Dream
I have come into some government office to see a woman about a podcast that I think I'm going to be appearing on. The woman concerned is simultaneously of Indian descent and appearance, and she's sitting at a huge desk which is completely bare, with three chairs in front of it. She has the windows behind her, and I can't see her face clearly.
"I'm here for the podcast," I say.
"No."
"Can I sit in on the podcast?"
"No."
"I'll just leave my script and paper here, then," I say, putting said items into a desk return that is next to her desk.
I walk off, and when I look behind me, she's talking to another Indian woman and they're getting ready to start their podcast.
As I look around, I see that there are a dozen or so chairs in a circle, and I sit down in one of them. Then all these people come around and one guy announces that this is a 'collaborative editing meeting' and that everyone is welcome. They all sit down on the chairs and look at me expectantly. I say that I'm just here for the podcast, pointing to the two Indian women talking away (in English). Nobody in the circle has a clue who she is or what she's doing. Then they all get off their chairs and come over to me, and start to stroke my hair and pat me etc as if I was a panda they were getting to know.
There's too much money in the State Public Service. We Federal employees have always said that. Not only was I done out of my podcast appearance, but all these artsy types were treating me like some kind of furry omnivore-which is, to some extent, true-and doing it in work hours. Were they going to get any actual editing done during this collaborative session? Probably. These sort of committee things do get things done from time to time. Still, it isn't how I think of editing.
And what about the script and newspaper? It's been ages since I read a newspaper-and nearly as long since I wrote a script. Perhaps the script, podcast scenario and Indian women can be blamed on this week's episode of The Drunken Odyssey but is that really fair to the gang over there? The collaborative editing might come from my desire to produce a collaborative novel like Atlanta Nights with Laura, Turnip and Laura's friends. So we're reading through Atlanta Nights collaboratively to get a feel for it. At least, that's my plan. They may not want to waste time trying for a crap collaborative novel.
On to more interesting things in the next post.