First Day at a New School/ Pinocchio

So I walk out of my Upper Westside brownstone down two blocks to Broadway and then down to 79th to catch the 1 train to 50th and Broadway. I look like I work here in New York City! I am dressed like I have one of them city jobs! And down on the platform EVERYONE is standing and reading a paper. If you can imagine this were a musical starring me (and it is!) all the readers on the platform start snapping their papers to the pulse of the oncoming train and do that "My Three Sons" toe-tapping thing in unison. I then get to sing the internal monologue lead of going to a new job in a new town with new shoes that are killing me. (I lie about the new shoes, but I think it fits, don't you?)

The musical continues when I enter the Paramount Plaza building at 51st and Broadway. My new office building.



The security lady issues me a temporary badge and I goes upstairs. The minute my name is mentioned everyone knows who I am as they were all expecting me. Some song about the "Temp from Tempe" (the being from AZ will be artistic license and add a homey quality). I get whisked (not really, but this entry is getting long) to the 15th floor and get a real live security badge with my photo on it. JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. But there is the GLARING expiration date. The ticking clock. The "Back the the Future" subtle disappearing thing. I have a due date! It reads: "2/29/08" in RED.






I am not a Consultant...
I am a TEMP!

(But aren't we all, really?)

Here is where the lead sings a ballad called Pinocchio. This will be the "Memory" or the "As Long As He Needs Me" of this show - the stand alone number that Barbra or Anne Murray will record.

I digress.

I have to confess that I always felt like Pinocchio BEFORE he becomes a "Real Live Boy." When he is still wooden and covered with strings. I look like all of you, I dress like all of you, but only I know I have a hole in the bottom of my shoe. And it is raining and my sock is soaked. You are ALL dry and soleful. (Hey, I know you all relate on some level, but this is my self-involved story!)

So here I am looking like a Real Live Employee, but I know I am "Weekly" as they call me and I don't have benefits. But when I flash my badge you think I am all flesh and 401K. But I know different.

So it is one of those bordering-on-whiny ballads that I seem to always struggle with. And here I am again. But when the Magic Otter appears to me in Act 2 there will be a lesson about being grateful for what I am and what I have and what I bring. And then I will get the girl, talk her ear off, and want to marry the prince. And he will have a very similarly-sized hole in the opposite shoe so when we are both lying on the ground on our backs facing each other (staging still needs to be worked out) our soaking socks will touch and so will our souls.

Where am I going with this? I meant to talk about my day and only slightly brush on my self-image issues...

There will be other numbers like "Why Didn't I Buy When I Coulda?" and "God, Give Me a Jawline," but that is the basic idea. Of how my first day went.

Oh I am having bagels and cream cheese with lox for dinner from H & H Bagels RIGHT ON MY BLOCK! How fantastis is that?!

All in all a GREAT day!

xo,