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And Now I'm A Cook

I worked at the restaurant, as an extern, on the weekends and eventually a day or two during the week, for several months. During the week I was temping to pay the rent. But I couldn't stop thinking about the restaurant. I was learning so much, there was so much to learn. The Chef was an amazing teacher, inspiring thoughtfulness and intuition with food and flavors. I was intimidated at first, not because the chef was kind of famous by this point, but just to be in a commercial kitchen. The pots were really big. The sheetpans for the oven were twice the size of what would fit into your oven at home. There were huge spoons and huge bowls, huge buckets filled with homemade stock and sauce. Enormous tubs of prepared vegetables. The walk-in refrigerator seemed like an abyss, and it was a tiny closet compared to larger restaurants, as I later learned. I wasn't totally clueless about food; I could identify nearly all the vegetables, herbs and cuts of meat and fish. I had eaten most of it, too, so that was also a plus. But this was by no means any kind of a springboard for someone to begin a career as a professional cook. There was a lot to learn, and this was the most invigorating factor yet.

TEMPING...STILL

I called back the old temp firm, it had been a while, but they always came through for me. I needed some way to pay the rent, and they were the answer, once again. I wasn’t really looking forward to it, since I had already thought that I had moved on with my professional life. Shit happens. I got some little assignments, and then I got one that I could do at home. All I had to do was drive out to Parsippany once a week to pick up a few boxes of documents, and I had to log them by date and importance of content. It was a scary case, these were documents dating back to 1968 proving that the Department of Environmental Protection knew about toxic effluence from various landfills, factories and other hot-spots in New Jersey. It was fascinating that there was actual documentation of these crimes, which I later found out, weren’t actually crimes. Poisoning the well-water in many parts of the country isn’t actually illegal. Or it may be, but no one cares enough to prosecute; and there isn’t enough evidence in the world to indict a corporation. This was real poison, though, that was clear from the documentation.

Not a Good Place

IJT Records will never be out of my system. I put too much of my heart into that endeavor. It was like one of those really destructive love-affairs you see on Lifetime, The Women’s Network. I hate that channel. I spent a few very intense years devoting every ounce of energy into channeling my thoughts, ambitions and power into making the label successful. I look back and find no solace in the fact that there’s nothing different I could have done to change the direction of the label. Not that I’m insisting that it was doomed for failure from the start, but I’ll tell you what I did fail at doing. I failed to realize that what I was doing was not very significant, in the real world. Or perhaps I may have realized it, but I resisted the fact that all of my efforts were poured into such an insignificant and cosmically irrelevant venture.

Day-to-Day to End of the Day for the Record Label

I had some more releases to come out, and I was doing pretty well after the financial job came to an end. I told the temp firm to quit calling me for a while, that I would call them back when I needed the work. That’s what was great about them, they had no problem with that. I was always reliable for them, I showed up, and I didn’t steal. A perfect temp relationship.

I developed a pretty productive routine to make my label my day-job. I’d get up and attack the fax machine in the morning for orders from Japanese and European distributors and start packing up boxes to send out CDs. Then I would get on the phone in the afternoon and try to collect money that was owed to me. See, the nature and alternative-universe rules of this business weren’t very good for a small label. Distributors and stores had this racket going that they would place an order, you had to send it yesterday on your own account, and not get paid for it until, like, ever. It was called consignment.

Chapter 14: The Start of a Different Path, Again

So I went back to the temp firm, yet not with my tail between my legs as much as I had thought, because I didn’t realize how good I had it as a temp. Thankfully, they were glad to get me back, since they knew I was so flexible and amenable to different assignments. For about 6 months, I was assigned to an annex office of a risk management firm contracted by the law firm that contracted me through the temp agency. The risk management firm was charged with researching the books and financials of companies engaged in a suit against a huge, influential investment bank who robbed them of billions in derivative deals. Oops, did I say robbed? Whose side was I on? And wait a second. Wasn’t I a film major? What the hell am I talking about derivatives and quarterly financials for?

Chapter 13: Record Mogul. Oh Sure.

So I was a record mogul, now. Instant transformation. I had to earn some money, though, since mogulling wasn't quite pulling in the big bucks. I waitressed at a terrible, gross place near NYU, and got dreadfully sick from eating a cheeseburger there one day. I used to have to steal pieces of carrot cake for my boyfriend. After I got fired from there for serving my roommates beers and "forgetting" to put them on the tab, I tried to work in offices, it was more money, and it was warm and dry. Being a record mogul wasn’t paying the bills, and at least I wasn’t delusional about that part. I registered with a legal temp firm, because I think for some reason I thought I might be interested in going to law school down the road…even though I created a ton of contracts without the help of any stinking lawyers. Now I do remember distinctly that I was interested in going to law school, because I remember taking the 7 hour long entrance exam. I don’t think I did too well, or else I would be a lawyer now.