Embracing My Inner Dwight

I was just starting to become a fan of NBC's The Office when I went to the 2007 Blackfriars Conference in Staunton, Virgina. As we discuss my pending presentation in front of the likes of Stephen Greenblatt, my friend Lesley told me, "Ann, you need to prepare. You need to embrace your inner Dwight," and then she played this clip for me:



Although we laughed about her suggestion at the time, I have discovered over the past year that the music I play in my car on the way to Iowa City really does help me mentally prepare for meetings. And after auditioning several candidates for the "meeting preparation song," a favorite has emerged: Ben Fold's "There's Always Someone Cooler Than You." Like Dwight, I appreciate a hard beat, but I also love, love the lyrics of this song. If any of you have braved the "character building" experience of graduate school or, for that matter, middle school, I think you will understand. Serendipitously, someone has made a YouTube video of the song with clips from The Office. Be warned, however, that my Ben Folds CDs join my Avenue Q soundtrack in being the few CDs I own with parental advisory labels; this song is not appropriate for those of the PG crowd.



And if you see rocking out in my car in the EPB parking lot, don't worry. I just means I have a meeting.