Tag Archives: job

Showing My Stress (or Hoping Things Will Get Better Now)

Posted on January 22, 2019 | 1 comment

There is no question that things have been stressful in my life lately. There are lots of different things that have causing me stress, but the biggest one has been my job hunt. Finding a job has been surprisingly difficult for me. I’ve applied for so many jobs and most of them have turned out to either be scams or misleading. Companies will post that their job is a remote position but then when you have an interview they tell you that it’s not and the pay rate is significantly lower than what they posted. I don’t know if they figure that since you went to the interview you would be ok with any changes or what. But it’s been very annoying to be spending time on interviews that are for jobs that aren’t what I believe them to be.

I’ve had several breakdowns while doing this job hunt. There have been days where I can’t stop thinking about my situation and will be calling different friends or family members crying hysterically. I’ve had to limit how much time I spend job hunting because when I didn’t limit myself I would feel so much worse about things. I’ve tried to keep thinking positively about things, but it’s not easy when it seems like you can’t make any progress or have even the smallest of victories or wins.

Stress is never really that good for anyone. I’m sure having minor stress in your life is good for something, but not having the type of stress I have been dealing with for the past few months. But I also have a few different auto immune diseases and I know that stress makes them so much worse. I was lucky that things hadn’t been that bad for me until recently, but it’s definitely hit me now and it’s showing on my body.

My auto immune diseases have different physical symptoms, but only one is really obvious when I’m out and about. I have alopecia which means I have patches of hair loss. This started when I was 14 when we discovered that behind both of my ears I lost a lot of hair. My parents took me to the doctor where I was diagnosed and we did some different treatments to make my hair come back. I’ve had patchy bald spots from time to time on my head and in my eyebrows, but it’s never been as bad as that first time. Most of time, it’s been weird little patches that are hidden by my hair. I sometimes see them and my friend who does my hair will see them. But when the bald spots aren’t on my hairline they aren’t as obvious.

But a few weeks ago, I started to notice my hair falling out more than normal. I would wash my hair and have handfuls of hair coming out. I didn’t find any bald spots so I assumed it was just all over hair loss (something else I have to deal with). But then I noticed a big patch on the back of my head where I lost my hair. I think I’m lucky because the way it fell out it looks more like that’s my natural hairline. But I can tell the difference and it’s very obvious to me. It is on my hairline on the back of my head, so there is a chance that it had been a bunch of smaller bald spots that just got worse recently. But all I know is that I only discovered the bald spot about a week ago.

There are some treatment options for me to try, but I’m not too sure if I want to do them. The best option that has worked for me is to get a bunch of shots in the bald spot. If it was worse looking, I probably would do it. I think I’m the only one who is really noticing it now and I don’t want to have to do all of the shots I know I’d need to do.

And the other reason I’m not going to do treatments now is that my stress has been lessened quite a bit. I still don’t have another job that I can count on, but I did get an email from my old boss last week. There is not a contract for my old job, but she was able to offer me a contract for a temporary job! I will be working for about 4 months and it will be more hours per week than I had on my old contract. It’s not enough in those 4 months to cover an entire year, but it will give me some time to breathe and figure out my next step. I will still be job hunting like I have been doing, but now I will be able to pay my bills.

I hate how much the stress has affected me, but I also know that how my body reacts isn’t always in my control. Auto immune diseases are complicated and I have had to learn how to roll with the punches with them. I’m just glad it wasn’t worse and that there’s a chance that it will start getting better now.

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Default ThumbnailOver A Month On Vyvanse (or A Meeting With My Therapist) Default ThumbnailTrying To Not Let My Stress Get To Me (or Continuing To Find Ways To Cope With Isolation) Default ThumbnailAt Least A Little More Work (or Getting My Contract Extended Again) Default ThumbnailDay One Of Unemployment (or Trying To Not Stress Out) Default ThumbnailDouble Shift Days (or Hoping To Make Enough Money By Payday) Default ThumbnailA Bit Over-Scheduled (or Starting To Stress Out)

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An Almost End Of The Year Review (or Looking Back At My Goals)

Posted on December 28, 2018 | 1 comment

I know there are still a few more days left in the year, but I wanted to get my end of the year recap done before the new year started. I feel like it’s a nice transition to have a clean break from year to year and I didn’t necessarily want to spend the beginning of the new year going through the past. So I figured with a few days left I would have a good idea on where I would stand with my goals by the end of the year.

