Perks

Most of the time, I love my job. The work can be very interesting and I've got a front row seat to the creation of ads that the entire country talks about. As I've said before, it's not what I wanted to do with my life (I wanted to be a filmmaker.) but it's a good living and it beats collecting aluminum cans.

Sometimes, though, I wonder if I should chuck it all. Throw caution to the wind and try something else. I don't have kids. I'm not heavily in debt. (Unless you count the house payment, which I don't.) And I'm still fairly young. Though my job is great and there are forty people in line behind me that would gladly take it, when you boil it down, it's a deadend. There's not really any room for advancement. I'm working on realizing other people's ideas. And, though I have the satisfaction of a job well done, there's no creative outlet for me and I spend so much time at work I have little time to seek that outlet elsewhere.

Then, whenever I think I'm ready for a change, something like this happens. A couple of weeks ago, the actor Carl Weathers was here in town on business and some of the folks at the agency got wind of it. One of those folks was my wife Suzanne, who happens to be the Talent Business Supervisor here. (No, we didn't meet here. We met at VCU years and years before we would end up working at the agency together.) Whenever there are dealings with actors or celebrities, she's usually involved. And she got involved here. She arranged for Mr. Weathers to come to the agency and say, "Hi" and hang out for a while. Usually these things are restricted to higher-ups and the Creative Department. (Though my group falls within the Creative Department, we're not usually included in stuff like this.) But my wife knows what a fan of Mr. Weathers I am, not from the ROCKY movies, but from PREDATOR and ACTION JACKSON, and made sure I was invited. I'm also pretty friendly with one of the Creative Directors who's into comics and movies like I am and he made sure nobody gave me any grief.

Now, when I started working here, I signed a non-disclosure agreement. And I take it seriously. That's why I usually speak in general terms when I post anything about my job or when folks ask me questions on messageboards. I usually just refer them to our PR guy. This being the case, I was a little nervous about posting this here. Mr. Weathers is a celebrity and has to be very careful about what he allows people to know about what he does and where he goes. But my wife assures me that it's okay because he was just here as a courtesy and to say howdy. And she says it's okay to post the pictures of me meeting him because he's a celebrity. So, hopefully, I won't be fired or sued for posting these. I have taken the precaution of blurring out the faces of my coworkers who were present. So, I hope you enjoy these pics of the great Carl Weathers. I'm the tall guy with the big stupid grin on his face and the pretty lady in the teal blouse is my wife Suzanne.



By the way, Mr. Weathers was very nice, personable and funny. He had a wicked sense of humor and was very smart and knowledgeable about a surprising range of subjects. He was everything you'd expect from the man who is Apollo Creed.

After this, I guess I'm good to go in the ad biz for a few more months. At least until the glow wears off. Better get Suzanne working on some more perks.