CleoPatka

March 3, 2007

So, just in case you were wondering -- CleoPatka is my radio name.

Check us out on http://www.am1340.com/ if you aren't in the Elkhart area.. I'm typically on the radio 6:30-9 a.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays.

It's a really fun gig because I'm the youngest, the only woman and I get to promote my job for free. It's a nice arrangement. They don't really, but pretend to need my personality and I get to talk on the radio-- so it works out well.

Anyways, the name came from a trivia question game that we play "Fact or Cracked." The statement was "Cleopatra was originally from Egypt." The answer was cracked- she was from Macedonia. I proceeded to tell the host that since I was royalty, a princess, and since it SOUNDS similar, I wanted to be called CleoPatka.

And the next day I was in the studio, Paul, our magical sound guy played "Walk Like An Egyptian." Hence the name stuck and I LOVE it!

In the category of "other random random facts you might not know about me" there is an incredible story of Spankee and Sparkles the taxidermied squirrels. The short version goes that these squirrels, a gift from a family friend sat upon the Patka family shelves until I brought home some friends from college who remarked about them. That Christmas, Spankee was gifted to those friends and became the unofficial mascot of their college lives, "traveling" to places far and wide, dressing up in costume and participating in the general college tom-foolery.

Since then, both squirrels live safely at my house and are brought out for special occasions. The oddly place squirrel with a Santa hat collage was from 2007 when my mother suggested that she would like to send a Christmas card with a photo, "to give it a personal touch." I knew the end result would be a photo of the Patka children, however, I couldn't resist a joke in the mean time. Needless to say, these Christmas card mock-ups were not approved.

The photo that Mom had in mind for the card.