The Write Woman Writes to the Bone (101 Days Left)

Okay, just over 100 days to go until I have my bachelors degree! Then the world will be at my fingertips, or is it I will have the world at my fingertips? I suppose it depends on how you look at it. In reality, I’m hanging onto reality by my fingertips! Do I really need a degree?

See, I’ve run into a little tiny glitch. Appears as if employers require one to post their work history for the last five years, meaning that anything before that is not considered. The only jobs I’ve had in the past five years is my temporary job at the photography studio during Christmas and my substitute teaching position which recently ended since school has released, meaning five months of work. I suppose I could stand at the corner of Walmart with a sign that says, “Give me money!” I saw someone there a couple of weeks ago, pulling a sign, a lawn chair, and a blanket from a new van, and make her way to the curb. I’m sure she has skills. Someone had to make the sign.

The hardest part of unemployment is teaching your kids that hard work pays off. All they see is me pounding away on my keyboard day after day, either completing my online school work, searching for employment, or on occasion I take a break and play a silly game. Of course, it never fails that this is the time they wander by to look. My encouragement is usually limited to, "Hit the ball up to the left and you'll get all of them!"

I’m currently working on four short scripts for ABC’s Talent Showcase. The first is called “Uburro,” a quick and pleasant stab at the Uber taxi service through a brain dead driver who should, through all counts of sensibility, be dead. I called Uber, since I have tons of driving experience, to find out the qualifications and they agree to pay $20/hour, but the driver pays for insurance, car upkeep, and fuel, and Uber's 20% commission, which means by the time it’s all said and done, you’re damned lucky to make minimum wage. You're lucky if your driver doesn't rob you! Meanwhile who the hell knows who you’ll be taking around and what they’ll be doing to the inside of your car? They could be cutting your seats up for all you know, even if you’re nice. I don’t know about you, but the last thing I’d want to do is clean up vomit from my car, or what if they simply won't pay? I wrote about a driver who would take such a position. But as long as you make imperfections work for you, there's no stopping an indefatigable person.

The second story I wrote consists of a young woman leaving a late night convenience store and she leaves her windows down. She’ll just be a second, right? When she returns, her uninvited guest convinces her down a secluded street where he has his way with her—nope, didn’t happen! She has her way with him, but he’s not very happy afterward. Then again, nobody can really be too surprised when things don’t go their way. Oh, but I am pretty surprised—EVERY time.

The third story is about two guys surviving a plane crash on a life boat… for a while. Despite the drama-sounding premise, they are all comedies. I am still brewing up the fourth one. They each contain two-person, equally divided dialogue, which is the basis of the contest. But I haven’t got my fourth one. If you have any ideas to throw my way, feel free! The comedy portion of this isn’t the movies at all, but the fact that I grew up on Stephen King and Anne Rice, and have done a 180 degree turn to dystopian sci-fi works such as Divergent and The Hunger Games.

Wow, now if I could locate a company who hires dependent on script creation, I’d have no problem finding a job!  Ah, it can’t be too hard with two kids who are now out of school, can it? I guess we’ll see. In the meantime, the pizza I created for lunch today practically needs a chainsaw to get through it. My daughter's been complaining about her loose teeth. If all else fails, perhaps I can hold the Tooth Fairy hostage when she swings by. A little unorthodox, but at this point, I'll just do whatever works.