Atlanta, GA
10:22 AM
Yesterday was a day of contradictions. I drove over to Atlanta and did my first radio show. This was not a 3 minute blurb in between the music, this was a one hour sit down session talking about passion. There was a lot of ground to cover. According to the station and some listeners, it went pretty well. Leading up to the time when they counted down, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 my heart was pumping and my throat dry. I hoped I wouldn’t pull a Bobby Brady and have my voice crack right out of the gates. But Bernard was calming and into the journey, and that it made it easier. I’m learning that talking in public about this is not as hard as I think. This is the case because I have lived it and it is real for me.
The hour flew by. I don’t know how many people were listening, but that was not the point. Even if there was one person tuned in who got something out of it, that is the goal.
I felt like I accomplished a big feat as I drove away from the station last night. My smile would not go away and I anxiously called my parents who had been listening via the web. They gave me a good report. I didn’t have the uh’s and um’s pauses. I talked slow enough to be understood.
And I was happy with the outcome. It felt good.
I got back to Kevin’s place and a poker game was finishing up. It was around 10 and the guys he had over were just about to leave. I got in to donate 3 for a dice game, but my gambling time lasted about 5 minutes. They left, Amber went up to bed for a 4:30 AM alarm clock, and Kevin and I made our way down to the basement to relive the South Carolina-Clemson football battles.
He fired up the Xbox and College Football 2005 on the big screen. I hadn’t played video games in many months, but I love sports ones and I love a huge screen. And we battled. Before I left for the radio show he beat me by 7. I came back and won the next game. And the next one. And the next. He and I are very similar – competitive to the highest degree. No one wanted to stop. We played again. He won. We played again, and as we played, we heard movement upstairs. It sounded like the dogs but then the water came on and didn’t stop. The shower was running. We battled on in a sloppy, bleary eyed game. Amber yelled down good morning to us. It was 4:45 AM!
I felt like I was 15, not 30. We had stayed up all night playing Xbox. I remember going with him to Cleveland back somewhere between 7th and 9th grade. We did the same thing playing Tecmo Bowl. We are older now. I am tired. I hit the sheets at 5:05 AM and now have work to do. And we have a 3-3 series tie to take care of later. Let’s go Gamecocks!
Also, I’ll be getting a copy of the radio thing to upload.