i'm just back from a friend's afternoon birthday party at the abbey. saw some friends, met some new friends and was thrilled to see a former disney coworker that i adore at a table nearby. i went over to say hi and as i was talking to him, realized that at his table was another former disney coworker i do NOT adore.
well thank god i'd just gotten my hair done and looked good cause i'm fairly certain he'd be texting my old boss as soon as i walked away. i said hi and tried to be as fabulous as possible while he gave me his signature insincere smile and the "oh my god, you still exist??" look.
awkward moment, yes, but i realized i no longer have to deal with him on a daily basis anymore. and i SO win.
in unrelated yet still catty news, a friend's friend's ex was there on a date with jackie warner (of bravo's show, workout). DRA-MA!
oh joy. more good news on the heels of yesterday's post. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-california-jobs28-2009feb28,0,3811550.story From the Los Angeles Times California unemployment rate reaches 10.1% With more than 1 in 10 workers unemployed in January, the state registers its highest jobless rate since June 1983, not far below the record of 11%. By Marc Lifsher
11:14 AM PST, February 27, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — More than 1 in 10 California workers were unemployed in January, the largest percentage in nearly 26 years, the state reported today.
The 10.1% jobless rate is the highest since June 1983 and not far below the 11% record set in November 1982 at the worst point of a severe recession, according to the governor's office. Job losses escalated in January, with the state's unemployment rate jumping by 1.4 percentage points from a revised 8.7% for December.
The grim California job numbers tracked closely with data released earlier in the day by the U.S. Commerce Department that showed that the national economy contracted by 6.2% in the last three months of 2008, the biggest slowdown in 26 years.
Both numbers underscore that the U.S. and California economies are locked up because of a wrenching drop in demand for goods and services from businesses and consumers alike, economists said.
Recovery will not be quick, cautioned Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: "The number of Californians without jobs and a means to provide for their families is a sobering reminder that there is nothing more important than getting California's economy back on track.
"The road to full economic recovery will not be short," he said, "but the economic stimulus measures I fought to include in the state budget, combined with the federal economic recovery agenda, will help California create jobs -- while laying a strong foundation for better economic times ahead."
here's a link to the department of labor's website which has some great explanations of the details of the COBRA premium reduction. very helpful! http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/cobra.html
america has always been a nation of overachievers (or am i thinking of japan?) and unemployment claims are certainly no exception. last week's unemployment claims were the highest in more than TWENTY SIX YEARS! yes, the last time this many people were out of work i was wearing neon ray bans and leg warmers and stalking alyssa milano at the sherman oaks galleria (R.I.P. licorice pizza and hot dog on a stick).
hiring freezes are still frozen solid and every day i send resumes into a cyber black hole, never to be seen again. and my friends who have been great about personally pimping me out to colleagues can't break through the HR iceberg. retail is hurting too, and even starbucks is shuttering stores so i can't even get a job as a coffee jockey. it's bleak out there and probably will be for awhile.
but i have been finding small glimmers of hope on recovery.gov, the info site for The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (so renamed due to incessant snickering every time someone says "stimulus package"). supposedly the act will create or save 396,000 jobs in california in the next two years. i won't hold my breath that long but at least that'll get somebody behind the starbucks counter to serve me a grande mocha. and i'll need the grande to collect all that spare change i'll be begging for on rodeo. (what...? i go where the money goes!) the recovery act will also increase weekly unemployment payments by $25 which will just about cover my coffee habit/income-supplementing supplies.
another glimmer of hope is that i'll still be able to afford my brilliant doctor who will keep me healthy till i'm 80...and still unemployed. beginning march 1 the recovery act will subsidize 65% of my COBRA coverage for up to nine months. and considering the highway robbery COBRA gets away with each month, that's a BIG help!
so i gotta run. i'm off to the doctor to finally have this gaping head wound looked at...
i had every intention of posting during the 25th, since i thought i'd go to my friend gillian's monthly media industry networking cocktail event and get home early. yeah, not so much....
first off, the event was at beso, one of my favorite restaurants/bars with an irresistible cocktail menu. second, unbeknownst to me, for the first hour all drinks and some appetizers were comped. so an amazing cocktail and an otherwise unaffordable champagne later, monica and i were meeting more lovely people than we had business cards for.
seriously, it was such a great, friendly group of people you couldn't believe you were in l.a. (unless of course you were born and raised here and have been lucky enough to know the genuine people here). everyone we met was so nice and funny, and because it was a small, invited group we all knew we had at least one friend/host in common. and even people we couldn't network with were a blast and we may have some new friends in the morning.
