Still Invisible

I might be less invisible soon at my job. I have had calls so far from Worcester Magazine and Middlesex News for interviews. Wow. Although that may not be enough to penetrate some consciousnesses (I wouldn't let a student use that word), I'm still psyched. My father was once on an elevator with someone extremely familiar to him. As they went down or up (that information has been lost), my father finally apologized to the man for not knowing him. "I'm Bob Newhart," the man said. Not that I compare myself to Bob Newhart at all--I'm far less bald.

Lots of things are invisible to me. I don't know who most of the TV celebrities are. Who are the Olsen twins--am I supposed to know them? And Jessica Simpson--is she an actress or a model or somebody's daughter? Every time this is explained to me, I forget. I'm sure the lower rung of TV star especially feels invisible. Lke let's say there's this girl who came to Hollywood from the midwest, where she was the lead in every play ever produced, where she was interviewed over and over by the local press, such as it was. She gets to Hollywood and spends five years waiting tables at Chuck E. Sushi in some snotty town and gets zilch for acting roles. Then finally she gets a fill-in part on the worst rated sitcom. She's a secretary with one or two lines. Then it becomes a featured role. She has lines. She is able to quit Sushi Cheese. But here's the invisible part. No one ever knows her. Wherever she goes, Terri Hatcher cuts her dead, Important Sitcom People cut her dead, even the public is unimpressed. If she's on an elevator with my dad, he thinks she's a maid.

I don't know what this proves. Just that everyone is invisible in some way.Although in Hollywood you probably get scrutinized up and down first and then you're invisible. Ouch.

I heard Tom Brokaw say that in a commencement address he had just given, he'd warned all the grads that when you get out there and into it, life is pretty much like high school. Maybe Tom is invisible at the model train society meeting. We can only wonder.

On my way to the mall,
becky