Meanwhile, after I got up from my evening rest (which went so long that I probably won't fall asleep until 4 o'clock comes, at which point I plan on leaving to go to the Black Hart to see the final Group Stage Matches of the Women's World Cup) I scrolled through my e-mail on my phone. I've been looking for a confirmation e-mail for the Gophers gig at work on a regular basis, and no, it's not a healthy thing. And last/Wednesday night, I still haven't received it.
Instead, I got an offer to work Twins Game. Unfortunately, and for only the third time ever, I rejected the offer to work. Maybe even more importantly, I think this is the first time I've ever rejected a gig not because I was going to be out of the continental United States to celebrate my sister. I had to say no because this is on a Saturday, and not just any Saturday, but the first Game of my alma mater's football season, which means I am usually busy planning and watching Games with my friends. You see, we need to watch this Game at a restaurant in St. Paul we went to last season, but (in my opinion) is still too new for us to just walk in and act as if we run the place. We have way more familiarity with our main bar, and I am trying to convince myself that is the difference between working last Year's Twins Game and not working this Year's.
Last Year I worked for the production mid-September. It was a Saturday, and my football team was playing its Second Game. We did not have a viewing party for the first Game because we could not find a bar that had the network that broadcast that Game. That meant that the Second Game was the first Game-watching event of the season, and I had some misgivings about not hosting a Game-watching party for the second Week in a row because that would establish of pattern of not hosting, and that would hurt attendance, plus I would have been missing hosting the first two Games of a season, and I think that looks bad. However, our main bar is one we've been to for many, many years now, to the point where I don't think I have to show up for the people who run the place to know other people are coming. I think I went to our main bar earlier that week to say that there is a Game on at this time of night, and even though I won't be there, many others whose faces they may recognize will. That was enough for me to convince myself that my friends could take care of getting the Game on their TVs by themselves and without my help. And that self-sufficiency allowed me to work the Twins that night.
That isn't the case here. I still have to go to St. Paul and eat there (for the first time since last season) to make sure they still carry the channel. With all that uncertainty and unfamiliarity, I think I need to be there to host. I would much prefer to work the Twins Game, no doubt. I just can't do it this time, however, and I hope I have built up enough goodwill with the network over the years that they will come back to me if there is another Twins Game they are broadcasting in future seasons.
There are three things, by the way, that I have to point out about this offer I just said no to. First of all, like last Year's gig, they are coming here late in the season. Target Field is spectacular during the summer, and maybe even around Memorial Day. Nothing is precluding them from showing a Game then, when I'm not worried about college football season and can totally work for them. Besides, I'm scared that, like last season, the Twins will collapse and play like the non-competitive schmucks they were when they lost that Twins Game I did work last season. Second of all, a college football season usually starts Labor Weekend. This gig I declined is the Saturday before Labor Weekend. It just so happens that my alma mater's team is playing what they call a "Week 0" Game this Year. If this were any other season, I could probably work it, goddammit.
And finally, I have to point out this irony: I responded to this e-mail about 4 1/2 hours after the requestor sent it. I shouldn't berate myself so much because if you're not friends with yourself, you're in a world of trouble, but it took me a day and a half to respond to the Gopher job, which I can work and which I in all honesty lucked into finding because I was afraid I missed this offer I thought was coming my way. However, this silent treatment makes me think I was too late in answering. The guy asking me to work the Twins Game urged me to reply quickly because he was about to ask other people. The person offering me the Golden Gopher job didn't say that, but by not responding to my reply either last week or Monday, I'm afraid that he has already asked other people, and someone said yes.
I think I will e-mail them again overnight. I don't want to sound desperate, but I kind of am. And hey, I need to know if I need to clear my schedule at work to work the Gophers that week. This production has always been good and getting back to me on offers I have said yes to. Why they haven't on this very important (to me) gig (full circle wording that ties this essay together) worries the hell out of me.
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