A Moment of Peace

Spent the bulk of today filling out paperwork in the company of prospective librarians who are as disgruntled with the hiring process as I have been. After speaking with them, I don't think there are all that many permanent jobs available, despite the "critical need."

I actually met a female friend out tonight instead of a date. We had a cup of tea in the relaxing Zen atmosphere of the Tea Garden on Melrose. That may be my last moment of peace for the next four days!

Her boyfriend showed up later and agreed with me that jobs pay surpisingly low wages in this city. He asked me to e-mail his his resume. I have lost count of the number of times I have passed that resume on.

Speaking of which, it has been submitted for the dream position, but there's no guarantee I'll get an interview. It's a personal assistant position, but no, it's not for Kathy G.

It's Getting Hot In Here

And I don't just mean in my apartment.

This week I accepted a temp job, have a babysitting gig for the weekend, am taking my medical exam to be a library sub, have an interview on Saturday and may have another one for a dream job coming up, and have five dates lined up. Be careful what you wish for and all that.

I Could Weep

Forgot to move my car for street cleaning this morning. $50 parking ticket. Ouch. I accepted a short-term temp job at my former place of employment (the real estate investment company) for the rest of this week as a form of penance.

A very interesting job opportunity appeared in my inbox this afternoon, however, and readers, I may finally have caught my break. More to come.

Half-Empty

The guy I met this weekend from New Orleans was very optimistic about the job market in L.A. He seemed to think of California as the land of opportunity. Like I said, I'm not so sure. I found another interesting response letter from that aforementioned Dear Cary column in Salon that does echo some of the postings in my blog. I will say that I have made no preparations for an earthquake!

Here's the letter from Debbie Downer:

Going West? Bring your bulging wallet

After 15 years in LA, I am so ready to get out of here. The blinding sunlight, every single day, is like living under a bare light bulb. It makes one long for rain, cold, anything different.

The constant fear of earthquakes mean never sleeping naked, keeping shoes under your bed, the water jugs in the car, the gas tank always mostly full- don't laugh, if you were in the Valley during the Northridge quake, you'd know. Checking for the location of the exits on every visit to the theatre.

The apartments that were 700 dollars three years ago are now 2000. First, last deposit- and buy a refrigerator, your place doesn't come with one. The competition for cans and bottles at the dumpsters isn't the homeless anymore. It's the people trying not to be homeless.

As a woman, would you like to know what your sell-by date is? Come out here. It's probably already passed. You just don't know it. You will once you get here, as people feel free to tell you. Men look over your size 6, yoga-buffed shoulder to see if something better/younger is available, and are surprised if you mind.

The film industry, a delightful cash cow for most of my career, is drying up and diversifying to online delivery. Jobs pay *half* what they did 10 years ago. Editing is seen as something anyone can do, and pays accordingly unless one is Union. Camera people are lumped in with amateurs as well. Film festivals are largely the poorly made products of this digital dreck.

The freeways, already legendary, now much worse.

The delightful melting pot of cultures has degenerated into mini-ethnic wars. Goods and services paid for by longtime taxpayers are seen as free stuff by more recent arrivals, who've exhausted the supply. Diapers left on the beaches. All the BBQ pits at the parks staked out by mid-morning. Rumors of million-dollar mansions with their owners on welfare and driving European cars, their kids going to college, for free.

Of all these things, the one thing that has finally broken my heart here is seeing the maverick retailers close their wonderful little boutiques, because the rents have gotten so high. All the trendy redeveloped areas now have the same stores. It's like being in a Fred Flintstone cartoon.

There's still the Coast Highway and there's still the amazing smell of LA at night from a seat at the Hollywood Bowl. But it's not enough for me, anymore.

--Anonymous

Cultural Experiences

Saw a documentary called "Girl 27" on Friday about the sordid cover-up of a sexual assault at MGM during the 30s. The filmmaker was in attendance for a "Q & A" afterwards, which is always a nice bonus.

