#PettyAF

Yup, I'ma goin' on a rant. You been warned.

I'm on set again today (YAY!)... on the show that I've been trying to be a "regular" (recurring) "hipster tech employee" (what? HIPSTER? me?) in the background, ever since before the first day of shooting, when they told us they'd be looking for a "core group" (i.e. recurring).

I can't talk about the show yet. It hasn't aired yet; I don't have any idea what the promos do or will look like. Suffice it to say that the cast are recognizable and generally very friendly people; the writing seems strong; the concept looks good; the set is awesome; the crew are, for the most part, easy to work with (once you {I} know what their expectations are).

But I'm here, on a Friday. For the past several weeks, I've been getting text messages from Casting regarding my Friday availability, and for the past several weeks, I've been scheduled at the pet supply retail store on Fridays. When I went adventuring the other day, I let my boss know that I need to adjust my schedule to just Saturdays and Sundays, with maybe the possibility of "on call" for one day after that weekend, each week? She IMMEDIATELY put that into effect, as of this week! And I thankfully booked work for this first Friday off the retail schedule! YAY!

So here I am. In "background holding", waiting to get used on set. We've been seen by the vanities, that is the hair/makeup and wardrobe departments. We're all ready to go to work. But we all also know that this business is a lot of "hurry up and wait", so we're in holding.

They've got us sitting fairly close together in a large open space. We're pretty quiet, as a rule, but it's not a library. If anyone wanted to have a conversation, there would be conversation. Everyone in the room can hear everything in the room, as well as everything just outside in the hall.

So while we wait, we all look at the casting notifications. If there's something appropriate that requires a phone call, someone will start calling. There was a fairly big notice that was appropriate for just about everyone in the room, so three of us (that I'm aware of) were all dialing.

*Smartphones are smart, for a reason. If we still had to manually "dial" phone numbers, we'd probably all hear the busy signal significantly less than we do. Manually "dialing" numbers takes TIME.*

So, dude down the way hits "send" and "hang up" repeatedly, because he's used auto-redialers in the past that would constantly hang up on him. Girly next to him is doing the same, probably for similar reasons. I'm using an auto-redialer in one phone and doing it "by hand" on my other, because I have two phones. NONE of us are getting anything other than busy signals.

Unfortunately, the busy signal I'm getting in the auto-redialing phone is a set volume. Nothing I try will affect the volume of the busy signal. Not that it's particularly loud, mind you. It's just loud enough for everyone in the room to know that I'm trying to get through.

#PettyAF #RudeChick sitting behind me turns around to say, "what is that?" (like she doesn't know) "can you turn that down?" (like I haven't noticed) "you adjust the volume while you're hearing it" (my first experience ever, using a smartphone, #TYVM)...

Everyone in the room could hear the busy signal. Everyone in the room knows that the worst part of this job is LOOKING for work. Almost everyone in the room was probably also looking for work. My phone wasn't disturbing anyone else in the room. Nor was it any louder than any of the noises that have come from the table where #PettyAF #RudeChick is sitting (including from her, specifically).

We'd just had a conversation about "treating people like people", so one of the primary participants in that convo decided he needed some coffee. I went with him to refresh my tea, which removed my offending noisemaker from the room. Of course, while we were outside, he confirmed that yes, we're all looking for work, so maybe she could have been a little less rude about it? Or just ignored it, like everyone else? Ya know, acknowledge that I'm a people too?

Ennyhoo. #EndRant. That's enough. I'm chill now. Transpo's been broken for lunch; possibly some other crew is eating, too. We'll "break" for lunch in the next half-hour or so, and then hopefully, they'll need us on set shortly after that ends (it's possible they haven't yet finished what they were doing without us, though, so...).

I'm looking forward to getting to work! And then, when we wrap here, I'm RSVP'd to attend a screening and Q&A of Stranger Things 2 tonight, if we don't wrap too late. Wanna be my +1?