And on the local news!

(Link to me on the news is below; skip to it if you don't feel like reading all this yammerization.)

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If ever you need motivation to clean the heck out of your house, I'd recommend setting up something with a photographer of a nationwide newspaper. By midnight on Monday, this place was as neat as a pin—at least, any part of it that a photographer might wander through. Do NOT, for the love of God, open the door to Brian's room.

ChezBez laughed at me when he saw the photo in the paper: After reading all of my Tweets about housecleaning, the Times used an outdoor photo. Sure, rub it in. All was not lost, though. WCIA News asked to interview me yesterday, about similar issues in this community.

As much as I've been on the news for the last 2 years, I still cannot overcome my nerves in front of a camera. Give me a kitchen table, workplace, bar, coffee shop, heck, even an elevator, and I can regale you with any tale. Put a camera in my face, and I turn into a doe in the headlights.

Since I always get cotton mouth when I speak publicly, today I grabbed a tic-tac, to tuck in my cheek and keep me from getting thirsty. Somewhere along the line, I tripped up on a question, and began chewing on that tic-tac. Yes. With a microphone clipped to my collar. Seriously. Imagine someone chomping away on hard candy while you are talking to them on the cell phone.

The reporter smiled at me, and said "Crunch, crunch, crunch." I was so embarrassed! I cracked up and apologized. What in the heck was I thinking?

Prone to long pauses in my speech, I committed that error also, and recovered by saying, "you guys are going to cut that, right?"

I've become increasingly more comfortable with the idea of speaking to reporters; everyone is so polite, and comforting, and...forgiving. So, I say "Ok, I'll do it," all the while wondering how it is I'm not on a local television blacklist.

Ok. I yammer on. I just watched the video online. Erin Maloney did a pretty good job of editing out my long pauses, and killing the crunching Tic-tac after all.

Click here if you want to watch!

They also did a good job of editing out the only thing that was out of place in my house: I kid you not, I'd tossed my bra onto the sofa the night before, and there it remained through the entire interview.

Sigh.