so thanks, gillian, for putting this together, and making job hunting a LOT of fun for a change! see you next month for sure!
following up from last night, dollar dogs at the stand were fantastic! damn cheap and damn good! i splurged and got two "loaded" dogs with the more gourmet toppings which set me back a whole $2.50 each. and one hot apple/cranberry cobbler was about $3. i'd better stop being broke soon or else i'm going to be a very very fat woman. so luckily for me, yesterday was their last monday special like this--beginning in march the deal is offered every day, but only from 3-5pm. phew! stand, my waistline thanks you!
but what's even better than cheap food? FREE food! and today is a banner day for it! international house of pancakes, jack in the box, and quiznos are all offering free food.
on ihop's annual national free pancakes day, they're offering a free short stack all day today. they ask, but don't require a donation to the children's miracle network so it's good marketing for a good cause. http://www.ihoppancakeday.com/ and apparently miss america, katie stam will be flipping flapjacks at one of the l.a. locations. i'm sure that's exactly the glamorous life she had in mind when she won the crown. "I hope to turn pancakes into miracles for children across the nation," Stam said. yes dear, pancakes = miracles.
jack in the box is offering two free tacos as part of its "hang in there jack" campaign. print out a coupon at hangintherejack.com and redeem away!
and quiznos is giving away a million subs through their latest campaign for their lower priced menu. submit your info at http://millionsubs.com/Reg.php and redeem your coupon! you can also nominate someone to win a year's worth of free subs and i'd like to suggest myself as a worthy, unemployed nominee. and if you nominate me i might just share a bite or two. :) http://millionsubs.com/Contest_Reg.php
i'm about to go meet my former programming coworkers for a little reunion and discount dinner at the stand in encino. who knew, but apparently every monday night they have dollar dogs! i've never been before but with all the toppings you can get a pretty good meal--and for a buck!
with no hope for these hiring freezes to thaw any time soon everyone's talking about retraining and rethinking careers. people keep suggesting alternative careers for me, some of which are possible and sensible, some of which are not. so cal edison worker? really, dad?
i've been trying to think of recession-proof jobs i could pick up fairly easily and i think i've found one. so if you know of anyone hiring carnies (you know, circus folk!) please drop me a line.
alright, already i get it! the economy sucks! everybody's unemployed and nobody's hiring! houses are foreclosing! the stock market's in the toilet!
gawd, i can't turn on the tv, radio or computer without hearing more doomsday stories about how the country's in a freefall and there's no bottom in sight. yes, it's news and is at the forefront of the national consciousness. but for the love of god, i've been living it for over two months and i know better than anyone how bad it is. all i ask for is five minutes of escapism here and there. sure, we're all going to hell in a handbasket but why not get a tiny bit of reprieve and mindless distraction on the way down?
so i'd like to offer my patented coping mechanism in hopes that it offers some small comfort. practice with caution:
i'm off to dinner at don antonio's on pico for their wednesday taco special. i'm excited for a happy hour* bargain that's not just about drinks. (wait, did i just say that?) so just in case you didn't already OD at the 75 taco tuesday joints in town you've got yet another chance to get your taco on.
and just wondering aloud, why taco tuesday? other than the obvious alliteration, is it related to the adage to not order the fish on mondays? is tuesday the weekly expiration date for ground beef and/or tortillas so they've gotta hustle 'em out the door as quickly as possible? hmmm...my stomach will soon find out.
*taco specials are good wednesday from 5pm to close.
i didn't post yesterday out of respect and honor for our esteemed presidents. well, that, and i was schlepping around all of southern california and just didn't get around to it.
there was more schlepping today but i did manage to get to the gym later in the day. i still try to go obscenely early in the morning, since it starts my day off right and then i can watch that bewildered look on friends' faces when they find out how early i wake up to voluntarily punish myself.
but lately i've started taking classes in the middle of the day for variety, better celeb sightings, and well, just because i can. and also lately i've noticed that more and more of my early morning devotees and entertainment industry colleagues are taking the same later classes. at first i thought "great, so and so's here too!" and then realized it's because they must have caught the Funemployment too.
i'm thinking of suggesting a new class, "Fit & Funemployed": we'll do a quick warmup, some cardio work, and then lunges while passing weighted business cards to everyone in the class. and the number of reps will directly correlate to your number of linkedin connections.
maybe i can get janice dickinson and dyan cannon to try it and tell us how this recession is nothing compared to the great depression!
