The Many Adventures of a Thede

I really like my new job! Maybe it's just because the first flush of HAVING a job hasn't worn off yet, but I think I do actually like this job. The hours are good for me. I work at 11am at the earliest, but many days I come in as late as 3pm. I leave by 9pm at the latest, but I'm usually out by 8:30pm. Not only is this schedule great because I'm a night person. It's also great because I can actually spend time with my boyfriend who works in a bar from about 4pm-1am every day. If I had to get up early, we would see much less of each other.

The actual work part of my job is not bad either. A year of box office experience has helped me catch on pretty quickly. That being said, there are a LOT of little details to learn and keep track of. I'm getting there with those. Sometimes the office is busy, but when it isn't we are free to watch movies, surf the internet (there is a firewall, however), or leave to run errands. Tonight I reached a mile stone as I was left on my own to run a curtain for the first time. Everything went well, and I didn't screw anything up (I hope), so I'd call that successful.

Another great thing about my job is that I get free lunch any day I'm there before 2pm. This is usually the part that makes people jealous. I would be too. There's a restaurant around the corner from the theatre called West Bank Cafe that delivers us whatever we want from the lunch menu each day (and on weekends the BRUNCH menu...even better) in exchange for us recommending the restaurant to people. Box offices do get asked about places to eat fairly often, so it works out well for all.

Last week we had an opening night for the newest show at the theatre (there are two). This new show is called Dust. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm sure I will soon. On the evening of the opening, many of the company members who are not actually IN the show had to come to the box office to pick up their tickets. Early in the evening a young, pretty girl approached my window. I had seen her before, but hadn't really looked at her very closely. As she walked up, I thought she looked very much like Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. I actually had to look at her closely to make sure it wasn't one of them (you never know in New York). She asked for her ticket by last name. "Olsen?" she requested. At this, I had a "get out of my head!" moment, but reached to get her ticket. I saw as I handed it to her that her first name was Elizabeth. "Could you let me though the stage door?" she asked. I let her through, but then quickly returned to my chair to do some serious googling. It could not be a coincidence that I thought she looked like the Olsens and then her last name WAS Olsen. I found that she actually is their younger sister, that she is an understudy for the show and a student at NYU. I spent the rest of the evening wondering what percentage she gets of her sisters' clothing line that is named after her. I later found out that I was the first person on the production to figure out who she was. She hadn't told anyone. Just call me Sherlock.