My first goal I had this year was to do 199 Orangetheory workouts. That one I accomplished and I’ll finish out the year with a few more! I should be at 206 workouts by the last day of the year unless something happens that prevents me from going to one of my planned workouts. But even if I didn’t go for those classes, I will still be ahead of the goal! I did 4 workouts a week almost every week which made it easy to make it to over 199. I thought I’d have more 3 workout weeks over the year but I didn’t have that many. I tried to look back at my schedule and I don’t think I had any 5 workout weeks (I could be wrong) which is what I thought I’d need to do a few times to make sure I made it to my goal. I’m so glad that this goal ended up being relatively easy to accomplish since it seemed like one that would be tough for me.

And I’m lucky that first goal was easy for me to accomplish because it ended up being the only goal I really did accomplish that I had set for myself. I don’t want to make excuses for myself, but for some of these goals I didn’t meet there is a reason. But I still need to hold myself accountable for why I didn’t do what I was hoping to do.

The next 2 goals I had are somewhat related. I wanted to find a 5K race to do and I wanted to get a new PR on my mile time. Neither of those happened and if I’m being totally honest I really don’t care too much that they didn’t happen. Doing 5K races was a big part of my life for a long time, but that was also a while ago. I didn’t have Orangetheory when I did a bunch of races every year and I think having a regular workout has made me not feel as motivated to find races. I had a few races that I kept doing, but once they stopped having races each year I didn’t try to find a replacement. And with wanting to get a new mile PR time, I really thought I’d be able to do much more running this year than I have been able to do. This is due to multiple factors like getting sick, my hormonal nausea, and other things that have prevented me from using the treadmill as much as I wanted to do. Getting a new mile PR used to be so important to me and a sign of my progress, but I’ve had to learn new ways to measure my progress and the mile time has lost some of the importance it used to have.

The next goal I failed on is one that I feel like I have the most excuses for. I had a number in my head that I wanted to get my debt below. I was making real progress toward this for the first part of the year and I was so excited about it. But then I didn’t have as many hours with one of my jobs as I thought I would have and then that job wasn’t able to offer me a new contract like we expected. Being down one job meant that I didn’t have the money to put toward paying my credit card that I used to and I had to start using my credit card for more things than I would have liked to. Losing a job and using my credit card to pay for regular expenses is how I got into debt. I’m trying to stop this before it gets as bad as it did before (and I’ll have more on that in my 2019 goals), but it did increase how much I owed on the card. It’s unfortunate, but it’s my reality. I wasn’t expecting to lose a job and I don’t make enough money right now to really have savings to cover a job loss. I know this is bad and I want to fix this, but for now I have to just focus on finding a new job so I can get back to paying down my debt.

And my last goal I had for 2018 was to keep doing what I’ve been doing with my eating disorder recovery. While I wouldn’t say I necessarily failed at accomplishing this, but it didn’t go the way I planned it would. I did keep doing what I was doing and I’ve found new things that do work for me and I’ve dropped things that I found weren’t working for me anymore. I had the hope that I would feel like I made more progress by this point, but I also know that recovery is a weird journey and it’s not always easy to judge progress.

Even though I really only accomplished one of my goals I set for the year, I don’t see that necessarily as a bad thing. Instead, I feel like I had a minor failure to plan with my goals which is a newer issue for me. I think I need to allow myself to alter and change my goals throughout the year. If I had that as the plan, I would have switched out my running related goals before the year was half over to something else that was fitness related. Maybe I would have had a goal to be able to use a certain weight for an exercise or I would have changed it to a goal on the rower or bike. But I felt like my goals were set for the year and I didn’t want to alter them. That is something I will be changing as well as adding to my monthly challenge planning reminder to look back at my goals for the year to see what steps I need to make and if there are any changes that should happen.

It’s so funny to think about how happy I am to have goals I failed at because it has given me a lot of insight into myself and how I can make the next year even better. And I’ve got some interesting goals in mind for 2019 that I’ll be sharing next week that have been inspired by me not reaching my goals. Sometimes you need a setback to help you think clearly and I think that’s exactly what I had this year.

