An unexpectedly busy week

Last weekend, I worked on a friend’s vanity project as a favor – they were paying what amounts to pocket change, but beggars can’t be choosers so when they asked of course I said yes. I ended up working Thursday and Friday, too, and couldn’t turn that down either (since that was actual paying work on a ‘real’ show) so  knew I was going to get fucked on the turnaround, but as of late my own death is the only reason I’ll turn down work.   I got home from work about 10 pm Friday, and had to be on the friend’s set around 7 am Saturday morning. So, of course, something went wrong with my car.

The key got stuck in the ignition and since there wasn’t anything I could do about it at 10 pm on a Friday night (other than throwing a temper tantrum and calling the car some really horrible names, of course. A friend once said that what you yell at the car when you’re mad is it’s name – now mine’s named something I can’t repeat in mixed company), I called and arranged for a ride to work Saturday morning.

The weekend job went fine – everyone was really nice and it was fun. Since it was mainly lit by changing the tubes in the building’s existing fluorescent fixtures, we didn’t get worked very hard which is always the best case scenario when one is working for a very low rate.

Monday, I took the car into the mechanic I usually patronize and was told that he can’t fix it as the newer cars have to be programmed at the dealer when certain repairs are made, which made me very, very nervous since the last time I had a car that needed to have work done at the dealer I couldn’t even walk in the door without it costing me a grand.

I borrowed a car to get to work Tuesday and Wednesday and took the car to the dealer on Thursday – thankfully it wasn’t as expensive as I’d feared (but was more than I wanted to shell out for a car I just bought) and now I’ve got the car back complete with new shifter (apparently some whatyamacallit in the shifter was making some thingamabob in the ignition do something. Or not. It’s all Greek to me).

I also got caught in the Obama traffic cluster fuck three times in two days – once coming home from work on Wednesday night and twice yesterday.

Me: “Why is the street blocked?”

Stone-faced Secret Service Guy: “The president’s staying in this hotel, ma’am. We had to close the street.”

Me: “But I voted for the guy! The worst thing I’m going to do is yell something encouraging out the window of the car.”

Stone-faced Secret Service Guy: “The administration thanks you for your continued support. Please turn around.”

Me: “Fuck.”

It’s all fine now, though. The President’s out of town again and I have a working car once again.  Plus, all I have to do this weekend is take my spent batteries to the electronic waste drop off point and go to the gym.

Filed under: Work, car, obama, traffic

Tuesday photo

A day I honestly thought I’d never live to see.

I went downtown to watch the inauguration on LA Live’s giant televisions (the best use of the silly things) – and in the company of other people. For some reason, this just seemed like something that was too big to fit into my living room.

Everyone in the crowd was really happy and it was a good time even if the LA Live people cut off Elizabeth Alexander’s sound while some local lounge singer belted out “America the Beautiful”. Luckily, they cut him off so that we were able to hear the last half of her poem.

I’m glad I ventured out of the house, even if it meant missing The Daily Show and the (probably) hilarious live coverage.

So far, there’s no work this week. Which means that of course I got the urge to go pay my hairdresser (who I adore and would totally marry were he not gay) to cut off most of my hair.

My wallet’s a few dollars lighter, but so is my head.

Happy Inauguration Day.  Let’s all hope for good times to roll again soon.

Filed under: life in LA, Non-Work, day, democrat, happy, inauguration, Jan 20, obama, politics

Tuesday Photo

Since I, for one, need a giggle today:

Spotted on Fairfax Ave just north of 6th St.

I’m glad I voted early – the lines at my polling place are unbelievable.

Filed under: Non-Work, Photos, election, funny, Los Angeles, mccain, obama, poster

Election fatigue

For the three of you who’ve been living in a cave for the past few months, tomorrow we have an election. Not just any election, but the most annoying, highest media hysteria and pundit-rich election that I can remember.

Every time I turn on the television or the radio, a barrage of scare-tactic ads burst forth informing me that if I don’t vote a certain way, life as we know it will end on Wednesday. The blue guy, the red guy, vote for love, vote for change, vote for families, vote for a train (or something), and what will become of the children?

The name-calling, the inflammatory rhetoric, the outright lies, the vaguely icky celebrity endorsements, the hostility, the polarization of the country, the reams and reams of glossy junk mail, flyers being pushed aggressively at passers-by, plus all sorts of lawn signs that have sprouted like mushrooms all over the city. I shudder to think of the strain on our already bursting landfills.

The real irony here (for me, at least) is that I’ve already voted so I’ve signed off on the whole process.

Last week, I ventured down to the bowels of Norwalk and voted early at the county registrar – I got lucky and went on a day when there were no lines, so I was in and out in under an hour.

If I hadn’t, I would have had an early call tomorrow and worked until after the polls closed (plus, they’re expecting record turnout so no in and out quickly this time). Of course, because I took the time to vote early, I’ll be off tomorrow.

Whichever, I won’t have to stand in the line now, but I’m getting tired of the rhetoric and outright bile that’s currently spewing from people who really should know better than to behave like this. If I hear one more person dust off that hoary “commie” speech or refer to anyone else as a ‘brownshirt’, I’m going to scream.

When did we become a nation of 6 year-olds? Can’t we all just be adults about this?

I know for a fact that it’s possible to respectfully disagree with someone and not resort to childish name calling – if I get in political arguments at work, the chances are that I won’t get called back again, so I just have to smile and say something along the lines of “Well, we’ll just have to agree to disagree on that one. Where’s crafty and how’s the coffee on this show?”.

I’m extremely opinionated and if I can learn to respectfully disagree and change the subject in order to find common ground, then so can everyone else.

Don’t make me pull this election off the road and come back there to teach you some manners.

Thankfully, in just about 24 hours it will all be over.

Filed under: Non-Work, 2008, biden, children, divisive, election, mccain, name-calling, obama, palin, politics, prop 8