Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Partying in DC

a large sundae, fountain type glass filled wit...Image not related, just looks tasty. via Wikipedia

Last weekend I went to my brother's bachelor party in downtown DC. We ate expensive food, went to cigar bars, attempted to go to a baseball game, enjoyed a "gentleman's club", and several people drank a great amount of cheap beer in the hotel pool.

I was there mostly for the experience. I'm not into baseball, I don't drink, I don't smoke
(I did try a cigar, never again), and I can find equal or better naked chicks on my laptop.

This weekend I'm keeping my mother company in Atlantic City, next weekend is my brother's wedding. I'm pretty damn booked up.

Might post a movie review tomorrow, as I did pay $8.50 to see one today/last night.

'Night
-X

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Plan B: Cost Too Much Money

So, Plan A was rejected.
They argued that I didn't have enough money to take a trip to a city, I still count that I could last at least a couple of weeks on my credit card.
My Catch-22 is that I can't move without a job and I cannot get a job without already living out there.
So I started looking for temp work. Now I always thought that temp agencies would talk to you, find out what you could do and then would come back to you with possible jobs. Not anymore at least. They are into the modern idea of "do it yourself without ever speaking to a real person" way of internet business. From looking at their websites, and I did look at several, I think they would be completely shocked if I walked in and asked for a job. I think only one of the the websites I looked at implied that they would let you walk in, but beyond that I question whether it would even be worth my time. All of the websites allow you to view all, or at least I hope they were all, of their listings before signing up. One site only had eight jobs in the North Virginia area, an area that spans about three counties and borders the District of Columbia. Other sites had more but they were ridiculously specific, no data entry jobs or even that many clerical jobs that nearly anyone could do, but things like computer programmer for languages I've never heard of before, bookkeepers, and even a dental hygienist.
You can't just wake up one day and be a dental hygienist, it requires very specific training. What are these jobs doing on a temp staffing site? I know that there are certain cases where you might be able to find people looking for these jobs. but not often and not int he time frame I would suspect you need for a temporary position.
So I applied to an AMC theatre thirty minutes away from where I live, mostly because everything is thirty minutes from where I live. Far more permenant than what I really what and probaly won't pay enough.
I'm going to try to convince my parents that they will save money by just sending me away for a month or so and I've started appling to the theatre jobs that say "local only" just in some vain hope they actually look at it anyway.
-X

Saturday, July 18, 2009

What's Happening?

Pretty Lake
I...
...still do not have a job.
...do not have a place to live outside of my parent's.
...have not told my parent's of my "plan".
...have painted a deck.
...changed my license.
...saw Harry Potter VI (they cut too much).
Meanwhile my mother is obsessing over every conversation she has with my brother and his fiance. They are doing all the planning by themselves and my mother gets aggravated when she is not immediately informed of changes. Also they accused her off-white floral dress of being a white dress.
I am sick of hearing about it. Luckily the wedding is in only a couple weeks so I won't have to suffer for much longer. Except the airplane ride which I will be taking up with my parents. If it makes it there.
The wedding is what is really holding me on my plan as it is just easlier to wait until I don't have any commitments to move away.
Enough of this. About time for dinner.
-X

Friday, July 10, 2009

Project: Get Out of Parent's House (as fast as possible)

So I'm trying to develop a concrete plan to pitch to my parents.

Right now my plan is to take a trip to either Los Angeles or Chicago and wander around theatres (and other places) looking for jobs. Chicago would be cheaper because I apparently would not need a vehicle to get around, from what I have heard LA has terrible public transportation so I would spend as much, if not more, on the car as my flight and hotel combined. Chicago is a little cheaper to live in but I may be unable to find the right size apartment there (I gleaned from my searches). Los Angeles on the other hand has better weather and has infinite jobs for my profession, but it has been badly hit by the current recession.

Now, you are asking why I wish to go to these specific cities. Why not New York, Las Vegas, or why not stay where I currently am (Washington, D.C. for all intents and purposes)?

Well I did look into Las Vegas, everything there is very much based on The Strip, which is not exactly what I want to do forever (I'm looking for a place to live for awhile).

New York is the obvious choice, which is why I'm against it. I'm not the best and I don't make great first impressions. Everyone goes to New York if they want to do theatre and I can't compete against that much competition. I make mistakes and I need it to be more difficult to replace me.

LA and Chicago are the next logical locations as they contain the other offices of IATSE USA 829, the Scenic (et al) Designers union (the main headquarters is of course in NYC), which lead them to be very theatre heavy cities.

And Washington. Washington is a federal district. It exists solely for government. Culture is shipped in to make it look nice. There are too many ghettos and too much corruption for theatre to thrive (theatre needs money and people need to not be afraid to go). It's kind of ironic, you'd think the nations capital would be better.

Still don't know if my case is strong enough. I plan to point out the saving if I can get a real job and don't live with them, my stuff won't be in the garage, etc.

If all else fails I'll do it without their help.
-X

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Home, For Now

Well I'm at home. I officially had a lot more crap than my brother's did when they moved back from college. The trailer we rented was almost too small to fit it all. Then on the trip home I ditched my parents, who were pulling the trailer and beat them home by a half an hour.
The last couple of days haven't been too bad, other than the sad agreement that we are all fat and pictures of us will be taken in a month at my brother's wedding. I gained weight during my two months of unemployment and was at highest I've been in four years. It's already going as I tend, for some reason to be more active when I'm by myself. Also my mother is doing South Beach and my father is doing a lite Atkins so the food here is a little bit healthier.
Though I need to pause that thought to complain about the "low fat" Velveeta macaroni and cheese. It sucks.
As I was saying they are dieting and my mother and I are attempting to go on walks everyday. This week I need to be fitted for a tux as I am playing the role of a usher. We have to get fit somewhere local and send the measurements to Michigan where we are actually renting the tuxes from, my brother of course did not choose a chain store so it's going to be a bit awkward.
I'm still planning to find a job in a major "not DC area" city. I just need to convince my parents that the idea isn't completely stupid and that it will go much better if they assist me.
And if they don't. I'll do it anyway.
-X

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