No more living nightmare

[iAmBaronVonTito]

i hold any and all respect for someone who has lived on the street but now lives in a nice, cozy apartment filled with possessions they spent hard-earned money on.  the worst ive ever been off is no electricity and no food for intermitten months. 


i get a panic attack thinking about being homeless.

[Julie]

I just started doing what I wanted to do at my old job and waited to find a new job before I quit. Like if they tell you that you have to work on a day you should have off, say no. There is a lot they have to do to fire you and you can find a new job by that time.

[Fido]

That is some pretty interesting material there, Grote. Have you considered writing about it? No joke -- writing's obviously something you have a great talent for, even if you might not remember those days very fondly.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

That is some pretty interesting material there, Grote. Have you considered writing about it? No joke -- writing's obviously something you have a great talent for, even if you might not remember those days very fondly.

I once wrote an incredibly shitty ten-minute play about it, but that was back when I was actually doing it.  So I was both a little too close to it, and not a very good writer at the time (like any good hardhat slob, I think writing is a skill to be learned and not a natural talent).  I might revisit it someday.  I'm half-working on a romantic comedy screenplay about a Brooklyn slob who finds himself in the middle of Cocaine Heights and fakes a life as a hipster in order to impress an arty girl, which indirectly touches on those times and my anxieties about it.

Also, thanks for the kind words!

[pinky]

I love it!  Can you make it instructional?

[Sarah]

Harrison Ford was exactly like his character in Regarding Henry

Before or after the incident?

[Steve of Bloomington]

Maybe with more distance from it you can write a better, more objective 10 minute play about it.  The screenplay sounds good.  Try to work in some digs against the Brooklyn Vegans.

That is some pretty interesting material there, Grote. Have you considered writing about it? No joke -- writing's obviously something you have a great talent for, even if you might not remember those days very fondly.

I once wrote an incredibly shitty ten-minute play about it, but that was back when I was actually doing it.  So I was both a little too close to it, and not a very good writer at the time (like any good hardhat slob, I think writing is a skill to be learned and not a natural talent).  I might revisit it someday.  I'm half-working on a romantic comedy screenplay about a Brooklyn slob who finds himself in the middle of Cocaine Heights and fakes a life as a hipster in order to impress an arty girl, which indirectly touches on those times and my anxieties about it.

Also, thanks for the kind words!

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Maybe with more distance from it you can write a better, more objective 10 minute play about it.  The screenplay sounds good.  Try to work in some digs against the Brooklyn Vegans.

Yeah, I've actually been working on versions of it on and off since grad school, but I'm trying not to subconsciously rip off Tom's great Williamsburg rants.   

I think I'm done with 10 minute plays, though, unless it's for a charity event or someone is paying me to write one.  I kind of hate the form.  I would argue that theater doesn't deserve the bad rap it gets (except when it does, which is often), but I challenge anyone to name an awesome, memorable evening of 10-minute plays.  Most of them are like bad SNL sketches with no punchline.  I've since used plenty of my hardhat resentment in other work - I wrote a play about Walmart for this labor theater in NY and channeled every bad boss I ever had.

Harrison Ford was exactly like his character in Regarding Henry

Before or after the incident?

I assume you mean Henry (did Harrison Ford undergo an incident?), so definitely after.  He would stare at the trays of hors d'ouvres as if he had never seen them and didn't know what he was supposed to do in that situation, then very slowly and contemplatively take one.  I think he might have been on painkillers or something.

[Sarah]

Of course I meant Henry.  That Harrison Ford was like him post-brain injury makes me like him.

[<<<<<]

i get a panic attack thinking about being homeless.

I didn't get them until after.  In fact, I'd say that at least in my case, survival mode takes over and shorts out inconvenient emotions, etc.  So I held up well, but once I got out of the situation I had a full blown nervous breakdown and have had anxiety problems for years since.

[John Junk 2.0]

I'm learning now that politics and power plays within the upper ranks at one's work place have more effect on how one's own contributions are accepted, implemented, or appreciated than one might ever actually know.  I'm constantly in these binds where one department of the school over enrolls, the other under enrolls, necessitating the over-enrolled department to borrow resources from the under endrolled dept.  And of course this is part of some grand design whereby the over-enrolled are compensating for the tuition of the under-enrolled, but the under-enrolled department doesn't want to share any of their resources but rather to bask in the luxury that their defecit of enrollment allows them (i.e. actually having a spare studio for storage or meetings or something).  Meanwhile, there's a third department which is also intentionally cashing out all its resources in order to force the issue of creating more resources for it on the school itself.  And so on, to infinity.  I'm in the position of actually assigning some of these resources and every decision I make will effect one department "negatively" and another "positively".  Consequently most of my ideas for streamlining, simplifying, or making things more pleasant are greeted positively but end up on the cutting room floor in favor of, well, favors to different department heads.  I simply end up trying to make my supervisors as happy as I can and basically everyone else has to suffer; that's how the job is designed, you can't fuck with that.  It's just part of the game of having a job and nothing to take personally.  Also, sorry for the incredibly boring few sentences in this paragraph.  But yeah, luckily all these resource-vying people are basically friendly and not assholes.  If they weren't even nice to me then I'd have been gone a long time ago.  You need to know people have your back.

[iAmBaronVonTito]

Consequently most of my ideas for streamlining, simplifying, or making things more pleasant are greeted positively but end up on the cutting room floor in favor of, well, favors to different department heads.

that was my friday last week.

edit: and this morning.

[joanna]

i've never quit a job. what a weird thing to realize. nevermind, thought of the job i quit as soon as i pressed "submit."

but i was laid off due to cutbacks twice in my 20s, and the only recommendation i have is not to live off credit cards. if you can't make ends meet, can't find a job, and savings are gone, suck it up and mooch off someone for a little bit. family doesn't charge you interest.

[pinky]

i've never quit a job. what a weird thing to realize. nevermind, thought of the job i quit as soon as i pressed "submit."

but i was laid off due to cutbacks twice in my 20s, and the only recommendation i have is not to live off credit cards. if you can't make ends meet, can't find a job, and savings are gone, suck it up and mooch off someone for a little bit. family doesn't charge you interest.

That is very good advice!!

[Steve of Bloomington]

I once walked off a job at 1:00 (no notice given), went to an interview at 2:00, and had a job offer the following day.

Ah, the 90s.....