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Long time, no post

Last time I posted I was living in Los Angeles working for Screen Actors Guild and putting up with an insane woman who worked next with me.

Flashforward 4 and one half months--I'm back in New York City, making a decent income and most emphatically out of touch with that insane woman.

So I've re-titled my blog and I'm going to attempt to post on a regular basis.

I've yet to read the posts I've put up while this was csquaredinla, but I suspect I'll cringe on how boring most of the posts about work and job hunting and dealing with temp agencies must be.

I'm going to make this blog an outlet for me to opine on film, music, books and pop culture. I think enough about work while I'm at work. So all I'll say is that workwise, I'm back in the IRB world. It's the one field that pays me a decent wage. I would like to return to the world of entertainment unions, but that's going to be a while. I've had enough change this past year.

Also, I'm not thrilled to be back in New York City. I can certainly get around this city and function well. But I'm bored with NYC. I liked LA and I like the southwest in general, especially Northern New Mexico and Northern Arizona. And I'm anxious to see Vegas and its surrounding dessert. I hope to leave NYC two-three years from now, but when I leave, unlike last time, I want to leave for the right reasons, not because I'm escaping a mentally unstable Assistant Dean for "Research Integrity".

And as I complete this post, the perfect song is playing--Boulevard of Broken Dreams, by Green Day. When is that band going to come out with a new project? It's been too long.

Pushing buttons

This afternoon my co worker MA, who's getting over a bad cold, had a sneezing and coughing fit. She apologized after it was over and she got to talking that at least she's able to blow her own nose and get un-stuffed on her own. She then told me about her little niece who as an infant was terribly stuffed up and could barely breathe. The baby was unable to blow her nose so MA's sister, the niece's mother, handed MA the baby and this device to stick down the baby's nostrils to drain her. The niece screamed and cried, but the device worked.

MA was obviously traumatized by this as she went on about having to hold this precious baby and having to hurt her. I observe that may be the case, but if the baby was unable to breathe than certainly the benefit outweighed the momentary pain the device caused. MA remarked that's the kind of remark she would expect from me.

I then remembered my pet dachsund Max I had as a child and teenager. When Max got older, he would often sneeze and snot would be dripping from his nose. A couple of times my mother and I would put a kleenex to his nose and urge him to blow. We knew he wouldn't but one never knows with dogs. I considered telling MA this story to lighten the mood, but then I though it would offend her, but then I thought, oh why not. So I said, "your story reminds me of what happened to my pet dachsund".

Sure enough she got all huffy and offended and said there is no comparison between a precious little baby, a little human, her niece and my pet dachsund. She went on in this vein for several minutes while I nodded my head and thinking to myself, "I just learned how to push your buttons!". Finally I admitted she was right and returned to my work. A few minutes later she comes to my cubicle to tell me once again how traumatizing this incident with the nasal device was. I asked her how long ago did this event occur.

Over 20 years ago. She went on to say this was her favorite niece and she has always been like a daughter to her. MA said she was bringing this up because it's not correct to talk light about such matters or to offer to tell a story in order to lighten the mood. This is serious business and feelings must be respected.

Aye--beware of closeted lesbians who were never able to bear their own children and are unable to move beyond emotionally traumatic moments. MA obviously lives vicariously through her siblings' offspring. While I give her credit for not mating with a man and having a child of her own, she could have found other ways to raise her own child. I've certainly known enough parents who after time passes are able to find some humor in either the event itself (that is, when the child survives) or in a related story (again, when the child survives). My parents and sister love to tell the story of how as a dumb 3 year old I jumped into the deep end of a Holiday Inn swimming pool and almost drowned if someone hadn't jumped in to rescue stupid me who didn't know hot to swim. God knows my family has its individual drawbacks, but I venture to say they're like most people and are able to emotionally evolve from the circumstances of a non fatal serious incident involving a small child.

So You Think You Can Dance July 30

Good show tonight. So glad boring Will is gone. I hope Twitch gets the
ditch tomorrow night. Chelsie outdanced him on that mambo, Twitch can
only do hip hop, otherwise the choreographers have to dumb down their
routines.

Mark and Courtney's French Burlesques Jazz was the best of the night.
Mark is so hot wearing guyliner and those moves he made! He's got a
Johnny Depp of Dance quality to him.

Great to see Joshua and Katee back together. I enjoyed both their
dances.

Paula Abdul was in the audience tonight. She must have shared some of
her punch pre show with Mary Murphy as Mary was getting weepy after
every dance.

I don't which two girls make the final 4 as all 3 are impresssive.
Just so long as Joshua and Mark get more votes than Twitch. And I did my part by voting for Mark 20 times tonight. First time this season I've voted.

Earthquake

Today we had an earthquake in LA. Registered about 5.4 on the Richter scale. I've been through a few other quakes--one in the early 80's in Kalamazoo Michigan. Yes, Michigan. There was a huge tremor down in Illinois and it was felt up in Kalamazoo. I remember being out in my driveway shooting baskets one overcast afternoon when all of sudden it got quiet and I felt a bit of rumble beneath me. It was strange. Later I heard on the news that we indeed had experienced a "quake".

IN San Francisco I experienced a couple of quakes. Once while I was at work at this stupid public policy institute, the other one evening at home. I remember the girl in the apartment below me started screaming when the ground started to shake. At first I thought she was having an orgasm of some sort as she and her boyfriend were rather loud in their sex, but no, it was the quake that was rocking her, not her man.

Today's quake felt like a rickety old carnival ride one might find at Coney Island (tells you where I feel my home really is). Afterwards, several people in the office turned on the radios. Got the basic info, then the station went into overkill trying to cover this "disaster". Fortunately no one died and there was no severe damage, but the stations are geared up for this sort of coverage, though after about 15 minutes the low level sustained hysteria that local news likes to assume whenever weird weather or ghastly geology occurs began to get on my nerves.

Broken computer

Two weeks ago my computer got hit with a nasty virus. I managed to have it remotely removed by the manufacturer. 4 days later I got the same virus and this time the remote repair didn't take hold. So last saturday I took my PC to my nearby Staples to get it fixed. I got the PC back yesterday. It's fixed, sort of. But there are some quirks that I'm dealing with which may explode on me. We'll see what happens.

First Day

Today was my "first day" at the Guild. Not too much different than it's been. Except my teammates threw a little welcome party for me, complete with cake, flowers and a card. It was very nice of them. In addition, during my break, I ran into someone from residuals who gave me a big hug when I told her I was now permanent. Such a contrast to UCLA, in which I was greeted with glares, frowns and looks of suspicion, put into a windowless office (as my promised cubicle hadn't been built), and ordered to read several large policy manuals. Later in the day, I got an email from my boss with a 4 page word attachment describing the office dress and grooming codes. Sweet. I prefer the Guild, even if I'm making less than half what UCLA was paying me.

Another good thing about my office at the Guild--the wall in my area is adorned with portraits of Natalie Wood/Steve McQueen in Love with a Proper Stranger; Gregory Peck in Duel in the Sun and Monty and Liz in A Place in the Sun. Classic movie star eye candy certainly works for me.

Also, my annoying colleague MA is out for the entire week!