And You Thought I Did Nothing All Day

So far today, I’ve fallen down AND been yelled at by a hot-head in a truck. Not bad for an unemployed pregnant gal huh?

I’ve read that clumsiness is a common problem for pregos. Our bodies are kickin’ out a hormone called Relaxin (or something like that) which helps everything loosen up for the big day. But, on the other hand, it loosens up all your ligaments BEFORE the big day. Therefore… I seem to be falling a lot.

I’m walking through the parking lot at Trolley Square and I noticed the uneven pavement on the way into the mall, but I guess I didn’t see it on the way out. I was calling Mark before he left for work and wasn’t looking – I know, I know, lesson learned on walking and dialing – and down I went. (Luckily not on a nationally televised program while trying to look graceful.) Phone grinding against the black top, my right foot folded under itself scraping my arch along the ground, should have gotten a hole in the knee of these jeans and got dirt under my finger nail. Not to mention, horrid embarrassment. I hopped into the car before I assessed my damage. Not much to speak of except a scraped up phone and a slightly sore neck. Bleh.

After getting my bean burrito for lunch, I headed out to my folks to use their MUCH faster internet service. On the way there, a guy was backing out of his driveway in a big red truck. He didn’t look at all, he just charged out. Obviously, I was concerned that he didn’t see me, so I beeped the horn. BIG MISTAKE!!! He gunned his big truck and rode my behind all the way through the neighborhood. When we finally came up to a T-turn, he gunned his truck again and pulled up right alongside me almost stopping me from moving on. So, I rolled my window down, ‘this ought to be goo

d’ I thought. Boy did I get an earful.

He couldn’t BELIEVE that I would honk at him and he watched me and I had plenty of room to just go around. I kept saying “I didn’t know if you saw me or not” “OH I SAW YOU!!!!” He was wildly waving his arms around, pulling hideous faces at me. Then I thought I’d use the sympathy card “Do you always go around yelling at women who are 8 months pregnant? What a big man you are!” “WHY DON’T YOU GO GET YOUR HUSBAND (sorry Mark) YOU KNOW WHERE I LIVE!!!!!” I’ve never seen anyone SO upset. And at what? I mean, was he already mad at something when he left his house? Did my stupid little Outback horn REALLY push him over the edge like that?

I finally just said “

Well, have a lovely day. I hope you just have a great day!” And rolled my window up. After mocking me for 15 seconds, he just sat there. I motioned for him to go on ahead and he shook his head no. He just sat there. I motioned again, he did the same. Well I wasn’t about to get in front of this nut-job, but he certainly wasn’t budging. So I put my car in reverse and backed the hell out of there. He sat for a second and then sped off so fast it worries me for all the kids getting off school buses.

So, he’s out there. I’m sorry for the wrath I caused and I hope no one else encounters this man. The strange thing is, he’s like 60 years old. I can’t imagine my sweet dad berating some gal somewhere over anything. What is this man’s problem? Where did we all go wrong? Shouldn’t there be some type of breathalyzer in cars to gauge how angry you are? It could be an angrylyzer…. Or a hot-headalyzer. A man like that has NO business being behind the wheel! (I’d better go; he’s probably vandalizing my car right now!)

Babies, Dogs, Cars and 2 Year Olds

Okay it’s time for a baby update.

As many of you know, KOSY fired me. It was a very unceremonious ending to a pretty decent stint there, but alas…

On the flip side, many of you have asked me about how my pregnancy is going. We’ve been a little remiss in doing updates so we need to get back at it.

If you’re interested, you can now start checking the baby blogs for regular updates for both the mom’s blog and the dad’s. I’m a month away!! YIKES!!

We went to our birthing class this weekend and I think my belly button is going to pop out - My new concern. You can read about those things in the baby blogs (yes, we actually did this pose.)

In other news…

Ginger may have a partial tear in her ACL – something to do with the knee. She’s a super-active dog and I think it just happened while doing her usual hijinks. Nevertheless, I now have a dog that LOVES to run and chase, won’t use her back right leg and could be facing an $800-$1,800 surgery. We’ve been told to have her rest as much as possible (which is killing all of us) and give her something to stop the swelling. Hopefully it’ll do the trick.

I also have a car that doesn’t want to start on command – nice, huh? It’s just a little fussy. I have to push the clutch in and if it doesn’t start then I have to do it again. Then it usually starts right up but I’m worried there’s going to be a day when it just decides it doesn’t want to start at all. Ugh. Why do all the financial burdens happen at the same time?

