month of me! - college times

[orangerful]

xlovebecomesher.livejournal.com asked me "What is your favorite memory from UMBC?"

Random fact about me - I have a crap memory. Like, I forget EVERYTHING unless it is somehow tied into a fandom, I swear it is embarrassing. Tim will remember lovely little relationship things and ask me if I remember them and I usually have to strain to think if I do.

ANYWAY, so what do I remember about college?

Well, I didn't go away to school, I stayed at home and commuted. I was being frugal and I also wasn't ready to be on my own and I knew it. The idea of having to do everything by myself did not sound like fun and having to share a room with a stranger? Yeah, no. I had my own room at home, my own computer, TV and parents that were happy to keep me. So I don't have any wild nights at college stories.

That being said, I have two favorite things I remember from college. First, my radio show! Yes, UMBC had a radio station, WMBC, and the best thing about it was that it was streaming before streaming was a thing. Which was good because the radio signal itself did not go beyond the dining room that the station was situated next to. So I told all my IRL friends and online friends to tune in (this was pre-LJ for me, so online friends were AOL IM friends from high school and people I had met on Dave Matthews Band message boards).

I took an evening shift, I think it was 9pm on a Monday or something random like that, because it meant I could play whatever I wanted. It's not like anything I was playing would be controversial, but it was probably too mundane for the afternoon crowd. Sometimes I would walk through the dining area and they would be blaring some heavy metal scream-o. And then I'd roll in at 9pm and the place would be empty and I would do a themed show that included The Beatles and up and coming artists like John Mayer before he was John Mayer. I was really into the "little guy" music scene but I was also into chill singer/songwriters and also a big fan of NPR's Songs for Aging Children, which would always do shows where all the songs fit a theme.

One of my high school friends came by the station one night to hang out with me. He took these photos of me in the studio:



Damn, I was skinny!

My second favorite memory was finding out one of my professor's new Joss Whedon back in the day and I got to do that six degrees of separation. He was my favorite professor too. Let me write a paper on how having shows like 'Angel' set in Los Angeles shows that American culture still sees the West as a wild and crazy place to set out and find your dreams, manifest destiny and what not.

Anyone else have any college memories they are brave enough to share? Comment here or post on your own DW/LJ if you plan to ramble on as long as I did and include photos! :D

Comments

[goodbyebird]

We are Crap Memory twins, high five!

And so cool that you got to DJ your own radio show in school. We never had anything like that here.

[orangerful]

**high five**

It was a lot of fun, way more fun than when I actually worked at a radio station right after college. :| But I'll save that ramble for another post LOL

[geeklover80]

That's cool you were a DJ in college.

I think one of my more memorable college memories was when I got hit by a car when I was rushing because I was late for work. I was lucky and only broke my collarbone. I was living in an apartment building and I hadn't made many friends, including my roommates but I was really surprised - pleasantly so - when one of my roommates rushed to the hospital to pick me up and went with me to get my prescription. I was even more surprised when a few people from the building came over the next day and gave me a card signed by a bunch of them.

Stacey

[orangerful]

That memory is a roller coaster of emotions! I mean, no one wants to get hit by a car, but how nice to find out that they cared. :)

[geeklover80]

Yeah, it was a happy surprise, didn't realize anyone knew who I was!

Stacey

[rhoda_rants]

Ahh, my college roommate had her own radio show! I got to sit in on one of her sessions once. It was so much fun! And weirdly boring at the same time. It's a lot more low-key than I would've expected--she just got to play music basically all day. Sounded like the best job ever. In fact, one of my library coworkers used to work for a legit radio station out here.

Definitely getting lots of memory-feels from fandom message boards. That was THE place to meet like-minded people in college for me. (For me, it was Lord of the Rings that sparked it.)

[orangerful]

I did a brief stint in IRL radio after college but it was nowhere near as fun because I couldn't play what I wanted. Now I'm just going to relive my youth by making cheesy themed playlists on Spotify.

Somewhere in my parents house, I think I still have print outs from some of the X Files message boards, like a list of jokes or something like that. Good times.

[rhoda_rants]

Heh, yeah. Even at our college radio, there were some rules about what they could/couldn't play. There was a big sign on the wall that said "DO NOT SAY THE WORD 'PLAYLIST' ON THE AIR" because they didn't want people to know that.

Okay, I know you've talked about Spotify playlists before, but for some reason I'm just now remembering I used to record DJ session of myself with an actual cassette when I was like 12 or 13. I would just record random songs on the radio, and every five or six songs I would stop and record myself pretending I was a DJ. I would be a trip to find those and listen to them now.

---

[orangerful]

oh my gosh, you MUST find them! :)

I had a cassette of me retelling the entire plot of 'Temple of Doom' somewhere...I kept forgetting key plot points and would have to say "oh wait, remember way back when" - I was doing non-linear storytelling before it was cool.