/radio silence

[kaydeefalls]

I have emerged from the depths of tech, and I already miss it so badly I could scream. There's nothing quite like taking a "vacation" from your day job to work a week straight of 12-hour days in a high-stress environment to get your priorities straight. I spent the past week watching five puppeteers in wetsuits manipulate strange fabrics in a giant water tank while calling lights in synch with Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique" as performed by a classical pianist, dealing with four hoses and pumps and leaks and ACTUAL TONS OF WATER and one puppeteer's injury and another's illness and a finicky and occasionally combative pair of producers and a revolving door crew of college-aged stagehands with varying degrees of experience and aptitude while learning the most technically intricate lighting cues I've ever called pretty much on the fly with no days off or much free time to speak of, and while "happy" is a strange and strong word, I've been more content with my life in this week than at any point in the past year. This morning I returned to my day job, and within an hour, all that positive energy had completely drained away.

My day job is in an aesthetically pleasing and geographically convenient building, with huge windows and plenty of daylight; I get along well with all of my coworkers and believe passionately in the mission of the organization. The job is relatively low-stress and after two and a half years, I can pretty much do it in my sleep. I receive a very fair wage and decent benefits for minimal effort. And I would pretty much rather stab my eyes out with a rusty spork than drag myself to work in the morning.

And as I finished writing that sentence, I got an e-mail from one of the many, many full-time theater jobs I've applied for in the past few months requesting an interview. My (completely silent) reaction was noticeable enough that two people passing through the lobby joked that something good must've just happened.

So, yeah, it's time to move on out.

Comments

[kaydeefalls]

Thanks! (And, yeah, I feel SUPER guilty about it sometimes, because I could be in such a worse situation. And that makes me terrified of quitting it, even though it's making me absolutely miserable. Urg. Stupid economy.)