And this is why I shouldn’t be allowed out in public.

Well, m’dears, they say the best way to learn is through failure, and I am telling you, I got that DOWN. However, for those who just want to see the latest art and skip the ravings of a lunatic, first I will share my newest card line. Inspired by lampwork artist Ashlyn Noble who sells her work under Noble & Whimsical. She creates these adorable little planter monsters and they make me smile every time I see them.

So when I needed a few cards for people that are just a little off center, they were the first thing I thought of. She’s mostly active on Patreon these days, if you’d like to go take a look at some of her work.

My inspired new card line (more will be coming later, but I got derailed):

They aren’t for everyone, but they are perfect for the people I created them for.

And now…my humiliation! 🙂

I have arranged to be an intern at Prairie Public Radio. This is a complete surprise on so many levels, and as this tale will shortly tell, we should all pity that amazing group of humans, because they are going to have to endure my learning experiences! If I think I may drive them all to drink, is it appropriate or inappropriate to provide the hooch? I could raid my husband’s mead stash…

While we had arranged the internship itself, we had not yet sorted out hours or specifics as things needed to be figured out on both sides. Then, on Friday, I get a call where they are all “How about we throw you in the deep end and see what happens?” They gave me a quick ten minute tutorial on how to use a travel recorder and microphone, sent me home to practice, and told me to go interview an artist or two about the upcoming Fargo Moorhead Visual Artists Studio Crawl event. If things turned out, they had content, if they didn’t, I would still learn lots by doing. Either way everyone wins.

This proves that they are absolutely brilliant and have sized me up well. And things would probably have been a little shaky (and reasonably so), but okay, if I had actually gone home and practiced.

Friday night my intent to interview my family until they locked themselves in their rooms went awry between homework and my daughter’s sudden desire to go to a homecoming dance that the adults in the house didn’t know was happening. Saturday I attended an outdoor writing workshop so there was no opportunity. Sunday one of the artists let me know she was available early in the day, and I dashed over to her studio armed with ten minutes of training two days prior and a mountain of anxiety. Because of course I did.

I have no idea if anything I recorded is even remotely usable—if so it is because of magical editing on the part of the Prairie Public crew, not due to any virtue on my part. But I learned a lot, and we laughed a lot, and had a marvelous time, and now I feel like I have a new friend.

I went directly from that interview to the next with no break. With practice under my belt it went fairy smoothly (good enough that it aired on All Things Considered -Fargo- on Tuesday) and I was thrilled.

Then Monday arrived.

One of the artists I had emailed about interviewing had replied that he was out of town, but would return Monday. Or so that is how I interpreted it. Which meant I thought I had all of Monday to practice before anything could happen. Unfortunately, I had misunderstood and I got a message early Monday stating he was available—while I was in the middle of an appointment. I finished the appointment and headed his way only to end up stopped at a hit and run car accident. The poor man who was the victim couldn’t get his phone to work so I ended up staying with him while he spoke with 911 on my phone and got things sorted out. By the time I got to my interview I was vibrating both from being late and from the accident.

Vibrating=fairly bouncing off the walls, FYI.

As I prepared to explain why I was late, my interviewee stated he thought the interview was going to be by phone, which threw me completely mentally off track. I was so busy apologizing and stumbling about in my confusion that I started dropping the microphone and getting tangled up in the cords. At this point my mania was at record levels and I was so brain dead that when he commented on it in alarm, instead of saying anything that made sense, I cheerfully told him “It’s morning, and I’m just a morning person!”

Dude.

Halfway through the interview my brain went completely blank, which is nothing short of phenomenal as most of the time there is enough racket in my brain to be reminiscent of a deranged toddler with a xylophone, and I just stared at him for a full minute in complete confusion. We restarted again, I have no idea what I asked him, then I threw everything in my bag, told him it was unlikely to be usable for the radio, but he was an absolute saint in letting me learn on him, and then I ran like a jackrabbit.

It isn’t that I don’t have a TON of experience embarrassing myself, and doing so on a much more massive scale than this, but with the pandemic and everything else it has been ages since I have actually interacted with anyone. Which means it has been a while since I have had an opportunity to embarrass myself in front of others.  I think I had foolishly thought I was getting better, or growing up, or something to that effect.

Yeah. That would be a “no”.

La la la.