Enough Politics, Let’s Talk About Me

I just Googled myself. Admit it–you’ve indulged in this sort of ego glorification too. It’s kind of surreal to read your own quotes from several years back. On April 1st, 1999, I was mad that the University of Kentucky didn’t have a link to our beloved college radio station on the school’s homepage. “But it seems to me like the University would want to promote something like the radio station if they use the site as part of their recruiting strategy. I mean, here’s this great opportunity for students to learn about radio and it doesn’t even get mentioned.” What the hell was I taking about? And that wasn’t that long ago!

There was a time that I was not only employed, but had two jobs at once! In this 1995 article,
written by my then girlfriend Wendy, I brag about delivering pizzas and selling long distance for a sketchy company called Excel. “And because I decide my own hours, it doesn’t interfere with my classes.” Such the responsible entrepreneur. I think I spent about over $300 to “start my business” and made like 70 cents. I couldn’t even keep my folks from switching back to AT&T.

I know you’ve been losing sleep over my situation with the road crew across the street. Well, I’ve been losing sleep anyway. Those dudes are still out there. Beep-beep-beep with the truck in reverse, bang-bang-bang with the… not really sure what makes that noise. But they were out last night at 3:00AM. Seriously. This has gone too far. I peeked out the window and it was total Maximum Overdrive. Just these sinister, growling trucks–no drivers in site. Because if I did see one of the drivers, I would have, you know, gone out and said something.

This morning my alarm clock’s beep-beep-beep was drowned out by my friends across the street. Then the doorbell rang. “We’re here to roof your house.” “Must be a mistake, I wasn’t notified that there would be any roofing.” Soon they would be on the roof with the hammers. This feels like some Seinfeld episode. But the morning’s first email arrival offered an escape. Peggy from SXSW needed some volunteers. I pleaded for the chance. The rest of the day was spent with some of the SXSW film crew and away from West Elizabeth Street.

Shortly after returning home, the doorbell rang. “Is that your car parked against the curb? The weirdest thing just happened.” The lady walked me out to the Red Rascal (the ol’ trooper been getting me around since I was sixteen-years-old). Sarah leaned out the door and said, “Is this about the car Billy? Yeah, someone smashed in the window today at school,” and then walked back inside. The lady indicated that this was indeed not about the window smashing. Turns out, she was behind a white work van when suddenly it just swerved right into my parked car and then sped off. She followed it for a few blocks and made out “D35″ on the license plate. The van had clipped the front bumper which is now all bent and stuff. Oh and about the window… Basically the only thing stolen was two coats and a radio. Not the actual car radio. Just an old battery-powered job that didn’t work. If they would have just cleaned up some of the garbage on the floorboard it would have almost been worth it.

By the way, if you’ve ever wondered what your cat does while you’re at work… I’m guessing nothing unusual. Probably just sleeps a lot.