A lot's happened since I wrote last. It will likely be awhile before I write again, honestly. Central Casting didn't work out so hot, and the situation out there was worsening considerably. I made the decision that had been sitting in the back of my head since I arrived; it was time to come home.
So at the beginning of December, I packed everything back up into my car and came east, and here I am, still trying to find a job in the miserable economy. At least I'm eating better.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
A lot of small things and a big thing
I recognize that it's been forever since I updated, and really that's supposed to be the draw of a blog: consistent and reliable updates. By tossing you guys a bone every now and again, I'm doing you (and myself) a massive disservice. I'll probably want to look back on this someday, so I might as well chronicle things as they happen rather than scrambling to recall what was good and what wasn't.
First off, I have a monstrous love-hate relationship with Pinkberry. The job is easy and it gives me tons of time to catch up on my reading while hanging out with, in the words of Lucas in Empire Records, "all the beautiful, tattooed, gum-chewing freaks." On the other hand, it's responsible (and I blame it directly (there are way too many parenthetical comments in this entry already)) for how ridiculously unfulfilling my Halloween was.
This is but a symptom of a much larger problem. Halloween was just a pointed example. Since I'm not anywhere near a satisfactory amount of hours, I called a couple other locations around LA to see if I could pick up hours anywhere else. I was asked to come in both Friday the 31st and Saturday the 1st to the Century City and Playa Vista locations, respectively. Both times, the managers called me within about an hour and a half of my shift, saying I didn't need to show up. Awesome, I have some free time, but too bad I can't make any money and therefore am that much closer to not making rent.
I wouldn't have minded working Halloween night. There would have been something noble and adult about it. "I can't dress up and go out drinking tonight, I'm working." I felt very mature and in control. Suddenly, that option wasn't available to me, and it was way too late to make plans, so I spent my Halloween alone and bored.
Now, a storm has been a-brewing since I had dinner with my stuntbuddy Emily, who is so incredibly empathetic that she may very well be me without me knowing it. She talked about all the TV shows she had gotten extra work on in her brief time in town, and how she was already up two out of three SAG vouchers. I had heard of Central Casting before, and I had always meant to register, but I hadn't gotten around to it. I finally did, and today was my first experience with them.
The message said to wear a suit and to bring two changes of clothing just in case. "Insufficient or improper wardrobe will result in you being sent home without pay". Oh god, already the odds were against me. I've only got so many nice clothes out here. So imagine my terror when the wardrobe guy dismissed my backups as "too cas". Kacey got it when I typed it, but for the rest of you: he left off the last two syllables of "casual". I wanted to hug him and say I was so sorry about Prop 8, because nobody can use that contraction without being incredibly, flamboyantly gay.
Regardless, my cas backups weren't needed as my suit passed the test, and I joined a bunch of other twenty-to-thirtysomethings in a bar set in the CBS studios. The show is called Samantha Who? starring Christina Applegate as a woman with amnesia who continually discovers that her old self was not too nice a person, and she strives to make up for past wrongdoings though she can't remember them. It sounds cute. She's very cute in person. I wanted to commend her for her bravery in the face of breast cancer, but she was justifiably busy and I thought she'd appreciate not being bothered more.
By the end of the day, I had made some friends, made some money, and eaten my weight in catering. I'm getting a thought in my head, and based on my calculations (because I'm the type to endlessly make calculations. If I make this much per hour and work this many hours per week I can make this much per month, etc.) I can totally quit Pinkberry (who dash my hopes to the ground).
I present the following chart, which makes a few assumptions:
This information is based on a few things. I get about 20 to 25 hours a week at Pinkberry, making not very much every hour. If I try to get more, it invariably backfires and causes me to lose a day in planning. Working as a background extra today, I worked from 9:30 AM to 8:30 PM with a one-hour lunch break. I got half my Pinkberry hours for a week in one day, making only slightly less an hour. I also made friends in the business I intend to make my livelihood, and saved a ton of money on groceries by gorging myself on free food. I can basically do background work as often as I can wrest the booking lines from the grips of other people registered with Central Casting, which is to say I could work seven days a week if I felt like it. The previous chart compares me working 25 hours a week at Pinkberry (generous) to 32 hours a week doing background extra work (which is so very, very conservative). Recall that, because working over eight hours amounts to time-and-a-half, I put in 11 hours today. I can make more money than I am now by working three days a week.