And then there’s the baby nursery. We still really need to get that put together. I’m guess I’m sort of in denial. Mark and I were ready to buy a house when KOSY canned me and I guess I’m still hopeful that we can figure out a way (the house we want is still on the market). I suppose it’s time for me to resign myself to the fact that we won’t have the house or the room I had hoped for and I just need to get the nursery put together. At this point, the baby may decide she’s ready to make a move early… who knows (of course, she’d be the first in the family to arrive ‘early’ to anything!)

Nothing super-entertaining for you, my apologies.

This Friday we’ll have a chance to practice our parenting skills – we’re babysitting our 2 yol niece, Katie. I’m hoping it’s all fun and games… we’re going to go out and about, grab some lunch and then over to grandma’s to frost sugar cookies! Hopefully it’ll go smoothly….

Send your thoughts!

Showtune.erica@hotmail.com

So I decided to take advantage of my downtime and make the most of it.

I drove myself up to the party-town of Cheyenne Wyoming to visit my sis, her hub and my big chunky niece (she was the 10-pounder at birth).

The road to Cheyenne is a very long and desolate one. I mean, it’s an easy drive. You basically point your car east and go. There aren’t too many turns and there aren’t too many interesting things to look at. It’s pretty much straight, wide open, brown and flat. That’s it. Although I did think the eastern Utah portion was quite lovely… rolling hills, farm lands etc. What a pretty state we live in!

It’s a 6 hour drive that can be done with one stop or two (depending on how much you drink). Though I’d recommend not stopping in Rawlins – they’re quite slow at the Taco Bell and it ended up costing me 20 minutes!)

I hit the open road a little excited to be out on my own, having an adventure. With all this downtime I knew I’d have plenty of time to figure things out – my life, my future employment, baby stuff, the subject of my first book. I figured I’d start with the radio as far as I could and then I’d switch things up. I spent most of the drive with my iPod; Patsy Cline and me enjoying the straight, semi truck-filled stretch of road. Then I switched it to shuffle. I did pretty much the same thing on the way back.

Now I’m sorry for that. I feel like I wasted my alone time, my thinking time. I had 12 hours, completely alone, that I could have used to really think about something… and I wasted it. Why didn’t I ever turn off the iPod? Are we afraid to just sit in silence? I didn’t figure out my employment situation. I didn’t figure out any baby stuff (Though I think you really need the kid here to figure out very much). I did not nail down the subject of my first book. The most I did was think about what I wanted to eat next and what my treat would be. I wasted the drive.

So perhaps I can squeeze in one more visit before the baby arrives. But that seems silly too, doesn’t it? That I would drive another 12 hours, round trip, just to have time to think. I suppose I could sit right here on the couch, turn off this computer and think about something. Perhaps I’ll try that…

House Cleaning

So, I got fired – see story below. But if those silly men think that’s going to stop me from sharing a few thoughts about showtunes, they’re wrong. (And they are silly, silly men).

Saturday mornings, when I grew up, always started with Mom’s call up the stairs, “Girls get up it’s time to clean.” Ugh! Needless to say, it wasn’t my favorite way to start the day.

But, we were each assigned a room and I could listen to anything I wanted. I preferred my lasted Broadway soundtrack – on cassette tape, of course! Initially, I listened to my most recent soundtrack: Phantom was first. Didn’t matter that a lot of the songs are slower, have tons of words or (worse for my siblings) are really too high to sing along while you’re scouring a toilet.

For months, every Saturday morning was me, Christine and the Phantom.

Then I discovered Les Mis. Though hard to give Phantom a rest, it was time for me to move on to Mr. Valjean and hear all he had to offer.

So, now it’s Saturday night at 5:35p and I’ve just finished cleaning (well, except for the sandwich stuff that I’m waiting for sweet Mark to… notice… and clean up….) and I still love cleaning to showtunes.

Today I’m not as intent on getting my latest cassette tape memorized. I’m more interested in a CD that’s going to keep me moving, keep me in a pretty good mood, or while singing along stooped over a toilet, is going to make me sound great!

My choices lately:
Jersey Boys – A wonderful house cleaning CD. Filled with some good high notes (which luckily for us females, aren’t THAT high in our register! ;) it also has lots of up-tunes and even better: You pretty much already know all the songs on it!

Thoroughly Modern Millie – Another fab sing-a-long CD. There’s nothing like belting along with Sutton (on any of her soundtracks). Very fun while folding laundry.

Wicked – The only time I really dare to try to belt with Idina Menzel is either in the car, or cleaning my house. That takes some pipes! The songs are catchy enough that it’s easy to forget you’re mopping!

The Last 5 Years – A lesser-known off-Broadway musical that is wonderful! It’s the story of a marriage that is over. It’s a two person show and the woman’s version is told from the end to the beginning and the man’s version is told from the beginning to the end. They only cross at the wedding ceremony. It’s beautiful. I like it for cleaning because it has such a great story that you get lost in the story and totally forget you’re still mopping.

