Weekend Update
At 4:30 this morning, I lay awake thinking that this was a time at which no one should be awake.
If you're up at 4:30 AM, it generally means one of these things:
1. You have a job that requires you to show up by six in the morning. Congratulations, you're a grown-up. Isn't it fun? (Note: If the job at which you are up early involves any sort of non-news radio or television, disregard the part about the "grown-up".)
2. You were out living it up until well past 4. Shouldn't you have outgrown that already?
3. There is never a number 3.
4. You just plain can't sleep.
Much as I'd like to claim that I was up because I was out doing some appropriately wild Hollywood carousing, I'm afraid I just couldn't sleep. This might have been because I'd slept so much of Saturday morning away, which was certainly because I was wiped from the Bush Twins show on Friday night. (The Bush Twins show went well, thanks for wondering. The theater management was impressed enough with what we were able to do in less than a week that they want us to come back on a more regular basis. Soon, there will be no excuse for not having experienced the magic. You've all been warned.) Or perhaps it was because of a new special-case reason:
5. There is a bird that chirps like a car alarm around the clock. It's quickly gone from cute to grating, and the nonstop nature suggests that the initial bird has recruited a few friends to take over during naptime. My roommate and I are about ready to go after it/them with a BB gun. Not that either of us own one, or have any desire to actually hurt the bird(s). It's just really tempting.
On the bright side, I don't actually have to be anywhere until Monday morning at 9. I'm in one of those rare periods when I don't have to be at any classes or rehearsals during the weekend, and I'm kind of liking it.
Of course, this means that I really should be using the time to update my blog in a more timely fashion. (I should also be using it to save the world and broaden my horizons and make lovely things, but I'm trying to be realistic here.) So for anyone who was wondering, here are the updates.
I'm off the hook for jury duty. I went in Monday and was honest: While I was certainly willing to do my civic duty, it might be hard for me to concentrate, given that if I wasn't put on a case then my weeks of unemployment could end the next day.
I was the first one excused from the jury pool. The judge and lawyers wished me luck as I left, which I thought was nice.
(I think I would have been excused anyway. The case was a civil dispute over a car accident, and when asked I couldn't promise that I could be completely impartial. Those of you who remember my old car -- a.k.a. the Blue Thing, the Blue Bomber, the Smurfmobile or Qris -- may remember how it met its end in front of the place where I was working, when someone in a minivan ran a red light. Even though there were several witnesses to back this up, the other driver initially tried to claim that I was the one at fault. She dropped it, but it did leave a bad taste in my mouth.)
The next morning, I started my current day gig. I'm spending the next few weeks in the office that produces some of UCLA's publications, doing various web site update projects. Which means I'm doing a lot of copying and pasting, with a little HTML and image formatting. Funny how when you get right down to it, the skills that get me the most work are exactly the ones that got me work in 1998.
It's busy work, really. Kind of pleasantly mindless. I'm next to a window, which is nice. There is a large plant strategically placed so that the view of my monitor is obscured by all but one person, and she's not looking. While I am not taking full advantage of this, I am able to keep a much closer eye on my email than I have at my last couple of gigs.
At least it's just a few miles from where I live. And it pays decently. That's one thing I can say for this whole web racket: The work may be sporadic, but what work there is pays pretty well. While I'm still looking for a Real Job™, and the agency is still setting up interviews, I'm grateful to have something that will give me some income for the next couple-few weeks.
I'm starting to feel calmer, finally. Still pretty agitated, but it's heading down towards normal-for-me levels. I'm really, really appreciating my friends. Even kind of appreciating someone that I have every reason to hate -- or, even worse, feel indifferent towards. Despite everything that has, or hasn't, gone down between us, the fact is that we are going to have to deal with each other one of these days. I'd rather be friendly. The person in question seems to agree, at least in theory. That's good, I guess. Better than being incommunicado, at any rate.
Last weekend, I had dinner with a friend who I rarely get to see. He asked me something that he almost always asks me: What is it that I really want to do? And I answered him the way I always do: I don't think it's been invented yet. Until then, I do what I've done since I first sat down in front of that TRS-80 in elementary school: Hone my skills, keep my eyes open, catch the wave of the next big thing and enjoy the ride.
