The Moth - 25 Years of Stories: New Year, New Goals

Episode Date: January 14, 2022

This week, finding yourself in a CATastrophic situation. This episode is hosted by Moth Producer Chloe Salmon. Hosted by: Chloe Salmon Storyteller: Sarah Bunger

Attention Houston! You have listened to our podcast and our radio hour, but did you know the Moth has live storytelling events at Wearhouse Live? The Moth has opened Mike's storytelling competitions called Story Slams that are open to anyone with a five-minute story to share on the night's theme. Upcoming themes include love hurts, stakes, clean, and pride. GoodLamoth.org forward slash Houston to experience a live show near you. That's the moth.org forward slash Houston. Welcome to the moth podcast. I'm your host for this week, Chloe Sammon. What's your New Year's resolution? To read more books, get back into cycling, finally finish that home

improvement project, whatever it is, I salute you. I don't think I've ever actually kept a New Year's resolution, though I'd like to hope that I'm not completely alone there. A few years back, I finally resolved to stop trying to immediately transform into a better version of myself during the darkest, coldest, and for me at least worst time of the year. I've stuck to it. And I have to say I am much less stressed out every January now. But just because I've made my peace with resolutions doesn't mean you shouldn't aim high. Maybe yours could even be to celebrate the Moths 25th anniversary?

This year, we'll be producing Moth Podcast episodes celebrating each of the 25 years of the Moths existence. We're starting in 2022 and going backwards with each episode, ending in 1997 when the Moths began. We'll feature stories you've never heard before, talk a bit about the history of the moth began. Will feature stories you've never heard before, talk a bit about the history of the moth and explore behind the scenes magic that makes it all happen. We can't wait for you to listen.

And yes, that means that this week's podcast features a story hot off the stage from this brand new year. Sarah Bunger told the story you're about to hear in Portland, Oregon a few days ago at one of our first story slams of 2022. The theme of the night was goals. Here's Sarah live at the moth. I had one I think really simple reasonable goal. I wasn't trying to write a book I wasn't trying to climb Mount Kilimanjaro

Just wanted one simple thing and it was for our new cat to like me better than my husband. That was it In October we head down to Salem to go to an animal rescue My husband has one hard and fast rule about animals And that is that they should adopt you that they will tell you if they want you to have them. And that's exactly what happened. We walk into this place, and this little kitty sniffs us, and cuddles us, and gets on our lap. She's black and white.

She's about a year old. She's already had a litter of kittens, so she's essentially looking for a second chance. And we take her, and it's all great. And we name her Sadie because she kind of looks like a Sadie and we call her Slim Sadie or Sadie Lady or Sadie B. Hawkins or Sadie Sweetheart. But here's the thing. I want her to like me more than she likes him. I want her to come to me. I want her to be on my lap. I want her to cuddle with me. And God forbid if we're in a burning building, I want her to drag my body out first.

This is what I want. So two quick things. One, cats will not do anything that they don't want to do. And two, my husband is magic with animals. He is a cross between Dr. DuLittle and Snow White and every animal whisperer. If he lived in the forest, birds would sow as clothes. We lived in Chicago until quite recently and he would take these long walks in Humboldt

Park and squirrels. I'm not lying. This was hand to God. Squirrels would just come up to him and eat out of his hand. These are West Side Chicago squirrels. These are tough little, yeah. And there would be like a flock of geese that would kind of lovingly crowd around him.

And I don't know if you know this about geese, but geese are like dicks. They're like the worst of all animals. And they love my husband. And he is the king of cats. If walking in our neighborhood, I'm not lying. Like a clouter of cats will just appear. And he knows their names, even though they don't have name tags.

We'll talk about how he saw a not-show today, or a bell is across the street. And one time I swear, I saw this cat, this orange tabby, run across the street to him, and just lay with her belly in front of him. Like, she just went for it. Watching cats with him is like watching the footage from like when those teenage girls saw the Beatles

at the Ed Sullivan Theater where they're just, and then they like collapse. So I know that I have my work cut out for me to get Sadie B. Hawkins to like me more, but I'm in it to win it and I have a plan. The first thing is I have the at-home advantage because I work from home and he goes to the office. So for nine to 10 hours every day, I get to be with her.

