It’s been a few weeks since I've posted anything on this blog. But now that I’m back from vacation in New Orleans, and also finished with the hectic pre-travel activities (and post-voyage recovery) such a trip entails, I have another blog entry or two to post. They are only minimally out-dated.
One of my latest temp jobs was to work as a coat check girl at a fundraiser for a major New York college, held at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. When I wrote this, I was sitting next to a rack full of checked coats in a huge banquet room, watching plate after plate of egg rolls, dumplings, Kung Pao beef and chicken lo mein pass me by, as they were served to tables surrounded by potential generous benefactors.
It’s the year of the tiger, you know, so I spent the first part of the evening rolling up the event programs and tying little Chinese tiger ornaments around them for 220 different place settings. About an hour of that, and then the event kicked off, and I was put on coat duty.
“The Eye of the Tiger” wouldn’t stop playing in my head all night.
Actually, coat check really isn’t so bad, once you get over being slightly skeeved out by touching someone else’s dingy, stained jacket, and when you get past your aversion to all the white flake-covered collars and your fear of bringing home bedbugs. In fact, in some ways, coat check is kind of fun. Trying to match the ticket to the correct coat or bag when people come to retrieve their items is like a puzzle, or a fun little game. A treasure hunt. And it tips better than, say, passing hors d’oeuvres. Not to mention that working coat check allows you lots of downtime to do things like jot down notes for your blog in a notebook.
It helped that I had a partner to work with and talk to, a fellow temp-er and another starving artist. He’s an actor, and therefore obviously no stranger to the fruitless job search or the "open call". In fact, just to prove once again what a dog-eat-job seeker world it is out there, he told me that he had just landed a role in a play, where he was among 2000 actors fighting for a mere 20 roles! Wow. Impressive. And to think how proud of myself I had been a month or two ago, when I merely made the Top Eight out of 200 for a second interview. (Still didn’t get the job, though). Which reminds me, I went on two more open calls the day I wrote this. Unfortunately, it's really beginning to seem like something of a waste of time: drop off resume, talk to a total stranger just long enough for him to fulfill his obligations and follow protocol (the courtesy interview), then never hear from said stranger again. The other day I somehow ended up talking the interviewer's ear off about my love of swimming in odd, polluted bodies of water. Is that bad? Certainly not your usual interview topic, to be sure. But at least she didn’t ask me to tell a joke. I had a guy awhile back make me tell a joke as a required part of the interview. His response to my feeble joke-telling attempt? “I don’t get it.” Yeah, and neither did I. The job, I mean.
Anyway, back to coat check. A nice waiter took pity on us sitting by our coat rack and brought over a few stray dumplings, a couple bowls of wonton soup, and a plate of fruit to tide us over. Feed the help. Then the lady in charge asked us if we wouldn’t like some kosher food. Huh? Kosher Chinese food? This confused me. Is there a large Jewish population in China that I didn’t know about?
I left that job in just under four and a half hours, with $12 in tips, a Chinese take-out container full of fresh fruit, and a handful of fortune cookies. My favorite fortune was: “You will soon find the job of your dreams”.
All in all, not a bad night.
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