$ob $tory

What's the deal with money? Everything is so expensive nowadays.

I begrudgingly went to my audition this morning for a theatre I've been told never to work for, and they didn't even give me a callback. BAM! Ridiculous. So, I then meandered through the city trying to decide what to do next. I ended up spending about $80 in the next few hours, on simple necessities.

Stamps
Oh brother. Remember when first class stamps used to be like $23 cents? Sheesh. I bought two books of postcard stamps today because I just ordered some postcards with my picture on them to send out to casting people to remind them who I am, right? Well, it now costs $0.24 to send a postcard. That's almost a quarter! Are you kidding me? It's insanity. And don't try to send out a headshot to anyone or it'll cost you upwards of sixty cents -- $0.63 to be exact. And for cripes sake, I send out a bunch of them every week. No wonder I don't have any money. And, I had to stand in line for about twenty minutes to spend $22 on postage.

Vitamins
I went to replenish my supply of multivitamins, supplements and the like at GNC, using my member card. Now, thank goodness I have that, because I saved just under ten dollars today because of it. However, is it really fair to charge me thirty bucks for 180 vitamins? Of which, of course, I have to take two a day. So that's 30 bucks to get me through 90 days... which turns out to be $0.33 repeating each day for multivitamins. Oh brother.

Groceries
Come off it! There is no way I should have to spend over thirty dollars on orange juice, tomatoes, bread, mac&cheese, soup, apples, oranges, bread, cheese and turkey. For crying out loud! I just need to survive here. But, $35 later, the kind man who didn't speak my language (which is FINE! ... for today at least) just didn't have enough smile to make it worth it.

Finale Ultimo
What makes the whole tragedy sad, though, is the simple notion that I CAN'T AFFORD ALL OF THIS. I'm an actor. Which means my days are full of auditions. Which means my nights are full of rehearsals. Which means there is no time for a real job. Which means I can't make any money. Which means the jobs I do have a few and far between. Which means I now am beginning to realize why they came up with the whole starving artist mentality. I guess I'll just have to stop buying things, stop auditioning, get a job in a cubicle somewhere, begin hating my life and then be able to buy things again which won't make me happy anyway because I'm stuck in corporate America doing something I don't want to be doing next to fifty other people who feel the same way and are just spending their time updating their myspace profile on the boss's dime....

Love and peace. Beedow.

Gift Card Breakthroughs

I was at the local mega-chain bookshop this afternoon looking for items on which to spend my gift card. I actually had a list written up a couple days ago, noting all those items I thought I was going to get for Christmas and then never got. And, I printed out the coupon which I received for being a member of the elite online e-mail club, of which everyone else is also welcome to join.

I stood around a while, meandering through the aisles, gaping wide-eyed at the prices and only being half-interested in most of the products, including the ones on my list. For some reason, once I got to the store, $29.95 just seemed too expensive for NEXT, the new book by Michael Crichton. And I just felt I wasn't ready to re-purchase Sondheim's SWEENEY TODD IN CONCERT that was stolen from me a while back. But, after hemming and hawing, I did pick up a copy of the new recording by London's Chocolate Factory of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, and the off-Broadway tuner I LOVE YOU BECAUSE, both of which I am currently listening to and will review shortly.

What gave me pause was a book on the "web design" shelf about blogging. I think it was called "People Don't Care What You Had For Breakfast" or something like that, and it offered tips on what to blog about and how to make one's blog brilliant. HA! I don't need any knuckle-down buckle-down cheap yet overlypriced text to tell ME what to write about. I am Beedow, Blogger of Brilliance. Sheepishly, I admit I did peruse the pages and find a couple of ideas to get me through the new year.

Tomorrow's post: NYE: How to Make it Work for You

Mall Madness

No, I'm not totally finished with my holiday shopping yet. Although, I have to say that this season, it's been a lot easier than years past. I don't know why. I guess I decided what I was going to get everyone in advance, and so I was able to just go out and pick up the items, rather than loping through the mall halls unsure of what to even look for let alone purchase.

But, trying to get to the gifts, I had to avoid those walkers (you know, the women in their toupe sneakers who circle the mall endlessly all afternoon) and do a little bit of meandering. Then, of course, you have to briskly pass the families and lovey-dovey couples who are at the mall "for fun." Be careful to just barely brush their coats with yours, or else if you actually bump into them, there could be trouble.

OK. But really... who actually goes to the mall for fun? I can't imagine. I go to get what I gotta get and get goin'.

Anyway, I'm done here. I've got things to do, can't spend all day writing in online text boxes for the enjoyment of others. Come on!