And I become her sole issuer of food. And I really go for the good stuff. I get Tiki Cat, or sometimes for special occasions, Tiki Cat after dark. And it's like duck coffee with quail egg. And I like, I really go for it. I also become her sole source of play. I figure out that she likes these plush toys

that are about this big. So I buy her a cricket and a lamb chop. And I lovingly dust them with catnip, like a chef seasoning, like a sirloin or something. And I chuck them down the hallway. And she runs so fast for like the first second. Her legs are moving but she is not. She's like wildly coyote and she's just going for it.

And then I also talked to her very lovingly all day long. I encourage her. I tell her what a great jump she just did. Or wow, what a great job licking your leg. And I just, I give her a lot of positive performance reviews and sometimes I sing to her and during December there were a lot of verses of Mariah Carey's all I want for Christmas is you and I sang it to her very meaningfully. And so throughout our days it's going pretty well because I'm home with her.

I have a standing desk and I thought I would use it like 50% of the time but I use it about 90% because she prefers my chair and she likes it preferably against the window so she can watch her daytime soaps. She wakes up from her nap and we cuddle when we do all of this and it's going really well, really well, except the minute my husband comes home, she races down the stairs to greet him.

And when he sits down, she wants on his lap. And when he lays down, she tries to get into the crook of his knees or into the hollow of his chest. And if he changes positions to make himself more comfortable, she will also change even if it makes her less comfortable. And I don't know why. He doesn't give her Tiki Cat. He doesn't have the app on the phone to let me know how many times she went to the litter box today. He doesn't know where the good snacks are. He doesn't do any, he never sings Mariah Carey to her.

Never. And I'm like, genuinely miffed about this. And the other day we had this moment in the bedroom. She had just jumped up on I told her she did a great job jumping and she's jumping up on the bed and the song by Taylor Swift is playing it's like the 10 minute version of all too well and I look at her meaningfully in the eyes. I make eye contact and I say something like maybe I asked for too much, but maybe this was a masterpiece till you tore it all up. And she looked at me and then yawned and then sighed and then licked the front of her

own neck. And that was it. So I'm making peace with the fact that like my job is to love Sadie and to take care of her and Sadie's job is to be Sadie, whether that means she loves me and return as well as I want or not. But we are in talks about getting a second kitty for her to play with, so wish me luck. That was Sarah Bunger. Sarah was a high school English teacher for years before she decided to pursue a career

in advertising in 2021. Instead of grading essays on the great Gatsby, she now spends her weekends deciphering corporate speak. She recently moved from Chicago to Portland, Oregon and is happily enjoying all of the great food, hiking, and beer. She lives with her husband Vincent and their sweetheart Kitty, Sadie. To see some photos of Sarah, her husband, and their absolutely adorable cat,

head to themoth.org slash extras. The moth is back in person in select markets. Make it a resolution to come out and tell your story. We want to hear it. And if you're looking for a little inspiration, the moth's new book, How to Tell a Story, the Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling from the Moth, is available for pre-order now. Check out our website for more details on where to get it, and about Moth events near you,

at themoth.org. That's all for this episode. Thank you to Sarah for sharing with us and to you for listening. We hope you come along with us as we take this year to look back on our history and most importantly celebrate stories. From all of us here at the Moth have a story-worthy week. Chloe Salmon is a producer and instructor for the Moth community and education programs and the director on the main stage. Her favorite Moth moments come on show days when the cardio is done, the house lights go down, and the magic settles in.

This episode of the moth podcast was produced by Sarah Austin-Geness, Sarah Jane Johnson, Mark Solinger, and me, Davie Sumner. The rest of the moth's leadership team includes Katherine Burns, Sarah Haberman, Jennifer Hickson, Meg Bulls, Kate Tellers, Jennifer Birmingham, Marina Cluche, Suzanne Rust, Brandon Grant, Inga Gladowski, and Aldi Kaza. All Moth stories are true as remembered by story tellers. For more about our podcast, information on pitching your own story and everything else, visit our website, TheMoth.org. The Moth podcast is presented by PRX,

the public radio exchange, helping make public radio more public at PRX.org.