Gung Hay Fat Choy

Written 2/17/2015

A month and counting and I am still working, still wanted.  That is a nice feeling, especially after two falls.  But there is still a 90 day period, so I am still not completely, absolutely sure that I still have this job.

I think I am being paranoid.  There is just something that is not completely convincing to me about my position.  But with a variety of stuff that happened before, it is hard to get over the past, especially when it affects the future so much. 

Today is Chinese new year.  My boss and his son are Chinese, so they gave the office employees a little bit of money in the red good luck envelopes.  I was actually expecting something like that today, but 25 dollars was more than I expected.

I remember the first time I got one was, I think I working for the last banking company I worked.  It wasn't from the boss.  Normally, I don't really have bosses that give much away.  The envelope came from someone at work.  It was first time I was exposed to the envelope gift, which I think was weird that it took so long.  I've known about Chinese new year celebrations since I was a little girl, when my parents took me to see the parade.  I think I received a dollar or two at work.

My second envelope came from working for a Chinese lady as a care-giver.  A few dollars in a envelope.  I already knew about it.  If you are married, you give them away.  If you are single, you get them.  I guess I should be getting them all the time.

I would like to be the kind of person who celebrates all those kinds of holidays; not just the major one.  I would love to celebrate Marti Grau or Carnival (I miss the parades in Brazil on TV). 

Another thing: I had lost my phone before Valentine's day.  I had planned on texting friends and family for Valentines, but no luck.  And the phone wasn't lost outside my house.  I just don't know where it went.  I spent all weekend, tearing the house apart.  I had all those 'android find me' apps and none of them could find it.  This has been the second time in less than a year that I lost a phone.  This time, I am not upset that the information on the phone is gone.  I downloaded pictures and stuff a couple weeks ago.  I lost a micro sd card and I know for most people it isn't a big deal, but when you are between checks and haven't had anything come in for 3 months, it is kind of a big deal.  Actually, I blame taking public transportation, because in all cases of losing electronics, I just got off the train. 

I just hate losing things.  It is one of my worse vices.  And I don't lose things often.  I back up and make copies so many times, it is crazy.  Luckily I did back the info up.  Maybe that is the clincher...every time I do a major backup, I've lost my phone.  Well, twice now. 

Mentioning this because my former boss, who is Asian, called me.  I don't know when, but I received a really nice phone call from him.  I truly admire him.  He was one of the best bosses I had, and as I tell everyone else, I would work for him in another capacity. 

I just feel bad because I don't know when he left that message.  I just received my phone last night and activated today. 

In a Movie?

If you got here directly, great!

If you were sent here from my personal blog, the story continues.  If you didn't get here from my blog, you really did not miss anything.  Just a prelude of thoughts and ideas before this.

So, as reported for anyone who cares about film, certain actors, or Apple, the production of the newest Steve Jobs film is being filmed all over the area, here in Northern California.

I was given info from a good friend (thanks K!) about audience extras for a shoot at De Anza in Cupertino for Steve Jobs film.  I seriously thought more than once about participating.  When the info came, I really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone...around the holidays, lack of employment, the like.

I decided to just sign up anyways to see if maybe, my personal situation would have changed by the date of shooting.  My luck did change and it became a bit hectic for me to think I could drive a good half hour or more to the shoot site. 

I have to say, I was very excited about doing this.  The emails and phone calls that came in from the company (they were mass communications) got me even more excited.

The shots that the company needed were for 1984.  So it was time to dress up, which was fun.

When I finally got the pass to go, about two days before shoot, I had to come up with something to wear.  Thinking about what things looked like back in the day, I decided to go with the good girl look-button shirt, sweater vest, pearl necklace, lots of bangled bracelets, long, straight skirt, puffy hair, and the hair bow, head band look. 

A few precautions in the packet that we were sent, no black or red clothing and no labels or words.  Hmm...I can understand the black, but what was up with the red?  I am sure it had something to do with the film or lighting or something like that.  If someone knows, please, let me know.  I know of other things that you don't want to wear like blue in front of a blue screen or green in front of green screen. 

I drove down quite early, thank goodness.

Coming into the school where the shot was taking place, there was a banner for the film.  Kind of cool.  You could get a picture of yourself and the company would post it up in a few.  I just took a picture of the banner.  Not a selfie kind of person.

The wait to get into the auditorium was non-existent, which was nice.  I mean, there was a line, but it wasn't a wait if at all.  We signed some release papers and legal papers-no posting pictures or taking pictures of the scenes while shooting. 

