Testing, testing....1, 2...

Starting next Monday, I will be the official "voice" of the Grand Junction Free Press for blind people all across Colorado. On Mondays. At 5:30pm. That's right... I'll be an official (blind) radio personality ;-)

I've been wanting to get back into volunteering ever since I moved back to Colorado. It took a while to get settled.. one step at a time... and it also took a while to find something that fit into a tight schedule. I love reading out loud, and really wanted to read to kids at a hospital, but that proved to be much more difficult than it should. I mean, I understand not wanting to let just anyone walk in and read to the kids, but you'd think that would be something in more high demand. I also thought about the library, and might look into it further in the future, but those programs are either already taken up with "experienced readers", or are during the weekday or early weekends. Weekends are OK, but not preferable. I know I would bail too many times for vacations and whatnot.

I've known about the reading-for-the-blind program for a while, but never looked into it until recently. I guess I was waiting for something better, but I think this gig will be great. Every Monday during my lunch break, I will walk two buildings over, go into a tiny "studio", and read local Grand Junction news off of the newspaper's website. There's not really too many rules, and there's a lot of room for your own "personality" to come out if you want it to. I can't wait to read the catty local letters-to-the-editor in fun voices :-) Vanessa, I might just have to bust out the Gwendolyn "Dear Sir" voice!

They also do programs for kids, so hopefully I'll get to do some of that too. It's really fun to read kids' books with funny voices. Actually, the audition itself was kind of fun too. I was handed a small packet of stories to read "cold" - no peeking ahead of time. At first I was a little nervous, but it wasn't too obvious except for the fact that I read WAY too fast. I do this when I'm nervous, but I'm also a naturally fast reader. Will definitely have to work on that. The second story, I had found my "voice" more, but it was a story about endangered indigenous languages - like Kiktch and Haida, for example. So I basically just had fun making up pronunciations. The woman never corrected me, even on words I obviously butchered, so it must not matter too much. But seriously... try saying Kiktch out loud... that is not an easy word to say. Especially twice in one sentence.

I'm excited for my first show next Monday. While it's not live, it might as well be, as there isn't really any editing. I think I'll do allright though. First Grand Junction Free Press... next, NPR!?! One step at a time...