"Temporary" Venting Thread V

[Earniel]

Gah, I've got to stop venting to my friends that much. I appreciate I can talk to them, but it is far, far too easy to start ranting and they don't deserve me going on forever about that sort of things.

[Rían]

Yeah - gotta find that balance between healthy vents between friends and "too much" - sometimes need to just drop it and not bring it up.

Vents seem to go in cycles, though - my current vent is that we're watching my in-law's piggy dachshund - I'm a real dog person, but I **HATE** that piggy, whining dog!!!!!! and he's absolutely fixated on me - won't leave me alone, even when everyone else is home - UNLESS he hears someone in the kitchen I just got a new crockpot (our old one broke after 20 years!) and I swear, I was eyeing that dog as I was unwrapping the crockpot ... he fits ....

[Mari]

So, you'll have real hotdog tonight then?

[Rían]

That's the idea!!!

[Mari]

Mwuhahahaha!
Down wiz ze doggie!

[Rían]

Believe me, I am counting the seconds until my in-laws return!!!!!

[Mari]

Just spent the past 40 minutes trying to get someone from a government institution for education on the phone. I gave up after having been reset to the startingmenu once (after waiting for 20 mnutes!) and the line seemingly going dead on me at 37 minutes and 39 seconds. Argh!

[Rían]

Poor Mari! I second that Argh! and send you to the Teacup Cafe for a nice cup of tea


She's baaaaaack! The Green Jaguar Lady was there in the handicapped spot today - well, actually only half of the handicapped spot, and half in the area marked off for extra space for the handicapped people that use the handicapped spot (as opposed to, say, the UN-handicapped people that use the handicapped spot!) for things like driving scooters next to your car, etc.

This way, she is considerately leaving room for, say, a handicapped motorcycle to squeeze in next to her

Anyway, I'm jotting down the days that she does this, and will turn in a report to the principal.

[Tessar]

I am so angry with the opera director. This guy promised me rehearsal stage time, experience, and the perks that come with being an understudy. I asked him to let me out of it because I knew what was going to happen. He said no. So for the entire rehearsal period, except the first two rehearsals, I have been sitting on my butt. Doing nothing. I haven't even gotten to walk the set.

This guy is a liar. He's not even pretending I'm the understudy any more. He sent me off to babysit his child so that he could show the leads some blocking, despite the fact that I'm supposed to be understudying and there were 20+ other people who could have done it that were sitting around doing nothing.

He has wasted my time and energy.... I mean TONS of my time. I have been killing myself pulling 12-14 hour days away from home for weeks without a single day "off" of school/work/rehearsal, and I have nothing to show for it but 5 minutes of stage time in the chorus. So even though I have been to 20+ rehearsals, I'm getting the same thing that people who have been to five rehearsals are getting.

The other night the leads were supposed to rehearse their arias with the orchestra. The character I'm "understudying" has an aria, and I was not invited. It would have taken less than ten minutes to run through the aria even three times. Seriously, to let me do it even twice? Six minutes tops. More like four or five minutes.

Then today he accidentally e-mailed me a thing meant for one of the other leads, asking for his updated biography. It's like.... seriously? You give me absolutely nothing and then accidentally send me someone ELSE'S stuff?

I think the whole thing wouldn't be so awful if I weren't absolutely exhausted by the whole process. For the last three weeks I haven't had a single day that wasn't packed with stuff... school stuff, opera stuff, work stuff. My body is exhausted, my brain is exhausted, and for what? Five minutes on stage.

[Rían]

That's terrible!! How can you be an understudy if you're treated like that? How did you know he would do this - does he have a personal vengeance against you? It sure sounds like it, with having you watch his kid when other people could. I'm so sorry to hear that and there's probably nothing you can do Is it just non-kosher to ask the guy if you could walk the set, or have a rehearsal?

[Tessar]

As far as I can tell this man is not malicious.... he is just incredibly, blindingly incompetent. He constantly thanks me for the extra time I've spent (because I have also put in more "work" hours than anyone else helping out with costumes and cleaning up the theater), I've run errands on campus for him during rehearsals, and I pretty much treat him like he's the greatest thing on earth.... because that's what you have to do when you're the actor/singer/whatever and you're dealing with a director.

But he's just stupid. How exactly am I supposed to be understudying by just watching? That's not even how they do it in the professional world. He promised me stage time and I haven't had any, and I think he honestly believes that he is doing me a favor by "letting" me understudy.

I knew this would happen because I know how this guy works, which is why I tried to get out of the understudying ages ago before rehearsals started (saying I had too many school hours and work hours to understudy -and- do chorus). But of course he wouldn't let me, and gave me some BS speech about how great an opportunity this was for me.

This is a perfect example: Yesterday we were rehearsing, and he said, "We don't have enough chairs here." so I said, "Want me to run and grab another one from downstairs?" So he looked at me as if I were an idiot and said, "you're not listening to me. We don't have enough of the chairs that we'll actually be using on stage."

