Week's End

I have dramatically reduced my shifts at my theater job! To something like zero. I'd like to retain the right to return for a shift or two a month, if only to visit with all the people who work there.

I suppose the logical follow-up to this tidbit would be to address the why, so I'll just list the Pros and Cons rather than attempt a prose-based explanation. This has mostly to do with the fact that I can't tune out the living room TV that's on right now (and has every right to be, don't get me wrong).


Pros!
•Easiest work ever: count stuff, sell it, fold some shirts

•Amazing full view of Times Square, the beating heart of consumerism in America, among other things.

•Daily exposure to thousands of people from all over the world.

•Interaction with actors, singers, dancers, who are trying to "make it," some who have made it, and some who never have and never will - I'm a sucker for being around people who are nothing like me. Plus, of course, the rare black sheep, like me, who aren't entirely sure how they got there.


Cons¡
•Most unfulfilling work ever: Not just that, but the opposite of fulfilling. I suppose I don't mean this job specifically, but any job where you are acutely aware that you are doing nothing positive.

•Full view of Times Square, where it's often difficult to distinguish day from night and the enormous flashing advertisements tend to force themselves through the floor-to-ceiling windows and suffocate anyone who lingers too long.

•Daily exposure to thousands of people from all over the world - I think anyone who's worked retail will more readily understand how this could be a problem...

•Interaction with people who not only live off the psychological exploitation of other people, but delight in it...I mean, wtf??

•Oh yeah, shitty pay - after each month of full-time work, I earned only just enough to pay for rent, bills, and some food. And that's with the cheapest rent I've ever paid.

•Terrible hours. Many actors work these jobs because it leaves their days free for auditions, but for me it just meant working either 6 nights a week with 2 consecutive 11-hour days, or 5 nights a week with 3 11-hour days. And while thousands of things are happening all the time in this city, most of these things take place in the evening hours or on weekends, which is exactly when I can't attend them.

The End Result:
The gnawing feeling that a huge chunk of my life was being spent doing something with which I'm not ideologically aligned, and for so little money that I wonder how the people who pocket the profits live with themselves.
I think I quit this job mentally a long time ago, and have basically just been going to hang out with the people I only see there. But, people are everywhere, no? And now I'll have a lot more time to spend with them =)