Tag Archives: job

Holding Out For Perfection (or Maybe I’m Too Picky)

While the title of this post might sound like it’s a continuation of my online dating adventures, it’s not (I actually cancelled my account because of some creepy guys on there).

This is about my day job. I’ve been there for over a year now, and I definitely have a love-hate relationship with it.

I love that I’m working for a theater company so I’m close to other creative people. I love that my boss is very cool about me taking time off for auditions. And I love that I’m making relatively decent money now.

But I hate the schedule. I hate working 6 days a week (I have to work Saturday morning after my birthday party). I hate working until 8:30pm 3 nights a week (I’ve missed a ton of events I’ve wanted to go to because of that). And I hate that so much of my pay is based on commissions so I never know how much I’m going to make on each paycheck (it makes budgeting very difficult).

A friend of mine from my old job has come to me a couple of times with some jobs that could use me. The job would be working credit card disputes (I did this for about a year at my old job and was very successful and had a high win rate). The first job was in Orange County and was a standard 9-5 job. I knew this wouldn’t work out because the commute could easily be 1-2 hours each way. And it wouldn’t have the flexibility I need for auditions or booked jobs. The second job is in the valley (still a commute but better). I don’t know a ton of details on it yet since I only heard about it yesterday.

But I have to ask myself if I really want to go back into another job like that. I’ve been looking for something that I could do from home (some credit card dispute jobs do that), so I could have the flexibility I need. I’ve worked from home in the past before and did well at it (except when I did transcription work because the pay was too low for how much work I did).

But am I being too picky by only wanting to find something that works from home? I’m not horribly miserable at my current job, so I’m not rushing out to find something. And in the back of my head, I still think that I might land that series regular acting job which will eliminate the need for a day job.

I really don’t know what to do. I don’t want to turn down a good opportunity, but I don’t even know if the new job or my old job would be considered the good opportunity.

Back To Basics (or How A Win At My Day Job Can Help My Acting Career)

Yesterday at my day job, we had a little awards ceremony. I think calling it an awards ceremony was a bit of a stretch, but my boss decorated our break room and brought in Chinese food for us for lunch. And, as any awards ceremony would have, there were prizes.

From the time we came back to work in April until the end of the fiscal year in the beginning of July, there were a couple of contests going on. They were most number of memberships, most amount raised by memberships, most number of tickets sold, and most amount raised in ticket sales. We had similar contests last year, but I didn’t win any of them.

This year, the winners would get a Visa gift card and free tickets for shows coming up in our season. I wanted the free tickets because my dad is going to come back for another show this year and I wanted to treat him. And Visa gift cards are always nice for anything (like my Disneyland pass).

After the lunch portion, my boss first gave iTunes gift cards for those who didn’t win (at least everyone got something). Then, he awarded the person who got second place in memberships a gift card and 4 pairs of tickets to shows of their choice.

Then he announced that I actually won all four contests. I honestly wasn’t expecting that at all! I knew I had a chance at one, but who knew I’d get all four! So I got a very nice gift card and 8 pairs of tickets to shows in our upcoming season!

There’s a lot that I could use that gift card for. I wish I could use it to put toward my credit card, but you can’t do that (I checked). So what I’ve decided to do is to use it for some improv classes.

I’ve talked about how getting back into acting classes was one of my goals for this year. I need to get some more prestigious classes on my acting resume. Casting directors don’t really care unless you have improv training from one of the big schools. So I’ve decided that I want to go to UCB.

The gift card I got will pay for over half of my tuition for level 1. And it’s looking like I might be unemployed again in the fall, so I could take their intensive class and get the first level done in 2 weeks instead of 8. Then I could decide if I want to move on and then take those classes on the regular once a week schedule when I’m back at work.

I’m starting to get excited about this. The classes for the fall aren’t online yet, so I’ll keep checking until it is. But I think that I really am making the right move right now. While I’d love to use this gift card for next year’s Disneyland pass, maybe by taking this new improv class I can book an acting job that will pay for one.

I love when things fall into place for me like this!

Job vs. Career (or Being Undercover At My Day Job)

Having a day job when you are trying to be have a career as a creative person is pretty typical. Most of my creative friends have had at least one job outside of their desired career to pay the bills. While some actors are pretty secretive about what they do, I’m pretty open myself.

There’s no shame in having another job while you are trying to follow your dreams. But at your job, it can be shameful to try to also follow your dreams.

I’m lucky that at my day job, it’s expected that people in my position are pursuing other careers. Most of the telesales team are actors, but there are also writers and costume designers.

