Awkward Moments

Why do I feel like my life is a parade of awkward moments that will never end?

The two that come to mind right away that happened quite recently are as follows:

The day I was talking to my dad about how secure I felt with my job, I got an email letting me know that the show I've been working on is going on a two-week editing hiatus. This was while I was on my week vacation mind you. So instead of trying to figure out how to survive without one week of pay, I found myself having to figure out how to survive without three weeks of pay. Big difference there.

The short notice and nonchalance that this message was delivered to me, made me a little angry. But I was okay. Then I talked to the other assistant, who was lucky enough to recieve a phone call, who told me he wouldn't be surprised if it was extended past that. And then, speaking to another assistant, confirmed my fears that this company seemed to have a bad reputation for these sort of unexpected surprises.

So, in fear of living on the street, I started looking for alternate employment. Temporary, if I was lucky. I applied for a couple of week/two week jobs, but didn't hear anything back. A friend got me an interview at the company he works for, and although they deal more in promos and behind-the-scene specials, I thought I'd go to the interview and check out what sort of hours/pay/work I'd be dealing with.

Well the interview went great. Which would usually be a good thing, but not really in this case. They could only offer me what I was making now with lots of overtime factored in. They also stated, "If assistants can make it here, they can make it anywhere." Which to me was the equivalent of them saying, this is the hardest, longest hours job that you could take in a thirty-mile radius. If this was an editing position, then sure, I'd be up for the challenge. But this is an assistant job which usually is pretty mundane work. I knew pretty much at that point that I wouldn't take it.

But they loved me. I left the interview pretty secure that I landed the job. Which sucked. I should have tripped the interviewer on her way out or asked if it was okay if I had every other Friday off.

I weighed my options, and knew that if I stuck out these two weeks, then I'd be in better position in the long run. And in this field, it's hard not to think of the long run. So I put my faith in mankind and optimism and hoped that two weeks would all the hiatus would be.

Of course, my phone rang the next day. Why is it that when you want a job, you don't get it, but a job in which you don't want, falls at your feet? Well, I answered, rehearsing how I was going to let her down easily. Sure, now I can think of a thousand things to say, but in the moment, I was nervous and knew I'd babble, and just wanted it to be over.

The first, and I mean first, thing she said when I answered was, "Don't tell me you found another job!" in a cheerful, playful tone. Ouch. One of those. And everything I had planned to say just flew out the window.

"Umm," I said, trying really hard to be eloquent in such an uncomfortable situation.

I felt her face falling.

"Unfortunately, I did," I said stupidly and filled with guilt.

It was just awful and awkward and I know she'll never use that as an opener ever again! Just awful. Man, I still slap my forehead when I think of it. Ultimate grimace.

Second uncomfortable situation is completely and totally my fault. I bought these amazing shoes the other day. I mean they are dressy and flat and patterned and have a dragonfly on them. I bought them before I went home for the wedding to wear to the rehearsal dinner. Well, they were a little small, but I figured they'd be fine.

I wore them the night before the dinner, to a family dinner thing, and almost immediately I felt pain when I walked. Squeezing toes, tell-tell rubbing on my heel. I knew it would be a long dinner.

By the end of the night, I was limping. Actually limping. My feet were seconds away from bleeding and I threw the shoes forcibly into the backseat when I got into the car.

I was forced to wear much more casual flip flops to the rehearsal dinner. Feet still aching and cursing me.

So upon returning to LA, I decided that I'd wipe the bottoms of the shoes down and try and exchange them for a bigger size.

There wasn't much wear luckily, but before I got to the store, I checked for blood stains once more.

I went into the store, shoes back in the box, in the bag, with the reciept, and asked a salesperson if I could exhange my shoes. He took them out of the box and inspected them. They passed the test! Home free! So he goes to the back and finds the bigger size, bringing them out to me. I put them on, and Viola! These shoes weren't made to hurt! They felt great! It was amazing. So I told him so.

Then, for some unknown reason, perhaps a miscommunication between brain and mouth, I go on to tell him how the other pair messed up my feet so badly. And THEN, if that wasn't enough, I went ahead and showed, yes showed, him my blisters.

Okay, so at this point, he's looking at me like I'm crazy. I don't realize I've totally just ratted myself out until a few seconds later. I immediately start backtracking, pretending I was talking about another pair but he totally didn't believe me. He's STILL looking at me like I'm insane. Because I am I guess. Who does that???

I innocently hold up my bag holding the old painful shoes in one hand and the new box in the other and ask timidly, "Where do I do the exchange?"

I could tell he was having an internal battle. Finally, and amazingly, he directed me towards the register. Somehow, I was still able to exchange my shoes. I did turn to my friend next to me "Ohh-ing" and "Ahhh-ing" over some other shoes and then proclaiming I would never shop anywhere else for shoes. Once he showed me the register, he disappeared rather quickly. I can only assume he was doing me a favor by doing that.

Let's hope lessons were learned from these experiences.

If You Honk One More Time......!

