Trippin

Okay, it's official. I just organized my first field trip with the students from Connecticut School of Broadcasting, so I'm a full-on teacher now. Should I wear horn-rimmed glasses and a plaid skirt? Should I ask my mom to sponsor us?

It wasn't a hard field trip to organize since I work at the place we're going. Next Friday JJ will be broadcasting live at Kiss Party (Blackeyed Peas and Pussycat Dolls! Rock on!) and I'll be holding down the fort in the Kiss studio. It's usually just me and my pistachios in there, but this time I'll have 15 or 20 of my closest student friends with me, asking an onslaught of questions about what all the buttons do. Perhaps they'll be more interested in the enormous Love Sac/bean bag that sits in the corner or the pimped out microphone that's always wrapped in a red feather boa and has fuzzy dice dangling from the boom. Someone finally took the Whataburger menu off the wall so we won't have that to talk about. But I'm sure fun will be had by all.

The school is turning out to be a great way for me to meet people. But I have to admit I'm sorta intimidated by some of the other instructors...especially the TV people. Most of them are oozing with charm, confidence, and capability (not to mention great skin and fantastic hair) and I pretty much feel like a big dweeb in their presence. I do my best to find interesting things to say because I don't want to seem "uncouth" as my grandma would say, but I never feel like I make a great impression.

The first time I met Pam Harris from CBS 11 back in February it was a Wednesday night and the Grammys were on the TV's in the master control room, and as we stood and visited nearby the most compelling thing I managed to say was something about Madonna looking amazing in a leotard. I do wish I looked good in a leotard so it wasn't disingenuous. Just inane. But after Pam and I had lunch this past Tuesday (at Cantina Laredo at Trinity Mills and the Tollway....I've almost been to every location), we said afterward how easy it was to click as friends. Pam said she knew from the very beginning that we would click. Really? Ellen always says a word like "leotard" can pull her right back into a conversation that she's drifting out of, so perhaps my lameness was actually a great attention-getting maneuver and I didn't even know it. Anyway, Pam rocks. She works at CBS 11 and teaches at SMU, and her husband is in TV too. Very interesting peeps whom I can learn lots from.