There is a kind of giddy terror when answering phones. You sit and wait. Many KEXP listeners may not realize that the phone room is not constantly abuzz with incoming calls. On the contrary; it has been my experience that maybe 75% of a our time is spent waiting for the phones to ring. In the protracted interim, we pass the by time chatting, eating donated food, and writing lists (top 3 greatest shows you've ever seen, top three female singers), all while keeping a nervous and excited eye on the silent phone. You hope that your phone rings next, but you are also afraid. It's the same way you feel when an beautiful, confident person is approaching you, and you want to talk to them, but a part of you wants to curl up into a ball and hide. Once you pick up the receiver and deliver the first line, "thank you for calling KEXP. How much would like to donate today?", and plunge into the conversation, all the fear goes away, and you wonder what you ever had to be afraid of in the first place.
Before my volunteer shift, I journeyed to Bellevue to submit a resume to a prospective employer. The entire Eastside is a strange place. It has no soul; it is all sprawling suburbs and dead-eyed corporate office buildings. It doesn't feel like anyone lives there, not anyone who belongs in the Northwest, anyway. It feels like the worst rich parts of Southern California. I wore a dress shirt and slacks to the potential job, and it seems fitting that I changed out of my Bellevue costume as soon as I returned to Seattle.
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