The final bonus and a feather in my oft-worried cap is that along with working as often as I want, I can choose to not work as often as I want. There is no calling to request holidays off.
Life just got good.
First off, I have a monstrous love-hate relationship with Pinkberry. The job is easy and it gives me tons of time to catch up on my reading while hanging out with, in the words of Lucas in Empire Records, "all the beautiful, tattooed, gum-chewing freaks." On the other hand, it's responsible (and I blame it directly (there are way too many parenthetical comments in this entry already)) for how ridiculously unfulfilling my Halloween was.
This is but a symptom of a much larger problem. Halloween was just a pointed example. Since I'm not anywhere near a satisfactory amount of hours, I called a couple other locations around LA to see if I could pick up hours anywhere else. I was asked to come in both Friday the 31st and Saturday the 1st to the Century City and Playa Vista locations, respectively. Both times, the managers called me within about an hour and a half of my shift, saying I didn't need to show up. Awesome, I have some free time, but too bad I can't make any money and therefore am that much closer to not making rent.
I wouldn't have minded working Halloween night. There would have been something noble and adult about it. "I can't dress up and go out drinking tonight, I'm working." I felt very mature and in control. Suddenly, that option wasn't available to me, and it was way too late to make plans, so I spent my Halloween alone and bored.
Now, a storm has been a-brewing since I had dinner with my stuntbuddy Emily, who is so incredibly empathetic that she may very well be me without me knowing it. She talked about all the TV shows she had gotten extra work on in her brief time in town, and how she was already up two out of three SAG vouchers. I had heard of Central Casting before, and I had always meant to register, but I hadn't gotten around to it. I finally did, and today was my first experience with them.
The message said to wear a suit and to bring two changes of clothing just in case. "Insufficient or improper wardrobe will result in you being sent home without pay". Oh god, already the odds were against me. I've only got so many nice clothes out here. So imagine my terror when the wardrobe guy dismissed my backups as "too cas". Kacey got it when I typed it, but for the rest of you: he left off the last two syllables of "casual". I wanted to hug him and say I was so sorry about Prop 8, because nobody can use that contraction without being incredibly, flamboyantly gay.
Regardless, my cas backups weren't needed as my suit passed the test, and I joined a bunch of other twenty-to-thirtysomethings in a bar set in the CBS studios. The show is called Samantha Who? starring Christina Applegate as a woman with amnesia who continually discovers that her old self was not too nice a person, and she strives to make up for past wrongdoings though she can't remember them. It sounds cute. She's very cute in person. I wanted to commend her for her bravery in the face of breast cancer, but she was justifiably busy and I thought she'd appreciate not being bothered more.
By the end of the day, I had made some friends, made some money, and eaten my weight in catering. I'm getting a thought in my head, and based on my calculations (because I'm the type to endlessly make calculations. If I make this much per hour and work this many hours per week I can make this much per month, etc.) I can totally quit Pinkberry (who dash my hopes to the ground).
I present the following chart, which makes a few assumptions:
This information is based on a few things. I get about 20 to 25 hours a week at Pinkberry, making not very much every hour. If I try to get more, it invariably backfires and causes me to lose a day in planning. Working as a background extra today, I worked from 9:30 AM to 8:30 PM with a one-hour lunch break. I got half my Pinkberry hours for a week in one day, making only slightly less an hour. I also made friends in the business I intend to make my livelihood, and saved a ton of money on groceries by gorging myself on free food. I can basically do background work as often as I can wrest the booking lines from the grips of other people registered with Central Casting, which is to say I could work seven days a week if I felt like it. The previous chart compares me working 25 hours a week at Pinkberry (generous) to 32 hours a week doing background extra work (which is so very, very conservative). Recall that, because working over eight hours amounts to time-and-a-half, I put in 11 hours today. I can make more money than I am now by working three days a week.