........ the first thought that came to my head was to say, "Well, dumb***, you are the director. We do have another week and a half. Go buy another chair."

But of course I said, "Oh, geeze, I'm sorry. I didn't even think of that." Then I had to imagine shooting myself in the head for being such a toady.

It just kills me that this man is so incompetent. This is the same man who accused me of not writing down enough stage directions, because I didn't know what someone else (totally unrelated to my stage directions) was supposed to be doing. I wasn't even looking at the character in that scene. This from the man who refuses to write down his own ideas/directions because he hates having to erase them later. I have two ideas.... either do your job and erase the markings, or go buy a new score and donate/sell the old one to one of your actors. But no. That would be too logical!!

I would have put up with this with no problem if he were paying me, but I don't like working with willfully stupid people, who lied to me, for free.

[Earniel]

Well, if you're already doing a good deal of work and not even the type of work you agreed to or that would be good practise for you, can't you just start doing less? I readily admit I have zilch expertise in this sort of matter, but you were offered to be an understudy, not just an extra prop-guy. And if your schedule is already dauntingly full, why give this guy so much of your time? That or maybe hint at times that you'd like to do some actual understudy-work now?

[Tessar]

It's sort of a weird situation. Theater stuff is so incredibly political... if I make this guy upset it could send out ripples that could get in the way of my future attempts with other directors. I mean I doubt it in this particular case, but I'm not willing to take that risk. In my own way I have started doing less. I'm not working on the lead music any more or paying attention during rehearsal... now I'm just doing homework.

There are a couple of problems with asking him for the time on stage. The main one is that I've worked with this guy before... asking him for something results in a discussion on why he can't give it to you. Believe me, I have tried before.

For example, when I was the captain of police in Pirates of Penzance, I asked him once how I was doing.... and he told me that, as the director, he's so busy watching the other people on stage that he hadn't even seen anything I did... keep in mind this was during my "big" song and dance number. And yet somehow he still managed not to watch what I was doing.

[Mari]

That sucks I hate politics for exactly that reason.

Another super Argh!-moment as I try and call that same institution.
Oh and while I was typing this someone answered! Within 30 minutes this time!
Unfortunately she gave me the worst news. *sigh* Apparently borrowing money at a high rate from the government to pay for you education equals being financed a.k.a receiving funding by the government. I'd like to think there's a big difference...

[Rían]

Tessar - yeah, I figured it was that way Well, just make the best of it *hugs*


Update on snarky insurance lady - I got a call from her yesterday, and she was VERY polite and professional with me - perhaps that little call to her supervisor did some good! Too bad she wasn't nice and professional without the call, but at least things are better. I am SOOOO done with car accidents that are not our fault!!! (So are you, Tessar - right?!)

Good luck with your irritating people, Mari! *hugs*

[Earniel]

Originally Posted by Tessar

It's sort of a weird situation. Theater stuff is so incredibly political... if I make this guy upset it could send out ripples that could get in the way of my future attempts with other directors. I mean I doubt it in this particular case, but I'm not willing to take that risk. In my own way I have started doing less. I'm not working on the lead music any more or paying attention during rehearsal... now I'm just doing homework.

I see. A rather difficult situation, don't like that sort of politics myself either. You can always hope that the other people in the field know as well that he's as incompetent as he was to you, but you can't really risk your future carreer on that.

Good luck with it all, in any case.

Originally Posted by Mari

Apparently borrowing money at a high rate from the government to pay for you education equals being financed a.k.a receiving funding by the government.

Seriously? Paying back more money over time is the same as getting paid the money? What kind of backward reasoning is that? *hugs*

[Mari]

Yeah well, it keeps them from having to fund my studies to become a teacher. A fund they created themselves because they are so desperately in need of teachers. Not desperately enough apparently... jerks.

[Nerdanel]

i don't know if it's just because of people just writing more and more of their thoughts online, without thinking about what they're writing, but it feels like the dislike, sometimes even hate, of swedish-speakers in finland has gone up drastically. i don't know why i read those things, but sometimes i do, and it never feels good. i'm a swedish-speaking finn myself (mostly bilingual, though), so all the accusations of a group living in luxury, forcing the majority to learn a language they don't want to learn (when is learning a bad thing, anyway.. we're so damn spoiled) feel sort of.. false, ignorant and threatening. we are as much finns as any finn, no matter what the first language is, and we have the same rights as all other finns. i don't really understand how people, if they actually thought about it, could want to change that, or want the state to change that.

makes me angry..

[Rían]

Sorry about that, Nel *Moothug*

Originally Posted by Eärniel

Seriously? Paying back more money over time is the same as getting paid the money? What kind of backward reasoning is that? *hugs*

Don't you know that it's illegal for government workers to be reasonable?

[Earniel]

Originally Posted by RÃ*an

Don't you know that it's illegal for government workers to be reasonable?

Yeah, should have known better. You'd think I'd catch on by now, eh?