On Saturday night I had drinks at a French restaurant with a guy from New Orleans who moved to L.A. in the aftermath of Katrina. Afterwards we went to a party in the Hollywood Hills that was similar to the other one I went to up there-- dreadlocks, hula hoops, and belly dancers. The house was directly beneath the Hollywood sign.

The New Orleans guy seems to have fortuitously stumbled into lucrative work in commercial production. He insisted it was easy to find such work and that I just hadn't "met the right people yet." After months of passing around my resume and "making connections," I'm much less optimistic. I'm pretty certain, in fact, that I'm going to be back behind a reference desk in about two months. I predict that my life here is going to be almost identical to my life in Austin-- working as a librarian again, going to the gym most days of the week, dating endlessly, and maintaining a patchwork of interesting friends around the city.

This morning I had coffee with a psychotherapist. He, of course, is working on several screenplays. We discussed the midlife crisis.

How Hard Can It Be?

Watched "My Life on the D-List" with Kathy Griffin tonight. She has an "assistant" and an "assistant to the assistant," and they tagged along with her for a funny bit on the street and then later accompanied her on a trip to Ireland. Nice work if you can get it. They both seemed really young, and the "assistant to the assistant" seemed particularly shy and inexperienced. Kathy Griffin, whom I love, referred to them as "the best friends money can buy."

I did feel somewhat bitter watching all this. I mean PLEASE. I can't believe I have been told by several agencies that they can't place me as an assistant because I "haven't been a personal assistant before." Geez, look at our President. Need I say more?

But timing is everything. By the time I meet that "right" person at a party, I won't want to be a personal assistant anymore. I had just thought it would be fun to do for my first year or two in L.A.

There's another good "Dear Cary" column today, this one about moving from the East to the West: salon.com/mwt/col/tenn/2007/07/27/east_coast_west_coast/

An anonymous letter writer to the column had this to say:

California is magical, and we natives know this, but listen carefully to the song "It never rains in Southern California" before you board that west-bound 747. Do not come here expecting to find yourself, a man, or anything else, because it is most likely that these dreams will be confronted by everyday realities: outrageous insurance, taxes, and real estate, cutthroat competition in all aspects of life, crime, smog, traffic, and flakes who promise to call you for lunch and never do.

Red and Blue and Strange and New

There are some amazing flowers in my neighborhood. Unbelievable colors and shapes. I sometimes feel like I'm walking through a Dr. Seuss book.

When I was in the Peace Corps we were given a timeline that showed the predictable course of culture shock that volunteers are likely to experience over the course of two years. I try to remember that line graph when I am feeling worn out by the newness of everything here. New places, jobs, people... really the only person I can say I know well at all at this point is my roommate.

This Town

I had a second interview for the extremely low-paying but entertainment (related) job on Monday. Liked the people but was hoping it would take a couple of weeks to hear back so I could give the library possibility some more time. Well, yesterday my agency called to say I was offered the job and for more money (although still in the low range of mid-thirties). The agency then gave me two hours to get back to them with a decision.

Given that my interviewers had stressed that they wanted a committed person, I had to turn it down. I just wasn’t sure that particular job (administrative work on union contracts) was worth the financial sacrifice, and I felt that I would need a couple more weeks on the job hunt before I could feel comfortable taking it. I had to endure the wrath of the employment agency, which was unpleasant, especially after I had made what I consider to be a measured decision and had endured a couple of less-then-ideal temp jobs for them. There won’t be any agencies left I want to work for pretty soon.

This town is getting small in more ways than one. I had a lunch date yesterday, and, as it turned out, that guy knew Mr. Grabby Hands. They both grew up in L.A., went to posh high schools, are around the same age, went to college in the area, etc. So perhaps L.A. can be a small place.

Yoga Freaks*

*not to be confused with "Goa Freaks," one of my favorite books

I've taken classes from some, ahem, interesting yoga teachers while living here, but my latest teacher takes the cake. Last week I thought he was handsome in a Luke Perry sort of way, but this evening he taught class wearing earrings, a shiny necklace, and makeup. He was also sporting baby-smooth legs and a lacy red thong under his shorts.

