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."

Back to Business

So now I have to get back to business because I have two job interviews this week and need to do my homework on the companies. I had to cancel the trip to Santa Barbara in order to do so. I hope I can sleep tonight. Both positions barely pay enough to scrape by on, but perhaps I need to swallow my pride (and financial concerns) and accept that as part of the transitioning process. The employment agencies who arranged the interviews are, I'm sure, taking a nice cut. Neither of the jobs are in entertainment, although one job is not completely out of that realm.

In regards to the entertainment industry, maybe I'm a victim of ageism, as I'm no longer in the desired 18-34 age demographic, so I'm not as easy to exploit salarywise and perhaps am seen as not having "my finger on the pulse."

Thank God the word-processing temp job is over. I went to yoga after work on Friday and my toes spasmed into a misshapen pretzel. That's how messed up my body was after sitting in a hard plastic chair for three days.

During my lunch break on my last day, I walked around the Yahoo! campus, which was down the street, caddy corner to Universal Music Group. That's definitely where all the young people are. Google, a logical place of employment for a former librarian, also has a campus in Santa Monica. Maybe I should have located myself there due to the increase in new media companies in the area (and thus the increase in traffic heading that direction). But I really can't drive there and back every day. It took half an hour just to get from Santa Monica to the 405, which is about a third of the way home for me.