Tied to the job

I've been out for almost seven years and about twice a year, I'll get a "Hey, aren't you..." which has more to do with local TV/radio appearances than anything I ever wrote. Since it's usually followed up with, "How come you don't do that anymore?" I would not mind if that never happened again.

 

For me, it's relatives that don't have a clue that my weird schedule is not some anomaly, but it's a part of the job.

They'll say, "why can't you just take off for this, or switch with someone? Aren't there day shifts?"

Well, no, I can't just take off unless I burn a vacation day, which I only get my two weeks and I don't want to burn through them quickly. I can't switch because, thanks to cutbacks, almost all of us are working the same shift. And there are very few day shifts, which were done by people who had been there 20 years. I say "had been there" because they were laid off, too. Why don't you schedule your little family event on a Monday? That's right, that's a part of your workweek. Well, weekends are mine.

 

Oh, God, isn't that the truth? Almost every time when someone finds out where I work, I get asked "Do you write?" and I have to respond "Only in my free time." Or, when I see extended family, I get asked what I think about this sport or that team and I have to tell them that I only keep up with one team and not once has it been a team someone around here cares about.

 

It made dating interesting early on. I had one girlfriend who called me up, accused me of cheating on her because, "There is no way you're working as much as you say you are." The first time she did it, I was stupid enough to go to her place with a stack of papers and say, "Here is my byline and this is a dateline that shows I was in Tucson, just like I told you I was."

The second time she accused me of it, I just said whatever.

The most interesting one was when I was on a date and I got a call from the PR guy telling me a player I covered had just died and the AD was going to have a press conference in 45 minutes. I said, "Look I'm really sorry, but something crazy just happened and I have to get to a press conference..."

"Why can't you just call them back and say you're on a date?"

"Uh, unfortunately it doesn't work that way."

"Jesus, it's not like you're a doctor..."

I then pulled a $20 out of my wallet and said, "OK, you can either come with me now so I can take you home, or you can use this to take a cab."

 

Don't leave us hanging. What did she do?

 

The day after my son was born, I worked 16 days in a row (10-hour days) putting out daily World Cup sections when it was being played in the US of A. Does she remember that? Yes she does.

I was on diaper duty for son 1 and son 2 evermore.

 

Yeah I've been in this for decades now and people still don't get my schedule or my job function.
A few years back me and my sisters were all able to get off July 4 weekend, and we took my parents out. My mom mentions "I'm planning a family reunion for the first weekend in October and you all have to be there."
Trying to explain that getting a weekend day off during football season is next to impossible without a lot of warning. And three months isn't really a lot of warning.

And I still cringe when people ask what I do, because more times than not i hear "Oh so you go to all the (insert pro/college team name here) games? What do you think about (insert pro college athlete's name here)?"

 

It's been a few years since the U.S. hosted the World Cup ... hope your boy is potty-trained by now.

 

A memorable (uh, forgettable) one for me. A few years ago, my wife moved 100 miles away to be the caregiver for her aging parents, who lived in a retirement village. When my mother-in-law died, it was a WHOLE WEEK before I could get a day off to go and hug my wife and help her through her grief.

 

Sounds like you had a good manager.

 

Yeah, no kidding. Made you miss the funeral?

 

Actually, no. She didn't want a service. About a month later, the family chartered a boat and spread her ashes in the ocean.