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Asking For Help Again (or Trying Not To Feel Desperate)

Posted on December 19, 2018 | 2 comments

Job hunting has been a part of my life for a long time. Even when I had regular jobs, I’m always looking for other things I can do because it never hurts to make more money. I figure the more money I make, the quicker I can pay off my credit card. This has been my game plan for a long time because I want to have no debt in my life, but it just hasn’t been my reality yet. For a while, I was doing pretty well at making dents into what I owe, even if I wasn’t going at the pace I wanted to. But it was amazing to see the total owed go down and I felt hopeful that I would reach my goal eventually.

But lately, that’s not what has been happening. I’m down to one day job right now, and that job doesn’t pay enough for me to live off of it. It basically pays enough to cover my rent and maybe one of my cheapest utility bills. I’ve been looking for a new job for a while and looking for a job is almost like a full time job for me. When I started job hunting, I mainly focused on remote positions that I could do around my current job schedule. That worked out really well with my last job and it would be amazing to find something like that again. Then I started looking at remote jobs that would be replacing my current job. Even though I enjoy my current job and it’s easy, I can’t keep it if there is something else out there for me that can pay me enough. And now I’m just applying for anything and everything I’m right for.

On average, I’m guessing I’m applying for 50-60 jobs a day. It’s a lot and it’s a bit ridiculous, but I have to do whatever it takes to find another job. I hate feeling so hopeless and stressed, but I honestly don’t know what else to do. I know I am very lucky and privileged that if it comes down to it, my parents can help me out a bit. But I don’t want to ask for their help. They already do so much for me and it’s so embarrassing that I can’t be an adult and take care of my financial stuff myself. I hate feeling dependent on someone else and even though I’m grateful to have them there if I need it, I don’t want to have to ask. I’ve already spoken to my parents about my current situation and they know what’s going on, but I’ve also said over and over that I don’t want to have to ask for help from them. I am just trying to stay hopeful that something will come my way.

And like with the other job hunting type posts I’ve written on here, I’m asking you all for help. If any of you know of any jobs, can you please comment on here, use the contact form to reach me, or message me on social media? I’d love a remote job and that would allow me to work for companies anywhere in the world, but if they are non-remote jobs I’m looking for something in LA (preferably on the westside of LA but I can’t afford to be picky right now). I have found jobs through my friends so many times and I have a feeling that my next job will be through a referral again since that seems to be the most common way people are finding work these days.

And I’m looking at lots of random side jobs that I could do. I’ve gotten my availability back up for babysitting again on the apps I’m registered with since that can be really good money. I’ve looked into doing dog walking which is something I did years ago (I stopped because the company I worked for was being weird about paying their employees). I’ve looked into working for the scooter companies for charging scooters. And I’m signing up with different temp agencies because I know that maybe I’ll find something good that way.

I’m really doing whatever I can right now and it’s just hard when things aren’t happening for me. I have gotten some rejections from applications I’ve been doing online and at least that proves that someone is seeing what I’m sending out. And I have gotten some responses back regarding some of the jobs, but when I looked into them they appear to be more of a scam than a job (like having to pay to work for them or the point of the job is to get friends to sign up). As much as I want to believe I will find something soon, I know right now is a weird time to get a job with the holidays. I won’t stop applying for things because of that, but I’ve also had to be realistic and realize that I might not be able to find something until the new year.

All I can do is keep applying for everything I can, keep asking if anyone knows of any jobs, and hope for the best. I know eventually I will find something, but I really thought that eventually would have happened by now.

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Default ThumbnailA Job Hunting Update (or Making Sure I Don’t Repeat My Financial Year Again) Default ThumbnailJob Hunting (or You Never Know Unless You Ask) Default ThumbnailAnother Almost Job (or It’s Feeling Like Groundhog Day) Default ThumbnailTime To Make A Game Plan (or Guess I’ll Be Doing Some Job Hunting) Default ThumbnailFeeling Secure (or Not Letting Past Jobs Make Me Feel Bad Anymore) Default ThumbnailUnemployed Again (or Trying To Not Make It Feel Like Summer Break)

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Job Hunting (or You Never Know Unless You Ask)

Posted on October 19, 2018 | Comments Off on Job Hunting (or You Never Know Unless You Ask)

I’ve written about my job situation on here a few times. It’s been up and down over the years, but I have been lucky that for the past few years things have been relatively steady. I’ve had 2 main day jobs and even though one of them varied in the number of hours it was still something. But since one of my day jobs is a government contract job, it’s always been a bit of an unknown what each year would be like for me.

