Shut Up, I'm Being Interviewed

Do any of you remember the movie "the Commitments?" Although Dave finds it cliche and passe, I have to tell you it's a movie I could watch again and again (like Juno - or The Crying Game)... It's the story of this rag-tag band of Irish musicians trying to get along as a band. Robert Arkins plays Jimmy Rabitte, a n'er do well twenty something living in Northern Ireland, who tries to make his musicians get along. While with the band, Rabitte is a no-nonsense guy who turns down advances from his attractive backup singers and inspires his team to think of themselves as the Irish saviors of soul: "Do you not get it, lads? The Irish are the blacks of Europe. And Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And the Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin. So say it once, say it loud: I'm black and I'm proud!"

However... When Jimmy Rabitte was home at night, he'd sit in the tub, and using a back brush as a microphone, answer questions from an imagined interviewee... When his younger sib would knock at the door, he'd scream, "Shut up! I'm being Interviewed!"

Well.

Last week, I got an e-mail from a freelance writer - "Kelly, can we interview you for the alumni magazine? We want to talk about you and your job as video producer, etc..." Um. What? Have you run out of alumni? I've read her column in the alumni magazine (Usually do it after I scan the "Classnotes" section looking for people I remember.) Her column is filled with Alums who have done remarkable things. Among them, Norman Tanis, a '51 alum who has pioneered a library book retrieval system that uses robots... Dorothy Hoekema Graham, '67 - teaches software developers to find bugs in their programs... my old friend, Tim Jipping '91 works in the Chicago and LA film industry. Karissa Wilson, '99 recently released an album. Kevin Huizinga, also '99, was named Top Comic Book Artist of the year. John Zwier, '05 - is stumping for Barak Obama, and believes that God is neither Republican nor Democrat.

Me? I'm a video producer who wrote a song that one of her clients wanted to use as a sales meeting tool. It's cool - but I'm far from the inventor of a library robot (Do you know how I wish I had a library robot when I was looking for some obscure Adam Smith volume in college?!!! Or when I was at another college university library looking through stacks and stacks of Dewey Decimals for research materials?!!! Sacre bleu!)

Anyway, the first thing I could think when asked to be an alumni profile was "Shut up! I'm being interviewed!!!!" - but think Stacy London - not Jimmy Rabitte.

So the writer, Gail, and I e-mailed back and forth a little - then arranged an interview time. I chose 5 pm because I'd be done at work, and could shut my office door and talk uninterrupted for an hour. Poor Gail. No sooner had I begun to explain what I do for a living - than the phone rang three times for me, the door got opened two or three times, my co-worker (who was trying to meet some deadlines himself) was forced to bring my messages to me, etc... Finally, I just got in my car, put the cel on speaker, and finished the interview in the relative obscurity of drive time traffic.

So shut up, already! I'm being interviewed!

POST SCRIPT: Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that - as I was talking to Gail, I realized that - even though my job is terrifically hectic and sometimes maddening, I really like the work I do. I know that sounds ridiculous - but after certain stints at work, it's easy to forget...