Estoy Nueces

I've got a million e-mails I need to write, a living room full of newspapers that I must read page by page before I can bear to let them go, a desk to clean off because there are probably unpaid bills lurking at the bottom of the stack and some sleep that I'd really like to catch up on, but I'll do an update instead. I want this to become regular like clockwork, at least when I'm in town.

We were out of town through the weekend. I went to Dallas Friday night and then my whole family went on to Mangum, OK, for my grandfather's 100th birthday. It was a wonderful day. Tomorrow I just may brag on myself and put in the complete text of my speech even if it is full of inside family jokes. I was a big hit and I really felt a roomful of love from the gathered masses.

We drove 5 hours up and 5 hours back to Dallas on Saturday. We really wanted to come home to Austin but were too pooped to pop. We came home Sunday and I got dropped off at work to continue the grind I love.

This is going to be the week from hell. I have to produce 14 shows a day (8 is about average) in order to have Thanksgiving off. Not Friday, I'll have to come back and do another 14 then, but just for Thanksgiving. It is ridiculous and I am going to try to get up my nerve to talk to my boss tomorrow. I don't expect him to do anything about it this week, it's too late, but there has got to be a better way before we get to Christmas and New Year's.

I got a nice stroke from a station I'm filling in on for someone on vacation. He called today and really wants me to take over for her because I have a personality and she doesn't. That was flattering but I can't take on another station until I get rid of another one.

I bought some voice recognition software and finally got around to trying it today. It needs a lot more training, apparently, or it doesn't like my Texas accent. I would like it to be effortless and maybe it will eventually. I wonder, too, if I can think and speak at the same time (wait, I'm a disc jockey, aren't I supposed to do that all the time?). I used to work for a newspaper, and, believe it or not, this was back in the days when we wrote news stories on a MANUAL TYPEWRITER!!! You might want to refer to your ancient history encyclopedia to find out what that is. When I began working for them I would write a story out by hand and then transcribe it. My editor told me I'd better learn to compose and type it at the same time. I got pretty good at typing my thoughts. After all these years of a computer keyboard, I wonder if I will be able to say my thinking instead of just letting it flow through my fingers.

My diary may be deadly dull this week until I get a chance to put down all the thoughts going through my head: the birthday party, thoughts on Thanksgivings past and present, my dad and his quirks, the rat living on our patio. Yuck. I don't want to go there at all.