Any Old Classic – The old classics we all know and love are best if you’re sitting and sorting. Sometimes that takes a bit of brain power to figure out if you’ve got to keep something or chuck it. So it’s good to listen to music that won’t be TOO distracting or require too much thinking of lyrics. Though let’s face it – it’s IMPOSSIBLE not to sing along, isn’t it?

Any show I’ve seen live – Broad category I know. But there is nothing quite like putting on the CD of a show you’ve seen live on Broadway. While folding, vacuuming, scouring, and dusting (all pretty mindless) you can escape to the show again. I love remembering the lights, the costumes, the chills I felt at a certain moment. I even like remembering the idiot who sat in front of me and took pictures on his cell phone camera.

It’s all about escaping the drudgery of having to clean the house – one of my least favorite activities.

I’d love to hear which Broadway soundtracks work best for you. Do you like to practice your soaring high notes with Light In The Piazza? Would you rather have something that’s basically ALL fun, like Hairspray? Do you prefer to get lost in a moving story like Miss Saigon? Or are you still in the mood for Spamalot – since it was just at Capitol?

Let me know! Showtune.erica@Hotmail.com

TV Season

I’m so delighted that so many of you:

a) Have found my new blog
b) Are checking my blog regularly
c) Enjoyed my harrowing tale with Ginger and the raccoon.

If you’re just finding me, KOSY fired me. Well…. They “let me go,” (if you want to be PC about it). I SO appreciate your support, e-mails to me and e-mails to KOSY. I’d LOVE to hear from you! Unemployment is so lonely! Showtune.erica@hotmail.com


Okay, moving on…

Unemployment is a total downer. Everyone tells me to “enjoy it.” And I get what they’re saying. I mean, it sounds nice, doesn’t it? Sleep in, shower if you feel like it, make a leisurely breakfast, walk the dog, watch Ellen, make some sort of a dinner for Mark, watch some TV and hit the hay. Not bad. I’d like to enjoy it, really I would. But how do you do that when you have a baby on the way, haven’t bought most of what you’ll need and aren’t sure what your financial future holds? It’s hard to really enjoy dancing with Ellen (though I still do).

And in the meantime, I focus on the upcoming TV season!! That’s what the unemployed do, right?... Something about TV, the couch and bon bons?


First of all, Grey’s Anatomy kicks off on the week of the 24th, I believe, and I can’t wait! I got completely hooked on the show back when I was set to interview Patrick Dempsey and felt a little foolish that I knew NOTHING about his hit show. So, I thought… ‘well, I’ll rent season 1 and just see what it’s all about.’ Needless to say, I became obsessed with getting my hands on the next disc and the next. I’d often drive all over town trying to find a video store that had them in stock. I’m now happy to say that I have them all watched, I’m all caught up and I’m ready to settle down every Thursday night (listen up baby in my belly… Thursday nights are mine!)

Speaking of Thursday nights… The Office!!! Mark and I have been absorbed all weekend with Season 3 DVDs. It’s one I’d heard was funny but had never watched. Then Mark got Season 1 through NetFlix. I happened to catch an episode or two and fell in love with it. It’s hilarious!! For anyone who has ever worked with a dysfunctional boss and random co-workers, you’ll love it! I’m waiting for Mark to get home now so we can watch Disc 4 of Season 3 and be ready for the season premiere.

Those are the biggies. I’m still watching Desperate Housewives, though there are fewer and fewer of us. I’m home alone on Sunday night so I enjoy settling in with Ginger and some dinner. I also really like Ugly Betty. I’m trying to figure out how to watch that and The Office, and Grey’s all on the same night. I’ll start by taking the phone off the hook… Perhaps it is time for TiVo.

But, I’m nervous. As I’ve typed this the baby has moved constantly. I hope that doesn’t mean she’ll be as big of a distraction when the shows are actually on. That could mean a long winter for the both of us!

My Harrowing Experience

First of all, THANK YOU FOR YOUR E-MAILS!!! I LOVE it! Please keep ‘em coming: showtune.erica@hotmail.com

I used to deal with the difficult, trying, or scary moments in my life by thinking “Well, at least it’ll make a great story on the air tomorrow!” Then KOSY fired me. Now I have no outlet to tell of my harrowing moments. Luckily, I still have my blog and some of you are still checking it.

There’s not a whole lot going on in the life of an unemployed, pregnant gal. I get up, eat breakfast and sit with Ginger. Mark and I take her out for a walk. We sit and eat lunch. Mark goes to work (luckily HE’S still employed). I putz around the house for a bit. Today I walked through WalMart…. (Yes, sadly, that was my entertainment). I check my e-mails, walk Ginger again and wait for Mark to get home. That’s pretty much my day. Sometimes it’s altered by an occasional doctor appointment or an oil change. See?... not a whole lot going on.

