"A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum..."

OK, so it wasnt' the Forum...it was a typical Rest Area along a North Carolina interstate. You know how you go into the restroom foyer and on the walls are plexiglas-covered boards of maps, points of interest, and natural history? If for no other reason we look at the displays while waiting on loved ones to emerge from the Great Porcelain Hall.

Years ago one of my brother's good friends just happened to have gone to this particular rest stop, and...lo and behold...there was a picture captioned as 'NC River Kayaking'...with my brother and his wife cruising up a Coastal Plain waterway!

(My brother and his wife, up a creek but with a paddle...)

His friend had the foresight to take a picture of it and send it, which I've hung on to...one of those 'ya just never know' stories that's fun to revisit.

Before I began my weather career way back in the 90s, I got involved with stage productions, then into other acting arenas. Little parts in movies, a training film here, a print ad there...and during my non-TV station contract periods, I'd pick up a more jobs along the way.

Just yesterday morning my mom was reading the Spartanburg paper, drinking her black coffee...opened the front page section to suddenly see me in a SC bank ad I'd done last spring. Luckily she didn't choke too long on that steaming cup of Liquid Gold...and I'd forgotten all about that ad, which you tend to do in that line of work. You move on to the next audition and forget about it.

It's kind of like pulling out a coat that has spent 4 months hibernating in a closet ...putting it on to head out the door to run a few errands...and finding a $5 bill in the coat pocket. The little 'oh, yeah!' joys we smile at when they happen...