2001-11-01 11:26 p.m.

Halloween and morning show

Frustrations with the computer all day---well, not the computer, the cable connection. They had me dis-connected most of the day. I wrote a whole entry and then couldn't post it. Good news! I had the foresight to save it and I bring it to you here:

November already! Time flies. . .whether your having fun or not. But I am having fun and that is definitely better.

Halloween was good. I have mixed emotions about Halloween. I loved it as a kid, what kid doesn't? But as I've grown up I've always hated going to the bars on Halloween and I've never been much for costumes. I do not like not knowing who or what I'm dealing with. I have a deep-seated fear of clowns. I go so far as quickly leaving stores that have clowns there for a grand opening or something and I didn't know they would be there. I don't like not knowing what is behind that mask or makeup. Halloween is the same way. I don't like being decieved. For so many years I was working at night and Halloween didn't involve trick or treaters for me at all. Since we've been in Austin, though, I've gotten to participate in the holiday. Two years ago it was on a Sunday so I was home from work that day and loved having the trick or treaters at the door. Last year my neighbors and I sat outside together and drank wine and visited as we handed out the candy. So I was really looking forward to this year. I even put out orange and white lights, but I never got around to pumpkins.

Last night I sat outside with the neighbors again and admired the costumes of the kids and visited with the parents. We drank wine and ate candy and had a great time. We had far fewer trick or treaters than last year becaue of the terrorist threats, sadly. There were no carloads of kids from the poorer neighborhoods, no teenagers that always kind of spook me because the AREN'T in costume, and most of the kids that came had their parents close by. I was glad to see that. Even when there is no terrorism I think parents should be close by. Once a kid is old enough to not want their parents to go trick or treating with them, they are too old to trick or treat.

Mark went on to a gig last night and I went to bed. When we crossed paths in the night, him coming in and me going out, I saw the message light flashing. My boss had called at 12:30 and needed me to be on the air doing news this morning. Sadly, the mother of our newswoman is very ill in Houston and she had to go to be with her.

I haven't done news since the Clarence Thompson hearings (that goes back a few years!) so I had to relearn how to put together a newscast. I'm not sure I did it right but at least it got done. I enjoyed the bantering and being on the air with the guys more than the newscasts, but it was fun to have something different to do this morning. I'll do it again tomorrow and maybe into next week, depending on her and her Mom.

I'm doing nights in Biloxi for a month and that will be nice Christmas money. I did one show for them this morning and I may go up to work tonight to do some catchup on recorded shows.

After work this morning Kramer and I finally got to go to breakfast. Kramer, of astrofish.net fame, does the morning show on the radio station next door so he is up there once a month. We got a Magnolia fix of gingerbread pancakes and I got nice inspiration and support from Kramer. He's got an easy way of encouraging without spouting platitudes. In fact, he may have inspired me to change my diary. I'm pondering that as I approach this diary's second anniversary. I got a six month horoscope from him last week and it calls for social interaction and pleasant, self-indulgent days this week. That was certainly the case this morning.

Yesterday, too, I got to have rare social interaction. When this job first began, Mark asked me if there was anyone at work I could be friends with. I immediately said no, not a soul. It isn't entirely true because there are a few people that I had worked with before that I enjoy and I trust, but they aren't necessarily the friend types. I did realize one day, though, that I like the newswoman that works later in the day. I don't see her except on the days I stay a little later in the morning. Yesterday we went for a cup of coffee and breakfast taco and had the nicest visit. We are about the same age, both married for a good while, both childless, both a little disillusioned with the radio biz. It was fun to get to know her and I do think a friendship could develop there.

And as long as I'm playing catch-up, I have to tell about sweet baby Max's birthday party Sunday. Max is a dear three-year-old that Mark and I fell in love with on sight when he was just a baby. Mark hasn't seen as much of him over the last couple of years as I have so I was glad he could go to the party too. There were lots of cute kids and nice parents and we enjoyed the party and enjoyed playing with kids that we didn't have to take home! Max's parents, my friends for almost ten year now, are dealing with the fact that Max doesn't have good hearing. Almost no hearing in one ear and his "good" ear has hearing loss too and he's been fitted with a hearing aid to help. This has been hard hard news for them to deal with. It's one of those things that you tell yourself "it could be lots worse," but still, it is so tough knowing the hurdles your precious baby is going to have to face. All you want to do is protect them and make their life easier and this is thrown at you--uncontrollable. Max has charisma and charm galore and I don't think hearing loss will slow him down once he starts learning in alternative ways and learns to communicate more easily. He reminds me of the child of a friend I grew up with that has been mostly blind all of his life. He rode bicycles, he played football, he went to regular school, he married, he got into radio (his parents should have attempted to protect him from that!), now he's into computer programming. He can't drive but I don't know anything else he cannot do. I don't have a clue how he manages to do what he does but it doesn't seem to be a concern to him at all. He's handsome, fun to talk to, easy to be with, and his "handicap" is no more of a handicap to him than my own poor vision is to me.

I burst my neighbor's bubble last night. There was a big beautiful full moon and it was the first full moon on Halloween in 46 years. I had heard that on the news, plus the fact that it was a "blue moon" which means it was the second full moon within a month. The neighbor was proclaiming that it was the first blue moon in 46 years and that she'd always heard her mom talk about blue moons and didn't know what that meant and now she did and here we are with one and she was going to call her mother in Belize just to say, Did you know that this is a blue moon? I brought her down to earth with the facts of what a blue moon is.

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