reality check

I had a strange moment today. I was doing some cleaning, killing the last few minutes before 2:00 when I would call my professor for our scheduled phone-debriefing session, to bang in the final nails in the coffin of my relationship with birdlady. I was listening to NPR and Fresh Air was about to come on. Terry Gross was giving the preview of what would be on the show today (the soundbites she gives before saying "but first, the news") -- and she said a name I knew. Rebecca Clarren. She would be talking to Rebecca Clarren who had just written something about something important. I stopped taking in new information as my brain churned to remember how I knew this person, then it struck me. This is Mog's friend Becca who I met at Mog's housewarming party back in December! This is the freelancer who publishes in the Nation and Salon.com and other awesome places. This is the woman with the huge smile and the unselfconscious goofiness who made the most hilarious gestures in a game we played like charades, we all laughed and laughed and I watched her and thought "this is the woman who researches and writes serious articles about farm-worker safety and environmental concerns that get published in magazines I actually *buy*?" I talked to her for a long time and walked away from the party feeling excited to be a writer, excited that somebody out there was actually getting paid for this stuff, somebody really nice and really engaging. I kept thinking I'd ask Mog for her number, just to pick her brain, talk about writing, find out how she managed to become so successful with the freelancing. And there she was, today, being fucking interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air. Unbelievable. And worst of all, I couldn't even listen to it because I had to do that phone debriefing with my prof and I was at work at 7 when they ran it again. Oh well. Maybe I'll download a podcast or something. I've never known anyone important enough to be interviewed by Terry Gross. That's pretty cool.