the bonus of unemployment...celeb sightings

The funny thing about not working is that you have plenty of time to blog. Yet you have nothing to blog about. I have discovered (or reconfirmed) that I am not cut out for a life of leisure. I get bored, I get antsy, and I don't have a hobby that lends itself to alone time. My hubby loves playing music, writing, etc. and all of that means that he loves time off work and doesn't mind being home alone. I'm pretty much the opposite.

The plus side is that when you go to lunch or happy hour or brunch with your other unemployed friends on a weekday, you see lots of actors. I've been seeing lots of really minor character actors but those are my favorites. The other day I saw Rachel Griffiths crossing the street. Then I was picking up some take-out and this random guy from Carnivale was in there. But best yet, I was getting brunch and standing in line next to Tory from Battlestar Galactica. I wanted to geek out but I maintained my composure.

life of leisure

Posts are hard to come by when I'm unemployed because there is not much going on. Don't get me wrong...since work ended last Friday, I've mapped out quite a routine for myself. You see, it's pretty involved:

10:00 a.m. - After sleeping in, finally awake without an alarm clock
10-10:15 - Put in contact lenses and check email.
10:15-11:15 - Go on a long walk/jog around my neighborhood
11:15-11:45 - Jump in the pool and use the lovely new float that Stevin gave us
11:45-12:00noon - Lay out on the chaise lounge attempting to get a tan for wedding season...though limit to 15 minutes to avoid little things like skin cancer.
12:00-12:30pm - Read about Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and all my other close friends on gossip websites. Oh, and I check CNN.com so I can make sure we haven't invaded another country or something.
Post 12:30 - Take a shower and start my day of errands, shopping, movies, and hanging out with friends.

As you can see, it's strenuous but it's pretty sweet. I am thoroughly enjoying our pool. The weather has been sunny and gorgeous and the pool is really warm which my lame body temperature requires.

My free time has allowed me to see two movies, "Waitress" and "Knocked Up". "Waitress" is extremely adorable and sweet and just..."nice". There really is no other word. Utterly simple and lovely. Not sure many males would enjoy it but I recommend it. Then there's "Knocked Up". Words can't express how much I loved this movie. Absolutely f-ing hysterical. The first movie in a LONG time that I want to see again. Please drop everything and go see it right now.

hodgepodge

unemployment trudges on as this year's tv season winds down. i know, i'm sad. but let's all pause a moment and give a moment of silence to "grey's anatomy", "lost", "deadwood", and yes, "american idol", because they are all coming to an end. well, just for a few months, not forever. but still, they are damn good shows. okay, now we can move on.

'dancing queen', 'total eclipse of the heart', 'just like heaven', 'hot in herre', 'hey ya', and 'take on me'. those are just some of the selections i hope to dance to while wearing a white dress in a few weeks. bridesmaids, get ready. mick the british dj is going to take good care of us. john and i keep telling him we're a dancing crowd so i don't want to disappoint him.

the positives

turns out there are good things about unemployment. but first, a quick shout-out to leigh fitzgerald who has been nice enough to be my play date during my down time in san diego.

fun things to do while you're unemployed include:

big brunch at the hash house
mid-day padres game
universal studios...if only to witness the hoochies in their mini-skirts
runyon canyon hikes
yogurt shoppe...and lots of it
loading cd's onto a new laptop
sitting around a pool
tallying up wedding r.s.v.p.'s
sleeping in until 10

l.a. by day

i'm unemployed. and my lack of blogging is deplorable. i'd apologize but i'm not sure anyone is still reading this crap so there's no one to apologize to. but i can't believe how hard it is to blog when you're not actually sitting at work in front of a computer all day and supposed to be doing other things. it's just hard to get motivated to sit down in this horrible broken "desk" chair in our 2nd bedroom/"office"/music room/crap room. doesn't exactly inspire.

day 10 of unemployment brings new awareness though. i've learned that pretty much all of l.a. must be unemployed because there's still traffic during the day, restaurants are still crowded, and shops are still bustling. i guess the out of work actors, writers, musicians, and producers have a lot of free time like me. i've also learned that pigeons are the anti-christ. maybe not all of them but the three that like to perch in the eaves of our front patio and shit all over the nice slate-tiled ground. i HATE them. i shoo them away and they come back one minute later. last week i resorted to extreme measures. i made the trek to the store and bought an owl. yes, an owl. a blowup plastic owl. and hung it on the patio. it looks so trashy and awful but it's keeping away the birds. and their shit. so i will keep the owl up. with great pains to my aesthetic side. oh well.

