I realize that not too many people have the luxury of time. You never realize how few hours there are in a day until you can't even find a spare ONE to get to the things on your list at the moment. Sometimes, I feel incredibly guilty that I don't have a huge, long to-do list, an apartment that isn't spotless, and a million things I didn't get to.
Today, I got a rejection letter. Normally that would be a downer. In my book though, even if it's a form letter, at least someone took the time to click the button to send out that automated response. In this day and age, you never even hear half the time when people DON'T want you! So kudos to Allergan for telling me, "Thanks, but no thanks." I'll live, I promise.
Yesterday, I spent a good portion of the day on hold with the NJ unemployment office. Through my feverish networking, I had connected with a woman who does a lot of freelance producing all over the East Coast. Subsequently, she gave my name to a very large news-outlet related production company that needed a last minute makeup artist. I found out the hard way that when you report self-employment income, you can't just click the button and call it a day. Hence my time-sucking experience with hold music. I started the night before, pre-emptively, to try to ask a question. After 55 minutes on hold, long after 6:30 (they supposedly close at 6, I had called in at 5:45) I gave up. I tried again on my appointed day. The good news is, after getting disconnected more than 45 minutes into the bad music, I finally got through to a real person. 39 minutes into another hold the situation was resolved in less than 3 minutes. Plus, I still get a check for the week to make up the difference. That's what I'm talking about!
See, even though I'm looking for full time work in a professional role, old habits, skills and contacts come in handy. When I lived in LA, the competition was so fierce to get "talking head" gigs at a decent day rate, that I was lost in the shuffle. And being caught in "non-union hell" as they call it, I finally decided that I could scratch that, "I need to be around people!" itch with something a little more stable than working one day at a time. As much as I loved the creativity a career as a makeup artist afforded me, the other side of my brain often felt neglected. See my imdb listing here
How ironic that being unemployed outside Philadelphia, one phonecall was all it took to land the work that eluded me in the land of (seemingly, until it all went to Canada!) never-ending production work. I have always loved being around creative people, and makeup work allows me to do that. So I say, as long as it extends my unemployment benefits and clocks in under 16 hours a week, BRING IT ON!!
In the meantime, I'm waiting to hear from a company that is launching a new beauty related device at Nordstrom, and looking for account executives. Since I used to be an account coordinator for Nordie's before I went freelance (and subsequently went into medical related positions) I thought it would be a perfect fit. Three days, which seems like an eternity to me, is probably nothing to the poor guy who has to read through the hundreds of resumés he probably got for the 3 openings the company is looking to fill. So I've been sitting here since Monday thinking , "Should I, shouldn't I?," about whether to drop him a note offering him my full resumé, since I have no way of knowing if mine ever reached him (I applied using my LinkedIn profile). Utilizing every ounce of self restraint is tough, since I'm such an energetic, outgoing person who would much rather have instant gratification (and a JOB!). I do realize, though, that sometimes, that can come off as desperate, so I'm sitting on my hands for now.
As for the rest of the day? Today, the list is short. My main goal was to post blog #2, so it's a good day!
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