Day 3

Today was overcast, as usual. My volunteer plate was full with a lunch run, phone duty, and finally donut delivery. 

Close to 11 o' clock I find my way down to Belltown to pick up a multitude of tiny sandwiches and fancy brownies from a place called Macrina. I park Galactica in a public lot that has the personality of an inner city basketball court, all crumbling and tattooed in urban art, grumbling of better days. The food donation is several trays and a couple trips across the street. Macrina, a little bakery, is packed, but when I comment on it they inform me that its actually slow compared to their normal patronage. The van is loaded up with lunch and I'm back up north to KEXP. 

I arrive at the studio and lay the eats out on the designated table in the hallway. There is a sheet of plastic on the floor running the length of the hall, which makes sense; working and volunteering at KEXP can cause one to eat quite voraciously and without much regard for whether all of the food gets into one's mouth. 

Grabbing a sandwich and a donut, I sit in the front lobby, awaiting phone-related instructions.I hear that the website for making online pledges has been down today, but listeners are making up for it by phone. Some more phone volunteers trickle in, and soon Kelly explains to us how to take pledges. 

We start our shift just as the website is deciding to work again, so things slow way down on the phones. Things are not completely lifeless, however, and I pick up the first call. We have these sheets in front of us which make things very easy, especially for a telephonephobic like me. I take the name, pledge amount, and other appropriate deets. We are in the conference room, which is definitely the largest space in the building. There is a large, flat-screen tv at one end with a webcam view of the DJ of the hour, Stevie Zoom, in action. A corresponding camera sits atop the television bringing our image into the DJ booth. 

The next three hours pass with sparse phone activity; most people will pledge electronically if they can. We pass the time with conversation, eating of food, and spontaneous bursts of dancing. 

This blog is getting noticed. Today a number of people said to me "Hey, you're the donut guy!" It's gratifying to have one's work recognized. 

It began raining around 2, which I'm told leads to more pledges, and indeed this is the case. I take one last pledge before 3, then hop off to get donuts, drop them off, and then home... nap.