Tag Archives: work

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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Default ThumbnailAnother Rut In My Life (or Time For Some Shopping) Default ThumbnailGetting My Butt In Gear (or Missing Out On Fun Stuff To Work) Default ThumbnailWork Begets Work (Old Bosses Possible New Jobs) Default ThumbnailWork Work Work (or Another Very Part Time Job) Default ThumbnailWorking To Find Work (or Maybe My Last Work Related Post Did Get Read) Default ThumbnailReadjusting (or I Guess I Forgot What It Felt Like To Work My Work Schedule)

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Posted in Tough Stuff, Work

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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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Default Thumbnail#YesAllWomen (or This Is Why This Hashtag Is Important) Default ThumbnailLA Actors Tweetup (or My LA Family) Default ThumbnailPodcasts and Twitter (or An Evening Out With Some Actors) Default ThumbnailThe End Of The Election (or Actors Please Remember To Vote) Default ThumbnailWorking Girl (or The Secrets of Day Jobs) Default ThumbnailUnion Working (or Connecting With My Fellow Actors)

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff, Work

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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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So Grateful To Work From Home (or Just Getting Through The Day)

Posted on August 15, 2018 | Comments Off on So Grateful To Work From Home (or Just Getting Through The Day)

Despite the fact that I have had to deal with my horrible hormonal nausea issues for almost 2 years, it still takes me by surprise many times when it hits me. Sometimes it’s because I thought maybe I’d be escaping the issues that month and sometimes I think I forget how bad things can get for me. I have multiple remedies and prescriptions to help me, but it doesn’t always work. I’m continuing to work with my doctor to find what other things I can do, but since the best remedy (any form of hormonal birth control) is not an option for me it can be tough to figure out what I can do. It’s a lot of trial and error and it can be a long process to find what will work.

I knew this week was potentially going to be a bad week for me, but since it wasn’t that bad for me last week I was optimistic. I am grateful that I track things so that I am aware when I might feel horrible, and it’s always a pleasant surprise when I feel completely normal. I woke up on Monday not feeling so great and tried my best to do what I could. But I was getting sick and in a lot of pain and just had to suffer through it. I was able to reschedule a dentist appointment I was supposed to have then because I was terrified to get sick there (so I guess that’s one good thing my nausea got me). It wasn’t the worst I had felt but it was also not nothing and I just had to take it easy and hope I would feel better the next day.

When trying to sleep on Monday night, I was miserable. Nothing I had was helping me and I know that I didn’t get a lot of sleep. I was tossing and turning and getting up every 30 minutes or so to try to stretch out or take some painkillers. Tuesday morning I needed to work and I don’t know if I’ve ever been more grateful to work from home. We are at the end of our slow season so there was a bit of downtime between customers. I spent that downtime laying on my couch or on the floor to try to feel better. I was moving my body around to find how to make the pain go away and I know I looked crazy.

If this had happened at any of my old day jobs, I don’t know what I would have done. This pain is the exact reason I was put on the pill to begin with. I didn’t want to have to suffer while in school or trying to work and have to miss several days of whatever I was doing to stay home. I’m so grateful that I’m at home while I work so I can do all the crazy things I might need to do to try to feel better. All of my remedies are here so I can try whatever I need to. And worst case, I can bring my computer and phone with me into my bed and I can work from there. But I try not to do that since it is so much easier to type on a desk than on my bed.

I hate feeling like I’m complaining about this because I know that some people have it much worse than I do. But I’ve also noticed that when I have written about things like this that people reach out to me saying they have the same issue. Sometimes they find something in my post that helps them and sometimes they have something to recommend for me to try.

I am cautiously optimist that things might get better from me. When I starting dealing with this all again, I was averaging almost 2 weeks a month of pain and nausea. The last few months it’s been closer to a week or a week and a half of issues. And last month was just a week. I don’t think it will ever go away completely but if it could stay just a week or be more mild than it has been in the past I would be so happy. I hate the feeling that I’m missing out on things or not able to do what I need because of something that happens every month for me.

But for now, I’m just trying to make it through however many days I will feel like this and will try to figure out any other things I can do while working to try to feel better.

