Bigfoot Banter with Judy

The weekend after the Hocking Hills Bigfoot Festival, Brian and I made the drive to Cana Valley Winery in Atwater, Ohio for a “Squatch and Sip” evening and to listen to Mike Hartman speak. The drive down was a bit dicey as we got caught in a severe thunderstorm and there was standing water in places. It was still thundering when we arrived but at least we made it there in one piece.

The venue was small but cozy and we met up with Mike, who was doing a Meet and Greet before his speech started. He was going to be speaking mainly about the Bigfoot App and how the tools inside worked and then open it up for questions . Brian and I had ordered a bottle of wine and we were enjoying ourselves and before Mike went on, I went outside for a few minutes. Mike caught me and told me not to run away because he had a “special job” for me…of course he did. Silly of me to believe I was going to be a mere spectator in this adventure!! So I went in and told Brian I had a job. His reaction? “Yeah, I kinda figured you might.” Thanks, darling. 

So Brian Wolf from Wolf Rock Radio was there helping get the laptop set up and I was messing with him a little bit because that’s just how I am. (There are also too many Brians in this venue) Mike tells me that I am going to run the computer as he is talking. Oh fabulous. There’s no mouse and using the computer itself requires a bit more coordination and finesse than I had brought with me hahaha.

Nah, we are going to run with this. Mike does his cool intro about how he got into bigfoot and all of the adventures that led him to eventually developing The Bigfoot App. So I am trying to be a very good assistant and try and have the app where Mike needs it for whichever point he’s speaking about. So he’s going down the first page, explains the weather station and has me open up The Bigfoot Backpack to show the tools and explain how they work. I piped in on those as well since I have used some of them in the field and hey, the audience could see that these tools weren’t just for show. Mike told them how to sign up for the Between the Pines newsletter (which I haven’t received in a few weeks…I need to speak to an admin about that hahaha).. Ah but then Mike gets to “Bigfoot Banter With Judy” and says “Oh! And I have some outsiders help me with the app! Judy writes the blogs for the app!” So I raised my hand and said “Hi, I’m Judy!’ which got a bit of laughter. But dang I thought I was part of the family …”Outsiders”?  Stay gold, Ponyboy. Hahahahahaha!!!

Mike went through more of the app. I had a few hiccups with the computer here and there, most with easy fixes, but Mike still “fired” me after such hiccups. Good thing one firing comes off each time I redeem myself. `The audience asked some pretty good questions and seemed to be a mix of believers and non believers, and that is perfectly okay. Nobody got upset about anyone’s feelings about Bigfoot and Mike handled every question professionally and courteously. 

How people perceive information, no matter how much they know or what they think about a topic, is really all in how the information is delivered and if you asked a question, were you truly heard? That’s a great speaker. If you haven’t listened to Mike speak before, do it. You’ll see.