On The Radio

And now that I have that Regina Spektor song in my head...I will be making my first -- and hopefully not last -- appearance on Chicago Public Radio/WBEZ tomorrow morning on the program Eight Forty-Eight. I will be reading the essay I wrote about narrowly avoiding a speeding ticket while driving through Glencoe on my way to work last November. If they are able to connect, the producers hope to interview the police officer that gave me life/career advice instead of a ticket. Eight Forty-Eight airs in Chicago between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. You can stream (click the 'Listen Now' button) the broadcast here. Or, you can read the text of the essay or listen to the podcast here. The incident was one of my primary inspirations for starting this blog, so I plan to publish the full-length version of the story here eventually, as the radio version is substantially shorter.

A word on living dangerously

Sometimes the events in my life are so illustrative I can only shake my head incredulously. Case in point: after an hour or two of studiously setting up this shiny new blog, whilst cross-legged on the couch, I stood up unaware that my foot was asleep. I heard a snap, bit the dust, let out a stream of expletives and sat on the floor until I worked up the nerve to stand up and hobble to the kitchen. A few hours it’s still sore and hardly a big deal, but it’s a perfect example of my life for the last couple years.

 Other people claim to be chronically klutzy or admit to being slightly disaster prone, but those folks have nothing on me. This year a friend gave me a holiday card with a handwritten message reading: “I hope 2009 will be a less dangerous year for you. Merry Christmas!”

In a little over a year and a half, this friend has been witness to myriad mini-catastrophes: my car breaking down on the expressway because of water damage; a botched Volkswagen purchase; getting rear-ended in a rental car as a result of the purchase; the acquisition of my company by a competitor leading to the dissolution of my first magazine; a pigeon mite infestation; a bloody dish washing accident resulting in a cauterized blood vessel and bandages for three weeks; the most awesome avoidance of a speeding ticket ever; an actual speeding ticket; a chunk of my bedroom ceiling falling in after a big storm; being rear-ended again; and finally, most recently the loss of my job.

I had hoped to end my year of living dangerously on Dec. 31, 2008, but now it seems I have to have to extend it. But there’s a silver lining here, folks! I never bothered to blog or even write down (save for Gmail and gChat) this unfortunate series of events, giving me material ripe for the blogging.

And since blogging is less self-indulgent than writing a memoir, I’ve decided to take my tales online. I plan to share my mistakes and misfortunes past and present – to re-tell the old ones and document the (inevitable) new ones. Your entertainment and gratification is my therapy. Enjoy!