sometimes being frugally funemployed had added bonuses. like tagging along with friends to screenings of good movies--i get to a see a good movie AND save myself 10-15 bucks. and sometimes i tag along with friends to screenings of movies that aren't so good and then i'm *really* happy not to have paid 10-15 bucks.
such is the case with confessions of a shopaholic. admittedly i'm a fan of chick lit and their big screen adaptations. but oy, this one was--to use shopaholic terms--a cheap sidewalk knockoff whose upside down "PRADO" triangle falls off a week later. isla fischer is adorable and hugh dancy reminds me why i have a fetish for english guys, but if you're gonna go see a chick flick run, don't walk to he's just not that into you.
yesterday i finally got off my butt to get that free haircut i mentioned a few weeks ago. Sit Still Salon in venice is hopping on the funemployment train and offering a free haircut on Mondays to anyone who can prove they're unemployed. good marketing ploy and good karma.
and a good haircut too! my hair is pretty boring and basic and i almost felt bad i wasn't trying something crazier. but i'm still scarred by a bad junior high school cut and perm (no really. blonde afro. litle orphan annie. really.) and am loathe to stray from my tried and true.
but tifanie was great nonetheless. she was really sweet (used to be a disneyland photographer!) had great advice for caring for my babyfine tangly hair, and never tried to give me the hard sell on products i'll never need. on top of that i got good coffee and plentiful copies of the tabloids. and as my mom pointed out, one of the owners cuts the hair of coldplay, "whatever that is". :) so if you're in the market for a new salon or stylist check her out. and even if you're not funemployed they have a special for first-timers. $44 for a cut and blowdry. http://www.myspace.com/sitstillsalon (and no, they're not sponsoring this post.)
last night was the premiere party at the hollywood improv for disney channel's newest original comedy, sonny with a chance. (sorry, i still slip into copytalk every now and then.) it stars one of disney's new darlings, demi lovato who, if you're between the ages of 6 and 14, is kind of a big deal around here.*
so my friend hillary let me tag along with her to see the accompanying fanfare and hoopla and see my old disney friends. admittedly i was worried about the possibility of running into my old boss who is an awkward woman even in the best of situations. but i figured as long as i avoided the buffet table i wouldn't even have to see her. luckily, she was a no-show (she must have heard about the lack of buffet) so i was free to mingle with old friends and coworkers**. i did get some surprised looks, like i'd just risen from the dead, but i was happy to be living proof that there is life after disney.
it was also awesome to watch what became the equivalent of the cool kids' table in the cafeteria. in the middle of the room was demi lovato, selena gomez and other assorted aspiring disney channel "it" kids. it was like an issue of tiger beat come to life. and as the night wore on and grammys let out, miley cyrus and her manmeat of the month showed up and joined the gang (she fed him food. gag.). and as if that wasn't enough tween star power for one table, taylor swift joined in, still wearing her grammy outfit. it was like the teen choice awards spontaneously broke out at the improv. at that point i realized that if someone dropped a bomb on that one table, disney channel would go bankrupt. i mean really, shouldn't they have a company policy that no two of its moneymakers can travel together for fear of losing too much of its stable to an accident? (or DUI, or paparazzi beatdown, or naked photo scandal...) but then i remembered that at age 15 they're over the hill, have an ever-growing sense of entitlement and salary requirement, and judy taylor probably has fifty more just like them waiting in the wings to be america's next top tween.
comforted by that realization, we headed upstairs to watch with the crew. the show looked good, everyone seemed happy with the premiere, and i'm sure the ratings will be great.*** and being a G-rated affair the party wound down just in time for me to meet friends working the grammys at st nick's for some R-rated drinks. sunday funday, indeed!
*if you're older than that you'll appreciate nancy mckeon playing her mom. **shout out to the funemployment fans! thanks for the encouragement! ***tiffany thornton is laugh out loud funny and i can't wait for her to steal the show from demi.
in this friday installment of things i don't miss about working, we'll talk rush hour. rush hour that, in los angeles on a GOOD day is still soul-sucking, but on a friday...in the rain...is immobilizing. literally.
being funemployed i'm blissfully ignorant of traffic reports, relegating that trivial info to the poor, employed masses (although i'd think with a nearly 10% unemployment rate, the freeways would be empty!). but every so often this ignorance bites me in the butt when i make plans to meet someone a few freeways away at 7pm. oops. that means leaving my place on the west side approximately one week prior.
