#361 - Letting Er Rip

Up at seven. Then seven ten. And finally, seven twenty.

I had to go into the studio today and I wasn’t too interested in being there. There was a good chance I was going to resign or ask for a demotion once I got there.

I ended up leaving the house later than usual and paid the price in heavy traffic and a parking spot so far back I may as well have walked to the station.

The train I had expected to take was delayed by twenty-five minutes. There was another one, a later train, that would be by in ten minutes, so I stood in line for that one. The doors to the train opened right in front of me and I had my choice of seats. I sat in the middle section, between the first and second floors. I wanted to write and I wanted to listen to my audiobook even more. But since I hadn’t slept all that well the night before, I opted to read the paper copy of my assignment. I found some sentences that read better after I changed their structure or order.

By the time I got to the end I had two thoughts. One: the story wasn’t too bad. Two: I could make the second big event more interesting by making it happen while the main character was still at home. That should be an easy fix.

The train pulled into Union Station, and I put on my noise cancelling headphones before departing. I walked out of the station and in the direction of the studio with David Sedaris whispering in my ear. He put a smile on my face as I walked down the Esplanade in the cool morning sun.

I was a bit hungry and feeling slightly sorry for myself, so I preordered a sandwich and a Taso Chai latte from Starbucks and still ended up having to wait for my order. Another price to pay for waking up later that usual. The coffee shop was doing non-stop business at this hour.

I left with my sandwich and latte in hand and made my way to the studio. I wasn’t particularly friendly when I arrived and I think people picked up on the vibe. It was unusual for me to arrive at work and have everyone already there before me.

I started up my machine and got to work reviewing the assets and lieca for an upcoming episode. I found three or four spots where we needed more information than we were given and requested the design team to prepare some keys for these areas. We’d all go through the spreadsheet together later to talk about all team’s requests and questions.

We had a quick meeting about the new team members we were getting to replace the ones who were moving to a new show. It was at that point that I told them I didn’t think I was the right person to take over the team and perhaps they might want to find another person to do it.

Theis sparked a good and much needed conversation about the way things have been going and what we saw as untenable. One thing we all agreed on, was that this show wasn’t fun to work. We make children’s animated shows. Having fun can happen even when we are tired, behind on schedule or trying to make the impossible happen. But no so with this show.

I was told they had all the faith in me they needed and I said I would think about it for a few days. If I had met with them the night before I would have quit on the spot. Maybe by Friday the moment will have passed. But at least we all got to air our grievances.

We had a meeting with our Art Director at 2pm, so I suggested that we refrain from doing any approvals until the AD had gone through what was finished up to this point.

And that turned out to be the best choice. We went through the episode and made some choices about how to handle certain locations, what as needed, what was not. I felt better after the meeting, like someone had given me a map and now I was reoriented and now longer floundering.

By three we had our meeting and some of my requests were granted and, in some cases, we already had existing assets that I had no knowledge about.

I spent the rest of the day marking up the paintings. Our plan was to have all three of us, the supervisors, implement the revisions tomorrow and that would give us a good road map to move forward with.

I left the studio feeling much better than when I arrived.

I hope the feeling lasts.

I made it to a train and put on David Sedaris for the ride home. I was too exhausted to write or read. Sedaris’ crazy and fun stories were enough to keep the good mood going.

The walk to the car was long, I’d forgotten how far back I had been forced to park in the morning. The traffic was abysmal, slow moving and bumper to bumper.

Finally, home after twelve hours, Robyn asked me if I wanted to come with her to pick up kiddo #2 from work. I hate driving in rush hour traffic. She drove and I sat in the passenger seat.

We picked up the youngster, and they stopped at Wendy’s to get a Frosty. I headed across the parking lot to Fortino’s to see if they had any porchetta sandwiches left. I was out of luck and bought a spicy chicken sandwich instead.

I found the other two in the parking lot scooping up their frozen dairy desserts. Kiddo #1 called Robyn, so I ate half my sandwich while I waited for her to finish her Frosty and phone call.

Back on the road I managed not to succumb to the temptation of eating the second half of my sandwich so I could enjoy it at home.

Robyn stayed downstairs to work on her school assignments while I headed upstairs and watched an episode of Dark Matter. It was one of their better episodes with barely any spoken dialogue. The lack of dialogue actually made the episode more touching.

Robyn came up and we watched the Daily Show and Seth Myers before she rolled over and called it a night. I had my writing to do and I snuck out the room to my office and wrote all this.

Until tomorrow.