While waiting for class to begin, I picked up the L.A. Times and read a review of a book called "Parts per Million" about the possible link between numerous cancer cases and the nineteen oil wells at Beverly Hills High School. There's a plant at Century City and another forty wells "near Cedars-Sinai Medical Complex." I'm wondering if they mean the one that is located around the corner from me (there's another complex that is a little further west). If there are oil wells around here, then it's official, I am completely unobservant. The review is here:
http://www.calendarlive.com/books/la-bk-abcarian22jul22125320,0,5526634.story?coll
=cl-books-features

An Acquiring Mind

One of my (nicer) dates submitted my resume last week for an "acquisitions" position at one of the premium cable stations. The job would have been right up my alley (buying TV shows), but they received more than 100 applications, and several of those applicants had related experience in television. So, even with a connection, it's unlikely I will be interviewed. Too bad because it also would have been an easy commute!

My friend K. brought this article from the San Diego Tribune to my attention. The full article can be found on their website, but here is the short version:

Real estate, construction woes slow Calif. job growth to a crawl

By Dean Calbreath
STAFF WRITER

July 21, 2007

Hiring in California was hit by a bad case of June gloom last month as the effects of the real estate slowdown seeped into the job market, according to data released yesterday by the California Employment Development Department.

Statewide, employers added only 400 jobs in June, after adjusting for seasonal fluctuations, compared with a jump of 29,700 in June 2006. Sharp declines in home construction and financial activity – such as mortgage lending – put a crimp in last month's job growth.

San Diego County reported the slowest year-over-year job growth since January 1994, when the county was crawling out of a recession.

In the past year, local employers added 1,600 jobs to their payrolls – one-tenth of the growth rate from June 2005-06. If government jobs are taken out of the equation, the county has lost 1,500 jobs since June 2006.

“Things are looking pretty bad,” said Alan Gin, an economist at the University of San Diego. “It's conceivable in the next couple months that we might see negative job growth – a fall in jobs.”

Unemployment in San Diego jumped from 4.2 percent in May to 4.6 percent in June, just a fraction below the unadjusted national rate of 4.7 percent, but still well below California's unadjusted rate of 5.2 percent. It was San Diego's highest unemployment rate in two years.

Economists pinned the blame for slow job growth on the local housing market. In the past year, home sales declined 24 percent, meaning less work for mortgage and real estate brokers. And applications for residential-construction permits have declined in nine of the past 10 months, meaning less work for builders.

“It really is the real estate market that's causing this,” said Kelly Cunningham, an economist at the San Diego Institute for Policy Research. “Even though job growth in the visitors industry and the professional business sector is still positive, we're losing as many jobs as we are adding.”

For the past year, Cunningham and Gin have been predicting that San Diego would be able to survive the real estate slowdown without falling into a recession. Now they say they are not sure.

“If this trend keeps going on for the next couple months, it would suggest that we might have a recession before the end of the year,” Cunningham said. “Not a big recession, but a slight one.”

Cunningham added that if the number of real estate foreclosures begins to increase substantially – which he doesn't think will happen – a recession could be more severe.

For both the county and California, many of the job losses over the past year were involved in real estate.

Statewide, construction companies shed 5,300 workers last month, contributing to a loss of 12,000 jobs since June 2006. Financial activities – including mortgage and real estate brokerages – lost 5,700 jobs in June, or 7,000 from year to year.

Those job losses were countered by hiring at hotels and restaurants, educational and health services, and professional and business services, resulting in a net increase of 400 jobs.

Economists note that the total may be revised upward, which has happened several times in recent months. And they say it is impossible to judge the strength of the economy by a month's worth of hiring.

“Any one month is not worrisome,” said Steve Levy, who heads the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto. “But if we kept losing jobs at this rate, it would be worrisome. For one thing, slower job growth could play havoc with the state budget next year and the year after, with fewer taxes coming in.”