what else? had an awesome awesome bridal shower courtesy of ten percent, my sister, and my friend katie. opened more real wrapped presents than i had since i was fourteen and drank the most champagne ever. subsequently experienced the worst headache ever. i went to see a taping of 'american idol' (don't be jealous), and have been going on hikes and chilling in starbucks. then there was that day i read a book in barnes and noble. i felt like i was stealing but no one bothered me.

that's basically it. unemployment is no big party every day. i keep having to stop myself from spending money i don't have. up next? more wedding stuff in san diego. pray that i survive all of this time with my family.

april already

i haven't posted in a while and i was going to say that it's because i've been busy but nothing could be farther from the truth. i've been so NOT busy that i've been bored out of my mind. so obviously i couldn't post. have you noticed that when you have nothing to do, even the smallest task becomes so hard to remember to do? to motivate to do? it's so much easier to get stuff done when you've got a hundred things you're juggling and not enough time to do them all. somehow i like working better that way. i get way more done.

but here i am, finally blogging. i don't really have much to say. i guess i can tell you that i (along with about 1000 other employees) am getting laid off on monday. don't be sad. i am thrilled. and i'm getting six months of severance so i'm pretty happy. i'll probably be unemployed until july so let's do dinner! or hell, let's do lunch!!

houseguest

have you ever had an awful houseguest who won't go away? yeah, it's awful. but it's even MORE awful if it's not your houseguest but your roommate's. my sister's friend is staying at our apartment and she is nice enough but just the worst guest. she leaves her shit strewn all around the apartment. she has eaten most of my food in the refrigerator. she attempts to do her dishes but then i have to re-do them because she puts them away with giant chunks of food still on them. CHUNKS OF FOOD! hello? don't you notice? the worst is that i'm unemployed so stuck at home with her while my sister is waitressing and then sleeping at her boyfriend's! dammit. now i'm pissed. the worst news that i just got is that her stay is 'indefinite'. maybe until thanksgiving! somebody kill me please.

my least favorite holiday

yup, that's right people, halloween. i don't enjoy it because i don't enjoy getting dressed up. there's all this pressure to come up with a witty costume but i'm not feeling it. i don't have any inspiration. and, since i'm unemployed, it's gotta be cheap. very cheap. so any costume ideas for me?

help.

i hate disney

they've shut down my movie. just shut it down. four weeks before we were supposed to start shooting. it's over. and now myself and 60 or 75 other people are unemployed. unemployed! again! broke with no money during the holidays! this job was supposed to take me until march or april! disney's killing me slowly. or mickey's killing me softly, with his song. :(

my laziness knows no bounds

and to prove it to you, i even cancelled job interview because i didn't want to go. just the thought of having to dry my hair so it looks nice, get all dressed up in a skirt and stuff, wear high heels, smile and act friendly...it was just too exhausting to bear. though let me defend myself slightly and say that i wasn't about to take the job anyways. i took the interview because, hey, i got it. but then i thought, do i really want to work for some bitchy woman who's really busy at the network for women? (hopefully i'm not giving away any identity). so currently i'm still unemployed and watching regis and kelly on tv. but some work things are looking up so never fear!

i'm poor

so it's no secret that i'm poor. it's probably from being unemployed for so long. so in an effort to scrape up a few dollars for my cable bill, i thought i'd sell some of my old cd's that i never listen to anymore. some of the cd's that had built up dust for the past 6 or so years that i took to amoeba....
en vogue, cyndi lauper, power dances of 1995, salt n pepa, pretty in pink soundtrack, elvis christmas classics, and tlc among many others. i think i brought in like 30 cds and the snobs at amoeba records would only take like 8 of them. damn them. but i did make a cool 25 dollars. yup. you know it's huge. at least i'm not like one of my poor friends from my last movie. he said that he just sold his guitar for rent money. in his words, "i picked it up, played it one last time, cried, then took it to the store to sell." goddamn this LA place. it's destroying people one at a time.