The final bonus and a feather in my oft-worried cap is that along with working as often as I want, I can choose to not work as often as I want. There is no calling to request holidays off.
Life just got good.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Making friends is awesome
I checked out the 24 Hour Fitness a few miles from the new place, and with parking and traffic the way it is around here I'm going to need a bike pretty badly. The gym had everything I could ask for or want, and I'm doing a 7-day trial to check it out. The guy at the desk wanted to talk to me about memberships right away, but I said I wanted to ride out the free week before I made any decisions. Hopefully if I stay enthusiastic but aloof he'll feel more inclined to offer a better deal.
I feel stupid about it now, but when I was making an early dinner before work I made a discovery. Rice actually absorbs a ridiculous amount of water. I spent a little while marveling at exactly how much of what we eat, weight-wise, is just water.
Oh god, speaking of weight, I checked mine at the gym. One hundred thirty. I've lost over ten pounds since I arrived in LA. I'm not the type to obsess too much about my weight, but I've seen this coming every time I've looked in a mirror. I just didn't think it would be so dramatic.
Work was smooth tonight, we had the least-secretive secret shopper from corporate in the world. This woman came in loud and impatient, made a huge order and demanded a refund after five minutes because it was "taking too long". As soon as she left, the district manager called and asked unsubtle questions about how we handled the situation. One of my coworkers, Jenna, expressed frustration at getting night hours since she'd miss her AA meetings, and I offered to take any night shifts she didn't want, as I want as many hours as I can get. As the night dragged on, Jenna mentioned how psyched she was to get off work and go play Rock Band, and when I said how much I missed it, she invited me to come hang out with her and her boyfriend after work.
They live out in Santa Monica, and they're really nice, laid-back people. Jason does graphic design and computer service for a group in Malibu, and he's ridiculously handy elsewhere. When the kickpedal broke on their Rock Band drum set, he built a new one. In between songs he was cutting up rubber to try and give it more recoil, but it was working fine. I ended up leaving around 2, glad to have had the experience. They met at an AA meeting, so they're more creative than the types to just go to a bar as a weekend activity.
I feel stupid about it now, but when I was making an early dinner before work I made a discovery. Rice actually absorbs a ridiculous amount of water. I spent a little while marveling at exactly how much of what we eat, weight-wise, is just water.
Oh god, speaking of weight, I checked mine at the gym. One hundred thirty. I've lost over ten pounds since I arrived in LA. I'm not the type to obsess too much about my weight, but I've seen this coming every time I've looked in a mirror. I just didn't think it would be so dramatic.
Work was smooth tonight, we had the least-secretive secret shopper from corporate in the world. This woman came in loud and impatient, made a huge order and demanded a refund after five minutes because it was "taking too long". As soon as she left, the district manager called and asked unsubtle questions about how we handled the situation. One of my coworkers, Jenna, expressed frustration at getting night hours since she'd miss her AA meetings, and I offered to take any night shifts she didn't want, as I want as many hours as I can get. As the night dragged on, Jenna mentioned how psyched she was to get off work and go play Rock Band, and when I said how much I missed it, she invited me to come hang out with her and her boyfriend after work.
They live out in Santa Monica, and they're really nice, laid-back people. Jason does graphic design and computer service for a group in Malibu, and he's ridiculously handy elsewhere. When the kickpedal broke on their Rock Band drum set, he built a new one. In between songs he was cutting up rubber to try and give it more recoil, but it was working fine. I ended up leaving around 2, glad to have had the experience. They met at an AA meeting, so they're more creative than the types to just go to a bar as a weekend activity.
Friday, October 17, 2008
First shift, move-in, second shift
My first shift at the Venice Pinkberry was pretty uneventful, lots of fruit-cutting and helpless attempts to serve customers. The cool manager who hired me is moving to a new location at the end of the week, which kinda sucks cause replacing her is the hyper-cheerful guy who ran orientation.
