Another Job, Aother Dollar!

Well, yours truly is no longer an out of work waitress! I got a job at The Office!

I saw a posting on craigslist.com that the restaurant  was hiring, and decided to go apply. There were two things about the job posting that caught my eye, other than the fact that the restaurant was one I was very familiar with and is only five minutes away from my house. One was fact that it specifically said to come in and meet with the manager, as opposed to just filling out an application. The other was the fact that it said experience was preferred, but not necessary. For months now I had been trapped in a vicious cycle of rejection. No restaurant I applied to would hire me without experience, but how was I supposed to get experience if no one would hire me? I figured if I could actually talk to someone instead of just handing them a piece of paper, I could explain to them that working for two years at Starbucks was basically waitressing without walking back and forth to the tables, as well as bartending. I had to take and write down orders for a lot of people, ring them up on the register, make drinks, and heat up and bring food to the counter. I've also been working in customer service jobs my whole life, and I'm an actress. If I'm having a bad day or if the customers are pissing me off, I can just act like everything's fine.
So I went in, filled out an application, then sat down with the assistant manager. She went over my application with me, and I told her all of the experience that I thought was pertinent. Then she went over the hours I had put down that I was available, and I explained to her that I worked at the Y at 5 in the morning, and I needed the afternoons off to go into the city for auditions.
Then the manager came out and we went over my application and the hours I wanted again, and I was being as flexible as I could, saying that I would work over the hours I requested if I had to, and if they needed, I would work Sunday instead of Saturday. And then she said, "Well Corinne... I'm going to offer you a job." I was shocked. "You will?" I said, and she laughed and said "Yes. Take a deep breath." I must have looked like I was about to cry, because sure I felt like it.
The Office offers health benefits, and I eat for free before my shifts. So not only will I be making money, but I'll be saving it too!
So I'm going to start training next weekend, after I get back from Maine. I'm so excited!

Heading Out Into the World

My mother told me that after I graduated college, I could continue to live at home rent free (and also stay on her health insurance and have my dad continue to pay for my car insurance) for up to a year. And that was always the plan, until my boyfriend's apartment go robbed a few weeks ago. He lives on the first floor of a two family house, and the person who broke in came in through the basement and then kicked in his door. After that, not only did we loose a lot of money because of the things that were stolen, but we lost the senese of security we had. I also lost a lot of respect for the landlord, because he didn't even seem to care. So when his lease is up in December he won't be renewing it. We'll be getting a new apartment together.

So now all of a sudden those issues (like finding and paying for insurance and rent and groceries) that seemed so far away are staring me in the face. And I no absolutely nothing about them.

So a little bit about where I am in my life right now. I graduated in May, and have pretty much spent the time since then like I did every summer vacation. I'm still living at home, allthough I spend more time at my boyfriend's apartment than I do at my Mom's.

Since graduating, I've taken on a few more financial responsibilities than I had to before. I am going to be paying my union dues for both the Screen Actors Guild and Actor's Equity, and I'm partially paying for my cell phone bill. The only problem is, I still have the same job that I did while I was in school. I work the front desk at a YMCA. It's a great job, but even though I've picked up more hours, I'm not making nearly enough money. I also earn some money as an on call assistant for an elderly woman, helping her with her errands, cleaning up around her house, things like that. But that as well, is not nearly enough to meet the bills. I'm hoping that if I can get another job (or get cast in a show or something), that can become spending money.

This blog will follow me as I get ready to make it on my own.