Let me tell ya, not taking pictures nowadays is really hard to do.  You want to remember and share everything.  And some people did.  It was a repetitive command all the time.  NO TAKING PICTURES DURING SHOOTS OR INSIDE AT ALL.  I did take some after the shoot was done, but I am not a poster of things I shouldn't post.  No problem here. 

We all got raffle tickets for some things they were going to raffle later.  I didn't need anything that was being raffled. 

I got inside around 8:30 and we started shooting around 10.  The whole auditorium, which seats 2600 or so people, had to be filled.  It was a bit squishy. 

The guy in charge of the company that got all these extras in to the theater kept us involved in the whole loop.  Mr. Cash, or Cash is the guy behind "BeInAMovie."  I liked him.  I want to work for him someday.  He had a great personality and attitude. 

We had a comedian who was the audience warmer, the person who keeps the audience entertained while waiting for whatever you are waiting for.  I mean, with phones nowadays, people can entertain themselves.  But it is nice to look away from the phone every once in a while. 

I sat by a guy who was attending the school and attending film history classes.  We got to talking about things in the school and the film. 

I don't know if I can write about what we were filming or the scenes. 

What we did shoot as an audience was clapping, cheering, walking into the auditorium, and getting into our seats.  We did all that stadium clapping, the wave (which looked super cool!), "We are the champions" stomp, and whatever else an audience does to entertain themselves. 

The company did provide us with a lunch, but I do have to say for some people, 2 pm lunch is a little late, especially for opened doors at 9 am.  Although we didn't work until 10 am, which is the right time for a lunch, they weren't kidding when they say eat something. 

I didn't mind.  I didn't even eat my lunch there.  I took mine home.  I think I was too excited to be there.

Unfortunately, the big actors were not there.  I wasn't too unhappy.  It would have been nice to see them there, but I was more interested in the whole set and shooting than anything else.  I also like big crowds so I actually felt very, very comfortable. 

There was one guy, I know him and I know I just saw him in a show or movie.  He played a really evil guy.  For the life of me, I cannot remember where I saw him.  But he is a well-known, supporting actor.  He usually plays a really bad guy, or a bad father, or the boss of the bad guys.  He's tall and probably in his 50's or 60's.  Seriously, when I find what film or show I recently saw him in, I will get his name.  Or if I find someone who also wrote down all the names down, I will get them here.  I really couldn't hear too clearly, because I was way in the back. 

There was another guy who was Michael Fassbender's stand in, and I do have to say, he was a cutie.

Although I was way in the back, the lights were shining everywhere during filming.  We were told that anyone from the back could be filmed.  Not that I want to be seen...lol...but it would be cool to say, "Hey, I was in a Michael Fassbender film."  Yeah?

A lot of people wanted to meet the stars and I felt bad that they didn't get that chance.  I have already had the chance to meet Michael twice, before he became a huge star.  Very wonderful memories.  Maybe I will share them here one day. 

Although we were told that the day would run from 9-5, we were out by 3ish or so. 

I do have to say, as I am learning this, even though the actors and entertainers and such are a big pull to these projects, I was very, very impressed with the director, Danny Boyle, and the crew.  Mr. Boyle had such a great passion for what he was doing.  I never thought I would be cheering for Jobs.  Never in a million years.  And here I was cheering for Jobs.  Not that I dislike the guy, I respect his work and all he did.  I learned a lot from hearing what Mr. Boyle had to say about what we were supposed to do during shooting.  I really took it in and came to the realization that the director and people behind the film are the heart of the project.  I started learning this by going to a few comic conventions around the area.  Whenever I would attend a panel with actors and sometimes directors, producers, and such, I always noticed that the directors were more animated, passionate, and/or knowledgeable about the project than the actors themselves.  The directors were so much more entertaining that the actors, I hate to say, but did. 

It was a fun experience and I decided I would do it again if time would allow.  Supposedly, the film production will be around through March, which I thought was a long shooting schedule for this kind of a film.  It was mentioned that there might be another need for extras in the city (San Francisco).  Here is the website if you want to know more:  http://www.projectcasting.com/casting-calls-acting-auditions/steve-jobs-starring-michael-fassbender-open-casting-call/.  I might sneak around to see some of the production. 

How Did It Go?

I have just completed two weeks with a new position.

It has been very interesting.

I applied for this position because it was with a financial planning company and boy, did I need some help in that area of life.  Well, that problem is half mine, half not finding a permanent, full time job, which was not something I feel I have always had a grasp and control over.  If so, I would not have been without a permanent job for going on for almost 7 years later this year.