I had the next day off, so I got up and cleaned up the room the Vititoes were letting me use, and I packed everything into my car and headed to Culver City. Jensen was studying for some tests, and I got everything out of my car and into the room. I took a trip to Target for some essentials, and woke up early this morning since the sun shines right into my room. It'll work out well.
I did my grocery shopping a little before 10, and was relaxing a little in the apartment when I got a call from work. The shift leader was the only one working, so I drove in to help out, starting a little after noon and finishing at the end of my original shift, shortly after midnight.
From about 5 on, it was just me and my shift leader Crystal. I was taking a break since it was a slow day, when she rushed in and said "Corporate's coming." We spent the rest of the day looking busy and cleaning every visible inch in preparation for an inspector to show up and look over the place. Ten minutes before close, the guy walked in. He checked out the facilities and waited for a customer to show up so we could show him how awesome our customer service was, but it was late and nobody showed.
I'm pretty happy with the job and the apartment's doing okay. All I could ask for right now is more hours and slightly more neat roommates. First thing I did upon settling in here was doing all the dishes in the sink and buying dish towels. The kitchen's a mess, and I had to dust and vacuum the room I was moving into. Tall Brian says that Erin was mostly the messy one, but it looks like everybody's doing their part here.
I had the next day off, so I got up and cleaned up the room the Vititoes were letting me use, and I packed everything into my car and headed to Culver City. Jensen was studying for some tests, and I got everything out of my car and into the room. I took a trip to Target for some essentials, and woke up early this morning since the sun shines right into my room. It'll work out well.
I did my grocery shopping a little before 10, and was relaxing a little in the apartment when I got a call from work. The shift leader was the only one working, so I drove in to help out, starting a little after noon and finishing at the end of my original shift, shortly after midnight.
From about 5 on, it was just me and my shift leader Crystal. I was taking a break since it was a slow day, when she rushed in and said "Corporate's coming." We spent the rest of the day looking busy and cleaning every visible inch in preparation for an inspector to show up and look over the place. Ten minutes before close, the guy walked in. He checked out the facilities and waited for a customer to show up so we could show him how awesome our customer service was, but it was late and nobody showed.
I'm pretty happy with the job and the apartment's doing okay. All I could ask for right now is more hours and slightly more neat roommates. First thing I did upon settling in here was doing all the dishes in the sink and buying dish towels. The kitchen's a mess, and I had to dust and vacuum the room I was moving into. Tall Brian says that Erin was mostly the messy one, but it looks like everybody's doing their part here.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Okay, I'll do something real
It's been such a ridiculous past few days. I had lunch with Aunt Laurie, Uncle Lou, Daniel, Aunt Theresa, and mom's cousin Scott and his family on Sunday down in Manhattan Beach. Holy crap, it's gorgeous out there. I haven't had a really good, solid beach experience yet, since all the days I've gone it's been windy and gross. I need to jump on that before fall really sets in. I had fish and chips and a Guinness, a lunch of champions and one I've missed sorely in my time out here.
Shortly after, I headed over to Culver City to check out an apartment off Overland. The guy who greeted me at the door didn't look like he sounded on the phone, which wasn't a negative thing, just a noticeable thing. He showed me around the apartment, which definitely looks like four guys live there, but four guys who at least know how to work a vacuum. He called me later in the day asking if I wanted to come back and meet the other guys, which basically sealed the room as mine.
I got up this morning and went to orientation at Playa Vista, sitting through a stereotypical series of feel-good speeches about the company. There's no romanticizing this, it's a marginally healthy dessert place. I'm just psyched to be getting a paycheck.
There were four of us there, going to three separate franchises. None of us are at the Playa Vista location, it's just the most central one. It'll be interesting heading over to the Venice location; the other trainee there was discussing the merits of Alcoholics Anonymous versus Narcotics Anonymous. She can't be older than me.