But I haven’t always been this lucky. At my last day job, my first boss was very understanding about my life. If I had to go to an audition, I could make up the hours within the same pay period. That was it. But when I got a new boss, she started to ask for unreasonable things such as 2 weeks notice of when I needed time off for an audition. Most of my auditions are the day after my agent submits me, so there’s no way to normally give more than a day or two’s notice.

At my old job, I almost had to be secretive about my acting. That’s not what I want to do at my day job. I’m there to work, but I don’t have to make that job my forever job.

For some of my friends who aren’t creatives and don’t understand the idea of a day job, I explain it this way. For most people, a job and a career are the same thing. For my brother, for example, being a resident at the hospital he works at is working on his career as a doctor. But for me, my job and career are two separate things (at least for now). My job is whatever I’m currently doing to pay the bills, but my career is always acting. I currently spend 40 hours a week at my job, and probably an additional 10-20 hours on my career (when I get back into class that number will be higher).

It’s a tough life that we live as creatives, but honestly to me it’s completely worth it. Every time I get to perform, whether it’s at an audition, class, or booked job; I feel that I’m doing exactly what I should be doing. And yes, I wish that I could survive on just acting, but I’m also realistic. I have rent, bills, my credit card, and life to pay for. Sometimes you have to just suck it up at work a job you don’t love. You just have to keep in mind that it is a temporary situation and one day, you can look back at your time working days jobs as just a memory.

Shooting In Santa Monica (or A Little Too Close To Home)

On Friday, I ended up taking the day off of work. I was going to have to work on Sunday at a show, and I didn’t want to have to work 11 days in a row (I’m now only doing 8 days in a row).

I was planning on meeting my friend Emily for lunch, and as I was getting ready, my cell phone kept notifying me that I had text messages. I checked my phone thinking it might have been my boss asking me something related to work or Emily saying she would be running late. Instead, it was a bunch of text messages asking me if I was ok.

I first tried to remember what I put on the blog that day. Did I write something depressing? Finally, after I couldn’t figure it out, I responded that I was fine and was wondering why they were wondering.

Then I got a text message that made my heart drop.

A friend mentioned that there was a shooting at my work. My first thought was to check the news.

If you haven’t read about this yet, there was a shooting near Santa Monica College on Friday. The shooter ran onto the campus to hide and was inside the library.

I work at Santa Monica College, but not on that campus. I work on the performing arts campus at the theater that is on the campus (we are technically part of the college, yet I’m not an employee of the college).

I figured my co-workers were safe, but I texted my boss just to make sure. Everyone was fine, but there were a bunch of cops outside of my work that day.

I went to lunch with Emily, and as I was eating, I looked up at the tv at the restaurant. The news was filming right outside where I work. Since they couldn’t  film at a crime scene, the news decided to film at one of the other campuses. It was pretty surreal.

I was still getting text messages from friends who wanted to make sure I was ok and safe, so I put something out on twitter and FB that the shooting was not at my work and I wasn’t working that day. But I did get some funny text responses from some people. The funniest was from my audition buddy/evil twin, Shey.

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While I’m grateful to be safe and that none of my co-workers were hurt or in harm’s way, it still freaks me out a little that the shooting was so close to where I work. Some of my co-workers drive on the streets where the shooting was to get lunch on their lunch breaks. We are all so lucky.

My heart goes out to the people who were affected by the Santa Monica shooting. I ended up speaking to someone on Saturday who was in the library when the police shot the suspect, and her story was so upsetting.

I just hope that some sort of action will be taken soon so something else like this doesn’t happen again.

Fitting It All In (or Getting Better At Time Management)

I’m settling back into my work routine. The next few weeks are a bit odd because I’m working weird hours due to a show at my work, but I’d say about 80% of my schedule is what it should be.

I’m still not great at managing all my time (including my one day off), but I’m getting better. And I’ve finally figured out a plan that allows me to work and fit in my SoulCycle classes.

Right now, my days for spinning classes are Tuesdays and Thursdays. On those days, I don’t start work until noon (it might be pushed back to 12:30 soon which works in my favor). On those days, I get up at 7am, as I do every day. I leave my house for spin class by 7:50, take an 8:30 class, and get home by 10. Then I have enough time to shower, get dressed, and eat some late breakfast before heading out to work.

On those days, I’m at work until 8:30pm (and have to be back at work by 9am the next morning), so working out at nighttime is not an option. Also, there aren’t any spin classes that late at the studio.