But there was a day last week that had me at my wit’s end!

Ginger and I often do our afternoon walk a touch earlier… perhaps 4ish. That way, most people are still at work (what’s it like to work?). That means I can let Ging off her leash to explore and I know we won’t really see anyone. She runs in and out of the brush, sniffing happily, exploring, and usually finds something rank on which to roll. That’s our routine. I’ll also stop and throw rocks in the river while she leaps about trying to catch them.

But this day, I got to our rock-throwing/Ginger-swimming hole and she was nowhere to be found. I figured something caught her attention so I just started heading back. Suddenly I hear some movement in the brush to my right and as I bend down a bit, I can see her white tail just going NUTS!

If you’ve never been to the Jordan River Parkway, it’s a great place to walk. But there are parts where the trees and brush are SO thick, there is no way someone like me: A chick afraid of critters, almost 8 months pregnant and not as light on her feet as she used to be – can push through.

Ginger was in there – DEEP. She was constantly moving, clearly in hot pursuit of something. I called her name, she didn’t come. I called her name in a mean mom-voice, she didn’t come. I clapped, sang, begged, cajoled, yelled, threatened, and anything else I could think of, she still didn’t come. In fact, there were times she’d poke her head out, look me in the eye (from afar, of course) and blatantly turn around and go right back in there.

Finally I saw it. She’d cornered a raccoon! Now I knew there was no way I was leaving any time soon. Once Ginger gets focused, there’s no breaking it.

So, I sat. Ging stayed deeply entrenched in the brush, barking continuously at her capture. I watched the sun get a little lower in the sky, folks were coming out to jog and bike, people were wrapping up their dog walks – with their well-behaved dogs – and there I sat. I called Mark in tears. “I don’t know what to do!!!” He had no solution. He was at work and, at the time, was at least an hour away.

2 hours of this went by!!! Did you hear me? 2 hours! I sat there for 2 hours listening to my dog bark at a raccoon, and me going hoarse screaming her name. 2 hours!! I sat there for 2 hours basically in tears. I was stuck.

Down the trail I saw a group of young boys and two older men walking towards me. The one man said “Sounds like she’s got something.” Holding back my tears as best I could “I don’t know what to do. She has a raccoon cornered – she’s been in there for 2 hours and I can’t go in there!... I don’t know what to do.” Turns out they were the Boy Scouts!!!! Yes, this little Scout Troop or 8-10 yols were out on a nature walk and were trying to spot wild animals. Boy did I have a treat for them. A wild raccoon AND Ginger!

The super-nice troop leader put down his camouflage fanny pack and started pushing his way through the thick brush and over to Ginger. The Scouts, who were told to stay on the trail – went nuts! They were trying to spot either the raccoon or Ginger and they’d jump up and down whenever they caught a glimpse of either through the thick foliage. Finally, about 10 minutes later, the Scout leader came working his way out of the brush with Ginger (my 50 pound dog) balanced on his shoulder. He looked triumphant and she looked tense and also innocent at the same time.

I thanked them, again near tears. I was saved by The Boy Scouts!!!!!

Thank you to that troop and to their fabulous troop leader for helping this pregnant, tired (and had to pee!) damsel in distress. My knights in khaki armor!

YAY - And Thank You!

Every now and then, in a world that just isn't always fair, something happens to renew your spirit.

I was fired from KOSY. It came as a blow. I loved the job, loved sharing mornings with people but mostly, I LOVED Showtune Saturday Night! Every week it was a wonderful escape for me to thumb through my CDs, cater the show to what was going on here on SLC and on Broadway and to share that great music with listeners. What a treat! You have no idea how rewarding it was to read e-mails about helping people plan their trips to NYC, or the fact that they bought music they'd heard on the show, or became brand new Showtune lovers. That's every DJs dream... to have any kind of impact. Imagine the joy!

The past few weeks have been heartbreaking for me. Not only am I NOT doing what I so loved every Saturday for the past 7 years, somebody else is!! It just hasn't seemed fair. I can't listen anymore and now Saturday nights feel REALLY empty.

Imagine my delight to stumble across the comment board on The Deseret News website:
http://deseretnews.com/user/comments/1,5150,695203677,00.html

Great listeners have gone to this website to show their support for me!! THANK YOU! You have really cheered me up. It's been really hard to be kicked out so abruptly. If you've ever been "let go," you know what a kick it is to your ego and hard it is to feel worth much. It really means the world to me to hear folks out there who enjoyed my shows and what I did. Thank you for taking the time to make a post.

Keep checking back and I'll be posting here regularly. By the way, you can always e-mail me directly by going to:

Showtune.erica@hotmail.com