Kei Matsuda, an economist for Union Bank of California, said some areas in the state are doing better than others.

“For annual job growth, Northern California is accelerating noticeably because of the tech comeback,” Matsuda said. “Tech-related consulting and research and development is very strong, which is why Silicon Valley and the San Francisco metropolitan area have been gaining jobs.”

On the other hand, San Diego, Los Angeles and the Central Valley are all slowing sharply, he said. Locally, the job growth rate slowed from 1.4 percent during the first half of 2006 to 0.6 percent during the first half of this year.

A Crazy Date

Went on a third date last night with the guy I ran into on the Yahoo! campus. After he became Mr. Grabby Hands in his penthouse apartment and I told him I wanted to leave, he completely flipped his lid. Lots of yelling and wild accusations, with the browbeating continuing all the way down the elevator and out onto the street. Armchair diagnosis: paranoia. I'm lucky I didn't end up like Lana Clarkson from the Phil Spector case.

I knew it would never work, as he's a Republican and his suggestion of a date movie was "Die Hard 4." Speaking of bad movies, there was a great slew of "letters to the editor" in Salon today about the reasons people don't go to the theaters anymore, with mentions of outrageous ticket prices and superior TV series. Included were compliments to L.A.'s Arclight, Austin's Alamo Drafthouse, and Grosse Pointe Blank. The letters can be found at the end of this article:
http://salon.com/ent/movies/review/2007/07/19/btm/

The Whole Tree Huggin' Business

Finished the "fashion industry" job today. I will never look at those organic cotton clothes in Whole Earth the same way again, now that I have painstakingly applied "distressed" tags bearing "leaves" to similar garments. I don't think I sat down for more than thirty minutes today, and I had to put in overtime as we raced to the deadline. Steaming, folding, labelling, tagging. The fabric requires such gentle care that I can't help but think the Revolution could use a little poly blend.

This job was second in strenuousness to the gig at the "New Age" school, located just up the road.

I will say that some interesting characters work there-- not your typical tree huggers. Or are they? There was an Alan Arkin lookalike in the back room, barking on the phone to someone about his luxury sports car when he wasn't giving me the sexy eye. His wife (or girlfriend) kept calling for help from this beleagured pregnant assistant who shuffled up every time she whined her name. A tattoed surfer guy also came in to do his thing. Once everyone had left, he cranked up the music (and perhaps did some smoking out back with his friend).

I had to cancel my Friday night plans due to exhaustion. Tomorrow I'm getting up early to babysit for a French woman who lives a couple of doors down from me. We met at my last temp job.

I did get confirmed as a library sub today, but I have to get a medical exam before they can use me. I'm actually excited about this as it's a free checkup. I also received a letter asking me to interview for some more library positions. Yep, the library looks better and better.

Fakin' It

The traffic was SO BAD driving home from Santa Monica that I gave up at Sawtelle, pulled over, and ate dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. I then decided to finally visit a "pinkberry" yogurt place to see what all the fuss was about. Once I got over the slightly sour taste, I was enamored.

But now a lawsuit has been filed that pinkberry isn't really yogurt!

Factory Girl

My roommate auditioned for a game show gig today and kept me up last night asking for advice on outfits. Then I was woken up this morning with a call about a temp job in Santa Monica at a clothing manufacturer; the position involved helping one of the designers prepare for a trade show. Again, a stretch for "entertainment," but my agency did say this was an unusual job for them to place.

I agreed to take it and spent the day steaming and folding clothes and creating clothing labels. It was actually pretty taxing, and I go back again tomorrow.

Here's an odd story. Yesterday evening I had a drink with a date in Westwood, and while I was steaming the shirts this morning, he rang me on my cell. I couldn't pick it up when he called but figured I'd call him back over lunch. After several bungled attempts at finding a place to eat, I ended up in the Yahoo! courtyard, and just after I ordered something at the counter and was digging my cell phone out of my purse, I ran into him. Strange, as he doesn't even work at Yahoo! He was standing around with his friends, and it was awkward in a "high school cafeteria" type of way.