My contracts for that job are renewed each September and it was looking like this contract was actually going to be a much bigger contract than what we thought. I was so excited about that because money is always tight for me and I can use more money to pay off more debt. But then things changed and there was no new contract for me this September. This is not due to my work performance or even what my job wants. It literally is a government contract that is decided way above all of our heads. My boss felt horrible that there wasn’t a new contract right away, but she was hopeful there would be a new one soon.

I thought maybe there would be a month or two delay before the new contract was ready to go. And it’s still possible that I’ll be signing my new contract soon, but there’s no date estimate yet. It could still be a few more months or it could be tomorrow. But right now there is no way to know when it will happen until it happens.

I do expect that I will be working for that job again soon, but at the same time I need to figure out something else to help supplement my income right now. Even though I didn’t make a ton of money at the job during the past contract, it was money that paid my bills and I need it. I did just get a small raise at my other day job, but that only covers about 25% of what I was making at the contract job. So while I have been a bit lazy about job hunting (because I was hoping that I would be on a new contract soon), I can’t do that anymore. I need to find something that I can do that will cover what I’m not making right now.

I’ve had a lot of luck with finding jobs through people I know or people I previously worked for. My current box office job is through a friend who worked for the company. My contract job is through an old boss of mine. And my will call job (which is usually one day every other month or so) is also through an old boss of mine. Even the random temporary jobs I have had in the past few years have been from friends knowing I’m looking for work and knew of a job that fit what I can do.

So I’m putting it out here again. I need another part-time job. Ideally it would be a remote position so I could work from home like I already do and that I could do it between my customers at my box office job. I have a lot of downtime and would prefer to use it productively instead of watching lots of random things online or searching different Internet forums. I know that I’m asking for something very specific, but I know what type of work would work best in my current situation. And hopefully there would be something that fits that and is looking to hire.

It would be amazing if someone reading this knows of a job that I could apply for. I am always so grateful for people who are willing and able to help me out or consider me for jobs they know about. It’s not easy finding a job, especially a job that is flexible enough for me to continue pursing acting. It’s a hustle to make it doing what I love, but it’s so worth it to me. I know that one day my hard work will pay off and I look forward to that day. But for now, I need to find another day job to help support me in pursing my dreams. And hopefully putting this out there will help me find that job and will be the next amazing story of all the day jobs I’ve had.

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Am I In A Rut? (or Not Sure What To Do About Work)

Posted on October 4, 2018 | Comments Off on Am I In A Rut? (or Not Sure What To Do About Work)

I’ve had several friends that have been in ruts lately. Sometimes they realize this on their own, and sometimes they have something dramatic happen in their lives and then they realize they can’t just keep doing things the same way anymore. Either way, I’m always so proud of my friends when they are able to make positive changes for themselves. They always seem so much happier and all I want for my friends is for them to be happy.

I’ve been in a couple of ruts in the past before. Sometimes it’s a rut with my day job and sometimes it’s a rut with my fitness or health. It’s not easy to change things up, but when I do I always feel so much better and I feel like the change was necessary. These ruts have led me to some new and fun things and I’ve never really had any regrets. I just see these changes as positive moves in my life and even if they don’t work for me I am glad I just tried to see if they would.

I don’t necessarily feel like I’m in a rut right now, but because I have so many friends going through them I’ve been questioning it. Things have been pretty stable and boring for me lately, but I like that. I have things in my life that are hectic or dramatic, so I like having other aspects of my life normal and routine. But I also know that sometimes when I feel this sense of comfort in my life that means I do need to make a change.

The main thing I have been debating about is my day job situation. I’m fine with my box office job right now. I would love if I got paid a bit more, but I should be getting a small raise around the new year. But my other day job hasn’t been able to tell me yet when they can bring me back. I haven’t worked for them since the end of September. I thought a month or two off wouldn’t be too bad since that job didn’t pay me that much. But even missing that little bit of income is affecting me and I know I need to figure out something.

I’m going to try to wait it out a bit more because I do want to keep working that job. It’s really an ideal situation because I can do it between the customers at my box office job and my boss knows me well so she doesn’t have to micromanage me. Plus, I actually enjoyed the work. It wasn’t that tough to find events to add to the calendar, but it was fun seeing what different things were happening around LA and different organizations that I might be interested in doing things with in the future.

