Over and Out

One of the best quitting stories ever was not a quitting story at all. It happened a few years ago when I worked at a reality TV production company. This was a place that had three shifts (morning, night, and swing), with tortured human shells editing shows around the clock. It was, in general, a pretty miserable place to be a production assistant, as I was at the time. But this is not my tale of woe.

One of the perks of the TV business, in my experience, is that most of the time someone will buy you a cake on your birthday and call you down to the kitchen under the guise of having to show you something that you will not BELIEVE! Once you get there a sprinkling of people from around the office, including that guy from accounting whose name you don’t know, will stand around and sing you “Happy Birthday.”

At this place a favorite coordinator of mine got the axe on a Thursday, but still had to show up on a Friday for the swing shift before they had his replacement. He was pissed about the whole deal, as it seemed to be one of those weird political situations where a new hire wanted to bring in her own coordinator, and so found some petty reason to fire him. To add insult to injury, the new boss called him on his last day on his way in and asked him to pick up a cake for somebody’s birthday.

This is a classic task for a runner/PA, and a somewhat inappropriate thing to ask of the coordinator, but they were short PAs at the moment and so he agreed. He brought in the cake and sat at his desk, stone-faced, for his last shift at Really Shitty Production Company.

Soon, whispers could be heard around the office. I had to know what was going on. “Did you see the cake?” someone asked me. Nope. I went into the kitchen and parted the crowd to take a look at the Ralph’s white-frosted sheet cake. In pink icing scrawled across the top I read, “This isn't my job, Assholes.”

I will be telling my grandkids about the balls on that guy. What a way to go!
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Yesterday we celebrated DeeHo’s birthday and treated her, deservedly, like a Queen! After being showered with loveliness and attention all day long, she said, gratefully, “Thank you so much. You guys really went over and out.”

I think she meant, “Above and beyond.” I love that girl!

Today’s Coffee Beverage: Iced NF latte with one pump of caramel from the Universal Commissary.