Friday, June 21, 2013

Non-Union Rates

I got a casting call email today for a prime-time network TV show filming in Austin. They need female extras to play prostitutes. The project offers non-union pay rates that will be "at least minimum wage" with "overtime pay after eight hours." Extras must be available for twelve hour shifts with most scenes filming outside on these hot summer days.

I hope that real prostitutes don't have to work twelve hour shifts in Texas summer heat, and that they make a whole lot more than minimum wage. (Naturally I wish that no one had to prostitute themselves or others.)

Though my retail job is no gem, I'll stick with it for the time being if this is the quality of acting work that Austin has to offer now.



Sunday, June 16, 2013

Real Nice

When I come into my millions, this is how I'll roll:





Saturday, June 15, 2013

Trip Which Light Fantastic

The pendant light over our dining room table gave up the ghost, dropping one of three pendants, and stripping the wiring in the process. The light fixture had a good six year run sporting three different pendant styles. If I'm honest, I never loved the old light fixture. Cue the perfect excuse for a new chandelier.


Light A is a knockoff of a chandelier I found on a much more exclusive/expensive shopping site for about 1/3 the price. Chad and I find it charming and funky. As you know, we love Halloween and this chandelier screams haunted house chic meets old world charm.




Light B is more mainstream, more traditional meets modern. As for the price, that 40% employee discount across a number of brands from my retail job makes the pricing the icing on the tasteful vanilla cake. 

Our dining table has a weathered ebony finish with red leather-ish simple, high-backed side chairs. Chad and I both think either chandelier will match just fine. 

By the time you weigh in, we'll probably already have the new light installed. A bee in the bonnet of two over-doers buzzes insistently. Leave a comment, so we can at least see if you guessed correctly which we chose.

Saturday, June 08, 2013

Put a snail on it!



At my retail job, we borrow a catchphrase from the show Portlandia, and often say, "put a bird on it!" Birds were all the hotness a few years ago in everything from fashion fabrics to decorative accents to wallpaper. Sadly, their are still too many birds gracing pillows, bedding, bowls, dishes, mugs and cake-domes at my retail workplace. It's over, guys. Move on.

A few months ago, I predicted to Chad that snails are the new hotness in design. We have one ceramic snail on our bedroom dresser and one small ceramic snail in a terrarium in the dressing room. I found sparkly snail ornaments last Christmas. Indeed, I've seen snails popping up on fabrics and wallpapers too. Not so much gracing food serving pieces, unless you count escargot served on dishes. Eww.

I've been struggling with working 37 hours a week on average, but with no employee benefits other than my meager hourly wage. My retail workplace got fussed at by corporate last week for scheduling too many of us more than 29.5 hours a week consistently without giving benefits. Last week, I only worked (surprise!) 29.5 hours over five workdays. It was pretty nice. I almost caught up on housekeeping and actually cared for the pets properly. Next week I work (surprise!) 37 hours again.

A coworker unwittingly informed me last night that the full-time visual merchandising position for which I thought I might apply is already promised to someone else. The past month that I've been working with the visual merchandising team I was (unknown to me) merely serving as a placeholder until the other person can start. SURPRISE! & EWW.

That other person can have the full-time visual merchandising position. I've had a taste of that job. Very little of the work is actually creative. Mostly the job involves cleaning the store, making sure proper signage is in place for constantly changing sales, doing markdowns, toting 30 pound shelves up & down 12 foot ladders and dribbling water into dying plants.

I'm going to put a snail on my retail job, figuratively speaking, and slow down. I'm going to limit my available hours so that I'll truly be working part-time, hopefully 25 hours over four workdays per week. Maybe if I don't give so much of my time to a job I don't even really like, it won't feel so taxing. Maybe I'll have time and mental energy to find a job I like better. Maybe I'll just have more time to myself.