After two defeated weeks straining my hand to fill out the same employment history and the same reference numbers for countless job applications, I was finally hired by the 20+ company I contacted. I am going to be working at a movie theater/restaurant/bar aimed at adult audiences that want to eat while watching their film and not have to deal with kids. It seems to be the only decent place in town that is actively hiring, as it hasn’t opened yet. It has its pros (they wanted for “hip/alternative” employees, it won’t conflict with my internship, they actually hired me) and its cons (it’s in Mount Pleasant, which requires crossing a terrifying bridge, and it’s going to be a little while before they actually open). I also managed to get a bartending-at-events gig because of a co-intern. Just the idea of working and having something to do with my time is so invigorating to me.
I am embracing social solitude and have been doing a lot of things alone that I never have before. On Sunday, I went to the beach and sat by myself on an oddly empty stretch of sand and read and tanned for an hour. Yesterday I went to see the Sex and the City - which, by the way, I should have just rented - matinee by myself. I felt surprisingly comfortable being in the theater unaccompanied; I think that the theater was mostly empty helped. And I wasn’t the only “single gal” there, as I counted at least two others.
I want to take a day trip soon. Probably to Savannah, because it seems like the closest interesting place. After a few weeks of wasting my time here, I’ve decided that I need to start making plans for things to do and places to go. I want to explore this city as much as humanly possible because time is already ticking away.
Each day here I realize more and more how beautiful it is. I find it hard to comprehend that people live in these pretty houses with their pretty yards. That these lives are really led by people. But it’s sad that this beauty was built on such ugliness, that these massive houses are where the wealthy lived when it was too cold for the crops to grow, that the bottom floors of these massive houses are where the slaves made the food and did the other chores. I drove to the Citadel today and it has a beautiful park in front of it and I felt to weird to pass through the gates, but if I did it would be to see a place that only started to accept women midway through my lifetime and then harassed those women. Behind what is attractive is always something unattractive.
I think I am going to make a zine to commemorate my time here. It will give me something crafty to do and a way to express myself through words.
4 comments:
Aw, yeah, most beautiful things have an ugly history. I was looking into living in Charleston, thinking that maybe I could just start working at a place dealing with Historical Preservation rather than get my Master's in Historical Preservation (save the Drayton Hall for until I visit!). One of the places I looked into living began as slave houses, who knows what the story is with the other places I looked up.
Hurrah! for the job. Mt. Pleasant is where my mom's friend lives. I think there's a really cool music venue there, as well. . .Anyway, good going exploring the city - you better have lots of things to show me when I get there. (Although, I watched a program on the Travel Channel, and now know of all the paranormal activity in the Battery.)
Congrats on the job!
The theatre sounds like a place I recently discovered in Orlando called The Enzian (http://www.enzian.org/) that plays arthouse/foreign/indie films and some repertory stuff (which there isn't enough of in the world) and serves delicious food to comfy seats. It's what Heaven must be like.
hurrr aimed at adult audiences.
It's intriguing to see how your experience mirrors mine, even though we're in such different places. Like, even though you speak the language, I feel like we're still feeling similar emotions some of the time. Which is a sort of bolstering thought
Susan. You have no idea how wonderful and fab you are. I miss you!! I can't wait to come home and share experiences, this really is going to be an incredible Fall.
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