Dinky's Docket

The first day back to work was busier than I expected. When I looked at the schedule my heart fell when I saw how much of my day was spoken for. I was hoping for a leisurely day to get readjusted to being at work. As it turned out, it wasn't as bad as it appeared. The U of U football billboards, something I dread every year, were done by the other editor and the scheduler forgot to remove them from the schedule. There was still a lot of work to do, but it was all enjoyable stuff: I had a meeting with some friends who I only get to see during the sports season because they are freelancers not full time employees like myself. That's the only good thing about the impending season--even though they're freelance, it's the same crew every year so we've become very tight over the last eight years. One sad note, however. Fred the Floor Director has retired this year. He's a broadcasting legend here in Utah. He started in televison back in the film days. During the downtime, instead of watching the Jazz Games, he and I would practice our drumming and discuss music. He used to play drums and clarinet in a swing band long before I was born. He taught me, an exclusively rock drummer, how to play the Krupa beat and and a lot of other jazz beats. He's notorious for passing gas very loudly while we're on the air, a fact that makes him very endearing. I'm really going to miss those 70-year-old farts. But he's trained the rest of us well and I'm sure we can pick up where he's leaving off. Seriously, the sad thing is that his son died a couple of days ago. I hope the grief isn't too much for him. The other project I worked on was the three-minute video presentation on the Olympic Park in Park City. This is something that was handed over to me completely and there's a lot of satisfaction in it.

The rest of this week is daunting, though. Every workday is packed with something then I have my side projects. We just bought a van to accomodate our family, but it's in Idaho, so I have to find time to drive up and get it. Also, we have a deadline to meet on the Logan Temple video so I have to work almost every free evening on that, AND I got a job as an usher at the Usana Amphitheater just in time for the Radiohead concert. I got it so I could see all the great concerts that have been coming to town (I've already missed James Taylor, Nora Jones, and Metallica, I am NOT going to miss Radiohead) and the eight bucks an hour isn't bad either. Not to mention the four paying jobs I've secured drawing portraits with two more possible. Ima gonna be a busy chicken.