Shadow Puppet Storyteller

...have it, but songs from the heart cover the planet

What have I accomplished? The question arises as I face a landmark year and plan to attend my High School Reunion. Today, I suddenly remembered the first employment I had out of college was with a private investigation firm. It was exciting, both because I got the job out of a job fair, and because it was like becoming a P.I. (one category of profession for several intrepid fictional characters I actually geeked over, such as Magnum, Laura Holt and Miss Nancy Drew.) Detective ranked highly next to archeologist/professor and adventuresome librarian -- both of which would have required four to eight more years of schooling. I felt quite empowered to have access to reverse directories, and to be able to use verbatim note-taking skills developed in college for taking witness depositions in slip and fall cases. So, much as I think I could have had a lovely career in Burbank, I was let go after a month, as a more experienced person was rehired.

I landed another job with a non-profit aligned with my beliefs about opportunity in the media for disabled persons. But before I actually started there, I was offered a week's stint as a production manager at Santa Clarita Studios while a Maidenform bra commercial was shot. I think that must have been a second contracted job, because I remember being involved in one short-term production before that. I mostly remember the excess of available food at the craft services tables. A few nights ran eighteen hours, I know because I was the one to open and close the stage.

I have worked a temp assignment at UCLA, worked several jobs (like 4 or 5) during my time at Cal State Northridge, (not including two internships for remote learning broadcast out of the Oviatt Library basement, and at Northridge Hospital's education department). I tutored for less than a year at a tutoring center; essentially another in-between job.

Commonwealth Land Title, Mercury Insurance, and The Los Angeles Times have been my "long term" stints. I sure seem to attach importance to the corporate name-dropping I can do by working for big companies.

Somedays, however, I think I just want to write love songs.

[entry title is from "Take It Back" Ed Sheeran's 2014 album, X (Multiply)]