Monday, January 24, 2011

Video for the Crash Years

Same Song, Official Video

At the worst job I ever had, I had to report to the most boring woman who has ever lived.

I would fantasize about various industrial accidents that could befall her -- each dripping with subtext and irony.

Looking back, that may have been a sign that it wasn't the best job for me.

A week before I finally quit, she called me into her office.

"I'll make this quick," she said. But she didn't know the meaning of the word "quick." So she talked for hours.

After 5 minutes, I stopped listening. After 10, I left her office.

I walked out of the building, across the street to a park, and over to the other side of town.

I bought a round for a group of nuns who wandered into a bar.

I had a cheeseburger at an old diner that would soon be torn down.

I replaced an injured gravedigger in a game of pick-up basketball.

And eventually I made my way back.

Into the building.

Into my boss's office.

And she was still talking.

But eventually she looked up. "So you'll take care of it?"

"Absolutely," I said. I had no idea what she wanted me to take care of.

But I wouldn't have done it even if I'd known.

And when I went home that night, the job started to feel shimmery and fantastical, like something I'd dreamed about... and already had started to forget.

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Wonderfully strange and strangely wonderful video for "Crash Years" by the New Pornographers:

1 comment:

David said...

Man I love that band! And any rock song with whistling in it is tops on my list.