Question

Does thinking my cat sneezing is cute make me a crazy cat lady?

Case in point

I forgot my leftovers at the diner I'm now working at two nights in a row.  This is typical of me. Tonight I remembered, and my leftovers from Sunday were still there so home they came too.  I'm eating them, and hoping that they don't give me food poisoning. This is also typical of me.

Life update

So I am now a late night diner waitress.  In a greek diner filled with Russian waitresses.  I've been meaning to learn a new language...

In other news I've been sleeping to 4 since starting at this diner. It's not easy staying on your feet all night. I don't get home until the sun is up.  Good news, however, is that at least it's employment and the fact that it's at night means that theoretically it won't interfere with more conventional job hunting/doing.

In other other news, I've always been a proud Italian, but news like this makes me ashamed of being a citizen of a country that would act like this or tolerate this sort of behavior. Everyone involved should be punished.  I'm sure hoping they feel bad is overly optimistic, but I certainly hope they can be made to feel bad.

Optimism

I'm staring at the screen smiling right now.  You know, in case you were curious. No, I haven't found the job of my dreams or won the lottery or anything, but today seems much more manageable then yesterday. I bit the bullet and applied for a night shift at a 24 hour diner, so that I can still look for work during the day. I'm supposed to go in tomorrow for them to check me out, so wish me the best. I also have another interview tomorrow for a job handing out surveys on a street corner - again, not exactly  the same level as being hired by, say, HBO but at least it would be two weeks of steady money.  We're trying to shoot a few more scenes of a film I am working on later this week so that will be some work too, though not much.

I hope by writing about these interviews I haven't jinxed them, but having my day start out with two potential job nibbles has brightened everything.  Being unemployed, or even underemployed, starts to really really drain your optimism and your self esteem after a while.  It doesn't take much for me for it to all bounce back - I'm a basically happy person with a fairly stable sense of self worth. But after months of only working a few days here and there and counting pennies, even my generally annoyingly cheerful attitude dims down a few notches.

So we'll see how it goes tomorrow.  I'll either be back to being a Pollyanna or continue on with my teenage sulk phase.

Eggplant

I've decided, after a lifetime of looking askance at it, that I love eggplant. This love affair started years ago, when I working at TGIF and they had this fried mozzarella and eggplant sandwich, but I resisted.  The mozzarella got all my attention while the eggplant stood by watching sadly.  But now I've finally realized the error of my ways. The eggplant was the true star, all those years ago, and I finally know it.

In other words, I've started frying up eggplant with just some salt, olive oil, garlic and curry powder and dumping it on a plate full of rice and it is delicious. So simple, so good.  That is what I look for in all my favorite recipes - I can make it with relatively little effort for a big payoff.  One day, when I have a larger kitchen, I may become more ambitious with my cooking but right now the one or two pot dishes are ruling.  And eggplant is, at the moment, leading the pack.

P.S. I should try to make that curry again, that I blogged about months ago...I'd kind of forgotten about it, but it was really good. And eggplant heavy.

Digging my way out

I'm in a rut. This is largely due to having too much time and not enough money - in short, since I'm freelancing I have large chunks of time when I don't have any work to do, and therefore no money coming in.  Since I don't have money to spend I end up home on the computer all day.  This isn't healthy and it isn't productive.  I job hunt every day, but let's be serious - applying to jobs only takes an hour, max, if that.  After that, the rest of the day just looms up.  I'm sleeping too much, online too much, sitting too much, just generally wasting my life right now.

What I've been saying I'm going to do, and what I need to do, is find myself a night job or some kind of part time job so even when I don't have film or tv stuff happening, I still have a reason to leave the house.  It will also alleviate the money stress a lot, since when I don't have film stuff happening I've been falling back on UE income, which I'm almost out of (since I didn't live in NY originally when I applied for it, and applied as an out of state worker, I'm not eligible for most of the extensions).  This has been really stressing me out. I HATE that I'm 26 and don't have a reliable source of income, can't afford to go out, can't buy myself the occasional treat, and am just generally broke and discouraged.

I've been applying religiously to jobs, but I think that I need to switch things up. Just find some kind of income producing job. It doesn't mean I give up or that I can't still try to find the perfect  job, but if I have to waitress somewhere for a few months it's not the end of the world. It does feel a bit like failure, but I know I need to do it.

That being said, I've actually tried to get waitressing jobs before (though I could probably try harder).  It's not actually that easy right now either. The recession has hit the restaurant industry hard, but I really don't want to work retail - I'm horrible at earning commission and those jobs pay terribly.  I don't know that I could even make my bills on a retail job salary.  Not that those jobs are falling out of trees either. Catering is great, but really unreliable and even working for (now) three companies, I only get a couple days a month usually.

So basically, I'm at a point where even getting a restaurant job is seeming like an insurmountable challenge.

So I'm in a rut. Now I just need to find a way out.

Tavern on the Green

I occasionally cater to make some extra (extra, who are we kidding?) money.  I enjoy it actually, as it means interacting with people and it is easy, well paying work. You just have to smile and be willing to be as helpful as possible. These are traits I am perhaps overburdened with in my everyday life anyway, so it works for me.

Yesterday I worked at the New Year's Eve party at Tavern on the Green. It wasn't the fanciest party I've ever worked, but it was probably the biggest, and it definitely made the most news. Last night was the last night that Tavern on the Green, a NYC staple, will be open.  The city is now going to be renting the land to someone else.

The party itself was crazy, like absolutely packed full of people.  I'm not claustrophobic at all, but I started to feel a bit sick and I'm thinking the absolute lack of breathing room (that and the yummy shrimp) may be to blame.  I wasn't the only one - I heard someone else fainted and I personally witnessed one extremely drunk, unconscious woman end her evening in the back of an ambulance.  Classy.  Classic actually, in a New Year's Eve type of way.  Nevertheless it was a perfectly appropriate sendoff for such a historic building.  Plenty of free booze, great food, and lots (lots!) of people.

My job was seating people and bringing them their vodka and gift baskets, so not exactly rocket science.  We were done by midnight and able to all have a glass of champagne together to ring in the new year. I wish I could have been with my boyfriend, but making history at one of the biggest parties at one of the most legendary locations in one of the best cities in the world wasn't bad either.  I didn't even have to use my pepper spray going home - I've had it for month and haven't needed it yet.  Would that be considered intelligent spending?

So Happy New Year all, and I hope everybody had a happy and healthy one! No ambulances for you. My resolution is simple - more money next year.  I hope the same for all of you.