Eating Poo (I want to stay "G" rated)

By now, I've talked incessantly about taking a part-time job and well, it's not exactly a job that I thought that I would be doing at this point in my life. That reminder was driven home yesterday.

Really, for me the past 2 or so years haven't been great...professionally. My last year, well really 2 years at WGCL-TV in Atlanta really weren't a lot of fun. I got sabotaged professionally by someone who made my bosses think that I was something that I wasn't. Karma bit him in the ass and got him fired, but I still had to try an overcome an image problem that I never quite was able to. Previous to what happened, I had been recognized as one the best at what I did in Atlanta and around the country. That all changed when I got sabotaged, I lost responsibility and access. I had to continue working, but not at what I did best. I had to endure a year and a half of questions: Where have you been? How come you aren't around any more? Because I took the "High Road" I deferred and avoided a direct answer, but it was killing me.

Anyway, so you also know the rest of my story. I left Atlanta in September and have been looking for work since. I've gotten to know some good people here in the Cincinnati area who have tried to help, but I haven't gotten very far with a career track here to this point. Has it been frustrating...Yes. But I'm still plugging away.

In order to do something other than sit in the house all day long, I took a Part-Time job at Panera Bread down the street from the house. I haven't worked in a restaurant since I worked at the Mexican Eagle in 1986 in Statesboro, Ga. to pay for my session of Summer School. The Panera job has been okay, the people are very nice and it is fairly low key. Yesterday as part of my rotation I had to wash dishes, something that I haven't done since I was 16 years old.

Yes, it sucked ass. It was painful for me and brought back some thoughts about what I am doing. I am sure that there are people out there who can understand what I am going through but man, it's tough. I never in my wildest dreams ever thought I would be reduced to this. Through it all, I've been a trooper, I've smiled, I've done my job and I haven't complained. But I'm not sure how long I will be able to do this. I guess what people say about "Doing what you have to do" or "Eating humble pie" is true. I don't totally miss my previous life in TV, but I really miss doing something more becoming of my time and experience. I am growing very tired of "Eating Poo".

Enjoy the Trailer for the Grinch: Thanks You Tube

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Big Bucks, No Whammy's....

I really don't understand the whole cosmic Karma thing and I'm not really sure that I want to. I do believe that eventually if you do good things and do the right things that you will get rewarded for it. I always have and I always will.

I bring this up for a reason. The last 12 hours, not counting the 7 or so that I slept, have been amongst the strangest that I've ever had. And I say strange in a totally good way. The tough part of it is that I'm not sure I should write about it because I'm genuinely afraid that I am going to jinx myself.

((Photo: Me and Sports Anchor Mark Harmon at Braves Spring Training in 2005))

For lack of a better way to say this, I went from having no "Real" opportunities to having now 3 of them since about 4pm yesterday afternoon. One, I was expecting...the other 2, not so much.

The first one, I wrote about yesterday. I took a bit of humble pie and went to the Panera Bread store down the street and got a job. Ironically, that lead to my 3rd potential opportunity, which I'll get to in a minute.

The second, I mentioned as a breaking news story in yesterday afternoon's blog. I have an interview on Friday at the local ABC station for a part-time job, which isn't a bad thing for me because it would allow me to do some of the things that I want to.

The third came up this morning. It's kind of long and strange story and might potentially give me an opportunity to do something totally different but potentially a whole lot of fun. I'm not going to mention it in detail just yet, because it may not happen...but it came about from somebody who I had met who was at the Panera Bread when I was there interviewing...for whatever reason I didn't see him, but he saw me and remembered. He thought of an opportunity someone had mentioned to him and he thought that I would be perfect for...so they are passing on my information and trying to arrange a meeting.

I've really learned a lot over the past month or so about Networking and how important it is, but I never expected that it would play out like that. I have every intention of doing a story on it, but I just haven't gotten to it yet. That might be what I need to do this afternoon.

I'm sorry that I'm being a bit vague about all of this right now, I don't know that I am nervous about it...yet; but I do seriously think that I would be putting the whammy on myself if I go into too much detail right now.

If it all plays out, I promise I will write about it, because this could potentially be a textbook Networking moment and hopefully someone will read it and be inspired to do the same thing.

On that note, enjoy this mornings clip from the early 80's game show Press Your Luck...where the "Whammy" was the true star: Courtesy The You Tube