I told him I was stalking him (he looked like he believed me). We had lunch together. When I got back to work and told the designer what had happened, he responded that it was "just like a John Cusack movie."

Commitment

I wrote a friend over the weekend that I may be clinging emotionally to the escape hatch of Austin because I fear there really is no going back. I'm here and have to make it work.

Although I did some networking and signed up with a couple of new agencies while waiting on the library situation to pan out, I didn't take my job search all that seriously during those three months. Now I'm back on the stick. One of my dates over the weekend used to work for the #1 social networking website (you know the one), and he encouraged me to apply to all the "new media" companies in town, claiming that they are in hiring mode. Since Fox Interactive is right around the corner, I started with them. They do have a lot of jobs listed on their website, but then again, I had no luck trying to temp for them several months ago.

I also called in about my interest in interviewing for some jobs listed on one of my agency websites, only one of which is entertainment related.

My roommate D. is getting a bit panicky about finding work herself. She's applying for both acting jobs as well as rent-paying gigs. She actually gets responses from the Craigslist ads she applies to, which I find amazing and humbling. Not to paint too risque a picture, but we are both basically sitting around, scantily clad (due to the heat), typing furiously away at out laptops as we apply for jobs.

The Birds and The Lemons

There are hummingbirds in the flower bushes outside my front door these days, and I scooped up a large lemon that had fallen from a tree while walking home last week. Yet despite the fragrant atmosphere and all the increasingly interesting dates, my switch has yet to be flipped. I haven't had a bona fide crush since moving to L.A.

I do, however, have allergies (or a head cold), and I spent almost all of yesterday in bed reading "The Post-Birthday World" by Lionel Shriver. The protagonist in the novel is a woman in her early forties who is in a comfortable if plodding relationship but is tempted to abandon her ten-year partnership for a romance with a dashing but flighty snooker player. Alternating chapters follow the outcomes of staying or leaving, detailing the excitement along with the incredible tumult and stress that results from her choosing the snooker player but also demonstrating with the opposing storyline that there are no truly "safe" decisions. I related to the narrator's romantic conundrums but also drew parallels with my decision to leave Austin for L.A.

Not Yet the One

Went to a new, crowded, trendy club on Sunset last night called One. Loud music and lots of bare shoulders, highlighted hair, sparkling makeup, and pricey drinks. Same as a number of trendy clubs in Austin, the types I rarely frequented. I'm glad I got out, but it wasn't a conducive atmosphere for striking up conversation with people I barely know.

Earlier in the day I received a letter from the library stating I didn't receive a job offer from my interview. I believe this is because I knocked myself out of the running by stating job preferences that didn't match up to what they had on offer (I think mainly children's and teen service positions, although I was never told what actual jobs were available and at what locations). I could have saved myself some time and grief if they weren't so cryptic about what was on offer.

So back to Square One. Ugh. I registered with two local library employment agencies this morning and put my hat in the ring for some part-time, temporary positions that are a fairly significant commute from where I live. I figure maybe I can do the commute part-time. I'm still on the temp list for the two entertainment agencies, and I recontacted one of my former generic agencies and said I'd be interested in permanent work again if it paid a certain amount. I'm also in the running for library sub positions with the system that just interviewed me.

My job search has become totally schizo. I have three dates lined up this weekend, and I don't know how I am going to answer questions about what the heck I'm doing here.

Red Room

Last night I watched a test preview of a documentary in the red screening room at Endeavor, the real-life "Ari Gold" agency.

I was invited by my friend Y., who is in town from Austin, and while sitting next to him during the viewing, I kept thinking I was back there. When the lights came up, and I remembered I was in Los Angeles, surrounded by strangers I was supposed to be schmoozing with, I felt disoriented.

