Another goodbye: ‘I Love You So Much’

28 Sep

Photo by our pal Megan Renart

My life partner in podcast, Tolly Moseley, put up a beautiful post on Facebook about the end of our hosting gigs on the podcast we co-created with Addie Broyles and Alyssa Vidales, “I Love You So Much” (which, in a previous life, was the successor to “Statesman Shots.”

Without her, there would never have been a “Statesman Shots” and I wouldn’t have wanted to take on either show without her laughter, her talent and her can-do spirit. Which is why it feels right that we’re saying goodbye to the show together. It has been the best kind of creative partnership and I hope we brought the best out of each other. We’ll be on a couple more episodes through ACL Fest with Addie but you can hear our goodbye bonus episode below or on your favorite podcast app.

Thanks to all our guests, our newsroom heroes who said yes again and again when they could have easily said no and to all of you who listened, who shared and who helped make our little dream of a fun Austin podcast a reality.

Funemployment checklist before health insurance expires

25 Sep

☒ Flu shot
☐ Bend/poke exam
☐ Grab/cough exam
☐ Platinum caps on all teeth
☐ 5 pairs of glasses in case of “Twilight Zone”-style apocalypse
☐ Gentle bloodletting
☐ Iron Man heart light
☐ Coolant/antifreeze flush

Goodbye, Statesman

30 Aug

 

A bunch of many years ago, I got an internship at the Austin newspaper. That internship turned into a job and then the job into a career and I find myself 21 years later looking at the exit sign and beginning a long, long set of goodbyes.

I’m accepting a buyout offer from the Austin American-Statesman and GateHouse Media that concludes almost half of my life working as a reporter, editor, podcaster, video shooter, social-media troll wrangler and co-creator of ahora si, the long-defunct Technopolis tech section, the I Love You So Much: The Austin360 Podcast and “Statesman Shots,” and 512tech.com from the Austin American-Statesman for the Statesman and Austin360.

My last day is Sept. 7. I’m still not 100% sure what my involvement is going forward, but I’m hoping to still contribute to the podcast and the paper. And I’m going to be super pissed if the wonderful staffers I work with don’t stay in touch. Not getting to see them is the biggest bummer, the part I’m least looking forward to in this move. (And insurance! Anybody know where I can get some decent freelancer insurance? I like my teeth!)

I have so many memories of this place and so many thanks to give. Editors including Kathy Warbelow and Sarah Lindner Beckham and Sharon Chapman and Barry Harrell and Becky Bisbee and Debbie Hiott and Kristin Finan and Emily Quigley and Kathy Blackwell and Richard A. Oppel and Fred Zipp, staffers and creative partners from Andy Alford to Tolly Moseley to Addie Broyles and Alyssa Vidales and Gregory Kallenberg and Gretchen Heber and Melissa Segrest and Angela Shah and Josefina Casati and Gissela SantaCruz and Sharon Roberts and Rob Quigley and Joe Gross and literally hundreds of other names. Thank you to every reader, even the ones who just wanted me to come fix their broken printer or the ones who thought I was part of a vast left-wing conspiracy bent on turning Austin into a condo-spewing Mecca for tech dudes. (We did it, guys!)

People talk about not getting too wrapped up in a job, about not feeling like you should owe them anything but what you do for the paycheck. But this is a place that has kept me and my family fed and happy for so long, that put my damn face up on a billboard by the highway for the whole city to see, that let me take ridiculous flights of fancy with articles I never thought would actually get printed because they were so dumb, that let me jump from job to job and keep doing outside projects all the while, that allowed me to CREATE NEW THINGS that didn’t exist before. That’s where I got the most joy here, making new things and launching them with a team of passionate coworkers and seeing if they could thrive. I hope to be doing a lot more than that in this new life I’m starting.

I have loved my Statesman family and I’m going to miss it so much. But in the end, it just felt like, for me, it’s time to go. I will keep reading and watching. I’ll keep championing the great work that is done here.

20 years of LCP

27 May

Latino Comedy Project

 

This performance of Latino Comedy Project’s‘s “Gentrif*cked” was especially sweet with a fantastic, sold-out audience and a tight set.

You can hear more about the show here. And learn about the Austin Chronicle award it won here.

Plus we got to show a preview for our upcoming “¡Estar Guars!” Kickstarter. It got a huge reaction.

Thank you, Austin, you have been so good to us for 20 years.

5K’ing

3 Mar

5K 2018

 

A year ago I fooled my out-of-shape, run once-a-week self into thinking a 5K would be a super easy, no big deal whatevs. That morning, loaded down with a sausage wrap in my belly, I huffed and puffed and ended up cramping and walking and feeling completely humbled.

Now, it doesn’t seem like such a big distance to me, but I still thought I might disappoint myself or that my body would fail me again. So I cranked up the trap music in my earbuds, tried to keep a respectful distance from the fast kids up front and ran a pretty steady pace. I wanted to beat 30 minutes total and blew past that without realizing it was even possible.

5K is very small compared to what some of my friends run and I’ll probably try for something bigger, but seeing how far I’ve come in a year is giving me a very bright moment of joy right now.

Diego

24 Dec

This has been a rough lead-up to Christmas — we lost Diego to kidney failure this week. He seemed perfectly fine just a few days ago and then, after a long night of treatment, didn’t make it. He was the last of our three original kitties, the one the girls grew up with the longest and were most attached to.

It hurts to come home and not see him wander out of the shrubs to greet us or resting in his pink chair inside at night or to know he won’t be following us around the neighborhood the next time we trick or treat. Love your pets (and your people), they can be gone before you know it.

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