What a job



Was sitting around thinking about the coolest jobs the other day, and then tried to come up with my top five. I had to put a little thought into it, because it was a little harder than it sounds.

I mean, some jobs are like ducks. They seem cool and calm on the surface, but underneath the water their feet are going 90 to nothing.

People used to tell me all the time that I had the perfect job when I covered sports. And for the most part, I loved it. Until I was stuck in the rain on the sidelines, or some mom whined that her baby never got his picture in the paper. And of course, every Monday night I slept on the couch and wrote everything up in the middle of the night.

So I had to really put some thought in to come up with my list.

The news anchor is what made me think of all this in the first place. I don’t mean the guy right out of college who has to cover the boring city council meetings, or who has to put in all the research for a story.

I mean the guy who gets dressed up in a free suit every night, and the toughest two things about his job are having to wear makeup and reading the teleprompter.

I love to drive, so I think truck driving and hot-shotting would be a cool job. You get to drive all over the country, listen to talk radio all day, and the hardest thing you have to do is pump gas in your vehicle. Most of the loading and unloading of the trailer is done by other people.

Every now and then, I’ll see a group of cowboys around here eating lunch or breakfast together. They all have their horses in their trailers outside, and sometimes even their dogs are in the back of the truck. Every time I see them, I get jealous.

Can you imagine? Being a real cowboy for a living has to be one of the all time greatest jobs ever. My God, there are songs written about you, man.

Speaking of songs, my second cool job on the list is probably a country music singer. Not one of these new guys or girls, who have all the competition and singing lessons to deal with. They actually have to hit the road and work hard, and go on tour and shoot videos all day.

I mean the older guys, like George Straight or Willie Nelson. Trust me, nobody is telling Willie Nelson what he has to do every day. And I’ll bet you he hasn’t taken a singing lesson in a good while.

And now, my favorite job of all time. It has to belong to Guy Fieri, the t.v. host of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

This lucky guy gets to travel the country, in a convertible no less, and visit restaurants for a living. Now, at some point I know he worked hard, because he is a very famous chef, and God only knows how many years of school he attended to get there. But now, he’s living the good life. He’s eating barbecue in Austin one day, gumbo in New Orleans the next day, and clam chowder in New England the day after that. He gets to meet new people all the time, and eat some of the best food in the world… for free.

Don’t know about you, but it beats my job.