THIS IS TURNING INTO A BAD MELODRAMA.
Yesterday my husband crashed his car. He's okay, but his beloved Passat may be a total loss.
Some lack-wit stopped in the middle of oncoming traffic in the midst of making a left turn. He just stopped -- claimed he heard a fire truck coming. He was in the middle of a major intersection, and as he got halfway through his turn across the lanes of opposing traffic, he just stopped, blocking the oncoming left lane. My husband was IN the oncoming left lane, maybe 20 feet away going straight towards him, and had no time to swerve or stop. He plowed into the guy's pickup. I don't know what kind of damage was done to the guy's truck, but our Passat lost it's entire left front end. There were engine parts falling out. The headlight was completely gone and God only knows where the bumper parts and license plate landed. The hood was smashed up into the windshield and it was bleeding all sorts of fluids out of the huge gash in its front end... it was awful. I don't know if it can be fixed. What kind of idiot just STOPS in the middle of oncoming traffic when he hears a siren? I mean, if you hear a siren coming, make sure you stop in a safe place in your own damn lane, for heaven's sake.
What is going on? I lose my job, then my car gets smashed by some moron who can't merge, and now this. Now we have no cars. Mine isn't done yet -- although I should be able to get it Monday (I hope so -- I have another interview on Tuesday morning). And the insurance company of the loser that hit me is playing stupid games. They now claim (after two weeks of not returning phone calls) that they cannot determine fault on the accident (the other driver lied) and have offered to pay half of the estimated costs determined by their investigator. That comes to about $385. My actual repair costs came to $1100.
And if I hear the word "overqualified" one more time, I'm going to lose it.
Something has to give. I no longer have faith in my resume -- I've dumbed down my educational references, because I think my Masters is too intimidating. The film industry is going through some weird times and right now none of the major studios are hiring people in my field. But when I try and apply for jobs in other areas, that WORD comes up and they don't call me back. I've begun looking for jobs in non-industry fields, even though I've spent the last fifteen years working in film and TV. I'm still working on the dimmer board operator training, but it's going to take some time before I feel accomplished enough to seek work there. And now we have no vehicles so I may have to put the training on hold until we're mobile again.
We have begun discussing the possibility of moving away from Los Angeles to get out of the bad traffic and the overcrowded conditions. Maybe the Northern California or Oregon coast -- or Tacoma or Seattle. I could be happy running inventory at the Starbuck's corporate offices or maybe working as a production coordinator at Lucasfilms. If we could find a place near the ocean so I could spend my weekends clamming and raising tomatoes and culinary herbs, it might be nice. The cost of living would be a lot less, and the slower pace might be good for us all the way around.
But that's something that would require serious plans, not to mention a good nest egg to fund a move of that magnitude. We both agree that we absolutely don't want to settle in LA, but we're really not ready to make the move. We wanted to wait at least until my husband had a script in production.
In the meantime, we need to find a voodoo spell to get rid of this run of bad luck. Come on... somebody just give me a damn job.
