Neat

Some of you might not know, but outside of coaching lacrosse, changing young girls' lives and working at a restaurant, I also dabble in the video editing world. Before I decided to run off to LA, I was working for an incredibly demanding man* editing family biographies and any other fun project that got dropped into our laps. When I first starting working for this demanding man I started a biography for a particular family. For many reasons, the project never got finished and now, almost six years later, I'm finally attempting to whittle down there "exciting life" into a 2 hour video. However, I'm having a bit of a hard time.

One, I'm trying to remember what I actually shot and edited four years ago, and, how do I say this, these aren't the most interesting people on earth. For example, their favorite word to describe everything from the birth of their daughter to the creation of their company is "neat," and when they really want to throw an exclamation point at the end of an idea they'll say, "And that was really fun." For those of you who have never edited something it goes like this: you listen to a clip about ten times, drop it in your timeline, listen to it some more, edit some pregnant pauses, listen to it again and finally listen to it as a whole. In total, you probably listen to a clip 100 times. So, let me be perfectly clear, if I hear the word "neat" one more time I might stab myself in the ear with a pen.

To ward off my own suicide, I've started a new game with the subjects of my biography. The game goes like this: After hearing a lame story for the 30th time, I'll say out loud, in my most sarcastic drawl, "Neat story Sue."** Or when they say "And that was a lot of fun," I'll respond, again in grand sarcasm, "Sure was Steve."** Sure it doesn't stop them from being incredibly boring, but at least it helps me keep my sanity. (because talking to one dimensional people seems completely sane.)

*There's your shout out.

**(name has been changed to protect the privacy of my clients)