Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 96284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
“I think we’re on the fourth try now.” Jake leaned forward and adjusted his headphones. “As y’all might remember, Roe and I were scheduled to shoot in San Diego last fall—and we managed to get a week, when we’d planned for a month. After that, it’s been one scheduling conflict after another.”
“And now we have a new date set for April,” I added. So we were three weeks away. A lot could happen. “I heard a saying once—from my cousin—how it’s not an orgy until someone’s canceled—”
“Hold up,” Jake laughed. “I have questions. Which cousin?”
I smirked. “I’m not throwing Greer under the bus.”
Jake cracked up harder. “Man, is he gonna come at you next time we’re in Brooklyn.”
Pffft, Greer lived happily on his farm in Virginia. But yeah, next holiday, I would get some shit. No doubt. It was all in good fun, though. We had permission to use their names, and I knew where the lines were drawn.
“Whatever,” I chuckled. “It applies to our industry too. When you have so many businesses involved, pinning down a date everyone’s available is close to impossible.”
“Not that we’re callin’ the Coast Guard a business.” Jake handled that transition perfectly and moved us forward. “Which brings us to this week’s guest. On Friday morning, we’re havin’ a Coastie with us. Joel Hayward is a sniper in the Coast Guard, and Roe and I are very much looking forward to following him and his team around next month.”
“Unless there’s another scheduling conflict.” I grinned and took a sip of my coffee. “You don’t really think about the Coast Guard having snipers, though, right? I sure didn’t anyway, but I’ve been schooled by my jarhead right here.”
Jake chuckled. “They’re badass. We like to give the Coast Guard a lot of shit in the other military branches, but it’s all in good fun. If you think about it, they’re the branch constantly at war. They protect our borders, they catch smugglers—”
“Up to seventy-five percent of the intercepted drugs are confiscated by the Coast Guard,” I provided. “Joel Hayward went through his training in Jacksonville, Florida, home of the HITRON—which Jake will explain before I make a fool of myself.”
“You mean more of a fool…” Jake smirked when I flipped him off. “HITRON stands for Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron, and Roe is correct. They’re based in Florida, but they deploy their teams across the country. Joel Hayward has recently returned to San Diego for another three-month stint aboard a Coast Guard cutter, which Roe and I will get to revisit soon.”
“And we’ll be going up with Joel’s team in the helicopter too,” I added. “So what does a sniper like Joel do in the Coast Guard?”
“I daresay he’s got one of the toughest jobs around,” Jake replied. “In the Marines, we have a motto, I guess you can call it. Every Marine should be a rifleman. And Joel takes that to the next level when he’s not only a sniper—he’s sitting in a helicopter in a high-speed chase, aiming at tiny engines of smuggling boats bouncing across the waves at thirty-five knots per hour.”
I let out a low whistle. “In short, it’s gonna be an interesting interview on Friday. Make sure to listen in.”
Our episode continued, as always without a script. Although, after so many years, we had a good understanding of what our viewers and listeners liked. We covered LA life, our industry, parenting mishaps and shit our kids got into, a little bit about our future projects, Q&As, food recommendations, travel advice, things like that.
The new weekly interview had been Haley’s idea—and a great way to rope in new demographics.
We shied away from religion and politics, with the exception of last year when same-sex marriage had been legalized in all fifty states. I could admit I’d cried a little in the bathroom. It’d been a big day with a lot of emotions. Happiness with a smidgen of despair was just an unbeatable pairing for me. There was nothing like knowing two men could get married now, all while I was married to a woman, and my best friend I had failed miserably at falling out of love with was hella straight.
We wrapped up today’s episode with an anecdote, told by Jake, about his recent attempts at learning how to cook. Our followers definitely enjoyed hearing about our failures. Both the ones they could laugh at as well as the ones some people could relate to. Like last fall when we hadn’t won any Emmys. We’d obviously been prepared, but it was still one of those moments that sucked, and it was okay for things to suck for a couple weeks. We were open about that.
Better luck next time and so on.
I closed the laptop while Jake went over to turn off the camera, and I stretched my arms over my head and yawned. Breakfast would be nice now.