Two mornings in a row my peaceful reverie of dreams and fairydust has been rudely interrupted at 8:30 in the morning by a car horn that knows no limits. It's not one or two honks, or even an alarm of some sort. It is the unrhythmatic NOISE, constant honks, one after another for a period of up to six or seven minutes. I lay there for a few minutes, hoping the person will come to their senses and stop the madness. This morning, I clumsily jumped out of bed after five minutes of the disruption; my aim? Nothing short of throwing a chair off of my balcony or a verbal lashing not suitable for my babybook. The second, and I mean second, I stepped onto my front porch it stopped, and no cars with annoyed drivers in sight. I check all the driveways, parked cars, even garages in my line of vision, and nothing. Not even an echo that could direct me in the general vicinity. Across the street, my neighbor also had enough, and was storming to the street at the same moment I stepped out. We both scoured the streets, both coming up empty handed.

The honking bandit had made a clean escape. But tomorrow I will be ready. I will sleep in full garb as to not waste time when I wake up and storm to the street. At the first honk, my feet will hit the floor. I have an anger inside of me that needs to be let out, and thus far, I've been successful at not misdirecting it towards an innocent bystander. Tomorrow, my fury knows no bounds and the honking bandit will be sorry.

The paranoid side of me wonders who I pissed off enough to do such a meanspirited thing. Well maybe I'll have answers for you tomorrow.

I'm back in LA with my brother and so far it's been nice. It's been fun hanging out with him and we've been having a good time relaxing and pretending like we are on summer break. Because I'm currently without job, long story, but I know in a week and a half, I'll be back to the grind of 6 to 3. Pm to am.

In other news, a friend of mine wrote a blog entry about the earthquake I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. I thought I'd link it here cause as always, his way with words astounds me.

Shake-N-Bake

The Night Before, (And Other Random Thoughts)

It's officially the night before one of my best friends' wedding. I just got home from all the rehearsal hoopla, and I'm nervous! I'm in the wedding party, which means I have to walk down the aisle, which means all eyes will be on me and I won't be able to tell a joke, which means I'll be nervous with none of my usual defense mechanisms at my disposal. I'll also have to stand still for a semi-long period of time, which makes me nervous because in such situations I have been known to lose my equilibrium. Besides all that stuff, SHE's getting MARRIED. This girl in which I grew up with, and from my middle school circle of friends, was certainly NOT the one we thought would get married first. It's all just unbelievable in that way that's hard to describe, (and I only realized it was hard once I started trying to explain it).

The night was interesting, to say the least. There are four of us that ran in the same circle for years and years. We hardly ever get together, all being in different places, metaphorically and physically. It's me, the bride-to-be, and friend A and friend B. Well tonight, friend A and B decided they hated each other after an incident. Me, always forced to play peacemaker/babysitter/go-between/middleman/what have you, had to try and explain to riled up friend A, (who no joke was ready to fight, FIGHT, in the middle of the parking lot of the rehearsal dinner-now that's classy-[ahh, I love coming home]), that by fighting friend B, bride-to-be would certainly have a memorable night, and not in the good way. So, there was that. I think the situation was diffused and hopefully things will work out tomorrow. (Although, I have a feeling my peacemaking job is not done.)

Another interesting thing is that when I come back here, I feel like a superstar. Now, I know, my job is pretty modest. I'm an assistant editor for a little tiny reality show and when I'm in LA, I'm major small fish in major big pond. But when I'm here, it's like a new ball game. Someone introduced me to the groom's mother as, "This is Betsy. She's works in television in LA." After humbly revealing the teeny-tiny little show I am merely an assistant editor on, I was surrounded by people. It was a little crazy actually. And I assure you this is not a huge show. The only reason I'm not saying the show name is for my own privacy purposes, but it's not that cool. When and if people have heard of it, I usually get a nod, and sometimes a, "Oh interesting." Well apparently I found this show's audience. Embarrased and shy, one of the relatives approached me during the evening and just wanted to talk to me about the show. It was pretty crazy. I had to tell the grandfather a couple of times that no, I've never been on the show, but he was convinced he had seen me on it. That's one amazing thing about working in television: it's just a job, but the fact that so many people can tangibly see your work on such a large scale, it makes it impressive. Such a small scale, but I can only imagine how actors and actresses must feel. It must be like that all the time for them. Just blows my mind!

I saw "Superbad" last night, and wow, it's amazing. I would say not to watch with anyone who you would potentially be embarrased around with any sort of mention of sex, because the entire movie would be squirm-worthy. I have pity on those who thought it was a good idea to take their mom with them. Squick! But wow-fantastic comedy. Best comedy, short of Wet, Hot, American Summer, I've ever seen.

Well I need to get some sleep so I'll catch you guys up more later. Goodnight!

Stars

Wheee! I finally got to listen to the new Stars album! Here's my favorite track:

"Barricade" sample at Last fm

I'm sorry! But the line, "Oh, how could anyone not love the terrible things you do?" might be the best line ever. (Tied with, "How could anyone not love your cold, black heart?")

