FriendBurst Blog

Unfortunately, I will not be able to get a job in that career I‘ve been training for. See, that requires a state license that due to my current circumstances, I am not in a position where it would be advantageous for me to apply for now. Come April 2012, I can get the license I need to do the work I’ve been learning how to do, but for now, I have to fall back on the salesman thing I have done thus far in my professional career.

A few weeks back, I happened to stumble upon a job fair at school. Totally unplanned; I was just killing time between classes. There, I ran into an HR rep for a company that I would totally love to sell stuff for. In fact, when I got let go from my last company, his company was the one place that I thought I would most like to work. This HR guy told me he had an opening coming up in a couple weeks in the exact area of expertise that I’ve spent years working in… Wow! What serendipity! My perfect job becoming available right when I needed it! Last Friday, they posted this opening on their website. I immediately applied. Called the guy to follow up on Monday and he told me he would be calling his candidates on Wednesday. I am so perfect for this job. I so want it.

I waited for that call all day today, causing me considerable anxiety and angst. Here was my immediate future opening up for me. Here was a good paying job for which I was eminently qualified if they could see past my somewhat checkered personal history. Please, HR guy, please call!

The call did not come.

My plans for my immediate future came crumbling down around me.

I am so fucked, I though to myself with increasing intensity as the day progressed.

I have to remind myself of several things. First off, he said he would start calling people on Wednesday. When have middle management at big companies ever been 100% faithful to timetables they set off the cuff like that? He could call tomorrow. Or Friday. Just get me to an interview and I will get the job. I am that confident in my ability to sell myself.

Besides that, if I don’t get this “dream job” I want, I still have 7 months of unemployment benefits available to me. It’s not like I am going to starve.

I know I would kick ass at this job I want. If only they would give me a chance. Every hour that passed today that I was not called, I slipped deeper and deeper into a funk of rejection.

Until 6 PM.

That was the actor’s call for Opening Night of The Miser, the play I’ve been rehearsing for these last 10 weeks. It’s SHOWTIME!

Once I walked in those theatre doors, all those worries about how I am going to earn a living disappeared. All that stress evaporated as I enjoyed the comraderie of my fellow cast members, focused on bringing energy and humor to my performance and became someone else. I became FROSINE, an intriguing woman.

Once I got into that milieu, all my troubles became secondary. I was part of a show. That became preeminent.

I feel compelled to make a small disclaimer that it was the role playing, the acting, the being part of a team, not the cross-dressing, that freed me from my worries. I could have been putting on a platypus costume to walk on stage and simple go “QUACK! QUACK!” and it would have had the same effect on my psyche (I dunno if Platypii ’quack’, but you get what I mean).

All in all, opening night went really well. There were a couple of hiccoughs, but I got the feeling that the audience really enjoyed the performance. My character got lots of laughs. Hey, there’s nothing funnier than a man in a dress, particularly a fat man whose costume was inspired by Mrs Roper from Three’s Company. After the show, audience members told me that they couldn’t take their eyes off me.

Eventually, you will see me on stage performing in The Miser here on my blog, but for now, share with me the fun as I transform, leaving my worries at the stage door, from Joko to Frosine.