The phone just rang.

The call was from a Los Angeles area code. The caller’s name wasn’t displayed in the ID, but I seemed to remember the number. So I answered—tentatively.

“Hello?”
“Hello, I’m trying to reach Mr. Brockelman.”
“This is he…” I responded—again tentatively.
“Hi, this is Emily at the Directors Guild of America. How are you?”

Sadly, the call wasn’t an offer to direct a cool new film or video project. It wasn’t an offer to direct post-production either. But the call wasn’t totally bad news—it was from the pension payments department.

And so it goes.