Rough Night...

HOLY MOTHER OF ALL THAT IS LESS THAN MORALLY QUESTIONABLE!!!

Last night/This morning was, as My Genius friend Dave might put it, one of those nights that justifies my having a job!

You ever have one of those days where every half hour or so you console yourself that this can't go on much longer, despite the fact that it's already been going on an hour and a half longer than you thought it possible could have done?

That was last night for me.

I mean, okay... Maybe I'm being a little melodramatic (maybe), but goodness gracious am I worn out!!!

Okay, ThurFris -- you may remember from previous blog entries -- are the bane of my existence since from 1a to 5a I'm along running 3 stations and also catching the bulk of next week's programming. (Actually, the true bulk comes down on WedThurs, but the Other Overnight Guy and I split master control, so there's a full HALF of our overnight duties that neither one of us has to worry about. More manageble that way.)

Well last night started out yesterday morninhg, really, when I stayed up a couple hours too late downloading the BBC Radio 2 series of Flight of the Conchords.

I had a payday, I'm still obsessing over FotC just as much as ever... By the time I got home I was obsessed with the notion of clicking over to the UK version of iTunes and buying the series.

So I logged in, I clicked "Buy" and then I'm informed that my account only allows me to purchase from the US version of the iTunes store.

:(

So I buy and burn the EP "The Distant Future" -- I'm hell-bent on giving FotC some of my money at this point -- and then I get the very groovy idea that maybe, just MAYBE the BBC Radio 2 series might be available somewhere ELSE on the internet.

God bless BitTorrents!!!

Normally, when I download a BitTorrent it's an overnight thing. But since the BBC Radio 2 series is just 3 hours total (6 half-hour episodes in all), it only took 2 1/2 to 3 hours to download! So I waited!

Now, that's 1 1/2 to 2 hours past the latest time I should be going to bed...

But...

You don't understand: I REALLY wanted to hear this series, lol!

So I stayed up and pretty much WATCHED the last hour-and-a-half of the download.

(Did I mention that I get obsessive?)

(Plus, I was listening to FotC music, so it wasn't that painful, hehe.)

Then after it's downloaded, I HAVE TO load it onto my iPod, because otherwise what's the point, right? (And, of course, everytime I load my iPod I have to go back and reload everything the ipod strips out when it syncs up...)

And then, when I slip the iPod into the cradle to recharge, I can listen to stuff while it's charging... So I fall asleep about half-way through the third episode of the BBC Radio 2 series...

But on a normal day -- even a normal ThurFri -- this lack of sleep wouldn't be a bother. In fact, I might even grin when I felt particularly tired sometime during my shift, remembering why I didn't get enough sleep in the first place.

But tonight I had to air a baseball game. :(

A baseball game is a live event.

A live event means that I have NO IDEA when my breaks will air, and therefore must pay attention to my station COMPLETELY until the event is aired.

I must now explain: Most master control operators my age wouldn't have a problem with this, because they grew up in TV when MC Ops had to trigger EVERY EVENT AS IT AIRED.

But I'm a wuss. I grew up in TV (well, in Master Control, anyway) as computers began triggering just about everything, and the master control operator just had to keep an eye out on what is happening and what is about to happen. In the current age of master control operations, I can usually spot a problem half an hour before it happens, and therefore insure it doesn't happen.

(I'm over simplifying my job here, and apologize to any and all master control operators who might be reading this, lol.)

The point, though, is that since computers took over the basic running of the programming, we have been given more and more duties to take care of while the programming is airing.

And when (on the, admittedly, rare occasion) I air a live event, all the work I would normally be doing while keeping an ear open for my on-air programming and looking up every 10 to 15 minutes for a visual confirmationthat all is, indeed, well, has to wait until the live event is over.

And when said live event is a game of any sort, that might be 15 minutes before it's scheduled to end, or an hour and a half AFTER.

THAT takes some quick thinking.

Tonight's game ran long by 23 minutes and some odd seconds. (I could have told you exactly how may second 6 hours ago, but I'm home now, and that information is permanently removed to the Recycle Bin of my brain. By the time I wake up the "23 minutes" part will probably have been banished there, as well.)

I'm sure you see where this is going...

I was 3 hours, 23 minutes late in performing my normal ThurFri duties, blah, blah, blah...

Plus, I actually arrived (VERY unusual for me) 15 minutes early to try to get a jump on my shift.

It's not all bad, really.

Actually, there are SEVERAL positives: When the game finally ended, it ended neatly so that I could easily join my regularly-scheduled programming in progress. (A kindness games usually don't bestow upon ops.) I had good people watching my back during the game. Though I started my regular ThirFri dutes several hours late, I only left work 1 hour late. And when I got off work (FINALLY) I was able to unwind during the beginnings of Morning Rush Hour traffic with an episode of Flight of the Conchords!

Life is good, really.

But sense 4:00 am (-ish) I've been wrestling with the growing feeling of "give it a fucking rest already!" You know that feeling, that begins as a knot between your shoulder blades (where you can't reach to massage it out yourself) and the expands across your shoulders and up your neck until you wish you were just made out of Silly Putty so you could melt into a sobbing puddle on the floor.

You know the feeling.

In my 20s I could pretty much massage away all the tension in my body myself. But it seems that with each decade the tension finds new crevices in which to ensconce itself, lol.

Anyway...

Thanks for letting me vent!!! :)

I feel better.

Hope your Friday is COMPLETELY STRESS FREE!!!

:D