Finally!

Things are looking up! I’ve purposefully avoided writing another woe-is-me blog the past week and a half. Between being concerned about a girl I graduated with who is in the hospital for a brain aneurism (which then led me to wanting to visit home) and finding a job for myself, I resisted every single urge to splatter my emotions online. The last thing I want is for this blog to become a huge downer.

My morning started with walking into my living room only to find a big, nasty cockroach crawling along my carpet. Hmm, flashback to seeing my first NYC cockroach…but not as horrible. The L.A. cockroach was half the size and did not run at me when I went to towards it. With every ounce of courage (and some whimpering), I was able to chase it onto my patio. I think it found it’s way out into the wilderness.

A few hours later, a housewarming plant arrived to my apartment from my favorite aunt and uncle. Such a great surprise! I mean, I knew that it was arriving…however, I was expecting flowers, not a plant…and a plant is SO MUCH BETTER!!! I love how it’s just warmed this place up!

E! is reinstalling me as an assistant editor for the next few days. I couldn’t be more excited and nervous (again!) at the same time. Just why do they have to stick a producer with me on an evening shift? Ah well, that which doesn’t kill me…, right?

Tomorrow’s a full day. 10am ~ interview for a photographer position with a family portrait company (one that goes out and about to take the pics, not just an indoor studio). 1pm ~ free hair color touch-up (cuz the color didn’t stick first time around). 5pm ~ work.

Also on my plate is the, hopefully, beginning stages of my “acting career.” Should I even be putting quotations around that? I’d really rather not jinx myself by removing them. ;-) I just got off the phone with an acting studio that will basically act as my mentor, provide industry contacts for me, acting classes, and workshops with well-known actors/producers/directors. I have a meeting with them on Saturday!

Do I see a light at the end of this tunnel?

Self Re-Invention

Overall, a great day yesterday! Andrew and I both had hair cut appointments at his salon in Burbank, and I also had mine colored. A cut and color were LONG overdue! This change seemed to go along with the decision to reinvest in myself.

After being beaten down for the past several weeks, it's about time for me to once again focus on brushing up on my editing skills; So that when the time comes again for an interview or to go on a freelance job, I'll have as much confidence in editing as I do in QC-ing. As soon as I finish goofing around (yet, polishing, refining, and learning) with some "Gilmore Girls" footage, I even have an original project to work on with the hopes of having it aired on The Travel Channel (oh, the irony since I left Discovery almost a year ago) and being paid up to $1000 for it. Woo! Let's not get our hopes up, though. ;-) And today, I started looking into acting gigs. On Monday, I'll be calling the company for "Grey's Anatomy" to get more information on doing background work.

Back to my girl-talk...I love, love, love the new hair-do! All the blonde highlights are gone and have been replaced with brown-red highlights...and I have a touch of bangs!!! that I can hide whenever I feel like. It's strange to have hair in my eyes again. We spent almost 3 hrs. in the salon...talk about Andrew being a good boyfriend! ;-) He was quite interested in the process (he took a pic of me with all the foil in my hair!), and at least, he's basically friends with his hair stylist (the stylist is a guy).

Once the hair was done, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a sushi bar, and I had my first sushi hand roll. Yum yum! Then we went to the theatre to see "Talladega Nights." Funny stuff! and at the end of the movie, I learned that someone from my high school alma mater was one of the main characters ~ Leslie Bibb. She's been in movies here and there, and was in a WB or UPN show called "Popular." This is just the first movie, I believe, that I've actually seen her in...except for her very small role in The Howard Stern movie. She did a good job! ...she should find me a job! Help a fellow alum! ;-)

It was a perfect day yesterday. I'm not even going to let my dead-battery-car get me down today!

A Day with the "Boys Only" Club

Let me tell you about my day.