I’d like to try to add in a class on the weekend as well, but the classes on Saturday don’t exactly work well with my work schedule. The class that’s closest to the time I leave work is 2 hours after my shift. I wouldn’t drive home, but I’d need to find something to do (and make sure I eat a light meal before class). And on Sundays, I’m so busy doing everything else that needs to get done that I’m not sure where to fit in spin class.

I’m glad that I figured out how to still do the workout I love while I’m working 6 days a week. It’s not the easiest thing to do, but honestly, nothing in my life is easy. It would probably freak me out if it was easy.

And knowing that I’m working at doing something that I love does make me happy. It can be a little overwhelming and depressing knowing that I’m working at a job 6 days a week (that isn’t my career). I’m glad I’ve found something good for me that makes me so happy.

Setting Myself Up To Win (or More Preparation)

I do a lot of things to try to make my life easier. When I have late shifts at work, I try to get some extra sleep (because I really do function better on more than 5 hours a night). I know that when I don’t remember to prepare a lunch or a dinner one day, I can always find something at Subway or some salad places near my house. And I try to get things done on my day off so I don’t have to try to squeeze them in before or after an 8 hour work day.

But just because these things are easier doesn’t mean that they are good for me. I’m trying to look at things now as better options, not easier options.

One thing that I’ve been able to do is figure out when I can fit in spin class into my work schedule. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have a shift that starts at noon. In the past, I used the late start to catch up on sleep. On Monday nights, there are times that I don’t get home until 10pm and then I still need to have dinner and get work done. But now I’m making going to an 8:30am spin class a priority. I know that this won’t happen every Tuesday/Thursday (yet), but I’m working towards it.

Also, I’m trying (again) to be better at having food prepared so I don’t have to think about what I’m going to do for lunch or dinner. I’ll admit that this week I haven’t been good. I’m going out-of-town this weekend and didn’t want to go to the grocery store if I didn’t have to before my trip. But no matter what I eat, I am tracking all my calories on my app on my phone. I’m holding myself accountable for my good and bad choices.

Finally, I’m allowing myself to make mistakes. I really am an all or nothing sort of person. I didn’t want to start this blog until I knew I could maintain doing it 5 days a week (there’s no way to get yourself ready for that). So when I’ve had slip ups in the past, I’ve allowed myself then to continue slipping up until a determined date/time that I was going to “start over”. There’s no starting over in this now, just continuing on. I’m not letting a speed bump stop me completely.

I’m hoping with this new mindset not only will I be moving towards my goals a bit faster, but I’m hoping that I will not feel so over worked and stressed about being at my day job 6 days a week. I need to allow myself time to have a life and do things that are good for me and I enjoy. I didn’t allow myself that freedom last year.

Of course, I could completely change my mind about all of this next month, but I’m giving it a shot for now.

What To Do? (or Day 1 of Unemployment)

Today is the first day of my unemployment. It doesn’t feel like I’m unemployed, and I have no idea if it will ever feel that way.

I’ve got a busy day planned for myself. I’ve already filed my unemployment paperwork online (much better than the last time when I had to mail it in) so now I just have to wait to make sure I’m approved.

I need to go to the school district I sub for and get a parking pass and make sure I don’t need to do a new TB test before they let me sub.

I need to get my car fixed (oil change, tire rotation, new wiper blade, brake light is out), which has needed to be done for a while. But since most shops aren’t open on Sundays, I’ve been putting it off because I didn’t want to have to take a day off to do it.

I have plans with a friend tonight to go to happy hour and catch up.

And I want to get a workout in (although probably not a spin class since my favorite teacher isn’t teaching until tomorrow).

The plan has always been to keep myself busy during unemployment, and based on my schedule for the first day, I think I’m doing ok so far. This weekend, I’m going to print out the calendars for Women in Film, SAG Foundation, and The Actor’s Network and pick out all the lectures/speakers that I want to go to next month. I’m so overwhelmed by all my options, but I’m pretty excited too.

Most of all, I want to spend this time focusing on me. I’m not where I’d like to be in my life, and I need to work on taking the steps to get there. And there is no better time to focus on yourself than when you don’t have to go to work 6 days a week every week!

Having Something To Celebrate (or Another Bodega Happy Hour)

Yesterday, my friend Rayshell and I had a happy hour hangout. We hadn’t seen each other in forever (I’m pretty sure the last time was at her New Year’s party). And since it was my early day at work, a happy hour adventure fit in perfectly with our schedules.

We met at Bodega, which is right down the street from my work and one of my favorite happy hour spots.

And it worked out perfectly to meet up today, because I had something to celebrate.

