Performer:
Pearl Jam
Songwriter:
Eddie Vedder
Original Release: Pearl Jam
Year: 2006
Definitive Version: None.
My seven-month task in
finding a job ended April 2006. Now came the hard part—doing the job. Like the
man said, I knew the job was dangerous when I took it, but I didn’t really know
how much until I started. As I mentioned, the six weeks that lead up to seeing
Pearl Jam at the United Center in May 2006 were a blur, but at least I had new
Pearl Jam music to help me through part of it.
I started on a Friday, and
it felt good to be going to work instead of going to find work. I was
apprehensive about everything I’d have dropped in my lap. I was even more
apprehensive about the commute. I drove that first day, and it took me just
that one day to realize that if I had to drive the Edens every day, it was
going to drive me crazy. I had to get a Metra train schedule ASAP.
My workday started at 8 a.m.
with my new boss, the editor of the magazine, throwing me off the cliff and
telling me to sink or swim. At least, that’s how it felt.
We began with a three-hour
meeting that included explaining magazine editorial policy, standards, etc. and
then handing over the files of the first four projects I was to oversee, for
the upcoming July/August issue. Gulp!
Two of the projects were far
along. Freelance authors, who write most of our articles, had been assigned,
and the first draft of their articles was due in the next week or so. My role
here was to immerse myself in the subject matter to prepare for editing those
articles.
The two other projects,
however, barely had gotten off the ground. Authors had to be assigned for those
projects. I’d never been in a position to identify and hire … anyone. How
exactly does one go about this? Fortunately, the editor had one person more or
less lined up for one of the projects. All I had to do was hire him. For the
other project, he had a list of potential candidates and had talked to a couple.
I had to do the rest. The print deadline was six weeks away. Double gulp!
Oh, and now here’s two more
folders of projects for September/October. Sometime in the next week or two, further
story assignments would be doled out. I’d have three more, all starting from
scratch. Yikes!!
Finally, I got to meet the
rest of the small staff. At the time, the magazine employed only six people,
including the publisher, who owned it. I was No. 7.
It wasn’t until after noon
when I finally stepped into my new office and sat behind my new desk. I loved
that I had an actual office (my first since my Harbor Country News days 18
years before) with an actual view (a first, period). But my first thought was
that I was in way over my head. I successfully talked my way into getting the
job; now … hokey schmokles! I’d never felt so overwhelmed.
Well, there’s only one thing
to do when you feel that way—besides running screaming out of the office, of
course—just start working. For me the first order of business was simple:
Figure out my computer.
I kid you not. I was handed
a Dell Windows computer. I’m a Mac guy, always have been. Before I began my
freelance stint with AM News in January, I’d never worked on a Windows
computer. (My old Zenith was strictly MS-DOS.) Fortunately, I had that brief
experience at AM News. Besides, I’m a Mac guy. Windows copied Mac enough that
it can’t be that difficult to figure out on my own.
Buoyed by that realization,
it didn’t take me long to get my computer in working order. Now it was on to
the projects themselves.
I read everything in the
files and called each of the authors who had been hired to introduce myself and
quickly hired the third. Then I placed calls to a couple of candidates for the fourth
project to get the wheels turning on that one.
Then I started to look at
the September/October files. Deadlines for those were only a few weeks after
July/August closed. I gotta start looking for authors …
Before long, the workday was
over, but I was just getting started. Over the next six weeks, that first day,
in which lunch was spent on the phone setting up an interview for a remaining
freelance assignment, would be the only day I left the office on time.
I’ve been busy up to my
eyeballs in deadlines and assignments. I worked till 11, taking the last train
of the day—the first time was that May—but I never felt as overwhelmed as I did
that first day. As I said to Laurie in the first email I ever sent from my new
account: I’m here … AND I’M SWIMMING AS HARD AS I CAN!!!
But, slowly, surely, I started
to swim less hard, and before long, I made it to shore.
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