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Default ThumbnailSleeping Away The Day (or Sometimes The Pain and Nausea Are Just Too Bad) Default ThumbnailWorking Through The Workouts (Modifications Are Harder At Home) Default ThumbnailEnough With Being Sick (or Holy Moly I’m Craving Exercise) Default ThumbnailCan’t My Body Have A Break? (or Back To Back Issues) Default ThumbnailI Feel Like My Body Is Playing Tricks On Me (or Trying To Beat My Nausea) Default ThumbnailI Guess This Makes Me Feel A Bit Better (or A Physical Explanation For My Emotional Symptoms)

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Posted in Health, Tough Stuff, Work

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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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Default ThumbnailLive Podcast Episode (or Another Way You Can Support Me) Default ThumbnailContinuing To Find Ways To Be Creative (or Podcasts and Online Shows) Default ThumbnailUsing Podcasts To Better Myself (or Continuing To Be A Podcast Addict) Default ThumbnailSharing My Union With A Friend (or Continuing To Be Inspired And Involved) Default ThumbnailTurning Myself Into A Morning Person (or Continuing On My Productivity Kick) Default ThumbnailPodcasts and Twitter (or An Evening Out With Some Actors)

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff, Work

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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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Working On Productivity (or Taking Advantage Of The Slow Season)

Posted on March 14, 2018 | Comments Off on Working On Productivity (or Taking Advantage Of The Slow Season)

It’s been the slow season for one of my day jobs for about a month now. Things are crazy from Halloween until Valentine’s Day, pick back up in May through the summer, and then are slow again in September. It’s nice to have a slow season because during the busy season we can be talking to a customer on the phone and have 3 on chat and still have more customers trying to reach us. So when we have downtime, I think we all relax a bit and get things back in order.

I’ll admit that I’m not the best about what I do with my time during work during the slow season. I have to be sitting in front of my computer waiting to see if a call or customer chat comes in, but I’m usually on some website looking up random things or watching videos online. It’s not the best way to spend my time, but sometimes that’s what helps me get through a very slow day. When you are stuck at a computer for 7 hours and you only end up working with a customer for 3 minutes (which happened to me the other day), you kind of need something to help keep you sane.

For a while, I was using the time to watch the Olympics or catch up on things that were on my DVR (my shows piled up in there after being gone for a few days). Mindless entertainment is fine (and I’ll still probably end up using my time to catch up on TV occasionally), but it’s not what I should be doing. I’m using it as a distraction and not as something productive to do in the free time that I’m lucky enough to have.

I’m also lucky that even though I’m working from home I don’t feel isolated. But in reality, I am isolated because I’m just stuck behind a computer without any real human interaction. I do use our messaging system to talk with my co-workers and I talk to customers on the phone, but it’s not the same as going into an office. So if I can figure out how to be more productive during my work downtime, maybe I’ll find more time in my schedule to be social when I’m done with work. I shouldn’t have to be stuck behind a computer after my work shift is done and I’m trying to work on staying off my computer if possible (even for fun things) when I log out of my work shift. I’ve been getting better at doing that, but I know there’s a lot of improvement I could make in that aspect of my life.

I really want to get out of the pattern of just getting through my time at work during the slow time and not really knowing what I did with my time when I’m done. I do have my other job I work between customers, but that job had to significantly cut back my hours so I’m only doing that a few hours a week. And I was thinking about spending the downtime looking at other job options because I do need to start making more money, but I honestly don’t know when I could work since most jobs wouldn’t allow me to work between customers at a job (I’m so lucky my other job lets me do that). I’m also hopeful that I will be getting more hours at my other job so that will make it so I don’t need to find something else.

So I’ve been trying to figure out what I can do while stuck at my computer that is productive but not something that requires so much focus that I couldn’t put it down when I do have customers. So far, I’ve been doing a lot of reading books and news online. I’ve been listening to the backlog of podcasts I’ve got on my phone. And I’ve been doing some of my educational apps on my phone (although that only takes maybe 20 minutes to get through). There are other things I wish I could do during my downtime, but if it requires me to be away from my computer (like cooking so I have more home-cooked meals), I can’t really do it. Work still needs to be my priority, but there’s still so much time that I can devote to something else awesome.

I’d really love some suggestions on ideas of what I could do while I’m waiting for a customer to need help. I know that the slow season will be over before I know it and I’ll be missing all this downtime, but I still want to make sure I use this downtime well and take advantage of the opportunity I have. I know there are better ways I could be spending my time even if I am stuck at my desk, but I just don’t know what they are yet.

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I Hate Complaining About The Heat (or Can It Be Fall Now?)

Posted on October 26, 2017 | 1 comment

If you don’t live in LA, you might not know we are going through a pretty bad heat wave right now. It’s hopefully going to end soon, but it’s been miserable. I know that we have had some heat waves in October in the past, but this is much worse than normal. It has been hotter now than it was over the summer when we had heat waves. Just the other day, this was the temperature by my house (where it rarely gets to 100 degrees).

I know that I’m luckier than others. I do have a little window a/c unit that I can use. And my a/c is pretty energy-efficient so when I use it my electricity bill doesn’t double or triple like some a/c units do for my friends. But even though it isn’t expensive to run, I try to limit how often I run it because I don’t want to get dependent on it and use it more than I can afford. But it’s nice to now that I have it there so that I’m not dealing with nights where it is still over 90 degrees inside my house when I’m trying to sleep.

