Been busy lately. Running around and driving quickly or spending my downtime with a friend, so I haven’t been back in a week or so. Does that break the trust we’ve been building in this semi-private public space? I don’t think so. You don’t task yourself to write in your downtime and then beat yourself up when you don’t have any time to write. Where’s the joy in that?
The event work has come back with a vengeance. For those of you who don’t know, I am part of a work crew that sets up and breaks down various different types of events. For most of this year, I’ve been working a few days a week or month to set up the curtains and couches, lights and table centerpieces, and dance floors for the bar and bat mitzvahs for rich Jewish kids in the suburbs. I’ve crewed for a few other events, too, but it’s mostly been the mitzvahs. They’re a pain in the ass – and the arms and legs – but the money is really good, so I take the work whenever it becomes available to me.
What does this consist of? Well, when call time arrives, I show up at the company’s warehouse/office space, help the other guys load a truck or two, drive to the venue, spend several hours setting things up, take a few hours off, go back to break everything down, drive back to the warehouse to unload the truck, and drive home. It’s usually mentally easy while being incredibly physically tasking, but the rewards are great. In this case, I’m spending time as part of a team and also using my body. Plus, as I said before, the money is really good.
Pretty soon, prom season will be starting again. I worked last year’s prom series, and it was rough. The work was close to back-breaking, and there were several days after where I could barely move, but it saved me from going completely broke until I could find more work as a driver. The season ended at the start of last summer, so I didn’t hear back from the company until late August. And all of that will be starting again in just a few weeks.
The good thing about working freelance is that I don’t have to accept work to be able to keep working. I’ve recently started paring the mostly-unworthy runs out of my driving day which gives me a little more time to sit but also keeps me from running my car quite so hard. A good thing, all in all, and I still make the money that I need to survive and thrive. Since both of my jobs are freelance, I can take a day off from driving whenever I want in order to work an event, and since I can clock in and out when I choose, I can drive in between my crew shifts. It makes for a very long day, but it also keeps me from getting drunk when I shouldn’t be spending so much money.
Speaking of paring things down, I’m going to cut this essay off a little bit because I’ve actually run out of things to write about this topic. I could definitely go into the details of what the actual set up and break down entails, but I’d rather save that for another day. Suffice to say that I’ve been busy and will continue to be busy, and that’s very nice. When I’m alone and doing nothing for long enough, the darkness comes back. When the dark thoughts return, I start to get self-destructive, and we all know that that’s a terrible thing. You’ve never plumbed the depths of my darkness, but if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll realize that you could probably descend forever without ever reaching the bottom. And that’s where we are now. The bottom…of this post.