And the Award for _ _ _ _ goes to.....

I don't think there is anyone in any profession who would mind winning an award for doing their job. Unfortunately, for most of us, that just doesn't happen. Many of us are lucky just to enjoy what we do, let alone getting recognized for it.

The thing that struck me most about the Emmys this year was how many well known people have passed away. A lot of times, the list of show business 'luminaries' is filled with octogenarians whose names we don't recognize---character actors from the '40s, camera men from defunct soap operas or writers of shows that were popular before we were born. This year, except for an agent, I was well familiar with everyone on the list (not personally, of course). From Don Hewitt (the creator of Sixty Minutes) to Larry Gelbart (a writer on M*A*S*H), we lost a lot of people who really left their mark on the world.

I had a position once where one of my co-workers had been avoiding his job responsibilities. He was supposed to do something several times daily that hadn't been done in almost a week, which kept me from doing my job properly. On one day in particular, I was directly affected by his laziness because I needed to deal with a client on a timely issue and what I needed to solve the problem was not available because he hadn't done it. When I asked him about it, he got very abrasive and abusive and I had to work very hard to maintain my cool. At that exact moment, a VIP got off the elevator and I heard her voice in the other area. I turned around, left the now-escalating conversation and warmly greeted her. Why should my discussion with a co-worker affect someone else's day? It shouldn't.

Afterwards, someone who had seen what happened came up to me and said, "Are you sure you don't want to be an actress? I could see your face getting red dealing with that situation, but you turned around and treated that person like a queen with the biggest smile on your face as if nothing had happened! That was amazing, girl ~ ~ you deserve an Oscar for that performance!" So, I guess all those high school drama classes finally came in handy. Oh, and by the way, it wasn't just me. He was fired shortly afterwards for being caught sleeping on the job (literally).

I don't know about winning any awards ~ ~ but I do hope that when I go, someone recognizes the mark I've left on the world, even if I'm not in a musical montage on national television. And hopefully that mark is laughter. Or a really good Caesar salad recipe. (If you want it, ask. It's that good.Trust me!)