The Trap

My replacement at work is in her early twenties and used to work at E! Entertainment Television. I had to goad her about all the lame E! True Hollywood Stories about TV shows (what happened to the sex and drug scandals?) and the dumb "news coverage" of magazine covers. Even their "juicy" stories these days are nothing but regurgitated retreads from the other networks, and don't even get me started on all the reruns of SNL episodes that weren't funny the first time around.

Two words: litigious celebrities. I tell you, you can't even get good trash anymore.

I asked her if it was true that salaries were really low there, and she concurred. She had to work two jobs on the side just to make ends meet, but she said that all her friends in the entertainment industry were in the same boat, just barely paying their bills.

She also said that even though she wasn't consciously worried about starting a new job today, she couldn't sleep at all last night. I said, "Welcome to my world."

Astra Taylor of Salon reviewed an interesting-sounding book today called "The Trap" by Daniel Brook. An excerpt from the review:

After reading "The Trap," I'd wager the future we're facing overflows with anxiety and self-loathing. When a generation reared to revere the idea of a meritocracy finds that a college degree -- even one with honors from an Ivy -- doesn't guarantee middle-class comfort, let alone career fulfillment, cognitive dissonance ensues. Parents blame their offspring for failing to succeed (they gave them every advantage, after all), the offspring blame themselves (they jumped through all the right hoops), and few blame the system. As the competition to join or stay middle-class becomes fiercer, solidarity disappears and the barriers to membership in this insecure and apprehensive class grow higher. According to the New York Times, 2007 was the "most selective spring in modern memory at America's elite schools." You can bet that next year another record will be set.

After attending the 9/11 panel last night, I would have to agree that the activist community is tending toward the senior citizen set. In reference to the smaller number of young participants:

Public service and penury, Brook demonstrates, too often go hand in hand. As a result, "the activist community has become an assemblage of idealistic young people taking a few years off before professional school or a corporate job, a handful of liberal trustfunders, and a slew of eccentric nonconformists.

Tyrannies

Went to an art show at the Jeff Electric Gallery in Silver Lake this afternoon that was a photographic exhibit of 100 couples. Details here: http://www.day19.com/text/?p=128

It was really interesting that, in a lot of cases, the couples looked like each other (or maybe that was an illusion). But, even in Bohoville, the show made me feel the tyranny of coupledom, as if we are all supposed to match up, like in that children's game where you turn over two squares at a time, looking for the identical pair. It didn't help that the other onlookers were all in couples.

Oddly, an ex-boyfriend rang me on my cell while I was at the gallery. Later that afternoon, I met a date for coffee in an attempt to find my matching square.

But enough about the trivialities of my love life. This evening I attended a 9/11 Truth panel with Ed Asner. What, you might ask, do alternative 9/11 theories have to do with a blog about a single, thirtysomething woman uprooting her life and moving to Los Angeles? Well, maybe 9/11 isn't related to the fact that I have subpar health insurance and poorly-paying job prospects and am under the thumb of the nefarious temp agencies, of which there have been no books written about. I will let you draw your own conclusions, but this website is worth a look:
http://www.patriotsquestion911.com/

Rock, Hard Place

Drove to Santa Monica for a tennis date with a guy who grew up in Houston and was (surprise, surprise) an RTF major at UT. Afterwards I had dinner with another good friend from Austin who is out here scouting work because, according to him, the entertainment market in Austin has run dry.

Our conversation definitely gave me pause regarding moving back. A couple more acquintances have moved from Austin since I left, and the last remnants of the old gang seem to have dissolved.

Moore Please

I got called by my current agency on Friday about temping as an assistant at a well-known Industry rag that is located very close to where I live, and the job actually paid a whole $15 an hour! But I had to say no because I'm supposed to go in on Monday to train the new hire at my current gig, and I have that job interview on Tuesday.

