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20323. alistairconnor - 10/9/2006 9:40:36 AM Ah well yes, I did that to my parents... actually I left my junk in my own house, then had my parents sell it for me... insult to injury.
Have you done the Big Trip yet, Snow? 20324. prolph - 10/9/2006 10:43:28 AM Being an insomnniac I watch a lot of tv. I spend a lot of time at HGTV
(home and garden) so I learned tonight tjat there is a 450 mile garage sle in the south, some interesting things and some trash bit many good
quilts, Apparently folks come from far away. Perhaps you garage sale folk
could form a tour, 20325. Jenerator - 10/9/2006 1:16:06 PM I have found that the garage sale pros make the rounds early, so I suggest setting up shop around 6:30 am, Judith.
At the last garage sale we had, we made $300 before 7:00 am. 20326. judithathome - 10/9/2006 2:49:08 PM Jen, we've done tons of garage sales and we're always set up by 5:30 including having a thermos of coffee and styrofoam cups for people. 20327. arkymalarky - 10/9/2006 4:36:35 PM Hey Snow!! Great to see you! You're not too late at all! We'll be absolutely thrilled to get it.
How were your travels?
20328. arkymalarky - 10/9/2006 4:38:13 PM Is that Canton, Patsy? (I don't know--I've never been)
I love HGTV. 20329. judithathome - 10/9/2006 4:55:11 PM Patsy, I saw that show about the 450 mile garage sale...I thought some of their prices were outrageous, though. They are using the novelty of that sale drawing people from all over the country to gouge people on some of those prices.
And that idiot woman who was host...she encouraged that sort of overpricing by giving values to that stuff that were geared to NYC and the west coast. Very overblown, in my opinion.
Like the "Victorian" towel rack with the needlepoint that she wasn't even sure was vintage...she STILL valued it at a price as if it were vintage. Insane.
I am going to organize our village next year to have a village-wide sale; didn't have time to get it together for this year. 20330. judithathome - 10/9/2006 4:56:49 PM Arky, this was a sale from Alabama to Kentucky...along a highway that runs 450 miles from the starting town in Alabama to the ending town in Kentucky. 20331. judithathome - 10/9/2006 4:57:18 PM Ooops...meant to add, it makes Canton look like a yard sale. 20332. prolph - 10/10/2006 3:17:21 AM jah, A village sale sounds great. Were I portable I woud come. 20333. Magoseph - 10/10/2006 1:38:12 PM Please give him our best and let us know how things go!
Thanks, Arky.
I miss Mac very much.
A couple of years ago, I was talking garage sales all the time, but now I’m thinking of only big items, such as furniture, appliances, exercise equipment, machinery and such…The small stuff is put out every Monday to be crushed in the garbage truck. A decision about discarding the big stuff will have to wait until next spring. 20334. Ms. No - 10/10/2006 5:49:08 PM Ah, garage sale.
I suppose I shouldn't even say anything since I've been talking about one for years now and not having one and meanwhile the stuff just piles up. My friend is going to come help me shoving furniture around and hanging pictures etc. She loves to do the home decorating thing and I need someone to motivate me otherwise I'll spend the next six months shuffling between stacks of boxes.
Finished putting together the computer desk last night and so now I have to rearrange the living room in order to put it in the correct corner. I'd actually like to stay home and do that today, but I'm working for my friend's theater and her business manager is one of those folks who just isn't comfortable if there isn't someone around to do work just in case.
I mean, seriously, I can't think of anything that needs to be done today except busywork and they're in danger of going over my hour limit this week ---- hell, they've already got me working ten hours a week more than the maximum they thought they'd need me when they hired me.
And the thing is, it's just lack of organization and prioritizing skills. Not my friend ---- she's the artistic director and really just wants to stay away from the office stuff --- but her managing director isn't really suited to the business-y end of things in a lot of ways. He's an absolutely lovely person and I enjoy being around him, but he'll have a major budget review thing that he's got to produce for a meeting and he'll put down what he's doing to make up a form for inventorying concessions. It's like he just has no concept of what's important.
Plus, he's kind of slow with the software. Not horribly slow or anything, but I'm about five times faster and it's frustrating for me to have him practically make the damn form for me while he shows me what he wants.
