I mean really now not many of you know me so you have no idea of who I am, but it goes a little something like this. When I was young I chased people around with my tape recorder and microphone, getting hot and on the spot interviews with the media's most sought after celebrities, like our school cafeteria cook, gym teacher with shorts crawling up his crack, and the janitor that had to sweep up the smoke butts in the bathrooms. From the positive reaction and reinforcement that I received from these one on one interviews I became so quiet and shy that all I could muster, as I got older, was a surprised look, from under the hood of my sweatshirt, as someone spoke to me, and then the barely audible "Could you say that again?" as I removed my headphones. It usually ended with a group of girls walking off giggling and some jockey type guys starring at me. I spent years thinking that I had forgotten to put pants on or something, as this seemed to happen every morning.

Eventually I progressed to speaking to the other huddled few that had similar situations happen to them. We determined that we had been put here for some odd reason to provide some sort of comic relief for the elite few who never had zits and who obviously never wondered what had happened to radio. Similar to the kings and queens of yester year, watching the crippled or insane for the entertainment value of it, we were an odd bunch. To some it all up most of my friends at one point or another got asked the same question, does that young man ever offer you drugs (I didn't I swear. I was too paranoid to use drugs).

Jump ahead about a decade or so and here I am. In an office where I see more or less the same huddled group that found salvation in a walkman and headphones (often used to the point where one had to bend the headphone wire in a certain way in order to get it to play in both ears). Still being in the minority of people out there, when I come in here it's like going to that class where you have enough friends that sitting through it wasn't a jail sentence. So when I walk into the office I begin to breath more normally, my speech isn't mumbled or cut short, I know that the people on the other end of the phone will understand me when I speak, and that for the ten hours that I'm here a day I am relatively safe from the horrors of the world. Not once have I been refused a seat at the table when I eat lunch.

So how's office life here? What do you think? It's great. The biggest controversy here is who gets to play the next CD. I still don't believe Andy when he says that he has to listen to this album cause of work (I know that he likes that samba. I just wish that he would admit to it more openly.) Michael is the class prankster that knows just the right thing to say at the right time, and can make milk come out of your nose, from laughing too hard, if he really wanted to.

I used to work jobs where talking about the job outside of the work place usually made me feel pathetic. Here it just keeps me going. No kidding, if I could wake up earlier in the morning I would come in earlier. I don't take long lunches. I don't love to talk to my friends on the phone from work, and I don't think that the five day week needs to be eliminated. The only thing that I do here that maybe I shouldn't do, is worry. Cause truth be known things couldn't be any better. This year we're going to put out some of the best jazz albums of the year. I might even have then chance to get e few artists that i like record deals. Tell me that doesn't rule. What other job allows you to help out the artists that you love. The only thing that I would change here if I could would be to put a canopy over my little work space. Cause truth be known, I still feel like the kid in the hooded sweatshirt just trying to find the seat that will keep him out of eye shot of those around. Not cause I'm still shy or anything, or feel threatened, but cause I really can only take a little bit of people at a time. And that's why music is such a big part of my life, but that's a story for another time.