Talking to myself

The alarm went off at 1:15 this morning.  Usually I would just be falling asleep at that time.  In actuality, I didn't really end up dozing off until 11.  I allowed myself about 30 minutes of snooze button time before I drug my ass out of bed, jumped in the shower, got dressed, and ventured out to my car.

It fired up on the first crank.  Slowly, but reliably.  The outside temperature gauge read -1.  If there's any positive to this weather, the snow brushes right off the windshield.  No scraping of ice necessary.

I was the first person at the station this morning.  I rewrote the forecast and made some beat calls.  Not much happening overnight.  I guess all the riffraff stayed out of the cold.

I brewed a pot of coffee and sat down to pull some wire copy.  Our booths aren't fully complete, so I had to bounce from terminal to terminal in order to print copy from one and pull sound from another.  I had to go to yet a third booth to move sound to the studio.  And then I walked into the studio to read my business reports.

My teammates arrives shortly after I did.  The two hours of prep time flew by and before I knew it, it was 5 am.  Time to hit the airwaves.  Kinda.  We weren't really broadcasting.  It was just a dry run to make sure we knew where all of the buttons were and how the format fell into place.

And we did a pretty good job.  It will be nice when each of us can accomplish everything from one booth, but the time spent walking back and forth woke me up nicely.  By 7, I hardly felt like I had only gotten two hours of sleep last night.  And I only needed one cup of coffee.

After the "broadcast" we did a post-mortum with our news director.  Everyone was pleased given the circumstances.  We'll do it all again tomorrow.

I got out a little after nine and ventured over to Southlake Mall, which is the major shopping center in Northwest Indiana.  The stores don't open until 10 and I got there a few minutes early, so it was just me and the mall walkers for a little while.  Southlake is home to one of the last Frederick's of Hollywood stores.  That wasn't what I went in for, but thought it was worth mentioning if you're ever in the market for something crotchless.

I then headed over to Office Max to buy some notebooks.  

I have a new favorite sandwich.  The Chicken Parmesan Sliders at TGI Friday's are outstanding .  I almost opted for the Triple Stack burger, but a cheeseburger with ham and bacon piled on top might send my cholesterol through the roof.

I got back to my room around noon.  My bed hadn't been made so I put out the Do Not Disturb sign and curled up for a nap.  I have enough towels to get me through the morning.