All Packed Up & No Place To Go

Another sign of the times, a producer called to see if I was available to take over a show and go on the road in two days. I was so eager to work again on a union show, that I didn't care if it was four weeks on the road, moving from location to location. In fact, I welcomed the change. I said I would drop everything and be ready to leave by Saturday. Being pro-active, I began packing.  I figured one suitcase for my office equipment & supplies, and one suitcase for clothes.

Last year, I had impulsively purchased two silver multi-directional light weight carbonite cases for my next location job. The suitcases are ultralight and perfect for packing everything I need to handle accounting on a show. I planned to carry my laptop on the plane, and pack everything else. So into the case went a printer, calculator, label printer, electronic postage scale, alphabetizers, stampers, staplers in various sizes, red pens, correction tape, a power strip, router and VOIP box and all the necessary cables for all these devices,  a three-hole puncher, a plastic tool box filled with paper clips, staples, push pins, binder clips and all the necessary tools of my trade. There was even room left for a back support for my desk chair and few boxes of computer labels and pocket file folders and my all important cash box, sans the cash of course.

I had started to go through my clothes, mending and ironing and folding them into neat piles, when the phone finally rang.  It was the producer.  There was a big storm heading toward the first location.  They hadn't forgotten me. The earliest I would leave was on Monday.  So I spent the rest of the weekend, making lists of things to do, like cancel my newspaper, suspending my Netflix, making sure all my bills came to me online.

My nephew who is staying with me, was looking forward to sleeping on a bed instead of a couch. I made a status report for the other members of the board of the homeowners association, showing where we stood on our various improvement projects.  I packed up checks for my remaining post shows, in case someone needed something while I was away. 

When I was finally packed, the phone rang again. "I am so sorry, but..." those five words I seem to keep hearing, "We had to hire someone for political reasons." Another common refrain. "We really appreciate that you were ready to jump in at a moment's notice, and we will keep you in mind for the second season, which is starting to look very likely."  I thanked her politely, saying we should meet when she gets back from location. Then I hung up and started to unpack.

They say when one door closes another door opens. I keep waiting for that to happen. It seems lately that all the doors keep closing and none of them are opening. Come on people, all of you in positions of power to make things happen and give us jobs. Stop sending our work overseas and out of state to save a few bucks. If we don't have jobs, we won't be going to the movies or even paying for cable. And who needs all the cheaply made goods from China that break and are made with dangerous chemicals?  Help your communities heal.  Open the doors again.