And remember that this, too, shall pass.
If you're up at 4:30 AM, it generally means one of these things:
1. You have a job that requires you to show up by six in the morning. Congratulations, you're a grown-up. Isn't it fun? (Note: If the job at which you are up early involves any sort of non-news radio or television, disregard the part about the "grown-up".)
2. You were out living it up until well past 4. Shouldn't you have outgrown that already?
3. There is never a number 3.
4. You just plain can't sleep.
Much as I'd like to claim that I was up because I was out doing some appropriately wild Hollywood carousing, I'm afraid I just couldn't sleep. This might have been because I'd slept so much of Saturday morning away, which was certainly because I was wiped from the Bush Twins show on Friday night. (The Bush Twins show went well, thanks for wondering. The theater management was impressed enough with what we were able to do in less than a week that they want us to come back on a more regular basis. Soon, there will be no excuse for not having experienced the magic. You've all been warned.) Or perhaps it was because of a new special-case reason:
5. There is a bird that chirps like a car alarm around the clock. It's quickly gone from cute to grating, and the nonstop nature suggests that the initial bird has recruited a few friends to take over during naptime. My roommate and I are about ready to go after it/them with a BB gun. Not that either of us own one, or have any desire to actually hurt the bird(s). It's just really tempting.
On the bright side, I don't actually have to be anywhere until Monday morning at 9. I'm in one of those rare periods when I don't have to be at any classes or rehearsals during the weekend, and I'm kind of liking it.
Of course, this means that I really should be using the time to update my blog in a more timely fashion. (I should also be using it to save the world and broaden my horizons and make lovely things, but I'm trying to be realistic here.) So for anyone who was wondering, here are the updates.
I'm off the hook for jury duty. I went in Monday and was honest: While I was certainly willing to do my civic duty, it might be hard for me to concentrate, given that if I wasn't put on a case then my weeks of unemployment could end the next day.
I was the first one excused from the jury pool. The judge and lawyers wished me luck as I left, which I thought was nice.
(I think I would have been excused anyway. The case was a civil dispute over a car accident, and when asked I couldn't promise that I could be completely impartial. Those of you who remember my old car -- a.k.a. the Blue Thing, the Blue Bomber, the Smurfmobile or Qris -- may remember how it met its end in front of the place where I was working, when someone in a minivan ran a red light. Even though there were several witnesses to back this up, the other driver initially tried to claim that I was the one at fault. She dropped it, but it did leave a bad taste in my mouth.)
The next morning, I started my current day gig. I'm spending the next few weeks in the office that produces some of UCLA's publications, doing various web site update projects. Which means I'm doing a lot of copying and pasting, with a little HTML and image formatting. Funny how when you get right down to it, the skills that get me the most work are exactly the ones that got me work in 1998.
It's busy work, really. Kind of pleasantly mindless. I'm next to a window, which is nice. There is a large plant strategically placed so that the view of my monitor is obscured by all but one person, and she's not looking. While I am not taking full advantage of this, I am able to keep a much closer eye on my email than I have at my last couple of gigs.
At least it's just a few miles from where I live. And it pays decently. That's one thing I can say for this whole web racket: The work may be sporadic, but what work there is pays pretty well. While I'm still looking for a Real Job™, and the agency is still setting up interviews, I'm grateful to have something that will give me some income for the next couple-few weeks.
I'm starting to feel calmer, finally. Still pretty agitated, but it's heading down towards normal-for-me levels. I'm really, really appreciating my friends. Even kind of appreciating someone that I have every reason to hate -- or, even worse, feel indifferent towards. Despite everything that has, or hasn't, gone down between us, the fact is that we are going to have to deal with each other one of these days. I'd rather be friendly. The person in question seems to agree, at least in theory. That's good, I guess. Better than being incommunicado, at any rate.
Last weekend, I had dinner with a friend who I rarely get to see. He asked me something that he almost always asks me: What is it that I really want to do? And I answered him the way I always do: I don't think it's been invented yet. Until then, I do what I've done since I first sat down in front of that TRS-80 in elementary school: Hone my skills, keep my eyes open, catch the wave of the next big thing and enjoy the ride.
And remember that this, too, shall pass.
posted by Rose at
11:43 PM
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