The northern half of the insanity

[figmo]

Yesterday at Metro I came in expecting to work from noon-4pm. Instead, it wound up being more like noon-5:30pm, with me downing a bunch of sugar-free cookies at the last minute to boost my blood sugar. Dave didn't tell me my relief wouldn't be there till 5pm until 3:30pm; this messed up my food pacing. Other occurances also messed it up a bit.

I was doing satellite feeds, and I was asked to train a new hire who had to be "fast tracked." I was also told I might have to cover some satellite feeds next week while co-producing, as it might be a bit much to expect the new hire to do both San Francisco and San Diego because "she doesn't know the roads down there" (like I do?). I showed her how to do both, telling her "just remember to say 'the' in front of the San Diego highway names." Up here we just say "northbound 5 at 101." In southern California they'd say it as, "on the northbound 5 at the northbound 101" (italics merely for visual emphasis).

Elaine, who was co-producing, got held up at the doctor's office, so Teri Rouse suggested our new hire do Elaine's Santa Rosa classic rock and hip-hop stations since she'll have to do that shift next week at least once. She had watched Elaine do it, but she was getting thrown in, "trial by fire" style, so she asked for my help. I calmly obliged, pointing out where I'd put my own notes so she could do stuff, and showing her where she could find what she needed. I also showed her how to set up the station feed, setting it up in the process. I nearly missed my satellite feeds doing this (all while appearing totally calm, mind you, because I didn't need to add to her nervousness).

When 5pm came around, I was shaking from the blood sugar wonkiness and from the adrenal rush I'd been hiding. I checked with Bob the producer before I left, as I'll be filling in for him all next week (folks have already taken to calling me "Bobette"). This means I'll be working 5am-9am, then 3pm-7pm every day next week (except Tuesday, where I'm taking the afternoon off to go to the KLIV holiday party).

I now need to finish my dress for the holiday party. I figure I've got the rest of tonight, most of tomorrow, and most of Tuesday to finish it, as I'm thinking of just staying in SF Monday between shifts. Dave has volunteered to clean out the refrigerator that day, and I'm thinking of offering to help just to make sure he doesn't throw out my food because he doesn't see where I wrote my name on it.

Comments

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I think the universal "the"s on freeway names is mostly an LA thing; San Diego is less consistent. Only weirdness I can think of about our road naming is that "the merge" (NB) or "the split" (SB), unmodified, refers to the 5/805 junction.

(Hi. December has been insane and I'm playing catch-up.)

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Hmph. I thought San Diego also used "the" in front of highway names.

I'm doing San Diego satellite traffic tomorrow, so any info you can give me would be most useful.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

It varies...I think it's context-sensitive, but it's hard to explain. "Take 5 north" or "It's just off the 5" or "Take 5 to the 405". Or maybe it's just me. *grin*

Hmmm...other things...Jamacha is pronounced Ham-a-sha, almost Hammershaw. That one tends to confuse people, especially when they first move here.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

That's on the list of "road names" with pronunciations, and it threw me the first time I had it. The other ones that used to get me were "Via de la Valle" ("VEE-yuh day la VY-yuh") and Otay Mesa ("O-TY MAY-SUH").

[nolly.livejournal.com]

It's more "VY-ay" than "VY-uh". Basically, we don't anglicize Spanish names as much as some places do, so 'll' is pretty much always pronounced like 'y', in any Spanish-style name. (One exception, though I don't think it'd come up in traffic, is when it's necessary to distinguish Via La Jolla from Villa La Jolla -- but Via is a minor street, and Villa is usually pronounced with the Spanish 'll'.)