used to phone in to my friend John’s radio show. I did this while I was traveling around the country. We would talk about the week, what places I had been, toss around memories of certain cities. I once called him from Glacier National Park, in Montana, on a frosty June morning at 6am. I called from a pay phone, and 10 minutes into the conversation, the booth was surrounded by deer. I feel like I’ve told this story before. Have I told this story before? Anyway, it was terrifying. In a really cute, Bambi-like way.

When I returned home to Austin, I kept calling in to John’s show, only this time, I went to different Austin places. A coffeeshop. A taco stand. A library. Sometimes, I would hand the phone to strangers, who would talk to John, because John was terribly skilled at such things. He hit it off with one homeless guy on the Duval bus. I didn’t think I was ever going to get the phone back. I thought I might be out of a correspondents’ job.

One of my favorite episodes, if we can call it that (and we will!), was a time I went to H-E-B, the city’s most prominent grocery store. That morning, John had Will Sheff, an Austin musician from a band called Okkervil River, in the studio with him. Will knew all these tidbits about H-E-B. I don’t know why, or how, he just pulled out all this trivia about why certain foods were tagged on the aisles, and where the store originated. It was the most charming conversation, for which I can take practically no credit. I just kept wandering the store, saying things like, “Young Sweet Small Peas, on sale for $1.99,” and then they would banter about that topic for a while.

Will Sheff’s career has taken off since then. Okkervil River has become a critical darling. Their latest album, The Stage Names, has been playing on my iPod for weeks. I recently got a chance to interview him for Nerve. Sadly, no mention of H-E-B.