Eating Like a Horse...

....a cup of rolled oats and an apple.  That was breakfast one day of tech.  Lunch was a Cliff Bar.  Dinner was a little better; two servings of salad and the last Top Ramen (actually, Ichiban.)

At that time, out of the last five people who had promised me a check, none had paid up.  The show I had just finished working reneged on the stipend the outgoing Production Manager had promised in his original email, and on the extra hourly the outgoing Artistic Director had promised verbally after I spent the first week of my "design" tracing, testing, and replacing wires all over the building.

That said, the next two checks are not late, per se.  One is rental for a run that was extended an extra week or two.  The other is a gig that sometimes pays on the day, and sometimes pays a few weeks later when the school gets around to dealing with it.  Unfortunately on that gig (the East Bay Mini Makers Faire) I had to hire an assistant and I paid HIM.  Out of my own pocket.

There is no petty cash drawer at the company where I'm currently in production.  I spent money on microphone parts out of pocket under the understanding that I would be reimbursed promptly.  Two days ago, they finally coughed up the check.  Which was one day too late to save me from seventy dollars worth of overdraft charges.

Saturday I had in hand the check for designing the show.  Fortunately I calculate on a per diem, not on an hourly, but $425 for two weeks work is still pretty damned shy.  Calculating by hourly....two weeks of 10-14 hour days makes for a base pay rate somewhere around $4 an hour.  And to add the last insult to that injury, the check of course was handed to me during a twelve hour day at the theater.  By the time I could make it to the bank, I'd been hit with yet another fee (this time from my gym).

At this company, mixing the show is treated separately, and gets paid a very decent stipend.  On closing night.  So there will be a whole lot of rolled oats in the weeks to come.



Oddly enough, I felt pretty good for most of the week.  I guess I needed the diet.