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The other day while I was spending some time on LinkedIn I saw the name of a college friend based in St. Louis. He is someone that I have been out of touch with for many years and it's great fun to be back in touch. One of the best benefits of social media.
He works as a freelancer for television news and in his email back to me he said while 2008 was a very bad year for people in the freelance television news business, he was heading to Chicago to be the official Christmas Jew for one of the network's midwest bureaus. He was hoping it would be a slow news day.
During my five years in television news I always volunteered to work so my Christian friends could have a day off. However, given that I was the only Jewish reporter on staff, it meant there were other people working that day that really would have preferred to be at home with friends and family.
Technically I'm working today -- getting this post together. I decided to take my Flip Video Recorder on the street and talk to folks who like it or not found themselves on the job. It was a very mixed bag.
As for me, I had a great day. I got hot coffee from the Holiday-- and considering it was -6 degrees when I walked up there, it was a good thing to have hot coffee for the three block walk back home. The bus came right on time,and spending time at CHEAPO made me realize how long its been since I bought a CD.
Part of our Christmas tradition is to go to the movies. The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons was a wonderful choice. It was noteworthy how many people were in the theater for an 11:30 AM showing on Christmas Day. I did hear the people sitting behind me talking about someone's Bar Mitzvah but other than that I have no idea what the ethnic make up of the audience was.
The visit to the Fresh Wok was a re-visit. We actually got take out for Chirstmas Eve but I forgot my video recorder last night. When we got home after the movie today I did have some leftovers--tofu and broccoli with fried rice. When you're Jewish it isn't Christmas unless you eat Chinese.
As for the coffee shop guy ---while he kind of reminded me of Ebenezer Scrooge I really did feel badly for him. He obviously was not happy that he had to work on Christmas and it is a reminder that working on a holiday when everyone else is celebratingcan put you in a very cranky mood.
Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness
