I Found a Sure Way To Stay Cheerful

I just got home from work and, like always, potential bad news. Why is there seldom good news from work? It seems that there is a detail coming up next Friday and Saturday that will require a couple of people to work. It will be overtime but I am supposed to be going out of town with the family to be with Splenda for Thanksgiving. I have approved days off for Wednesday and Saturday but Friday may be a problem. Actually, Saturday may be a problem too because our job is such that if they need us they can make us work. I think that is only in the case of legitimate emergencies but we'll see what happens. I am not sure if that means vacation approvals being rescinded.  If I have to work Saturday that means that I will just stay home and then I may as well work Wednesday, Thanksgiving, Friday and Saturday. If I have to work I may as well milk the overtime. The rest of the gang will just go without me - just like Christmas a couple of years ago. I was like The Fonz eating Spaghetti-O's being cooked in the garage. I will know in about 15 hours whether it's turkey or Chef Boyardee. So, I work crappy hours, get crappy days of the week off as my weekend, work nights and now, may have to work another holiday - I am not sure if the benefits are outweighing the drawbacks anymore.

I have to go to sleep. I walked outside in the cold last night for seven hours (yet another thing fun that happens at my job) and now that I'm in the warm house I am tired. I only do foot patrol twice a week and I like to walk but it's not as much fun when it's 2 degrees outside. I will pause now at 07:16 and resume the blog when I wake up. It will seem like only moments for you. BRB - sort of.

Now it's 11:38 - see how fast time flies when you're reading blog? (that doesn't flow as well as "time flies when you're having fun"does it?)

The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center

I just received confirmation that we will be having a woman on Dirty Laundry Podcast who was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland by the Nazis as a 17-year-old girl. We will be recording the show at The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. I am totally humbled that she would be willing to speak with us. We have to work out the details but it looks like we will be talking to her sometime in early December. Just writing that we will be talking to her gives me goosebumps. I cannot even fathom the horror she must have experienced. She's a lot tougher than I am. Now, the way I am, I will be obsessed with this until we talk to her. I guess that is good because it means I am interested and will do a lot of research and do my best to make this a great interview. I have always been interested in this part of history. I think a lot of that comes from being born in Germany. As a kid that is pretty cool - to be born someplace else. I also have never been able to understand any form of: prejudice, racism, genderism, bigotry, sexism... so you can imagine that this is a big deal to me. This was undoubtedly one of the worst cases of all of those, combined, in human history. I also think that maybe some of that interest comes from the fact that The United States of America was a huge part of seeing that horrific chapter of history end. I am making myself nervous now.

We recorded the show last night before I went to work. Right after I get done with this I am going to go down to Kajunkles Studio and begin editing the show. * * I am already doing it - I just broke-off and starting doing research for the interview. I am certain that I have problems * *

Holidays should always be about family and friends

It is now 13:26  so I need to break-off here to get some editing done. I am not editing shows in one sitting anymore. I think that, by doing half of the show and then taking a break and doing the second half the next day, the show is better. When listening back to shows I hear that the production quality of the second halves seemed to dip. There weren't as many drop-ins and sound bytes and I think they are very important to the show. I doubt, however, there will be many sound effects (SFX) on the Holocaust load of Dirty Laundry.

Thanks a lot for stopping by. I hope you have a great rest of your day. I guarantee that I will be having better days for awhile thinking about what our upcoming podcast guest must have endured. Knowing that evil things like that happened and, are probably still happening in the world, make my troubles very trivial. It also makes me appreciate family and friends all that much more. So, going back to the beginning of the blog, I sure hope I can go down south for Thanksgiving. TTTT (probably)... MITM (out) TA!

P.B. (post blog) I just now thought that we will be interviewing a survivor of one of the worst acts of hatred of all time near the date that seemed to be the deciding day that brought the United States of America into World War II. The U.S.'s all-out involvement undoubtedly brought a swifter end to this horror. (December 7, 1941 - Pearl Harbor Day). More goosebumps. Double TA!