Preface To Dancing: Too Pooped To Promenade

(Image from here.)

Ha!  I envy those dance marathon weirdos in the above picture because I was just as tired today but without anyone to lean on.  Listen:

While I was working on this week's SHR yesterday - I know it seems like the show is slapped together at the last possible minute but I really do put some effort into it - I got a text from a KNON deejay asking me if I could sub her show the next day, from 7-9am.  I said yes without realized what I was doing - I'll probably never get a show on KNON & I miss live radio so I jump at (almost) every opportunity.  When I realized I had a ton of work to do for Self Help Radio, I began to panic.

You're probably not like this, but when the pressure of a deadline approaches, I feel the urge to just take a nap.  It's dumb.  I get tired, I imagine that the closer it gets to something being due, the harder I work.  I forget that I get desperate & lazy.  But I began trying to work on two simultaneous shows.

Forcing myself to go to bed at midnight, I hoped to sleep five hours.  I tossed & turned & was back fretting about radio shows at three am.  Which is good - I had to turn in Self Help Radio to WLXU by four pm or it wouldn't get put on the automation by tomorrow (although these days that's not quite a guarantee either way) - so I got a lot of work done.  But!

KNON is about forty-five minutes away.  More if there's traffic.  & morning traffic starts in Dallas around 5am.  I got to the station.  I did the show.  I had fun!  The deejay has someone come in with a band or performer around 8:20 & I got to "record" someone on the air, something I haven't done for quite a long time.

Afterwards, I headed home.  Stupidly, I had caffeine.

A couple of years ago I gave up caffeine.  I had tapered off but during a long road trip I drank sodas to keep me awake; when I got home, I couldn't sleep, & the next day I had awful caffeine withdrawal headaches.  I said no more.  But today I was desperate.  I had had less than three hours sleep the night before.  & I still had stuff to edit!

That's the worst thing about prerecording a show.  Sure, I could just do it live to tape & send it off but that's not who I am.  If I can make something slightly better out of my miserable work, I'll try.  I didn't try much today, though.  I wanted to get it done.  & I did, hopefully on time.

Then I was up for three more hours while the caffeine made me jittery.  Holy shit.  All of this for radio.  Why aren't there opportunities for SHR in DFW?  IDK!

When I finally fell asleep, I was unconscious, dreamless, for around five hours.  The wife came home expecting dinner & instead thought about calling paramedics.

So - you see those exhausted dancing couples up above?  That's me today.  All of them.  All of them are me.

& you know what?  I don't think I'll get to bed at a decent hour.  Because I need to be up at 6am.  For fuck's sake!