A Plan Comes Together

Hannibal Smith had it right when it told The A-Team, “I love it when a plan comes together.” Yesterday a plan I have had in mind for a long time finally came together, and it was as successful as I had hoped, despite a couple of bumps.

I loathe alarm clock noises. The mechanical beeps are never what I want to hear in the morning and the radio station always seems to be on commercial, never a good song. A friend showed me how to set my television to turn on automatically, so for years I woke up to the voices of WJXT’s The Morning Show crew. These men and women talked TO me, not AT me, at least it seemed that way to me at 5:00 AM. (Not my peak time of day!) They never knew I talked back to them, commenting on news stories, weather/traffic updates and person-to-person teasing. Combining professionalism and personality, they always responded when I emailed questions on stories or notes on Middleburg’s weather. They sent me off to school every morning in a good mood, armed with tidbits of gossip and news that enlivened 1^st period and contributed to my students’ erroneous belief that I knew everything!

A year or so ago a friend complained about how much she hated getting up in the morning because everyone in her home was cranky and irritable. She said she envied me being single because I woke up with no one whining. Her mouth fell open when I replied, “I don’t wake up alone; I have my crew.” Once I explained, Clary shook her head and turned away muttering, “Oh, Marty, those aren’t people. That’s a television show.” I didn’t go after her; I knew I could never get her to understand my relationship to the show. No one does.

My Mom was staying with me once and we got into a discussion about my alarm clock alternative. She was amazed I had never tried to meet the people who got me going in the morning, especially after she watched a few shows and realized how community-involved approachable they seemed. She was excited about some event, an ArtWalk, I think and said, “Let’s go find Richard and Bruce. I can’t wait to meet them!” She sounded like she had known the guys for years and had just hung up from a telephone conversation with them! We didn’t go, but I started thinking about a way to thank a group of folks I had never met for giving me a gift they never knew existed.

A couple of weeks ago at dinner, friends asked how I was dealing with retirement. I replied that I was relishing no schedules and no time constraints. I could literally do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. Natalie asked, “Such as?” I blurted, “I can deliver muffins to The Morning Show.” She replied, “Cool. I know Nikki, I’ll let her know.” Bingo! My thank you issue was solved.

I emailed Nikki for directions and we set a date for muffin delivery. I chose to schedule it for before the show aired at 4:30 AM because I figured driving would be easier at the crack of dawn than after the show ended at 9:00 AM.

Wednesday night during the 121212 Concert for Sandy Relief, I baked five dozen muffins. Hey, it was hours of fabulous music and I HAD to do something instead of just sitting! Somehow, even this turned into an adventure!

I discovered I never got one of my muffin pans back from a loan, so I was operating with one baking pan. As the first batch cooled, I realized I had no idea how to package the muffins. Unlike brownies or cookies, I couldn’t just stack them in a box. While I was measuring to cut up extra Christmas gift boxes and layer them on short lengths of wrapping paper tubing in a delivery box from Amazon, the timer for the second batch went off.  I prepared the third batch while thinking about the loading issue and relishing Bon Jovi and The Boss duet rocking on “Back Home.” Song over, muffins in oven, I discovered an eggshell fragment on the lip of the batter bowl. RATS! I could not take a chance on muffins containing eggshell bits; some one might crack a tooth! The possibly contaminated treats were dumped in the trash and off I went to the grocery store to get more ingredients. While there I had a brainstorm and asked the woman shutting down the bakery if I could buy five cupcake carriers. She asked what for, I explained and she raved, “Oh, The Morning Show! I LOVE those guys!” and gave me the carriers for free. (Happy holidays, Julia, you solved my problem!)

The concert ended, the muffins baked and packed, I realized it was a bit after midnight and I would have to get up in a couple of hours, so I just stayed up. I baked brownies for my Post Office, insurance agency, library and bank buddies. My house smelled fabulous even if I now have to plan a pantry-restock.

I left my house at 3:00 AM, followed my car’s GPS directions into the bowels of Jacksonville to the Channel 4 building. The drive was easy – only one red-light all the way. Just one crinkle when the GPS voice said, “Turn left” and I didn’t see an immediate left. But one u-turn later I was parking in the lot. I was welcomed with open arms and smiling faces. The staffers huddled around sampling muffins and thanking me. Tarik had a muffin out of the first box before I had even put the others on the counter. Melanie, Ashley and Nikki were as charming and vibrant with enthusiasm in real life as they appear on television. (I love it when expectations are exceeded!)

They went to work and I went home, filled with a sense of completion and joy. I fulfilled my promise to myself to in some small way let these people know how they reach and affect their usually invisible audience. I got home to find that their influence was wider than I thought – they had posted a Thank You on their FB page, which brought comments from friends. My warm fuzzy of accomplishment swelled a bit.

Retirement means I seldom use my television alarm clock system anymore, so I usually tune in for only the last hours or so of the show. I may not desire a “frosty beverage” before breakfast, but I do desire my daily dose of The Morning Show. They are my A-Team.