i woke up this morning feeling pretty well-rested, which of course made me immediately suspicious that something was wrong. i looked at my silent alarm clock and it read 9:29. apparently i had set the alarm last night for the correct hour (7:00), but forgot to actually turn the alarm on.
normally this wouldn't be a terribly upsetting situation, but on tuesdays i drive an elderly volunteer to the station with me -- and she meets me at my house at 9:30.
so i tumbled out of bed and looked out the window. there she was, sitting in her car, looking more than a bit confused. i guess she'd come to the door and knocked, and when she got no response she just returned to her car and waited to see what would happen.
in my pajamas and with an extreme case of bedhead, i ran out to her car (brrr!) and offered her a very unfocused explanation of my situation. i invited her inside, where i plopped her on the couch and tuned the tv to TCM while i showered and shoved a granola bar into my mouth.
we were on the road by 10:10, which i consider a major accomplishment. i arrived late for staff meeting (shucks) but the trip itself went surprisingly well.
starting the day off in a state of panic, though, in my experience, usually affects the rest of my day, so though i made it through lunch without incident i figured something else would probably go wrong.
and it did: i started the first piece of music for my airshift, and as i went to eject the CD that just finished i accidentally ejected the CD that i just started which, of course, resulted in sudden, deafening dead air. not good. all of the engineers came running into the studio, thinking something piece of equipment had broken, when in fact it was just my brain.
right about now i really want to be at home, in a soft room, where i can't cause further harm to myself or others. because i can't leave for a couple of more hours, though, i'm just going to sit here quietly, in the studio, and concentrate really hard on not screwing anything else up.
you know, i think i forgot to put deodorant on this morning, too.
Posted by xta at December 6, 2005 01:52 PM | TrackBackI have recurring nightmares about ejecting the CD that's currently playing. Usually in the dream I also discover that the entire CD library has been moved to boxes outside so the shelves can be painted or something.
now that I think about it, I'm surprised the CDs at CPE will let you do that. I was told (eons ago) that the ones at XDU do because they aren't professional grade.
Posted by: Sarah at December 6, 2005 10:55 PMUgh! I hate that I-woke-up-late-and-I-can't-think panic. It ruins all the extra sleep you get.
Posted by: John at December 7, 2005 12:42 AMi can tell you from experience--it is definitely possible to eject a cd at wxdu while it's playing. oops!
i have another cringeworthy tales of dj errors, but your spam filter doesn't want to let me post.
the cd players at CPE aren't "professional grade", either. we're the cheapest penny-pinchers in the world.
Posted by: christa at December 7, 2005 11:58 AMlisa b. has a good trick for minimizing possible dead air caused by ejecting a cd that is playing: always press pause before pressing eject. that way if it's the live cd, you can quickly hit play and the dead air is so minimal that most listeners will barely notice it.
i do this now and it has saved my butt at least once.
Posted by: lisa at December 7, 2005 01:50 PMyour tale of cd-ejection made my blood run cold, and reminded me of my college radio days and how that one tiny mistake can give you a FREAKING HEART ATTACK that can take ages to recover from.
I remember once playing a song with a profane word in it (we had been told over and over and over and over to not do that, as you can imagine) and having to lie on the floor for a good five minutes, afterward.
Posted by: pinky at December 7, 2005 10:55 PMThe other night I heard a guy on XYC interviewing a guy from some band, and the guy said a word he oughtn't have said on the radio, and the DJ said, "let's all just pretend we're listening to a clean edit of this interview."
Posted by: minty at December 8, 2005 09:51 AM