One Year Without Work

Today marks one year since my boss at the company where I was working for 20€/hr told me she couldn't let me stay since I was refused for the work visa. I stopped working that day and haven't worked since. Apart from once a week English for the last four months.

After losing the job, I lost my apartment. I had a cough and couldn't see the doctor. I coughed for a year and a half until my parents paid for a doctor visit a month ago.

I somehow managed to survive. I can't say all my methods.

Now it's a year later. I still have 60€ left. I had another little run of bad luck this week, losing out on 850€ I thought I could count on to unexpected misfortunes. I also got an audition for a job that would pay 600€ and I hoped that at last I'd get one of those paid acting gigs. But no. Dirty bad luck and instead of surving on 910€ I must survive on 60€.It must last for one month. Then I come back to the States and look for work. And when I get enough money, I leave again.

In the meantime, this year, I wrote two full-length screenplays, acted in seven short films, directed four short films, starred in one feature film, had one short play produced in California, and have written almost 250 pages of this bike trip book.

I also managed to take 3 trips to Amsterdam, one trip to Ireland, one trip to Cannes for the film festival, a three-week bike trip to Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Czech Reublic, three trips to the U.S. including a Greyhound trip to Denver. I did two of those flights on frequent flyer. My parents paid for my Thanksgiving visit.

I'm gonna get a job in Philadelphia and I think it'll be fine. But it's pretty depressing looking for jobs and constantly running into phrases like these:

Must be able to multi-task in a fast-paced environment
Candidate must be self-motivated and pay meticulous attention to detail
Ability to deliver against established deadlines and to work under tight time constraints
Ability to handle multiple priorities in a fast paced environment
Adaptive to change and tight deadlines


It doesn't depress me that companies would be asking me to be these things in order to work for them. Rather, that such behaviors have become imperative to all business culture, and thereby get absorbed into the culture at large. I'm worried I won't meet anybody who isn't always multi-tasking in a fast-paced environment.

I'm hoping to get a job in film production or teaching English. A year without work has turned out very interestingly and has changed me much for the better, I think. But I wouldn't mind some money for a while and I know my health could definitely pass on the shortchanging I always give it. (Nobody knows of a computer I could buy for cheap, do you?) But this is temporary work. If I make enough, I shouldn't have to work for another six months. Garth and I will be going to India in September and things are cheap there.

Also, today is James Joyce's birthday. Happy 124th up there in the astral plane. Finnegans Wake is a great book and just keeps getting better.