I walked over to the Grove last night to see Sicko. The ticket cost $12.50, so I had to sneak into a second film afterwards to maximize the expenditure (but I'm glad I applied my ticket to Sicko's box office). In any case, Sicko was very good, but, of course, depressing. I can certainly relate right now, as I'm paying a monthly bill for what amounts to catastrophic health insurance and have had to ignore two or three health issues that I would have seen a doctor for in the past. And I'm grinding my teeth like the 9/11 rescue worker in the film.

Moore is right that we are handcuffed to jobs by the need for health insurance. It's amazing that if I lived in Europe or Canada, I could just waltz into a doctor's office for free.

Obviously I should have moved to France, but they wouldn't have let me stay...

Peachy

I stumbled across a discarded section of today's L.A. newspaper at the gym and found out that the first Bush/Cheney impeachment center has opened up around the corner from where I live. The story is here:
www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-impeach5jul05,0,3983892.story?coll
=la-home-center

Maybe it's a sign that I should get to stuffing some envelopes.

The Financial Review

I've spent a happy 4th this morning "running the numbers." I've decided the decision deadline on "should I stay or should I go" is November 1st. I don't want to keep temping full-time until then, but it would definitely help if I could find a long-term, part-time temp gig that would allow me to be available for interviews or for subbing at the library.

If I still haven't found a good job by November, I'll have to decide if I like L.A. enough to keep looking for jobs and/or waiting on the library, knowing if I take a position after that point I'll be committing to at least a second year of living here. My car insurance payment will be coming up in January, and it'll cost me twice as much if I stay on. My condo won't be available until June 1st, so I'd have to move back home to Houston or in with a roommate in Austin if I do leave. It should be easy to find someone to drive back with me around Thanksgiving if I decide to head back.

In the meantime I'm going to get back out there socially, which equates to more dating, as there doesn't seem to be a whole lot else going on here at this age, and I've done the research.

On Tuesday I have an interview with an association related to the entertainment industry that could be considered a prestigious place to work, although it might be on the senior citizen side. The job as initially described to me sounded like event planning, but in actuality it's formatting contracts, and it only pays in the high 20s. The workplace will have to seem like a barrel of laughs for me to be interested.

I looked back over my temping jobs, and yes indeed, anything that could even remotely fall under the entertainment umbrella paid the lowest temp wages, about $11 an hour. I did get called last week about a temp receptionist position paying $16 an hour at a news studio in Santa Monica (another "entertainment" position), but I was already in a temp job, and frankly that offer wasn't that appealing either. I don't mind starting at the bottom rung, but it needs to be on a ladder I want to climb! The Big Important Talent Agency job that was floated by me so many months ago only paid in the high 20s, but it was in the story department (up my alley), was a short commute, and the contacts would have been invaluable. The cruiseline job paid similarly low at 30k, but it seemed fun, and I got a free cruise! But those jobs didn't come through.

I've also checked out some other library systems in L.A. and no dice as far as openings.

Nights Spent Crying Into Pillow, Part II

It turns out that the question in my interview about part-time jobs was hypothetical, as in, if a part-time reference job came open in the future, would you be interested. I thought my three-month journey through the library interview process was finally coming to fruition, but it appears that I may have to wait for future adult services jobs to open up and interview again for those. Needless to say, I spent a weepy night and day over this. I was so looking forward to getting off the temp bus!

I do have an interview coming up to be a library sub, but I don't know how often that need arises within a reasonable commuting distance, and I don't seem to handle the waiting game very well.

I wrote one of my old placement agencies today (not in entertainment) and told them I would like to interview for any permanent positions that paid at least 45-55k and were located in my area of the city. I've become unable to stomach the idea of working full-time for 35k or less. In a city this expensive, it's positively Dickensian to pay those kinds of wages.

I can't take the low-paying temp gigs much longer either.

I am now setting a deadline for a decent job coming through for me here before I bail back to Texas. It's looking like September. Honestly, I could lie around on the couch at mom's, collect rent on my condo in Austin, and end up in the exact same financial position as working at a full-time, low-paying job in L.A. that barely covers the bills. Not a pretty picture for a 37-year-old, but economically it's entirely logical.