I think waiting it out really is the right choice because I’m so unsure if I need to make a change. I don’t want to stress too much about when I will be working with them again, but I also know that eventually if they can’t add me to a new contract that I will need to find a new job. So I have casually looked at jobs online to see what is out there. It’s tough because I have requirements that aren’t always compatible with all jobs, but at least I’m not under a time crunch right now.

I think that this uncertainty with my job is just something that I feel from time to time. I have felt it with almost all jobs I’ve had as an adult. I wonder if I am doing what I should be doing or if I will be blindsided one day by losing my job. I want to be a step ahead so that if I do lose my job I am not at a disadvantage. I’ve been in jobs where I had no clue I was going to be let go and I hate that feeling. But I also know that this situation I’m in now isn’t that. As soon as my boss has a better idea of what will be happening she’ll let me know. It has nothing to do with me or my job performance. It’s just the downside of working a contract gig that depends on government funding.

I have said this a million times before and I’m sure I’ll say it again, but just getting all that out has made me feel so much better. I needed to rant and typing it out has helped me get into a better mindset. This blog seriously is one of my best forms of therapy.

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Actors With Day Jobs (or An Empowering Hashtag)

Posted on September 7, 2018 | Comments Off on Actors With Day Jobs (or An Empowering Hashtag)

If you were on twitter over the weekend, you may have noticed #actorswithdayjobs as one of the trending hashtags. I usually don’t pay too much attention to trending hashtags or topics on twitter because so often they are things I don’t have a clue about or know what’s happening. But this time I knew all about it and what was going on. And as an added bonus, it was a friend of mine who started the hashtag going!

If you aren’t familiar with what happened, this is a quick version of the story. Geoffrey Owens is an actor and he is known for big shows like “The Cosby Show”. Someone was at a Trader Joe’s and noticed that he was working there. They took a picture of him and sent it to some news/tabloid outlets saying how he was working there. For some reason, those outlets decided to shame an actor for working a day job between other jobs. Fortunately, most people were disgusted by this and were shaming the outlets for the story and sharing their support for Geoffrey Owens. And one way they were showing support was to share their day jobs with the hashtag.

I couldn’t believe that people were trying to shame him for working an honest job but I was inspired by seeing how much support he got from people who understand the journey of an actor. There is absolutely no shame in having a day job. I have several of them and have written about them on here and on other blogs. Even if you work on a couple of shows in a year, that money isn’t necessarily enough to support you for all the time you aren’t working. Most actors work jobs in-between their acting jobs. It’s not something that is weird or unheard of. It’s something that almost everyone I know does and is a normal part of life.

And this isn’t just an actor thing. I have some friends who are teachers who work a second job after school, on the weekends, or during school breaks to make enough money to support themselves. I have friends who work in an office job and drive for Uber or Lyft during their time off to make ends meet. I wish that most jobs would pay a living wage, especially in expensive cities like LA, but that’s just not the case. Many people I know cannot support themselves on a single job. And those who can consider themselves very lucky.

There was a lot of discussion around the hashtag with a political slant as well. Some people were saying that certain news outlets say that they are for the working class, but then those news outlets were also the ones that shamed Geoffrey Owens for working. There was also discussion about respecting freelancers and union members as actors are both of those. But even taking out the political things, I think most people understand why the articles shaming him were ridiculous and why we should all support each other and we should appreciate those who work hard.

I’m so glad the hashtag was created because it did allow for me to spend time on social media over the weekend reading the various stories of actors and their day jobs. I did enjoy seeing what jobs my friends were listing and seeing what jobs actors that I dream of working with used to do. It was a way to create solidarity among actors no matter what level we are at in our careers.

It was a bit ironic and fitting that this all happened over Labor Day weekend when we are celebrating unions and the worker’s rights that they got us. But I think the timing also helped to make the hashtag go viral and get more people wanting to share their stories. And I think because it went viral, people who may have been embarrassed they have day jobs realized how normal it is and that it isn’t something that needs to be hidden. I saw more conversation online about day jobs over the weekend than I ever have seen before and the conversation hasn’t stopped. Hopefully any stigma people thought existed about having day jobs have started to fade and that fear can be changed into a more positive energy.

I know that there are so many stories about social media being bad or giving a platform to bullies. I’m just glad that I get to see the positives from social media as well. And while this story started as a negative that turned into a positive conversation, I think that almost makes it more empowering.

