In Which The Starving Artist Lands a New Day Job

Err, this is the only picture I could find where I wear a tie...

"Richard" In Aloha, Say The Pretty Girls
Produced by Holland Productions

Things are looking up good friends! This week, I started my new life as a jack of all trades. I am currently temping a long-term assignment at a law firm in the financial district. Within a week, I escaped a life of chaos and mocha stains and entered the symmetrical world of 9-5 and clean shirts. And I couldn’t be happier.

Now don’t get me wrong: I enjoyed my tenure as a professional coffee slinger. Given my status as a young, early career artist, a day job in the service industry makes a lot of sense. All young artists must pay their dues: being underpaid for a job many of us are overqualified for, and serving a demographic that seems intent on making our lives hell. In my case, tourists and black berry wielding suits… can you see where this is going?

Somehow, I look back at my year and a half as a milk steamer extraordinaire with a great deal of warmth. There’s much to bond over when you serve in the trenches of a coffee shop. I served with an extremely diverse group of people ranging from students to parents, from affluent and working class backgrounds, speaking a multitude of languages and each with their own dreams and goals. No matter how tough the times were out front, I always knew someone would make me laugh in the back room…

Today, I purchased a hundred dollars in new work clothes. As quickly as my new earning power comes, it quickly goes! And as I enter employment working among the people who previously made my life hectic (lawyers, who are much more agreeable than tourists!), I only lament that I can’t take my previous coworkers with me.

Then again…

I’m an artist… it might only be a matter of time before I go back…

K

P.S. As I write this post, I'm watching Predator on AMC. Two of the actors in this movie have become Governors. Governor Jesse Ventura and Governor Arnold...Schwar....The Terminator.

Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally cast as the title creature, but dropped the project...

We came THIS CLOSE... to having a Governor Van Damme... (Shudder...)