like tonight. even meeting friends at 9:30pm means sitting in the wet, rainy 405 traffic for awhile. fun. well, at least it's not a regular ocurrance. oh wait, that's not a good thing, is it...?
since the job market looks to be frozen for awhile i'm trying to be clever in making money. legally, that is. so i dropped off a bunch of my nicer clothes and accessories to a consignment shop my stylist friend, monica recommended.
laura's resale on ventura and whitsett. or, for those of you further away or just lazy, www.getchic.com. if all my stuff sells (probably not, but a girl can dream) i could make about $775. not a bad pull for cleaning out my closet!
so go! shop! and feel free to write me for a list of my items which i KNOW you'll love and will fit you perfectly and will make your butt look tiny! http://www.getchic.com/
things i don't miss about working, part three: being "tasked" to do something. this corporate buzzword ranks right up there with "circle back" and "take offline" in cringe-worthiness.
first off, that can't be a real world! "task" is but "being tasked" has got to be some godawful phrase someone way up the chain made up to make underlings feel better about being ordered to do something.
second, it never works. nobody feels better about being tasked to do something. we get it, we do what you say because you pay us. we're okay with that, and no buzzword and a chipper voice will make us feel like we've been anointed by the almighty to staple the covers to all those TPS reports.
third, has anyone ever been tasked to do something enjoyable? "hey, sparky, i'm tasking you to take the company jet to barbados to see how long it takes! no need to hurry back, just expense it." if you want us to feel privileged to perform the task you're tasking us with, it shouldn't need to be tasked in the first place. we should want to volunteer! so quit with the b.s. and happy face and trying to get us all excited to add a few more grids and a few more hours to our day.
i don't know why that popped into my head on the way to the gym this morning but when it did i had an involuntary shudder and rolling of the eyes, much like i did back in my unemployed days. maybe it's still the PDSD (post-disney stress disorder). thanks for letting me vent and go get back to whatever you've been tasked with today.
So Operation Grand Slam was a success and i'm now at the gym trying to work off the 6,500 calories i just inhaled. this is proving difficult, however, as i'm quickly slipping into a pancake/egg/bacon/sausage coma. damn you, denny's!
i also got to ride the elevator with adam sanderson who apparenty doesn't feel the need to get to work early. and judging by the spandex i'm guessing he's not here working off his free grand slam breakfast. i'm guessing he doesn't know what "denny's" is.
okay, must crawl next door for primo double espresso before falling asleep on the treadmill, which could be deadly. funny as hell when i'm flying off it, but deadly. :)
it's a new month, and i'm feeling pretty good about february* funemployment. i know, people are still being laid off by the thousands but i'm hoping the dues i paid in january are going to lead to something this month. that said, i'm not above having my plan b's, so i'll keep scratching those lottery tickets, looking for my sugar daddy, and earning all the good karma i can.
and i think karma owes me a big one, because last week i helped another emily little get a job interview. some background: for awhile now i occasionally get email misaddressed to an emily little in london**. for the most part it's been lame email forwards that i've already gotten from 10 other people so i haven't bothered to correct their gmail error. but i did love the picture emily UK accidentally sent to me from the spaceship earth attraction at disneyworld (for those of you who don't know me, the girl in the diving gear is the other emily, not me). oh, the irony. i do hope her life has been complete and fulfilling without this picture...
but last week my english doppelganger got an email from a caroline jackson confirming a job interview with omni partners. i don't know what omni partners is but they sound important and i'll be damned if i'm gonna stand in the way of an emily little getting a job! just because one of us is funemployed doesn't mean we all should be.
the lovely caroline jackson replied and thanked me for replying, since emily UK probably never would have showed up if she hadn't gotten the email. so i now have a warm fuzzy feeling and some good job karma in the bank that i'm hoping will start paying dividends soon. who knows, maybe some day she'll have a job lead for me. or at the very least she'll be willing to join (and invest omni partners' money in) my new job hunting service catering exclusively to emily littles.
to that end, i've started replying to similar emails to make sure she gets them. and i'd be lying if i said i didn't hope some more good karma would come my way. the latest email correction involved her friend tripp lane (seriously) sending a picture of a chair in a pub that he thought their friend brad was looking for. so if i do get my karmic payback it may just involve furniture, but after two months of funemployment, i'll take it!
so good luck, emily little of london! if omni partners ever opens an l.a. branch i'm putting you down as a reference.
*wow, i just almost typed "ferb-ruary". the disney kool-aid still lingers...
**gmail's "help faq" page explains this phenomenon using the example homer.j.simpson@gmail.com which is yet another reason i heart google.