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Time To Make A Game Plan (or Guess I’ll Be Doing Some Job Hunting)

Posted on August 29, 2018 | Comments Off on Time To Make A Game Plan (or Guess I’ll Be Doing Some Job Hunting)

Last week I wrote about how things were getting back to normal and how at one of my day jobs I was told the new contract would have more hours than what I’m currently working. I was so relieved because I knew there was a chance I wasn’t going to get another contract or that the hours would be the same or even reduced more. But when I found out that the new contract should be better, I relaxed and started thinking about how I could get back on track with budgeting and paying down my debt.

This day job is technically under a government contract that is based on specific grants and funding sources. My boss isn’t responsible for how many hours I get to work as it is based on my pay rate and the total amount the contract would be for. We base the hours on dividing the amount for the contract by my rate and then we figure out how many hours a week I get for that year. It’s not easy when I know my boss has no control over how much I can work because I know she would love to have me work as much as I was before. But at the same time, it’s nice when things are set for the year so I can plan.

And of course, like everything else in my life, things changed since last week. Unfortunately, the grants and funding that they were planning on using for my new contract (which should be starting next week) didn’t fall into place. So I don’t have a new contract for that job now. This doesn’t mean I’m totally let go from that job. My boss is hoping to get the funding in place soon so many I will only miss a few weeks of work. But since it’s not in her control she honestly has no idea when I will be able to start working again. There is also another project that she was going to have me help with but the timeline for that project is still up in the air. But as soon as it’s starting she plans on bringing me on for it.

While this job didn’t make me a ton of money, it was still money that I needed. I am trying to be optimistic that I will be working for that job again soon, but I’m also realistic. If the contract doesn’t happen for more than a month, I don’t know how long I can pay for everything I need to with just the money I make at my box office job. I need more than that and I don’t really have any savings since any extra money I have goes toward my credit card. So I need to really get serious about figuring out money things.

I have no plans on leaving my box office job since it really is a good gig for what it is. I am probably going to be getting a raise in the next few months there which will help and I can do almost any other remote type position along with the job. So I’m planning on sticking with it. But I need to find something to help bring in more money since it’s not enough right now. And I’ve talked about looking for more jobs since extra money is always a good thing so I guess this is the kick in my butt that I needed.

Remote or work from home jobs aren’t the easiest to find. There are a bunch of jobs posted online that are just scams (like they say you have to pay for a class in order to work and then there is no job after you pay them) but there are some out there. I haven’t really looked for a job seriously in a while so I need to get back to where I was looking before and reach out to my network of people to see if anyone knows of any jobs. All of my recent jobs have come from friends or old bosses of mine. And those seem to be the best job matches for me because they know my skill set and my current job situation.

I’m hoping that this delay in the new contract is super temporary and in a few days I’ll be writing on here that things are back to normal and everything is good again. It would be awesome if that happens because job hunting is stressful and I’m already worried I won’t be able to find something. But I also know that if the delay takes longer and I really do need another job, something is going to come my way. I’ve been very lucky that things do seem to happen that way for me and even when I feel like things aren’t in my favor they do end up working out.

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Finding Ways To Treat Myself (or I Wish Money Wasn’t An Issue)

Posted on June 29, 2018 | Comments Off on Finding Ways To Treat Myself (or I Wish Money Wasn’t An Issue)

This post is similar to what I’ll be writing when I do my recap of how my monthly challenge went, but it’s a bit different. I’ve been working on reconnecting to myself and doing things that make me happy. And as I’ve been working on that, I’ve discovered one area where I’ve been not really able to work on things. And that is doing things that feel special to me or treating myself.

It may seem like I treat myself a lot because I do fun things. But most of those things are something I’ve saved up for to do (like my Pantages tickets or my Disneyland pass) or things that I get to do for free or at a discount because either I review them on here (and I will always disclose when I get a discount or free item for a review) or because I have a connection with someone who can help me out (like when I got to go to the friends and family day at Face Haus). But beyond the things that have been planned for a while or that I have a connection to, I really don’t seem to go outside of the set things I spend money on.

Of course, a lot of this has to do with lack of funding. If I had unlimited money (or significantly more money), I would not hesitate to spend on things I wanted to do. I’ve been wanting to get my house professionally cleaned recently. I don’t need a weekly or even monthly cleaning person, but I’d love to do a deep clean from someone who knows what they are doing once or twice a year. This doesn’t have to be expensive, but it’s not in my budget right now. I’d also love to either buy fresh flowers or have a delivery of fresh flowers on a regular basis. I have some friends who do this and it always seems so nice to have flowers in your home. Plus, flowers always seem to put a smile on your face, even when you ordered them for yourself. And then there are all the fun monthly/quarterly subscription boxes that so many people do and love. I have a list of ones I’d want to try if I could afford it.