Over the past few days, I’ve had just fans on for the first part of the day and then when I get home from a workout or whatever I did that afternoon I have to run my a/c until I go to bed. Then I can usually get my house down to a reasonable temperature to sleep in. But it’s still not fun to be stuck in the heat, especially when it heats up my computer while I’m working too. I haven’t resorted to sitting on ice packs like I did in the past, but I’m getting pretty close to that. I also got these cooling towels over the summer to help me sleep when it was too hot inside my house at nighttime. I have been using those around my neck or on my back while working to keep things more comfortable.

I really hope that it cools down soon. I want to feel more comfortable in my house and I hate what the heat does to my body. I’ve been working hard at getting things back on track but now it’s tough to tell if it’s working or not. All of my clothes feel way too tight on me but I know that my body is swollen from heat because nothing fits including shoes (which isn’t affected by weight loss or gain for me). Fortunately, workout clothes have a lot of stretch in them so I’ve been wearing those a lot. But I want to know that my efforts to get things back to how they should be are working and the best way to tell that is how my clothes feel on me. And having everything feel too tight does mess with my head a bit.

I’m sure it’s annoying to complain about the heat. But honestly that is occupying a lot of my mind right now. There are other things that have been bugging or annoying me, and having it be ridiculously hot doesn’t make things any better. But I am trying to make the best of things right now. I’m grateful for my workouts because there is really great a/c at Orangetheory. And it does motivate me to get out of my house more to relax somewhere else. It’s nice to have something breaking up the day when I have been working from home for 7 hours. I hate staying home all day so a post-work errand or adventure is good and now it has the added bonus of hopefully being a place that is cooler than my house.

I do wonder if the heat is really that bad or my negative attitude about other things is making is worse. Either way, it’s not fun and I keep checking the weather report to see when things will be getting better. If things are accurate, today will be about 20 degrees cooler than yesterday (but it will still be warm) and it will drop another 20 degrees by next week. To have it go down 40 degrees in a week is proof on how hot it is right now!

So for now, I’m just going to keep working and doing what I’m doing since there really isn’t anything that I can do to fix this. And before I know it, I hope that I’ll be complaining about how cold it is. Although I do prefer that sometimes since I can always add more clothes to warm up.

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Revisiting My Past (or Enjoying An Amazing Concert)

Posted on September 19, 2017 | Comments Off on Revisiting My Past (or Enjoying An Amazing Concert)

I recently did a temp job for my old workplace doing some telesales. This workplace was the theater that I worked at when I started this blog. I hadn’t worked there in a long time, so when they asked me if I could help with a short telesales campaign, I felt flattered that they wanted me to help. It was a bit weird doing that job again since it had been years since I had done it, but things came back to me pretty quickly.

The show that I was campaigning for ended up selling almost all the seats, so that’s good news. I wasn’t able to do the sales that I know I could do, so that wasn’t so great. But I am glad that they sold out and that they were able to get the fundraising done that they needed to.

But even though my sales weren’t what we were hoping for, the theater offered me 2 tickets to go to the concert and I immediately said yes! I hadn’t been back to the theater since I worked there and the concert was a night of Josh Groban. I am a fan of his music and I did a music video for him (although they ended up not using any of the scenes they filmed with any actors in the final music video). And to get to see him perform live and in such a small venue is such a special treat.

Since I hadn’t been back to the theater in years, I wasn’t sure how it would feel to be back. And I’ll admit, it was a bit weird. I did see a few people who I worked with and some of them seemed happy to see me again. Other people didn’t recognize me and I didn’t want to bother them while they were busy working. I felt like I belonged there and I was out-of-place at the same time. Fortunately, I had a friend with me so we were having an awesome time at the pre-show reception and I didn’t stress too much about how odd it felt to be back there.

The pre-show reception was fun and they had some really great food. There was also some free wine, but we both stuck with water. We hung out outside eating and catching up on life. It’s always nice to catch up with a friend and even better when that is distracting me from feeling weird.

When I was told I was getting some free tickets, I assumed they’d be in the back of the balcony. None of the seats in the theater are bad ones, but I figured they’d put us in the back since they were free tickets. But to our surprise we were pretty close to the front and almost in the center!

I was not expecting to have as great of seats as I had so I was even more excited once we were sitting down! And the energy in the theater was so amazing because everyone couldn’t wait to see Josh Groban come out.

