Newspaper Stories

Friday night

Tony Soprano decided that it was time to shake things up and add some new blood to his "work family," so he placed a large ad in his local newspaper. On the day the ad ran, he opened up the paper to find that his bold-face headline had been screwed up. It did say "TONY SOPRANO & CREW" at the top of his ad, but the ampersand was printed backward. He felt that the mistake reflected badly on him and his organization, and made him seem incompetent. He was mightily pissed off about it.

At the same time, I happened to be sitting in the HR office at that same newspaper. I'd come there because I felt that I was in a rut, and wanted to know if they could cast me in a play, or offer me something to do that was creative. The HR rep asked me about my background. I said, "Well, I graduated from high school in 1980." She rolled her eyes. I stammered, "But I've done some other things since then... I've been to Europe a few times." She said, "Well, we've got an opening for someone to report on what's happening around town."

*****

Last night my wife and I watched an episode of "The Sopranos" from season two, called "The Happy Wanderer." Tony was making some changes to his crew, and he also seemed dissatisfied and p.o.'ed most of the time. Another character, Christopher Moltisanti, was shown taking part in an acting class for writers.

This dream seems to highlight a restless longing within me to be creative. I don't have those opportunities at work, so I have to find other ways to express myself, whether it's making elaborate CD collections, organizing photo albums, drawing pictures for my nieces and nephews, making Halloween decorations, or writing in this here blog. Not long ago I was talking with one of my coworkers about local theater. I've always loved going to see plays, and have thought from time to time that it would be neat to see if I could immerse myself into a role. She said that it takes a big commitment of time. Maybe someday.

Yesterday another coworker mentioned that she had been to Spain. I told her that my wife and I were there five years ago. It turned out that the coworker and I had visited some of the same places. I went home at lunchtime and brought back my photo album of the Spain trip, and she enjoyed going through the pictures. It was fun reminiscing about the beautiful places I'd seen, but hindsight and the photographic record reveal that my wife was right about one thing all along. The next time we go on vacation, I've got to ditch the shorts-with-white-tube-socks look.

One more thing: when the HR rep talked about "what's happening" around town, she was referring to entertainment. In other words, the job she was proposing would be more fun and less drudgery.