The Sunday Kind

Chapter 2: 106.4 "The GoatHead"

I tossed my backpack into the corner of the recording room of "The Dinner", Dillard University's on-campus radio station. I was feeling a bit lightheaded from the new meds, after only 7 days into my prescription I was beginning to wonder if the side affects outweighed the positive benefits. Maybe I could just be crazy and enjoy that hell of a ride? Being emotionally unstable isn't too bad right? I've managed the last 19 years pretty well.

I paused in thought. Well, maybe I hadn't handled things that well. Sophomore year of high school had been a particularly bad time for me; that's when I experienced one of the worst nights of my life, the one that landed me in the hospital. I was shaken out of my thoughts with a tap on my arm.

I turned to see my best friend Fitz holding up a pair of ear phones with a smile.

"You doin' alright Esmee? You looked a little out of it when you walked in".

"Right. Yeah, I'm sort of all over the place lately. Sorry for checking out."

"You're good friend, no worries".

Fitz was quite the character; a makeup artist, emo alien, with the best advice and music taste in the world. Fitz made a great co-host for our radio show "The GoatHead". He was the calm cop to my spastic cop. The yin to my yang.

"I'll be right back", Fitz smiled at me, with a calm, warm expression causing his lip ring to push up and shine against his bright red lipstick. Fitz floated out of the room, platform heels clunking, black ponytail swishing behind him as he went to grab more equipment before the show began.

I looked down at my own outfit, an obnoxiously bright green, blue and yellow striped sweater tucked into loose high waisted jeans and brightened. What a pair me and Fitz were, both of us where eccentric in our own way. I was loud and wild, and Fitz was calm and creative.

Despite how eccentric the two of us were however, neither of us had come up with the very outlandish name "The GoatHead". That had most certainly not been our idea. Previously, before I had earned my spot as a radio host, a guy named Dylan Vannet had run the 6 am – 7 am time slot at The Dinner. Luckily enough for me, Dylan ended up dropping out of college to find himself in the Colorado mountains a few years back. I respected the choice, I've thought about running away from school many times myself. Dylan had dmed me once or twice with advice for my show and he seemed like a nice enough guy. Unfortunately, Dylan had branded the 6 – 7 am time slot as "The GoatHead" forever. In the station was a neon sign Dylan had thrown a fundraiser for his freshman year. He had begged me not to take the sign down and to let the legacy of "The GoatHead" live on in the station and I had agreed unhappily. Besides, I wasn't quite creative enough to think of a title for our talk show anyway.

Fitz and I's show was made up exclusively of one hit wonders. We played music anywhere from Cry Me a River by Julie London to Who Let The Dogs Out by the Baha Men. Before the show began every morning we would start the day with a "Whatever Happened To?" discussion with our audience. Well, I use the term "our audience" pretty liberally. Not many students on campus really listened to "The Dinner" let alone at 6 am on weekdays. The hour was reserved for sleeping, walks of shame, the conclusion to all-nighters, wake and bakes, and spilling Gatorade on your makeup stained pillow while half-upright in bed trying to hydrate after a night of excessive drinking.

It doesn't matter though. Even if nobody wants to listen to our show, Fitz and I loved the excuse to hang out. I hadn't been able to see Fitz as much with our chaotic schedules. I had taken mostly morning classes, and he had opted for night classes. Not to mention we were both living outside of the dorms now and his apartment was on the other side of campus. The world seemed to want to put a distance between the two of us but I wasn't having it. Fitz wasn't someone I was going to let go of.

Fitz entered the room with another set of headphones around his neck and a coffee mug in each hand. Fitz knew how much I appreciated a warm cup of coffee and I squealed as I reached for my signature floral decorated "His" cup and Fitz reached for the matching "Hers" mug.

A buzz emitted from an alarm clock to our right, warning us that there was only a minute left till 6 am. I put down my cup and leaned into the mic while Fitz did the same.

Fitz smiled wide and spoke greeted our "listeners".

"Good morning Dillard's earliest morning dwellers! You're listening to The Goathead's One Hit Wonder's list of Wednesday, November 27th. We can't wait to listen to some of the best-forgotten tracks of the early 2000s with you today, but first we're excited to share today's topic for our segment..."Whatever Happened To? As per usual, the ever shady Esmee hasn't told me what she's chosen for today's topic, so I'll be just as surprised as will at today's discussion"

I pushed myself closer to the mic and smiled at my friend "Alright, Fitz, today's topic is Snuggies."

"Snuggies?"

"Yeah you never had one of those? The sleeved blankets? The fleece with armholes? Don't tell me you didn't get one for Christmas at some point or another."

"I wouldn't be caught dead in whatever the hell you're talking about Ez".

I snickered. "You're right, I can't imagine you wearing a snuggie. But a lot of people in 2008 and 2009 were obsessed with them. By December 2009 over 4 million snuggies had been sold to the public. There were snuggie pub crawls, snuggie charity fundraisers, snuggies for dogs and even conservative snuggie cults."

"Excuse me?"

"It's crazy but members of the conservative group "American's For Tax Reform" got Fox News sensation Tucker Carlson and several other conservative all stars to wear snuggies to promote their cause in what they called a "Snuggie Cult".

"I hope you have that picture somewhere."

"Of course I have that picture Fitz, who do you think I am? It's on The Dinner's blog page now for anyone interested. Anyway, in 2010 at a Caveliers game, fans broke the world record for most snuggies worn at once. I can't believe you missed all of this Fitz, where were you? "

"In 2009? Begging my disappointed parents for tickets to Warped Tour probably".

"Warped Tour! That's a topic for another day. Anyhow, Snuggies are still around, but not nearly as popular, the brand was sued for 7.5 million in 2018 for deceiving their customers by promoting a product that claimed to be clothing, but was really a blanket."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"And that's what happened to the Snuggie folks! Now we'll be playing Bullet Proof by La Roux. This song would have been topping charts around the same time as the Snuggie. And then, a word from our sponsor."

Fitz took a long sip from his cup and smiled "That went well, huh?"

The beginning of the show had gone great, but I felt lightheaded again, and let my head fall into my hands.

"Hey, you good?"

With my head still down I flashed Fitz a thumbs up. Then I sighed and downed the contents of my cup.

I hope these damn meds were worth all thetrouble they caused me.