The songs were mainly Broadway songs (which I loved!) with a couple of songs from his various albums mixed in. And he was telling stories and jokes in-between each song. He was very entertaining and if anyone in the audience wasn’t a huge fan of him before I know that he won them over by the end of the night. And not only did he sing, but he also played piano and the drums! That seemed to be a surprise to everyone in the audience and he impressed us all!

The show was about an hour and a half without an intermission but I think we all wanted it to last longer. He is so talented and sang some amazing songs. But I know that the event also had a dinner after the show for guests with tickets at a certain level so they couldn’t keep the concert going all night. Even though I think everyone left wanting more, we all left with smiles on our faces.

Even though I felt weird being at an old workplace, I’m so glad that I got to go. I wasn’t deliberately avoiding going there, but I know that I didn’t make an effort to go to any shows there. And it is an amazing venue that isn’t that far from my house. I need to take a look at their schedule for this season (which is their 10th anniversary season) and see if there are any other shows that I can go to. It will be a while before I’m back at the Pantages, so I need to fill my love for theater at other venues. And I have a feeling that I’ll probably be back sometime soon.

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It’s Like I’m Back At The Beginning (or Muscle Memory Is Weird)

Posted on August 4, 2017 | Comments Off on It’s Like I’m Back At The Beginning (or Muscle Memory Is Weird)

I started my new temporary gig for my old job this week. It’s kind of weird doing this job but I’m so grateful for it. It is commission only so there’s no guarantee that I will make money, but I’m hopeful that I’ll make some sales and it will be extra money that can be used for paying down my debt.

I’m so lucky that this is yet another job that I can do from home. I think originally this was supposed to be something I did from the office, but because I’m working so few hours each day and I’m doing split shifts it wouldn’t make sense if I had to commute back and forth twice a day. But to know that they are letting me work from home is a sign that they remember me from when I worked before and that they trust me.

Even though I’m not going into the office, it’s so crazy how much this reminds me of my old job. I worked for this company when I started this blog. It’s almost creepy how much this job is like my old one. There are plenty of differences and it’s nice being able to work from home, but it still feels so much the same. And it’s crazy to think that it’s been quite a few years since I had worked there and that’s where I was when I started this. I’m not the same person I was back then, but it still has a weird deja vu quality to it and I’m trying to remind myself I’m not the same.

When I started the job, it took a few calls to get back into the groove of making telesales calls. This is different from what I was trying to sell before (back then it was memberships and tickets and now it’s tickets to a one night only gala) and I’m not as familiar with the theater as I was when I worked there before. I don’t need to know about the season since I’m only working for this gala, but I probably should be doing some research so I’m not totally uninformed. And it is still a bit nerve-racking because I haven’t made a sale yet. But I’m sure I will and once I make a sale I’ll feel so much better about this all.

But the weirdest thing for me is how quickly everything came back to me. I haven’t worked in telesales in several years yet I seem to remember everything. We used to code our leads based on if we got a hold of them or what they said. We had different abbreviations and ways of sorting things so we could stay on top of everything. That was necessarily since there were 5 of us making calls and we didn’t want to call someone back who already said they weren’t interested.

But I’m working on my own and can code and organize things however I want. But even from the very first call, it was an automatic response to code my lead the way I used to. I didn’t even think about it before doing it. It was like my body was on autopilot and I didn’t have to do anything to remember. And I even remembered all the various codes we used (I had to use 5 of them on my first day back).

I know that I remember so much from past jobs, but it’s never been like this. I remember so much from when I was a tour guide at WB, but I couldn’t give a tour again. I just remember lots of random facts and stories. I’ve even gotten a bit lost and turned around on the lot when I’ve been there more recently even though that never would have happened when I worked there. And I still remember lots of weird stuff from when I worked in credit card disputes, but I couldn’t probably win a dispute if I tried from the corporate side now (I can still win probably from the customer side).

But to have everything come back to me immediately was just mind-boggling to me. I even texted my old boss to tell him how I was doing this work again and how everything came back to me without me needing to think about anything. He said that muscle memory is a weird thing and I agree. But then I also joked that this information has been taking up space in my brain that could probably be used for more important stuff.

Since this job is only about 6 weeks, I’m probably not going to try to change anything. It’s nice that I don’t have to worry too much about remembering how to do anything and there’s no reason for me to try to do things differently. When I was doing this before, I made lots of sales. All I can hope for is to do the same with this so that I can make enough money to balance out that I will not be getting hourly pay (which was an option for half of the commission rate). It’s only the first week and I can’t be too worried since I know that sometimes it takes time to get the ball rolling on sales.

Even though it feels like it was years ago, I probably need to still remember that I won’t be able to be back to where I was at the end of my time with that job at the beginning of this job. I need to build up my momentum and soon enough it will feel even more like old times.

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