First of all, you know how stressed I am about my non-job situation, right? Well, imagine the luck I felt when a company called a couple of days ago asking me to come in for an assistant editing position. Immediately, I looked up the classified to reaquaint myself with the job requirements. Holy crap, I had no experience with half of what was listed. Well, they called me! So, they must think I'm capable enough to handle the job! I googled what I didn't know, found one easy to learn, and the other wasn't even goog-able or wikipediable. Must be their own company term. Oh well! In any case, I planned on preparing for this interview and being ready for any sort of test they may throw my way.

Completely nervous this morning. I hide my nerves well, though. The guys seemed happy with my background and happy that I could start anytime soon. I was happy that the shifts weren't crazy hours and that benefits were included after a 90-day trial period. Leaving there with a positive outlook, I headed home for a much needed nap and chill day.

11:30am ~ the company calls. It's HR. She tells me that the guys liked me, there was a ton of work, could I start NOW? I had JUST changed into my comfy yoga pants and tank top. "Sure! I can be there by 1pm," I reply.

12:30pm ~ I'm there. That's right. EARLY. This SHOULD be appreciated. I get the tour, start learning the ropes, do a few things on my own, talk to a couple of guys. One of the guys tells me that coming into this assistant editing job, he knew NOTHING. "So, you should be fine since you have some background," he tells me.

During some of the downtime, I look around the asst. editing room and notice that all the movie posters are chick posters, there are tons of x-box games (not that I have anything against that! ;-)), and on the opposite wall was the standard boys' dart board. Hmm, I'm thinking they brought me in JUST to have a little bit of estrogen in the room.

5pm ~ things REALLY slow down. Perhaps I can go home... Nope! I'm sent off to take a dinner break. They're not even sure if they'll be work when I come back. Well, I take advantage of that time, go to Quiznos and The Coffee Beanery for some much needed coffee.

6pm ~ still no work for me to do at the office. However, the two upper/head assistant editors have an interviewee who's coming in, and they're waving his resume around in my face! Soon, they start ragging on his resume, on his probable exaggerated job titles/duties, his two years spent working at Starbucks, and the fact that he didn't go to college. Oh, and did I mention they were ALSO ragging on him for being late?! and coming up with random questions to ask him just to see if he was lying on his resume.

Should it have surprised me that as they came back from the interview, they were completely jazzed about this guy, the head of post production/operations/whatever gave the assistant editors a thumbs up and asked "So, what do you think of this guy??? I think HE'S it! He's Number One! ...and he's so cool!" This was immediately proceeded with the head assistant editor turning to me and saying "Charlene, I don't think we'll be needing you tomorrow, but I'll put you on a list. Thanks for dropping everything today and coming in."

Well, they have their boys club back. Good riddance. I've never seen such unprofessionalism.

Oreos, please...

Today felt like Murphy (as in "Murphy's Law") was playing with me. Not so fun when you realize that your checking account is low and rent is due ~ it can't be a day late, otherwise, you get slammed with a $50 late fee ~ you drive 40 min. (in traffic) to get to your closest bank (I know, what bank do I belong to that it takes 40 min. with traffic to get to?), you get there only to find out that their network is down. What the hell??? And you know that this wouldn't be happening if only someone in their right mind would hire you! Not to mention, that two cars were very close to hitting me on the way back home, AND every street I turned onto seemed to have a car stopped in front of me ~ either making a right turn and waiting for pedestrians to cross, or simply being there double parked. All I wanted to do was get home, have a sandwich, and pig out on Oreos.

It's mind boggling to me (6 in one hand, half a dozen in the other) that I could make the move to New York City ~ 80% fearful that I would not have a steady freelance gig, or that I would even find a second freelance gig just in a case the first one didn't work out ~ and actually having it all work out that I end up dropping that second freelance gig. Yet, as much as that worked out, I wasn't completely happy. There was only one friend I had in the city (my roommate), and the dating scene stinked! My sole purpose in New York ended up being: to work. Now that I come to California, the job situation is shakey; however, my living style, dating and friend scenes are great! Where's the medium? Or can I just have it all, please?