I just read the CNN.com Dnc blog and I wish I could go to the democratic national convention and write the hype but I will be staying here using the same amount of brainpower as a chimp to do my "sexy" digitization job.

This reminds me of when I worked at R.E.I.  it was an absolutely miserable experience.  My co-workers were mostly the children of wealthy people,  doctors, businessmen, etc.

I think they worked there for two main reasons, first, they were perceived as experts by the clueless people who shopped there and second, the pro-deal.  A little known fact about the wealthy is that they are some of the most frugal shoppers and misers on the planet so enter the pro deal.  The pro deal is an incentive that allowed the employees of R.E.I. to purchase outdoor gear at or even below wholesale cost.  This allowed my intrepid coworkers the ability to buy even more crap to load into their SUVs.

There was a time in my life when mountain biking and kayaking was very important to me.  This is no longer the case.  While working at R.E.I, I was trying to support myself and that left very little cash to indulge in  these pro deals.  I think anyone reading this would agree that $5.50 an hour is not even enough money to live comfortably in metro Atlanta.  So there I was, a kid with no money in what amounted to a giant candy store.  I found the experience to be unpleasant but eye opening none the less. 

What does this have to do me wishing I could go to the DNC? 

Well,  today it is a different boat but basically the same scenario.  Here I am working at the world's news leader and I am not the fortunate son yet again.  I have repeatedly tried to get sent out in to the field with no luck.  I am young, unmarried, and in good health but will not be leaving my desk to go on an assignment ever.  Not that I am unable to do the work, I am simply not in the right circle of friends.  The endless line of cronyism that extends into the highest reaches of power in the good old US of A starts here and excludes me.   I have been told that the people already in the field do not want any "new" blood showing up because they are afraid that the "shirts" back in Atlanta will discover what raging alcoholics they all are and dismiss them.  Hey, maybe.  The last time I checked, most journalists are admitted alcoholics.   I think there maybe a different reason altogether, I simply do not know the right people.  Maybe had I gone to a real university in the northeast, I would have the connections an average American needs to get ahead in this day and age.   Its like those spoiled kids I worked with at R.E.I., they never had to work to support themselves, they did not worry about not getting accepted into the right schools.  their folks money opened all the right doors for them.  Were their lives better than mine?  I feel confident that they are still better off than me now.  I remember one girl in particular, her name was Allison and she worked in customer service.  She had a brand new jumbo sport utility vehicle and was dating this loser of  guy whose dad invented combos.
They spent their time when not working the 20 or so hours a week at the store playing ultimate frisbee or just out in the great outdoors, did I ever get to come along?  No way, I was too busy working 50+ hours a week to make ends meet to participate in such leisure activities.

I five put in five long years with this company and have nothing to show for it but a run down house located in the terminally poor side of town, no car, and very little spendable income.  I want to go back to school but I can't afford it.  I hope that my coworkers who go to Boston have the time of their lives because somebody needs to be living the good life.  Too bad it is never going to be me.