We finished up pretty early and I rolled out to the apartment to meet Jensen and the Brians. They were watching Lifetime when I came in, and I'm not sure it earned them points or docked them. One of the Brians is my height, but Jensen and the other Brian tower and make somewhat imposing figures except for their ridiculously blue eyes. I was literally made self-conscious, feeling like I needed to find a mirror and some privacy to assure myself of my marked blueness.
It's pretty clear that when I move in, I will be the bitch to at least some degree. The guy moving out, Erin, is a little more subdued than the others, who made jokes about hiding outside his balcony to scare him at night, which they assure me they won't do. I'm considering striking first, but I'm not sure if this would put them in their place or spark a war of escalation.
Either way, Erin's heading out late Tuesday or early Wednesday, which means I have a move-in day! I stopped by Venice to talk to my manager and I'm working the night shift tomorrow, 6pm to midnight. I'm looking forward to it.
Shortly after, I headed over to Culver City to check out an apartment off Overland. The guy who greeted me at the door didn't look like he sounded on the phone, which wasn't a negative thing, just a noticeable thing. He showed me around the apartment, which definitely looks like four guys live there, but four guys who at least know how to work a vacuum. He called me later in the day asking if I wanted to come back and meet the other guys, which basically sealed the room as mine.
I got up this morning and went to orientation at Playa Vista, sitting through a stereotypical series of feel-good speeches about the company. There's no romanticizing this, it's a marginally healthy dessert place. I'm just psyched to be getting a paycheck.
There were four of us there, going to three separate franchises. None of us are at the Playa Vista location, it's just the most central one. It'll be interesting heading over to the Venice location; the other trainee there was discussing the merits of Alcoholics Anonymous versus Narcotics Anonymous. She can't be older than me.
We finished up pretty early and I rolled out to the apartment to meet Jensen and the Brians. They were watching Lifetime when I came in, and I'm not sure it earned them points or docked them. One of the Brians is my height, but Jensen and the other Brian tower and make somewhat imposing figures except for their ridiculously blue eyes. I was literally made self-conscious, feeling like I needed to find a mirror and some privacy to assure myself of my marked blueness.
It's pretty clear that when I move in, I will be the bitch to at least some degree. The guy moving out, Erin, is a little more subdued than the others, who made jokes about hiding outside his balcony to scare him at night, which they assure me they won't do. I'm considering striking first, but I'm not sure if this would put them in their place or spark a war of escalation.
Either way, Erin's heading out late Tuesday or early Wednesday, which means I have a move-in day! I stopped by Venice to talk to my manager and I'm working the night shift tomorrow, 6pm to midnight. I'm looking forward to it.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
... Seriously?
God, I can't even express how time is flying out here. I've been running around the past two weeks trying to cover everything, and I think I'm somewhat in control now.
John Lefler got into town last week, so the Lefler boys and what girlfriends they had went out to dinner one evening with me. It was nice, since they're all treating me like a little brother of sorts, which means I get all the guff that John and Kevin could never really legitimately give Billy.
Last weekend wasn't much, except that I went to North Hollywood to see Mikayla in a show out there. Mikayla graduated from W&M my freshman year, and I was glad to find out she was living in LA as well. The show went well, it was cute and amusing, and I met the director and a bunch of the actors afterwards.
Thursday I had my second interview with Pinkberry, which is a fancy, corporate kind of frozen yogurt place, which is kind of degrading but everybody there is relaxed and down to earth, and they offered me the job so I'm starting Monday. Now comes the fun of finding an apartment! Thursday night I went out to the cafe where Sam is a manager, as they were having a wine tasting and some live music. It was good to catch up with him again and talk to some of his friends and coworkers.
Last night I went with Billy, Kevin, both Lindseys, and Billy's friend Craig to the concert at the Staples Center. The Cab opened and did alright, I'd never heard of them before. We hung out backstage in the Dashboard dressing room the whole time the Plain White T's were onstage. Dashboard did a good set, the people seemed to enjoy it, and we went backstage when Panic went on. At one point before Kevin and his Lindsey arrived, Craig and Lindsey Ray went to the bathroom, leaving Billy and I standing and talking.