ALMOST SEVEN YEARS?  I could not believe that.

Not that I was not working.  I was...after 2 1/2 years of struggling with much of the population, hence, I do not take full responsibility for lack of employment, because I did everything I knew how to do, to get a job. 

I hope I can say at least, that all that was not a complete waste of time.

For example, I am finishing up my Masters' degree. 

Who would have thunk?

I have to say, I hope that awful part of my life is finally behind me. 

It is NO FUN not having a job, a career, or a way to feel independent and responsible. 

It is a huge weight off my shoulder. 

I took even more desperate measures-by allowing myself to apply for positions that were really not where I wanted my career to go, such as administrative assistant.

Opening up my options did wonders.  I did have some reluctance because after I finished my Bachelors' degree, I applied for a lot of admin positions and I did not even get one call.  I must have applied for 20-50 positions a day, for three months straight!  It went down to about 50-100 a week when I had to get back to work at my part-time job. 

NOT ONE OPPORTUNITY!

So I was not sure how finding employment going to happen.

All I knew is that I did not want to start the new year without a job.

It took a couple of weeks and many, many interviews. 

I had a handful of great interviews but never heard back.  Sigh….

I actually had one bad interview, or at least I thought it went really bad, and I was asked to come to the office for a face to face interview.  I had forgotten to look up the company before the interview, because I thought I did not have a link.  It was not advertised through the Internet.  Bad me!  I had been going through 3 interviews or more a day, both face to face and phone interviews, my schedule was getting quite full. 

Something had to happen!  I couldn't do this for much longer.

Then, I decided to go ahead to this one that I really wasn't sure about.  I had an interview two days before, and I really wanted that job.  It was with an HR IT company.  I was so sure the interview went well.  But I went anyways to the financial planning company that I remember applying as an administrative assistant.

I went in and was given a 12 minute test of various things, like basic math, corrections, consecutive items, and stuff like that.  I was so into the test, that when the manager came in to stop me, I said, "Twelve minutes, already??!!"

I sat and waited for the owner to talk to me. 

We had a very long interview session.  With experience on both sides of the table, I overly shined-that is not bragging, that is what was told to me after I was hired.  I was feeling quite comfortable and the owner was given me clues that he wanted me to start right away.  He told me that he liked me and that he was only going through the other interviews after me because they were already scheduled.

By the time I got home from the interview, I had received a call from the owner asking me a few more questions about the job.  A few hours later, I received another call from the owner's son to call him back.  He had good news for me.

All the while between calls, I was really contemplating if I wanted to be an admin again.  I do enjoy supporting, but my heart is in HR and recruiting.  I am really enjoying my classes in school and I want my career to go that way.

But I needed an income. 

I was reminded of something my father would always say, "Sometimes we have to do things we don't like."  My sister will tell you that is not true, because you don't want to be miserable all your life.  That is true for me.

The position was not what I really, truly wanted, in an area that I knew would be difficult to get to, completely opposite to where I wanted to work and live.  I wanted to be closer to school so I could finish on time or early.  I don't see that happening, unless a miracle happens between now and May.  I was also not too fond of the hours.  Nice to sleep in, but it is kind of late for me to get home and do assignments for class. 

But I knew how to do the work.  Plus, I would be learning a customer relationship management system, CRM, which was something I needed to have in my skills set.  And I have always wanted to learn more about financial planning.

It wasn't all bad.  There were some good things and I knew that I wasn't going to wait for a job that may never come through. 

Which, as I mentioned before, never came through.

I figured that I can work here, learn everything I can while getting my studies and certification done, and have some fun. 

Yeah, fun, remember that? 

I really like the people I work with.  It is small, conservative, formal, quiet office.  I keep hearing that it gets busy.  I happened to be hired during the week of their seminars, which meant that I had to work late twice a month.  I was not really ready for that, since I just started my classes the week before, and I was trying to get ahead in assignments, as not to get behind later on. 

I did not go and celebrate the acquisition of employment because I have become very, very superstitious.

After obtaining two positions I wanted, after having them fail, I was not going to celebrate until I was with the company for a month.  At least by then, I will know if I am still with the company.

I haven't even updated most social areas.  I did put something on LinkedIn, but haven't fully completed the information.  It can wait. 

So as one of my favorite songs says, "I'll be here for a while," (311-Here for a While). 

After my first week at the job, the owner's son asked me how my first week went.  I answered something like, "there was a lot to do, and you haven't fired me yet."  He laughed, probably thinking I was making a joke.