Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Ticker number?
Temp Agent: "Erin, are you comfortable on a trading floor?"
(Beat)
Me: "Well, I've never been on a trading floor, but I'm comfortable everywhere I go."
Money has been short, so....
Today. Erin Schultz. Trading floor.
I giggled throughout the day at the absurdity.
The details:
(Beat)
Me: "Well, I've never been on a trading floor, but I'm comfortable everywhere I go."
Money has been short, so....
Today. Erin Schultz. Trading floor.
I giggled throughout the day at the absurdity.
The details:
- A THIRTY line telephone bank
- Assisting thirteen men in sales
- A "Big Boss" with "bat phone" to cover
- Lots of ringing/yelling/money talk
- Me
My responsibility is primarily the phone. It does not have a receiver and sits directly on the desk, always at hand. The process is as follows:
Telephone rings/"hit" the line/yell at the trader to pick it up (seriously YELL across the room)/hit release/continue
There is some yelling, swearing, a man tossing a baseball, and the "Big Boss" called his men in the conference room with a football nestled in his arm.
I am totally amused. I am totally terrified.
I texted a simple "OMG" to Claire.
It could not be summed up more perfectly.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
WINE!
“You should get drunk! It’s fun!”
(Quote from my newly informed drunk dial of Friday. A VERY fun Friday with Kevin, Greg, Claire, and Craig Middleton... what a motley crew.)
(Quote from my newly informed drunk dial of Friday. A VERY fun Friday with Kevin, Greg, Claire, and Craig Middleton... what a motley crew.)
I've got no strings to hold me down...
I have been seriously madly deeply in love with my life right now. Temping, yes temping, has provided me with some (gasp) fulfillment.
Temping for me is the tasting platter of employment. I have been booked at a variety of short term placements and each has provided insight into places I COULD HAVE worked- my fictional lives (lives not lead, jobs not done, parallel universes). I have worked at very corporate real estate offices, accounting firms, and today I’m working here. (Got to get around the Google alert somehow).
The jobs have provided quick blimps of insight into New York employment that I could not be privy to in any other way. I do not have the energy, desire, or time to have a career in these fields, but I do have time to answer your phones for the day. (I will not vex on how time is bringing us all down by not allowing us to explore our full selves completely, not allowing us the years to become experts and explore magnitude of paths. That and money. Time and money will always fight against our complete fulfillment as an individual. Of course time will always be the big winner in that three way fight.
And I digress….)
Temping has also made me appreciate my path and the choices I have made. I would complain previously about having “office jobs.” Believe me. I have never, ever had an office job. Fashion PR and event planning are about as untraditional as it gets when you compare it to working in a cubical at an office called White, Straight, Old Guy and Associates. (A demographic I have never have the privilege to work with before.)
Perhaps the biggest reason I love temping is I know it is going to end. In mere months I will be a school girl again and will be fully interested and invested in what I’m doing. One can not over-emphasize what one can overlook and muster through when there is an end date in sight.
In other news, I decided I’m going to New Hampshire with Mel for the next few days (and I didn’t have to ask permission from an employer… love temping flexibility). I am very much looking forward to the trip. I need a beach. As I told Claire yesterday, “I feel like I can not be kind or love someone fully. When that happens I know I have to get out of the City for a few days.” She called me insane, but it’s true. This City, especially in the heat and summer, gets in your head. After you're out for a few days you always want back in, but getting out, especially for a girl who loves trees, is necessary.
Photos of nature at its best in the next round.
Temping for me is the tasting platter of employment. I have been booked at a variety of short term placements and each has provided insight into places I COULD HAVE worked- my fictional lives (lives not lead, jobs not done, parallel universes). I have worked at very corporate real estate offices, accounting firms, and today I’m working here. (Got to get around the Google alert somehow).
The jobs have provided quick blimps of insight into New York employment that I could not be privy to in any other way. I do not have the energy, desire, or time to have a career in these fields, but I do have time to answer your phones for the day. (I will not vex on how time is bringing us all down by not allowing us to explore our full selves completely, not allowing us the years to become experts and explore magnitude of paths. That and money. Time and money will always fight against our complete fulfillment as an individual. Of course time will always be the big winner in that three way fight.
And I digress….)
Temping has also made me appreciate my path and the choices I have made. I would complain previously about having “office jobs.” Believe me. I have never, ever had an office job. Fashion PR and event planning are about as untraditional as it gets when you compare it to working in a cubical at an office called White, Straight, Old Guy and Associates. (A demographic I have never have the privilege to work with before.)
Perhaps the biggest reason I love temping is I know it is going to end. In mere months I will be a school girl again and will be fully interested and invested in what I’m doing. One can not over-emphasize what one can overlook and muster through when there is an end date in sight.