All of those things are more of luxury splurges because I could be fine without any of them. But then there are the more basic splurges that I’ve been not doing either. I don’t get pedicures regularly, but I try to do it a few times a year (I have issues with my toenails sometimes and a pedicure is cheaper than an appointment with a podiatrist). I’ve been saying for almost 3 months that I was going to set aside time to go get a pedicure but I haven’t done it yet. Money is a small part of why I’ve been putting it off, but I also just don’t feel at times that I deserve it or should do it. It’s the same with buying clothes. I would love to buy the rare nicer piece of clothing that doesn’t feel as much as throwaway clothing. I’ve got some things picked out that I’d like to get and I haven’t purchased them. This one is a bit about money but also a bit about wanting to wait until I’m a different size to buy stuff. Either way, I’m delaying doing something that I’d like to do.

Obviously I can’t just go out and buy all the things I want and do all the things on my list. I do need to budget and find where the money is in my budget to spend. And some of these things may need to be something I save a few dollars a month for and then later this year I can do it. But I’m also looking at adding another job to what I’m doing. I’ve got one job that should be very part-time and won’t pay a ton of money, but I think it will cover at least my cable and power bills each month. It should be starting in the next month or two and I’m excited about it. And I’m meeting with someone soon who knows me through the podcast I work for and wanted to see if there is something that they can hire me to do. They don’t have a specific job for me to apply for, but they wanted to see if we could work together.

If I have these new jobs, they will probably fit into my schedule with my current ones. And I plan on doing them all if possible. I could use all the additional income toward my debt and then once that is eventually paid off I could reevaluate things. The priority is to pay off my debt as soon as possible, but I also know I need to allow some flexibility to have some fun money. But until I have that extra income, I think my list for how I want to spend the fun money is going to have to just stay a list for now.

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Posted in Beauty, Fun Stuff, Saving, Shopping, Tough Stuff

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Continuing To Be Inspired By Podcasts (or Turning A Passion Into A Paycheck)

Posted on April 5, 2018 | Comments Off on Continuing To Be Inspired By Podcasts (or Turning A Passion Into A Paycheck)

I’ve written about how much I love podcasts on here before. Podcasts are one of the main forms of entertainment in my life along with tv shows and reading. And while many of the podcasts I listen to are educational, there are some that I listen to just for how fun they are. But the best ones seem to be the ones that mix fun and educational.

I was listening to a new episode of a newer podcast, Bossed Up, yesterday and the most recent episode really stuck with me. Bossed Up is all about empowering yourself in whatever you do for work. For many people that means branching out on your own and becoming your own boss. But you can still be a boss at work even if you aren’t a boss by title. And a lot of this most recent episode was about feeling unqualified in a position you may hold at work. But what really connected to me was a brief part of that interview that discussed doing what you love for work.

They were talking about how sometimes you have to take chances and go for a dream job and other times you need to take a day job while you figure out what your dream job is and how you can accomplish it. You may need time to figure out how to turn your passion into a paycheck and there is nothing wrong with that. While some people are ashamed about having a day job while they are pursuing their dreams, pretty much everyone has to have a day job at some point. It’s extremely rare to not need to have a way to make money between jobs at least for a little bit of time.

I’ve never been ashamed to have day jobs. I’ve talked about them on here before and I’m always happy to talk to other people about what I do for work to support myself while I’m pursuing acting. But at the same time, I do feel like I’ve been settling in my day jobs a bit. I’ve gotten into a relatively comfortable space where I know what I need to do each day and I’m good at doing them. But things aren’t in my control like how one of my day jobs had to cut back my hours significantly. And when that happens, I’m in a bit of a tailspin trying to get out of the situation and making sure that my budget isn’t totally screwed up or that I am struggling.

This podcast episode reinvigorated me and made me really think about what I want to do as day jobs while I pursue acting. I have no intention of leaving any of my day jobs soon. Even if I found another job to do, I’d try to find a way to keep my current jobs so I could have more money to put toward paying down my credit card debt. But I would love to transition my day jobs at some point in the future.