After all the craziness at my work with not shutting down like we thought we would, it was finally decided that we were going to have a temporary shut down in March. So as of right now (and this will probably change 100 times), next Thursday is my last day at my current day job until possibly sometime in April.

I’m so beyond excited for this! I will be filing for unemployment benefits so I will have a little money to get me through this time, and I’m hoping to get some substitute teaching jobs next month as well.

So after I told Rayshell my fun news, we got down to ordering some great happy hour foods!

We had the bruschetta (which is one of my favorite things at Bodega).

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And we also split the grilled cheese and bbq sliders based on the recommendation of our server, Wade. He was totally right on the recommendations (and decided to be in this picture of our food).

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Overall, it was another wonderful happy hour adventure with a wonderful friend.

Now I get to spend the next week preparing for my unemployment. This includes getting my paperwork filed for my benefits, trying to see if there are any substitute teaching jobs at my old job for me, and cleaning out my desk at work (I am a post-it fiend and need to start tossing some out).

Scheduling Conflicts (or Maybe I Should Stop Planning)

I’ve talked about my crazy work schedule for my day job in the past. It used to be Monday-Saturday with Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays being late shifts. Then it switched to Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays being late.

Now it’s changed completely again.

My office (which is the telesales office) needs to be support for the box office while the show going on now finishes its run. The box office is overwhelmed, and we are going to help clear the backlog.

Which means that we are supposed to be at work whenever there is a show. For the show running now, there are shows on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings along with matinees on Saturday and Sunday.

So for now, I’m working Tuesday-Friday until 8:30pm, and Saturday and Sunday until 5:00pm. I do have Mondays off which is nice (and when I have gone to spin class), but working every evening is going to be tough.

There isn’t a lot of time to see friends or do other things. And yes, I’m aware that I do have my mornings free, but I’m spending that time catching up on everything I need to do at my house (like cook and clean).

This new crazy schedule is only supposed to be for a couple of weeks, but I had things planned on Friday and Saturday evenings that now I’ve had to cancel.

And I’m scared to plan anything because I have no idea what the next schedule change is going to be.

I’m probably more frustrated than I should be about this because I was expecting to be unemployed right now. I had plans to do some fun things. I have family coming to visit me in a month and now I had to ask for 3 days off of work for that (I got the ok because my boss understands that we all planned for unemployment). I wanted to maybe go to Lake Tahoe and see my parents and dog.

And now, that just isn’t a reality.

I’m trying to be grateful that I do have a job, but I’m just getting annoyed that whenever I try to plan out things, my job has switched things on me. Maybe after this show ends things will be back to normal, but I just can’t count on that.

I don’t know how to plan out food, exercise, and just life in general when things are just this crazy at my day job. And I don’t want to find a new day job since this boss is totally cool with me going to auditions and I actually like most of my co-workers.

Sorry for this rant, I just had to get it out.

My 2013 Goals (or I’m Not Calling Them Resolutions This Time)

Welcome 2013!

I’m excited to see what I can get done this year! In the past, I’ve always made resolutions, but for this year, I’ve decided to call them goals. Somehow they don’t seem as scary that way.

Here are my goals for 2013:

Continue on my weight loss journey. I didn’t lose as much in 2012 as I would have liked, but I did lose. And I’ve got my brother’s wedding in September and you know that those pictures are going to be around forever. I want to look back and not be embarrassed.

Continue paying down my credit card debt. Again, I didn’t do as much as I would have liked in 2012, but I’m working on it. I may not reach my goal of being debt free by my 30th birthday, but that’s ok.

Do at least 5 5Ks. I do enjoy walking various 5K events. In 2012, I did 3. This year, I’d like to see if I can do 5. I have my first one planned for February (unless I decide to do another one sooner).

Do my first 10K. There’s going to be one at Disneyland 6 days before I leave for my brother’s wedding. Unfortunately, due to that timing, my parents won’t be able to come and see me do that, so I’m looking at maybe finding one another time so they can come see me accomplish this.

Find alternative income. I love my day job, and I don’t plan on leaving it anytime soon. But I also need to find a way to make more money to help me work on my debt. And if I can find a way to support myself without having to go to a job 6 days a week, that would be great for my future.

Take an improv class that counts. I’ve taken improv classes in the past. I did a few years at LA Connection Comedy and also studied weekly with Kip King for almost 8 years. But in the commercial world, they want you to have classes from one of the main schools. So I’m looking at maybe taking classes at UCB this year so I’ll have that competitive edge on my acting resume.

Keep blogging. I think this one is pretty self-explanatory.

Any of you have some goals for this year that you are really excited about?