The Surprise Call that Rang in Opportunity

The phone rang.

Perhaps it was my Wolf Assistant Leader calling.

That seemed likely as I was dressed in my full Cub Scout leader uniform complete with green slacks, official blue and gold handkerchief, and even the green and red socks.

Maybe my Assistant Leader wanted to carpool to the Roundtable Training time for the leaders in the area.

Nope.

It was not her.

Then part of the name "Marjo. . ." showed and I knew.

When I saw who called me, I smiled.

It was Marjorie Shaefer in Tennessee.

I opened my phone and said, "Hello, Marjorie!"

That was when she told me the news that my name was drawn for one of twelve slots at the 2010 National Storytelling Conference in Los Angeles. There were 101 slips, and yet my name got pulled.

I heard this heart-thumping and exciting news while driving.

Perhaps not the safest thing in the world.

I was in my Scout uniform. I could have been a good Scout to pull over to the side of the road and continue the conversation. . .but I didn't.

That was when I lost grip of the phone and I accidentally hung up on Marjorie.

Yikes.

I called back, apologized, and then heard from Lethan Candlish and Loren Niemi as extra "witnesses" that my name was drawn. In fact, Loren held the slip "Rachel Hedman, UT".

Not that I needed witnesses. You could trust Marjorie with everything and then some.

My mind raced. Normally, I would want a chance to pace and jot ideas in a personal brainstorm session. But I had Roundtable Training.

I saluted the flag, sung the songs, but my mind was multitasking.

While eating a graham cracker spread with Cool Whip and sprinkled with blue berries, raspberries, and sliced bananas to represent the American flag, I made a mental list of who to call after the Roundtable Training.

It was already 8:30pm and time was limited to get in my calls.

I called:
1. Husband at work
2. Mom and Dad
3. Don Doyle--voice mail, but I hope he can be my emcee in L.A.
4. Holly Robison--who sang harmony with me during the first "Family Famine"
5. Stephen Gashler--who filmed the first "Family Famine" and who I encouraged to attend the 2010 National Storytelling Conference so he could do a 3-camera shoot of this next one
6. Nate--my brother, who is more of a night owl like me so I did not worry that it was after 10:00pm

I will need to call my sister, but she is one hour ahead of me. I had no choice but to stop.

Whew!

It was a lot of calls to make before 9:30pm or 10:00pm at night before most "normal" people go to sleep.

And there will be more calls to make tomorrow.

As for what I will do with the 55-minute Fringe time slot?

This will be part of my "Family Famine: Hunger for Love" series with different stories than my premiere one.

I plan to get a sponsor to help fly in Holly Robison (singer/teller), Joshua Payne (guitarist), and Geoffrey Rayback (upright bass player) so we can merge the arts with storytelling as the main stage art.

This will be a 3-camera shoot so anyone attending will give permission to be part of volume two of the next 2-DVD set. And yes, this one will also have audio commentary, ASL interpretation, photo gallery, etc.

This will be even bigger than the first one.

And I have about 10 months to plan.

That is about double the time I had for the first one.

Lovely.

Until we tell again,

Rachel Hedman

Professional Storyteller

Tel: (801) 870-5799
Email: info@rachelhedman.com

URL: http://www.rachelhedman.com/

How-To Blog: http://storytellingadventures.blogspot.com/

Performance Blog: http://familyfamine.blogspot.com/
Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/rachelfans
Other places to find me: Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Professional Storyteller