The day started out shitty, what with Peoplecrap and all, but it ended OK.

It started to improve when we interviewed a kid for the administrative staff who didn’t seem like the walking wounded. He was nervous to start, looking young in a suit that looked like the kind of suit someone makes you buy in your early 20s to be more grownup, ready for a sudden wedding, funeral or job interview. (The female interview equivalent of that first suit seems to be those orangey, “nude” pantyhose that also come in taupe or nurse white. The ones my mother made me wear along with a half-slip for some six grade chorus nighttime recital thing. If your crotch feels twisted and your legs have an unnatural sheen and the package label has a flesh tone reference but matches no color known in nature, you’re wearing those stockings. It’s adorable, kind of like when Clarice meets Dr. Lecter for the first time.)

Anyway, this kid came dressed right, prepared, nervous not overconfident (I hate listening to the sheer unadulterated bullshit a lot of people carry with them to job interviews. Yeah, I believe that to that last job you really were the messiah and the apostates let you go) and seems viable.

I also succeeded in the somewhat useful, potentially cruel game I like to play when I’m the interviewer — getting the interviewee to drop his/her guard and talk freely. Sometimes people get a little too comfortable. Once some chick ended up telling us that she was seeking new employment, because her current position was so stressful it was taking a toll on her personal life. She knew that it was time to go, because this time when the cops came to break up the fight with her husband, they said she had to calm down and maybe something about assault charges. Another guy, who appeared stereotypically to be living an alternative lifestyle, started joking around with me and started telling me how he was a lesbian, ha ha, and went into some stuff about his personal life not quite germane to answering phones and scheduling meetings. I like the domestic violence chick the best for story fodder, I didn’t like the chick who said the first thing she would do in her new job was to clean my office.

Turns out today’s contestant is in a metal band around town (he couldn’t have looked less hard core, although he did have a tiny hoop in his ear). I guess you can’t judge a book by the suit his mom helped him buy.

The day ended with my cruising by the Comedy Studio on the way home from a late night in the office. A tough night crowd-wise, the show becomes pretty informal and workshop-ish on Wednesdays with host, Tony V, and usual closer, Kelly MacFarland, so the night can be fun and interesting. I didn’t get to go up tonight, but seeing guest sets from comedy legend, Steven Wright, and comedy writer, Bill Braudis, was a pleasant surprise.

Now, for a change of pace, I’m going to go to bed very soon. I have to rest up for tomorrow. There’s the big Jeopardy try-out tomorrow. If I fail the test again, my mom was right about me — I’m Wheel of Fortune caliber.