In other news, I decided I’m going to New Hampshire with Mel for the next few days (and I didn’t have to ask permission from an employer… love temping flexibility). I am very much looking forward to the trip. I need a beach. As I told Claire yesterday, “I feel like I can not be kind or love someone fully. When that happens I know I have to get out of the City for a few days.” She called me insane, but it’s true. This City, especially in the heat and summer, gets in your head. After you're out for a few days you always want back in, but getting out, especially for a girl who loves trees, is necessary.
Photos of nature at its best in the next round.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Looking for a Sublet!
Come live in my spacious, Williamsburg loft. Room available in Aug and longer if need be. Huge room (pictures to follow). $1113.00.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Smooth Operator of Life.
It has been a long, long while since I have blogged. I think it might be a good thing. My life has been so full of… life… that I haven’t had a chance to record it.
Ok, fine. I’ll stop with the east coast attitude and perchance admit that it could be a bad thing I didn’t have a spare moment to reflect. However, there have been some major changes. A job, another job, Internet dating (how could I have not blogged about my month long social experiment of internet dating!!!), a steady boy to date (not found through Internet dating)- all have come and gone.
I quit the PR gig and have worked for an event company making party magic for the New York social elite. It was the first job where I was really given a great amount of responsibility in terms of managing large amounts of money, plans, vendors, freelancers- problem-solving to the max (my first love). Plus I got to be a bit bossy on the job site as the big boy in charge. It was great fun, nice perks, but a ton of work and many, many, many working hours. (Check out a few of the parties.)
I then received a wonderful gift from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts- admittance. Free admittance to receive an MFA in Costume Design. Plus health insurance. Also free. Money. Stipend. Enough to live on. How could I pass up a lovely chance to have someone pay me to take watercolor figure drawing classes and discuss at length the ins and outs of human behavior set on stage? Well I really couldn’t. I said yes and was mailed the required reading list for the summer.
I explained my situation and, out of respect, gave my event company a great length of time to replace me, two months. Because of the slow summer at the company, they gave me two weeks. As I was currently living month-to-month, paycheck-to-paycheck, I only had one thought: I. AM. SCREWED. How could I pay my bills until school-stipend time?
I realized I was long due for some scrappy, crafty, problem-solving nonsense. I found a sublet for my room in July. (I found him on Craig’s List. I did not meet him before he moved in. He plays “Smooth Operator” on continuous repeat.) I am now living in my roommate’s room for a few days while he is out of town. It will then be a nomad’s life here and there on New York couches. I will also temp in the mean time and will make ends meet with pure prudence.
It really is me at my best. Making it work. And, as always, the "Hair Chop" (scroll down after clicking). This time instead of doing it myself I paid $19 at Great Clips. What a moment of insane irreverence. Lovely.
(Stay tuned for weekly updates on the traumatic, awkward, afro-ed growing out phase of my poor, poor hair.)
Ok, fine. I’ll stop with the east coast attitude and perchance admit that it could be a bad thing I didn’t have a spare moment to reflect. However, there have been some major changes. A job, another job, Internet dating (how could I have not blogged about my month long social experiment of internet dating!!!), a steady boy to date (not found through Internet dating)- all have come and gone.
I quit the PR gig and have worked for an event company making party magic for the New York social elite. It was the first job where I was really given a great amount of responsibility in terms of managing large amounts of money, plans, vendors, freelancers- problem-solving to the max (my first love). Plus I got to be a bit bossy on the job site as the big boy in charge. It was great fun, nice perks, but a ton of work and many, many, many working hours. (Check out a few of the parties.)
I then received a wonderful gift from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts- admittance. Free admittance to receive an MFA in Costume Design. Plus health insurance. Also free. Money. Stipend. Enough to live on. How could I pass up a lovely chance to have someone pay me to take watercolor figure drawing classes and discuss at length the ins and outs of human behavior set on stage? Well I really couldn’t. I said yes and was mailed the required reading list for the summer.
I explained my situation and, out of respect, gave my event company a great length of time to replace me, two months. Because of the slow summer at the company, they gave me two weeks. As I was currently living month-to-month, paycheck-to-paycheck, I only had one thought: I. AM. SCREWED. How could I pay my bills until school-stipend time?
I realized I was long due for some scrappy, crafty, problem-solving nonsense. I found a sublet for my room in July. (I found him on Craig’s List. I did not meet him before he moved in. He plays “Smooth Operator” on continuous repeat.) I am now living in my roommate’s room for a few days while he is out of town. It will then be a nomad’s life here and there on New York couches. I will also temp in the mean time and will make ends meet with pure prudence.
It really is me at my best. Making it work. And, as always, the "Hair Chop" (scroll down after clicking). This time instead of doing it myself I paid $19 at Great Clips. What a moment of insane irreverence. Lovely.
(Stay tuned for weekly updates on the traumatic, awkward, afro-ed growing out phase of my poor, poor hair.)
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