really just snuck up on us.  I did a mad scramble for everything to apply, but I did it and I am now an applicant to intern with Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me! and the WBEZ newsroom.  WWDTM is definitely my first pick, but interning with WBEZ period is plain awesome.

I also have an informational interview with the Program Director of WGN Radio on Monday for my Radio Station Management class.  I’m excited and a tad nervous.

I’ve spent today doing homework and will spend tonight planning out some final papers (there’s only a month left of the semester? What?).  I can’t wait for Thanksgiving.  I really think that it may be my favorite holiday…I love food.  I love Thanksgiving food.  And!  I get to see some of my favorite people from home that weekend.
Unfortunately, Columbia either doesn’t believe in Thanksgiving or they just don’t believe that people actually go home for this holiday, so we have class on the Wednesday before.  Not a huge deal for me, I just drive home.  But what about the people who are from other states? Or even downstate?
That weekend there are also plans for a colorguard reunion lunch.  I’m hoping that I’ll be able to make it, even if only for a little while because I haven’t seen anyone, other than Erika, in a long time.  We’re all at such different places in life and it’ll be fun to catch up.

I need to start my Christmas knitting.  I’d talk about it, but then people would know what they’re getting.  I have yet to finish that ridiculous chevron scarf.  Seriously, this is the last (and only) time I use sock yarn for a scarf.  It may have to go on hiatus for awhile…like it hasn’t already.  Hah.

I registered for my spring classes this week; I am going to be a senior! I will be graduating in a year (let the panicking start….now!).  I will be taking Production III (senior capstone), Audio Drama Production, Internet Radio, The Holocaust (last gen ed!) and an internship, hopefully with WBEZ.

Finally, the month of November needs to stop messing with people and stop sucking.

 

This is November, You Say?

It is 70 degrees.  In November.  In Chicago.

I am not complaining, just a bit baffled (oh, that is my state of mind recently).  It is beautiful and I plan on spending as much time as possible outside this weekend.  No, I’m not outside right now, but I’m working on that.

I’ve found my knitting mojo again and I’ve started working on that scarf again:

By the way, Percy says "Hi."

It’s about three feet long now, it should end up somewhere around five and a half and then after blocking, hopefully close to six feet.  I like long scarves.

I also have some of my Christmas knitting picked out (yeah, it’s November, haven’t started, but I can probably crank these gifts out in less than a week, they’re stashbusters).

And now I am off to take a walk on the lakefront and probably sit and knit in the sunshine.  My homework for the week is done (for the most part, need to find a duet acting scene) and I have a happy.