Oh, and did I mention that none of their season ticket info is computerized? They've got 140 Season Ticket Holders and all the records and reservation keeping is on paper. It's incredibly inefficient.
So I'm putting together a database for the whole thing in my spare time. There's no reason one person can't run that office and then they could just have a "Head Usher" or something rather than an actual House Manager.
I'm out of there after Nov 5th anyway ---- I had promised to help out through the run of their first show because everyone who runs the business of the theater is performing in the current production and they were just short staffed. I can't work this many hours and go to school, though and I want nothing to do with their Christmas show which looks like a gargantuan task of reservations and performances.
It's funny, but I have no desire to go back to the theater as an actor or owner. I might still like to direct again someday, but mostly I resent time given over to the theater these days. 20335. judithathome - 10/10/2006 7:23:38 PM As a season ticket holder with two different theatres, let me assure you that your time working at these thankless tasks is greatly appreciated! 20336. Ms. No - 10/11/2006 7:43:29 AM Oh, the patrons are great --- especially season subscribers. It's a really warm relationship and they're all lovely to talk to. Also, because most of them pick their dates ahead of time it's one of the easiest things to deal with.
I just feel like I've been thrown back into the stone ages because nearly nothing in this office is computerized and I end up wasting so much time chasing down different pieces of paper. Eeek!!
I've set myself the goal of getting them as streamlined as I can in the time that I'm actually there. I may continue to give them 5 or 10 hours a week even after this show, but only if they're willing to use me for what I'm good for. Any kid could set up the theater and act as usher and concierge, but for the other stuff they couldn't afford to hire anyone with my skills.
I'll take a bottle of wine over to my friend's house and chat her up about this stuff. I think she'll be thrilled. She's been trying to be only the Artistic Director for over a year now but keeps getting dragged back into the office because she can't get the right skill-set in there.
Which when I read back over it sounds just arrogant as hell, but seriously, what they need isn't all that special it's just hard to find working actors to fill those positions and that's been the bulk of their hiring pool. Actors act because they don't want to run business offices.
She's my friend and they're doing a really good thing there. I want them to succeed and time wasted is money wasted which is bad news for a non-profit outfit. They're bringing shows to town that nobody else is doing --- ordinarily you'd have to go to the Bay Area for this stuff, they deserve to do well. 20337. alistairconnor - 10/11/2006 9:59:33 AM It's funny, but I have no desire to go back to the theater as an actor or owner.
Let me guess. You're going to end up teaching theatre. We'll see in ten years. 20338. Ms. No - 10/11/2006 6:54:44 PM Alistair,
I might get sucked into it depending on where I end up working, but I could teach high school theater now if I wanted since that's what my degree is in. I'm not violently opposed to teaching theater, but it doesn't thrill me. There are aspects of it that I might enjoy exploring in the classroom, but those are specializations you really only get in private study or at the college level. In high school, most places just want you to put together the Spring musical --- while acting as guidance counselor to the artsy misfit kids.
Which is not to say that there aren't some amazing things being done by high school theater departments, but they're the exception. I adjudicated for the LANEA Festival a couple of years and this high school in Turlock kept sending us professional-level performances. They had an amazing instructor down there. Most of what I saw, however, was fairly run-of-the-mill and I never want to have to stage a production of Bye Bye Birdie. ;->
20339. Magoseph - 10/12/2006 6:01:57 PM It's cold, the ground is soaked--where, oh, where is my Indian summer? 20340. wonkers2 - 10/12/2006 6:09:35 PM Mago, you sent us a bit of snow this morning. But now the sun is out. 20341. Magoseph - 10/12/2006 7:46:05 PM I don't think it was snow, Wonk, it was frost. The sun is out too, but the wind is frisky. 20342. arkymalarky - 10/13/2006 12:56:57 AM I'm glad it's finally cold here. It won't last, though.
I was going to say hi from Thrio's (remember that place, Judith?) then hi from the university, and now I have to go to class. I just got connected. Thrio's had a wifi sign on the door and after 30 minutes trying to connect I went to the counter and they said they didn't have wireless. Someone needs to loan them a dadgum razor blade and some green alcohol so they can update their door signs.
On to class now.
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