"Billy," I said. "Since I came out here, you've been like my best friend." He was quiet for a moment.
"That's really sad, dude," he said, quickly adding "I mean, I'm flattered, though. You just need friends who don't work all the time." It was a special moment.
When we went backstage, I split my time talking to John's friend Jessica and her family, and this guy Ed, whose relationship to anyone is beyond me. Jess, who is better known as "Beefer" for whatever reason, was good people and her father, brother, and brother's girlfriend were as well. We talked a lot about stunts, which was fun because I like looking like I know what I'm talking about.
I grabbed a seat when one opened up, and somehow got into a conversation with Ed. Ed does advertising, which he says he hates, though I don't remember him saying what he enjoys besides older women. By the time Billy was ready to leave, Ed wanted to give me a call sometime, though I doubt he was in any state to recognize the name in his address book when he woke up this morning.
So now it's just apartment hunting, trying to find something marginally affordable in Venice or Santa Monica. I've gotten in touch with a few places over craigslist, but nothing's really come back so far. I keep looking for an apartment building with a fitness room, because gym memberships out here are extremely expensive and when I folded my arms last night, I felt an unsettling amount of give in my biceps.
Yeah, that's right, I just wrote, in all seriousness, the previous sentence. Comma abuse ahoy.
John Lefler got into town last week, so the Lefler boys and what girlfriends they had went out to dinner one evening with me. It was nice, since they're all treating me like a little brother of sorts, which means I get all the guff that John and Kevin could never really legitimately give Billy.
Last weekend wasn't much, except that I went to North Hollywood to see Mikayla in a show out there. Mikayla graduated from W&M my freshman year, and I was glad to find out she was living in LA as well. The show went well, it was cute and amusing, and I met the director and a bunch of the actors afterwards.
Thursday I had my second interview with Pinkberry, which is a fancy, corporate kind of frozen yogurt place, which is kind of degrading but everybody there is relaxed and down to earth, and they offered me the job so I'm starting Monday. Now comes the fun of finding an apartment! Thursday night I went out to the cafe where Sam is a manager, as they were having a wine tasting and some live music. It was good to catch up with him again and talk to some of his friends and coworkers.
Last night I went with Billy, Kevin, both Lindseys, and Billy's friend Craig to the concert at the Staples Center. The Cab opened and did alright, I'd never heard of them before. We hung out backstage in the Dashboard dressing room the whole time the Plain White T's were onstage. Dashboard did a good set, the people seemed to enjoy it, and we went backstage when Panic went on. At one point before Kevin and his Lindsey arrived, Craig and Lindsey Ray went to the bathroom, leaving Billy and I standing and talking.
"Billy," I said. "Since I came out here, you've been like my best friend." He was quiet for a moment.
"That's really sad, dude," he said, quickly adding "I mean, I'm flattered, though. You just need friends who don't work all the time." It was a special moment.
When we went backstage, I split my time talking to John's friend Jessica and her family, and this guy Ed, whose relationship to anyone is beyond me. Jess, who is better known as "Beefer" for whatever reason, was good people and her father, brother, and brother's girlfriend were as well. We talked a lot about stunts, which was fun because I like looking like I know what I'm talking about.
I grabbed a seat when one opened up, and somehow got into a conversation with Ed. Ed does advertising, which he says he hates, though I don't remember him saying what he enjoys besides older women. By the time Billy was ready to leave, Ed wanted to give me a call sometime, though I doubt he was in any state to recognize the name in his address book when he woke up this morning.
So now it's just apartment hunting, trying to find something marginally affordable in Venice or Santa Monica. I've gotten in touch with a few places over craigslist, but nothing's really come back so far. I keep looking for an apartment building with a fitness room, because gym memberships out here are extremely expensive and when I folded my arms last night, I felt an unsettling amount of give in my biceps.
Yeah, that's right, I just wrote, in all seriousness, the previous sentence. Comma abuse ahoy.
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