There Ya Go
Iwas taking a simple drive to Marshall last Tuesday afternoon to run some errands after recording our second podcast. The day had been a good one. Until my phone dinged.
I was just about to Amiret when Tara called. Her first words: “Guess what you did?”
Now, that could’ve meant any number of things — mostly not so good.
“What,” I replied, knowing the answer wasn’t going to be a good one.
“You didn’t record the podcast?” Sick sense of humor? No. April Fools? No, it was July 29.
She wasn’t joking. I proceeded to shout out something I cannot write in the paper, then went on my way, as I slowly calmed down.
It was a great podcast with Sophia Harsh, one of the coolest kids I’ve ever met. I was very pleased with how it went and was looking forward to noon that Saturday for when it dropped on YouTube.
But as it turns out, I was talking into a mic that wasn’t even listening.
I’m an idiot. Seriously. All I have to do to record a podcast is press a single button. Then, when the podcast wraps up, I press it again. So simple.
My excuse was, I was nervously excited to do last week’s podcast. That, and it was only my second time behind the mic, so I don’t have a routine down yet. Yes, it is just one button, but when you combine my nerves with my inexperience, well, what you get is 30 minutes of nothing.
Later that day, I spoke with Sophia by phone and told her what happened. The story, laced with self-deprecation, made both of us laugh. Thankfully, she is a very good sport and agreed to come back to the office/studio the next day.
I’ve gone through something similar in the past, only as a reporter. More than once when I worked at the paper in Marshall, I lost nearly-complete stories because a computer would freeze up and I failed to save a story while putting it together. Again, when that happened, I would throw out some carefullychosen profanities before gaining my composure and starting over. Nine times of out 10, the second version of the story would be better than the original.
I can say the same thing about last week’s podcast. Although it lacked in the spontaneity that the original version had, it was a good one, and it’s always fun talking with Sophia.
This will go down as one of times we will “look back on and laugh.” And my co-workers didn’t wait too long before looking back on this one. Not Tara. Not Ben. Not even Sophia. And, to be honest, not me. It was funny, and I’m pretty good at laughing at myself.
But it won’t happen again … ?
• Check out this week’s podcast at noon Saturday with TAHS AD Bill Tauer. Visit our website for the link.
