Lead faces and whatnot
April 21, 2008
I couldn’t remember when I’d written last, so I had to look back to see what my last entry was. Oh yes, my evening at Green Dragon with Beer Valley Brewing in attendence. That was quite an evening. As Hanne couldn’t join me, I went by myself, armed with my laptop and a desire for good beer. What I got was one of the best evenings I’ve had in a long time. I ended up drinking a lot of excellent beer, and I sat at a table with a writer of the PDX Beer Blog, a writer of the Portland Tribune’s Guest on Tap, and Fred Eckhardt, a Portland beer legend. What a great evening.
Of course, I indulged in the brews a bit too much, and I ended up feeling the whole next day like my face was made of lead. I was happy that I was back there the very next evening celebrating my Mom’s birthday, however, and I was ready for another beer by then. I don’t swear off beer long, even when it makes me have a miserable day after a great evening.
Between then and now, it’s been mostly situation normal. Hanne’s been busy studying for the most part, and I’ve busied myself with whatever to keep myself occupied while she ramps up for finals. There has been one piece of big news, however. Around April 1, I came across a posting on one of the Portland beer blogs about a summer intern for the Sheraton hotel corporation needing a summer intern for their Chief Beer Officer, which they made a big PR deal about hiring last year. This guy’s job is to go from brewfest to brewfest, brewery to brewery, and pick out beers for the Sheraton hotels to serve on tap. I think it’s a fantastic job, and it’s probably the cushiest thing I could ever imagine doing, but not “soft” that way.
So, he needs a summer intern. I thought it was a joke at first, but on a lark I threw together a cover letter, tossed it on top of my resume, and submitted it. I didn’t hear anything, and I actually forgot about it for awhile. Fast forward to last Friday, and I get a call from someone with Sheraton telling me that I am one of the 20 finalists from the thousands of submissions they got. I was speechless! I had no speech. I did hve an assignment, though: I had to make a video telling why I would be the best person for the job and sbmit it to them by this next Friday. So, my weekend was spent filming and drinking beer and more filimng. I have most of my 5-minute video filmed, and all I have left is my introduction, my conclusion, and a reshoot of my scene from the Green Dragon. I decided I didn’t like what I filmed there, and instead I’m going to have my Dad stop by tomorrow night for the Meet the Brewer night and snap some pictures, which I’ll use with a voiceover in lieu of actual video.
My whole point of the video, though, is that Portland is such a spectacular town for both beer and the community that’s formed around it, it’s tough not to get swept up into it and become a beer lover. I don’t think I’d be anywhere near as passionate about beer as I am today if I lived elsewhere. I just hope I show myself off while I’m showing Portland off. The four finalists they pick will fly to New York to meet with the company execs and the Chief Beer Officer, and their video (or excerpts from their video) will go on the Sheraton website for people to vote for, along with profiles of the finalists. So…I’m trying not to mess around too much and make it as serious as I can with one week’s time.
I haven’t told my boss, either, but I did go and talk to the firm’s executive director. She was supportive and said that she’ll back me with whatever I choose to do, but since it’s a part time summer-only internship, I can’t imagine that there will be too much of a conflict of interests. It’s a paid summer internship, too, so if I got the job I could look forward to a bit of dough to pay down my student loans. Booyah.
Yeah. I had some trouble sleeping last night, needless to say. Until I get this damn video done, I’ll probably have a sleepless night or two more. Good thing I don’y do video production for a living. Of course, being without any formal training, I think I’ve done pretty well with a DV cam and my MacBook.
So…wish me luck.
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