Best Policy

I continue to believe in honesty. Tact is an important sidekick, but vagueness is nobody's friend. I had an interview today for lil gig, and right away I didn't have a credential. The interviewer was so super nice including sentences like, "It was so cool to meet you. We'll see!" And I really appreciate that he was trying to make me feel special, but we wont see, sir. We won't! And that is okay! Say so.

The good news is I probably didn't want that job anyway because the commute would be murder, and I just got a job in the city today. So, yays for days obviously! I also took two cookies from the snack table on the way out and put them in my purse and a lot of people saw.

Life is no game! We get one go. Why would we spend the turn faking?

Trying to Be Positive about Chucking my Time and Energy into What May as well Be a Black Hole

Applying for things sucks. I have somehow chosen a life full of rejection not on one-side, folks, but somewhere around 3-4 sides.

I apply for jobs all the time, and you so infrequently even hear back, it's hard not to get discouraged. Will someone even see this? This cover letter I just spent two hours writing? Plus I write, like, outside of cover letters, which is like, synonymous with rejection. It's hard to spend all that energy revising a play when you know you're going to have to send it to like ninety festivals to get one little reading...and even then, that's not guaranteed. I am reentering a life with auditions, and just when you find the perfect apartment, someone snatches is up from under your nose.

I already feel my skin thickening from this new year in this new city.

Yet, there is a different perspective. One that could be a lie, but one that is necessary if I want to survive. That perspective is It Adds Up. Maybe this cover letter no one even opened, but I still wrote it. I still got better at writing it. There will be plays that never see the light of day, but they were exercises. Exercises I didn't know were exercises. But you just have to accept that.

Shell and I love our move in the making. Our goal date is June 1st, 2015. Even if we make it, then we have to make it, and those odds are just ridiculous. Yet, we will write anyway. Because it's part of the whole (again, at least I say to myself). For some reason this is harder for artists to accept than most humans? A mathematician doesn't think her entire education to become what she is was useless because it didn't get published. But for us goobers at the laptops it's like, "Yeah I wrote that poem. It was bad. Nothing ever came of it." No, you dingo, the thing you're doing now came of it.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Last night much of the theatre cohort went out for Simba's birthday. We closed down the bar talking about SO MUCH THEATRE STUFF while Simba shamelessly flirted with the waiter and drank so many martinis he started doing the sign language to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" for no particular reason. I was so tired at the end of everything that the only thing I could do on the ride home was eat my boxed half-salad. Lunch today was pretzels. Oops on the premature leftover consumption.

I had just enough alertness to write in my gratitude notebook or brush my teeth before passing out.

I woke up tasting goat cheese.

But the real news is that I start my new part-time job tomorrow! Working at a sandwich shop down the block! What up free avocado/provolone melts? Here's hoping.

In the village, the peaceful village, the lion sleeps tonight.

Hey, Cupcake

Cupcakes from Muff + Jamba = <3

When you have no source of income, turns out money goes really fast! I've always been pretty miserly--even as little girl I was always calculating my finances and haggling at garage sales. So, especially when I'm keeping finances tight it seems like I wouldn't spend that much, right? But things happen where I'm like, "Ugh. Lotion. I need lotion." And then LOTION COSTS SIX DOLLARS! Did you guys know that? Lotion! You used to be cool! Now you're all, costing more than two boxes of granola bars! Whatevs, y'all. The lotion had to be purchased. My kneecaps were ashier than a tray.

The good news is that 1. I start getting paid for my TA work in two weeks. and 2. I had a great interview this morning. I think I got the job, but I find out officially tomorrow. If I get this job I will be so so so excited!

Job Hunt

I will be a TA this fall, but I'm looking for just a bit more income. I have applied a couple places, but I was so SO excited about the job interview I had today.

DUSTY: so what are you doing in your free time these days, anyway?
ME: Right now I'm making a resume for an interview I have today. It's impossible.
ME: I am MADE for this job.
ME: I can't fit all of the reasons on one page.
DUSTY: haha
DUSTY: there's worse problems to have, Alice.
DUSTY: What's this job, anyway?
DUSTY: "Buffet reviewer"?
ME: Omg.
ME: How could I even begin to prepare for that interview?
ME: Hahahaha you've got my number, Mr.
ME: No--working at a human right capaign trying to convince people that gay people should have equal workplace rights.
DUSTY: ...ok, that sounds like a close second place

INSERT BACKSTORY: While we were making fun of this one guy from improv CONSTANTLY saying "Boom. Done," Dusty once said to me, "You know, if YOU had a catchphrase, it would be, 'Um. I actually have a really strong opinion about this.'" Which is both sad and hilarious because it is totally true. The things I have really strong opinions about range from paper towel to Facebook. And, lest we forget MEANWHILE, THERE IS A MEAT INDUSTRY! Continuing on...

ME: Can I just get "I actually have a really strong opinion about this" tatooed on my face?
DUSTY: HAHA
DUSTY: maybe a palm...that can be your thing, you can bring back the "talk to the hand" gesture
"So, I was thinking cows are too dumb to live, and we should really not feel bad for eating them--"

hand.

I think he's on to something.

Coffee with Dusty. April 2011.

But, so here's the sad end of the story: I had an awesome interview and got the job, but my class schedule conflicted with the hours I would have to work. Biggest bummer of all time.