Ben: Freud said, "love and work. Work and love.
That's all there is."
Well, I'm retired, and my wife is dead.
As you can imagine, that's given me some time on my hands.
My wife's been gone for three and a half years.
I miss her in every way. And retirement?
That is an ongoing, relentless effort in creativity.
At first, I admit i enjoyed the novelty of it.
Sort of felt like i was playing hooky.
I used all the miles I'd saved and traveled the globe.
The problem was, no matter where i went, as soon as I got home,
the nowhere to be thing hit me like a ton of bricks.
I realized the key to this whole deal was to keep moving.
Get up, get out of the house, and go somewhere.
Anywhere.
Come rain or shine, I'm at my Starbucks by 7:15.
Excuse me, mind if we join you?
No. Hey. How are you?
Can't explain it, but it makes me feel part of something.
These guys today, they're not numbers guys.
Don't talk figures with them.
How do I spend the rest of my days?
You name it. Golf, books, movies, pinochle.
Tried yoga, learned to cook,
bought some plants, took classes in mandarin.
Xiang xin wo, wo shen me dou shiguo le.
Translation "believe me, I've tried everything."
And then, of course, there are the funerals.
So many more than I could imagine.
The only traveling I do these days
is out to San Diego to visit my son and his family.
They're great. I love them to pieces.
But to be honest, I think i probably relied on them
way more than I should.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not an unhappy person.
Quite the contrary.
I just know there's a hole in my life, and I need to fill it.
Soon.
Which brings me to today when I was leaving the market
and caught your flyer out of the corner of my eye.
Hmm.
"Seniors, be an intern."
Ben, i thought that was you.
Hi.
Hey.
What'd you find?
I think an Internet place is looking for senior interns.
Am I reading this right? Let me see.
"Applicants must be over 65 years of age...
Have organizational skills, a genuine interest in e commerce,"
whatever that is...
"...and a roll up your sleeves attitude."
Aboutthefit.Com, isn't that the outfit that was...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They bought one of those old factories in red hook.
My daughter says they sell clothes on the Internet.
How that works, i have no idea.
Well, you have to upload the application.
That could be challenging. Listen to this
"cover letters are so old fashioned.
Show us who you are with a cover letter video.
Upload your video to YouTube or vimeo using
.mov, .Avi, or a .Mpg file.
We look forward to meeting you."
Well, i guess that's meeting me.
I swear I don't even know what language that was.
What are you doing tonight, Ben?
A frozen lasagna? Well...
I could make a little salad, turn it into a dinner for two,
like we did that time and never did again.
You know that was over five months ago?
Oh, yeah. No, no, we got to do that again, for sure,
but okay if we take a rain check?
You're awful cute, you know that?
No, I didn't. Well, it's true, you are.
So I'll see you.
Don't take too long, doll.
You're not getting any younger.
I know, I know, I know. All right.
So here I am, applying to be one of your interns
because the more i think about this idea,
the more tremendous i think it is.
I love the idea of having a place I can go every day.
I want the connection, the excitement.
I want to be challenged,
and I guess I might even want to be needed.
The tech stuff might take a bit to figure out.
I had to call my 9 year old grandson
just to find out what a USB connector was.
But I'll get there. Eager to learn.
Also, I want you to know I've been a company man all my life.
I'm loyal, I'm trustworthy, and I'm good in a crisis.
And I love that you're right here in Brooklyn.
I've lived here all my life, and lately I feel
I may not be hip enough to live in Brooklyn,
so this could help with that, too.
I read once, musicians don't retire.
They stop when there's no more music in them.
Well, I still have music in me, absolutely positive about that.
Good news, i found a size eight in Navy.
No, you are right. That package should have arrived by now.