Other favorite from the album: "My *Favourite Book". *(Canadians!)

"My Favourite Book" sample at Last fm


The album comes out in September and is titled "In Our Bedroom After The War". If you aren't familiar with this band, please do yourself a favor and listen to some of their tracks. Beautiful music and amazing lyrics. This band is easily in my top 3! And I'm indecisive so narrowing it down that much is a big deal!

It's not their best album, personally I give "Heart" and/or "Nightsongs" that honor, (depending on my mood), but it's a great one nonetheless. Squee!



Okay, I got carried away with Stars info!

Other than the Joni Mitchell I've been obsessed with lately, ("California", "All I Want", "You Turn Me On, [I'm A Radio]", and "Twisted" to name a few), these are my Songs of the Moment. Wow, it's been a while since I've had one of those.

And now that I mentioned it, I have to post some "Twisted" lyrics because this song makes me laugh so hard.

"They say as a child, I appeared a little bit wild, with all my crazy ideas. But I knew what was happening, I knew I was a genius. What's so strange when you know that you're a wizard at three? I knew that this was meant to be.

"Now I heard little children were supposed to sleep tight. That's why I got into the vodka one night. My parents got frantic, didn't know what to do. But I saw some crazy scenes before I came to, now. Do you think I was crazy? I might have been only three, but I was swinging!"

On to more important matters! I finally got a snap of that infamous billboard I wrote about last week here.




Lots of mutimedia today! I'm getting pretty good with this html stuff, I must say.

My First Earthquake!

I have waited anxiously for this day. (And not in the good way.)

Tonight, as I leaned against the wall casually, laughing at something my co-worker had said, I felt it. It was louder than I thought it would be and it was one of the most unsettling things I've ever experienced. We shook for a second, and the building seemed to sway a bit, and then there was quiet.

I was waiting the next big shake, as I stood looking wide-eyed to my co-worker who seemed to find a little bit of amusement in my expression. I asked if it was over, and he said yes, but I couldn't get my land legs back. I felt like I had been at sea for a while, and my entire body kept trying to catch up.

It was strange, and a little scary. And it was a relatively small one, as we surely just got the edge of the quake in the article below. But it was enough to convince me: I hate earthquakes. They are as unpredictable as tornados, and I hate the unpredicable.

But there we go. I finally experienced an earthquake. Whew.


Earthquake Article

Well...That Was Stupid

So do you feel as privileged as I to be alive? I guess my feeling of gratefulness is at least explainable, seeing as, for all intents and purposes, I should maybe be dead. Yikes! I did something incredibly stupid yesterday, and immediately afterwards almost burst into tears that I didn't die. Okay, so there were no tears, but I was shocked-and no not physically. Okay-enough with the tease.

A little backstory is necessary, I presume. In one of the edit bays at work there is a leaking AC unit. Everyday, this thing leaks all over the ground. It has become such a nuisance for us that, many times a week, the water on the floor goes unnoticed. We joke that one day, someone is going to get shocked. WELLLLL...to empty out the back of the unit helps decrease the flooding, and since we empty it out like everyday, there is a plastic trashcan with around a foot of water in it sitting beside a bookshelf in the office.

Okay, so here goes: I sit in the chair and start to scoot it up to the desk. There's a little resistance, but I think, in my not thinking rationally, that maybe the wheel is caught on something. So in a split-second, I pull up a little harder and then I hear a splash. I turn around, and much to my horror, a dvd player, that is plugged in, has plummeted into the trashcan of water. The power cord is wrapped around the foot of my chair. In such horror that I have ruined a piece of equipment at work, I immediately, and this is hard to admit, because, I'm not a dumb person, but I immediately reach my hand into the trashcan, and pull the device out, setting it on the ground. I reach into the bucket of water, that holds an ELECTRICAL item, that.is.plugged.in.

Okay, so I'm not sure where my mind was at that moment, but it certainly wasn't thinking of the dangers of doing such a stupid thing. I set it down on the ground, and horror sets in. I touch my arm and pay attention to my body, and check for signs of near-death. I put my head on the desk and take deep breaths only to realize, I didn't die. Which is always a good realization to have. But I certainly could have, and maybe should have, and got so freaked that I couldn't really function for quite a while. My co-workers made me feel a bit better saying that if it had been on, or whatever needed to happen for the water to ignite the electrical portion of the dvd player, would have happened immediately and I would have known before I had a chance to reach in the bucket. A little solace, but with the cord wrapped around my chair, I wonder still my fate.

Anyway, I didn't die. Which is a good thing. I learned a pretty big lesson, and the dvd player, albiet this is the least of the worries, wasn't expensive and is not going to be missed. But man, it's good to be alive. Lesson time: Don't do that people. Think rationally! Don't stick you hand in water that hold an electrical item! Ever! Not a good plan! Not a smart idea!

Okay, well I'm sure as hell glad that turned out okay. Whew. Not much left to say now except, well, that was stupid.