It would be nice to have a day job that I enjoy doing instead of just tolerating at times. While it’s nice to have a ton of downtime and I can goof off while I’m getting paid when there are no customers to help, it would feel amazing to feel productive and know that I’m working. But at the same time, I need a day job that is flexible and would allow me to continue auditioning and doing other actor related things. That is not an easy combination to find which is why I am so grateful in my current situation.

But maybe it’s time to think about what I could do on my own to support myself. I do have skills that I’m not using to their full potential that I know others would probably pay me to do. I need to be a bit more aggressive about those things and seeing who would hire me. And I probably do need to strengthen those skills a bit more as well so I could be at the top of my game. But with those skills, I’m still a bit unsure on how to combine them or how to market myself to try to find work doing that.

While creating my own day job right now probably isn’t going to happen, that doesn’t mean I should just sit back and keep doing what I’m doing. I should work on building those skills and seeing what jobs are out there that are similar to what I could do. I might need to start networking myself with those skills (instead of just marketing myself as an actor). And maybe there is something I haven’t thought about or considered that I will discover and it will take me down a path I never imagined.

I really have no clue what my future holds, but I do know that I want to be more proactive and try to make some more changes to my life and my work situation. And I’m so grateful that I was listening to a podcast episode that inspired me to get my butt in gear about this.

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Another Time A Friend Found Me A Job (or It Really Is About Who Knows You)

Posted on March 23, 2018 | Comments Off on Another Time A Friend Found Me A Job (or It Really Is About Who Knows You)

There’s a saying that it’s all about who you know. While that is true, I think the more accurate statement is that it’s all about who knows you. Knowing someone is good, but someone else knowing you and thinking of you for a job is even better. My 2 main day jobs are both from friends knowing I needed work. My box office job is from a friend who worked for that company as an actor and knew I did box office work in the past. And my research job is from an old boss who is now my current boss at the new company she is at. And now I’ve got another job that I’ll be doing because of a friend thinking of me.

One of the actors I know through my SAG-AFTRA slate is a part of a new web series. They’ve completed their filming and are getting ready to promote it and release it. They are also looking at doing more seasons of the show. And since they are in the promotion phase of the project, they needed someone who is good with social media to do their posts. And my friend thought of me since I’m pretty good at social media and have taught others how to do some things on it.

My first worry was that I didn’t know enough to do the job. I have friends who have degrees in social media management and it’s not as easy of a job as it can seem. There are lots of things to do that are beyond just posting and monitoring the conversation. But I agreed to talk to the producers of the project to see what they needed and hopefully it would fit what I could do. And after chatting with them, it did seem like they only needed work that I knew how to do and they didn’t need the complicated things like analytics like some companies would require of a social media manager. So we worked out the terms of what the contract would be and I started working for them this week!

The job fits in perfectly with my other jobs and I’m so grateful for that. I’m aware of how lucky I am that I’ve managed to find jobs that work around the schedules of the others and that none of my jobs affect the performance I can do at the others. I’m in a really privileged position right now and I’m always shocked when I’m able to add another job that works with the others. I’m always worried if I find another job that I want to do that I would need to quit at least one of the others. But that hasn’t been the case yet.

And I do need to keep looking for more work. This new job will help me financially, but as of right now it’s only for a month. I think it will be extended beyond the month, but it’s not a guarantee yet. But financially things haven’t been as great as they were in the past. The hours with my research job were cut back by 2/3rds due to the contract that I’m under. It’s got a maximum they can pay out for it and my boss doesn’t control that so she can only offer me what they offer her. She is looking for any other contracts I can work under so I can get some more hours, but right now there aren’t any others I can take on.

And I recently had dinner with my boss from the research job and we were able to talk about work a bit. I asked if she knew if I’d be getting a new contract after the current one is done and she really didn’t know. She is still going to be looking for any other contracts I can work under, but the one that has been renewed each year since I started there isn’t necessarily going to renew again. That can always change and as soon as my boss knows she will be telling me. But I’m glad that I know now that it’s not a guarantee yet like it was in the past.

Maybe I can make this social media job into something more than what it is right now. Maybe the producers of this show will be really happy with my work and will bring me on for another project or refers me to others. I know the power of referrals and I’m always working hard so that hopefully I will get a referral in the future. I’m not totally sure what the next steps will be since there is still so much up in the air with my research job, but for now I’m just so grateful that another friend referred me for an awesome job!

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