After countless tux rentals, countless entry fees and countless disappointing losses, I finally scored the elusive Emmy award last night for our pro-bono work.  I was beginning to think it wasn’t going to happen.  So like any good optimist, I told everyone we were going to win.  I willed it to happen.  Well, that and the judging panel finally came to their senses.  And I slept with several of the judges.

Nothing is worse than losing when you’re oh-so sure you’re going to win.  You’ve mentally prepared yourself and you’ve rehearsed your speech ad nausea.   And then you lose and you still have to smile and politely clap.  You’re forced to sit through 84 more categories while you are served coffee and dessert.  Usually, I’m so disgruntled I’ll eat six or seven desserts.  That is when I’m not binge drinking wine straight out of the bottle.

Last year before Kanye’ pulled a Kanye’, I almost ran up and snatched the Emmy out of the winner’s hands.  We lost to “Charles:  The Story of a Manorexic”.   I thought we were robbed.  And it’s a good thing Charles wasn’t in the audience because I would have force-fed him a sandwich.

Last night all the planets were aligned.  Every single nominee at our table walked away with their respective award.  And my boss, who had never won an Emmy, was absolutely over the moon.   We decided he would give the acceptance speech 1) because he had never done it before and 2) because he’s my boss and told me he was giving it regardless.   He stammered and stuttered his way through his speech like a deer caught in headlights … and suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome.   I was thrilled for him.

The video was for SAVE Inc. — a local Kansas City charity that does housing options for men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS.   It was the third video we produced for them.  Each of them had garnered nominations, so we were bound to win sooner or later.   (Apparently later than sooner.)  The Executive Director of the organization was on hand last night to accept the award with us … which was even more gratifying.  You can watch the video here on my website … look under MY WORK.

All in all, it was a great night.  Much deserved wins to all my colleagues too!