Way Outside My Comfort Zone

When I began working at ECCO, it took quite a while for me to get really comfortable even making routine announcements during our Exploritas (Elderhostel) programs. Now it's like water off a duck's back. No problem at all. Give me a microphone, and I'm all over it. A ham was born.

Appearing on Spanish-language television to talk about visitor opportunities in Eastern Madera County is another story entirely.

Jarrod Lyman of the Yosemite Sierra Visitors' Bureau obviously caught me in a moment of weakness. I was trying to recuperate from the cold and cough that has plagued me for the last month and resurfaced with a vengeance last week. I didn't even argue with him when he asked if I'd consider going with him to tape a Univision program about a press release he'd just published.

It's a good thing the appearance took place only a day and half after he'd asked me. If I'd had more time to think about it, I'd definitely have found a way to beg off.

I would have folded for sure if he'd told me it was going to require me to talk for 30 minutes, about a variety of the venues in our area who are offering autumn/winter specials. I'd AS*umed it'd be a five-minute spot, at most, and I could muddle through that, no problem. The last time I had to carry on a 30-minute conversation in Spanish was in 1993 when I helped to extricate a body from a police morgue in Mexico City. But that's another story for another time.

What Jarrod didn't know was that I had a killer cough that would erupt without warning. I'd kept it pretty much under control until we got to the television station. Sandy, the young lady, who'd booked the appearance, led us to the studio where the spot would be taped and offered us the opportunity to watch the episode currently being filmed.

"Just please be as quiet as possible," she cautioned as she opened the door for us.

As soon as we sat down, I knew I was in trouble. I tried to stifle the cough for as long as possible then had to make a mad (but silent) dash out of the room to erupt in a coughing fit. I couldn't stop. Jarrod found me some water, and one of the studio hands rounded me up a cough drop.

It helped. For about five minutes.

In all, I made three quick exits even before it was our turn to tape. I'm sure the show's host was wondering how either of us was going to get through the segment.

To their immense credit, the staff of Univsion, from the host to the camera people to the studio hands couldn't have been nicer. The host was careful to phrase her questions so they were pretty easy to answer--and she bailed me out more than once when the right word just wouldn't come to mind. I'm sure I said the same thing over and over, though. The cameraman fixed me up with two bottles of water, surreptitously hidden from the camera's view. The host assured me it wasn't the end of the world if I had to cough.

"It's a natural thing," she said.

The thirty minutes flew by with amazing speed.

"That must have been about 15 minutes," I told Jarrod. "They must have allowed for commercials."

"No, it was a full 30 minutes," he replied. "And you made it through almost to the end before you had to cough."

The host was so friendly, so accommodating, so interested, that she made the whole interview much less than the ordeal I'd anticipated.

"I'll even do it again if you want," I told Jarrod afterward. "I'll even do it in ENGLISH."

He shook his head. "No, if it'd been in Engllish, *I* would have done it."

Ah, shucks. My budding television career shot down before it even got started!

You owe me, Jarrod, and don't think I'll forget it!