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

Awesome Job I Want

I found an awesome job I believe I qualify for in Los Angeles.

http://www.allaccessinc.com/

They have an opening for a CAD drafter, with a preference in Vectorworks.

I'm very excited. And nervous.

I'm looking for theatre jobs in scene design. While these jobs are available everywhere in the US most of them are effectively, "if your interested in designing, tell us when your free and we'll see if we can fit you in.". That would be fine if I lived anywhere that had a large theatre sector, but I don't. I went to college in southwest Virginia, where our closest theatre just closed, from what sounds like mismanagement, and the next closest is about two hours away, not counting the universities. I'm from northern Virginia, but surprisingly DC does not have that many theatres. Most are very big name non-profits and they are currently not hiring.

I should also mention that around this time of year there are a lot of "summer stock" openings. They are exactly what they sound like, theatre position just for the summer. There are many excellent theatre that run this way, using undergraduate actor and vacationing professors to do incredible theatre. Problem is that on or around July 14, I don't remember exactly, I will not have a home, so where ever I work this summer really needs to be a more permanent position so that I can move there, probably for a year. Also in December I will have to start paying off $21,000 of student loans, so I need to be making money, which summer stock is not great at.

What I need is a semi permanent position in one of the major entertainment cities (LA, NYC, Las Vegas, Chicago) so that I can then do the random little "I'm in town and bored" jobs.

I'm hyper cause I took a Excedrin migraine at 11:30pm

-X

Looking for a Warmer Climate

In looking for a job I have decided that I want to be in a warmer climate.

Yesterday it was 60 degrees, today it snowed. This is unacceptable. This also why I don't believe in global warming.

The difficulty is that my occupation directs me to live in certain areas, the largest are New York City, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. I can theoretically get jobs around the entire country, but those are the main areas.

Difficulty #2 - The companies search locally because plenty of the people who do these jobs are already there. So now I have to check the local listing for these places, well not New York, because NYC is fucking cold. It's at least 10 degrees of latitude north of my current location and I believe that my current location is too damn cold.

I have about 30 days until I graduate and I have no prospects, which wouldn't be that bad except I keep seeing ads for the new Camaro (no blogger, I did not misspell "Camry") and I reaalllllly want one. It's smaller and faster than my current vehicle, which is a '92 Caprice, so I am a little partial to Chevrolet. And it would be doing my part for the economy! Even though it would double the debt from my student loans!

Right?

Sigh, excuse while I search the LA Times for jobs.

-X