I’m doing nothing but waiting and I hate it.
It was a busy weekend of work training and I liked it.
I rather be busy.
I’m waiting on the e-mail with the job offer. Or the job rejection. They paid me to drive up to LA, they paid for my hotel, and they paid me to take two days of training (kinda, they underpaid me).
Is it the dream job that I thought it was?
Not really.
Do I want it?
Yes.
I need a job and I rather have this job than many others.
The good things:
- It’s seasonal.
- I get to work with great cameras. I want to buy a new camera.
- A full week of work happens on the weekend (more than 40 hours in just three days). Brutal hours. But money.
- I get to travel all over the place.
- Minimum border crossing.
- The people that work there seem like great people.
- It’s a job. I keep busy. I get out of the house.
- Networking. Tons of networking. Opportunity to do more.
- Write more.
The bad things:
- It doesn’t pay as much as I wish it did.
- It’s a very Starbucks business model. I’m not sure if it’s a bad thing or a good thing.
- Brutal hours might cause burnout. But again, money and seasonal.
- I’ll miss my cats.
All in all. I want the job. They offer the job. I’ll take the job.
I’m just waiting for that e-mail.
It’s very shitty and rainy today again. There’s a river of caca out of my window again. Even when it doesn’t rain, the river of caca flows. I should write about this.
I now have 5 drafts of ideas of what to write and I write nothing.
Instead, I wait. I wait for the e-mail. And I wait for a box of 50 copies of my book. Supposedly, they arrive in three days.
Buy my books on Amazon:
Tijuana Adventure English Version!
Tijuana Adventure en Español! NEW ITEM!
I plugged my book to the group of photographers at the end of training. One of them seemed very interested in it.
I mentioned I was a paparazzo once during the weekend. The main guy and dude that convinced me that the job is worth it was training us. We went on a circle saying our background in photography and what we shoot with.
“I shoot with any camera that you give me. I started as a paparazzi.”
That was my answer.
Some girl with colored hair said: “so you were outside Kanye West’s house in the morning?”
NO! Why? Kanye is worthless. And I don’t mean like even the new weird shitty Kanye. I mean, he was worthless back then when I worked. He acted like people were trying really hard to take his picture. We didn’t. Kanye’s picture was worthless. When did you see him on celebrity blogs? When did you see him in magazines?
Never. Until Kim. And I was gone by then.
That girl with colored hair was the only one that didn’t make it to the second day of training. Nobody liked that girl. And she flat-out admitted that she was bad at her job or being prepared at all.
I also met a Russian dude during the mixer. He didn’t show up for training.
The mixer was silly. I got there WAY too early. I met some of the higher-ups completely by accident. Then a bunch of returnees hugged each other while the new people just stood around and did small talk. There was some team-building stuff for an hour. Then some weird game that didn’t work. And off we went.
Hotel for the weekend. A basic Hilton hotel a few minutes south of LAX by Redondo Beach. My roommate was an 18-year-old from Georgia named Matthew. My tocayo. When I found out he was 18… my mind was blown. Half my age. Going for the same job. Most likely getting the same job. And here I am. Old as fuck applying for an entry-level job.
Matthew was a great roommate to have and one of the smartest young people I’ve met in a long long time. At 18, he was already a senior in college and he already shot more weddings than I have… This kid will be important somewhere down the road. He is definitely getting the job. He is more than perfect for it.
Matthew took this picture of me with my Sony A7II:
You can follow Matthew’s Instagram… HERE!
And if you need a wedding photographer in the Georgia area, this is his website Matthew Roman Photography!
On Sunday, we finally got to play with the cameras. Oh boy! The new Nikon Z9 is a thing of fucking beauty. Like holy fuck what a beautiful camera I want that thing of beauty. The shutter DOESN’T FUCKING make a sound! And it clicks clicks clicks to perfection. Paired that with the bread and butter 70-200mm/2.8f and you have the best of the best. You don’t really need to be a photographer to shoot magic with that. And that’s why the job doesn’t pay much. You can be the most novice photographer and you will shoot perfectly.
Learn the basics. The job is yours.
The rest… the rest is some heavy shit. Not only do you have to be a photographer, but a road warrior and a team player. You have to help with unloading and loading everything. You have to help the backstage team. You have to help the merch and the MCs. You have to be on the radio. You have to help with everything you can think of.
The production is GIGANTIC. More than 18 shows a weekend is what they said. More than 20 new photographers were applying for the job and there were a dozen returning photographers.
Money. Hard work. Seasonal. Then back to being Matingas.
I want the job.
My student loans are up my ass and I’m about to default.
I need the job.
I just paid my student loans $75. It’s all I can afford. I don’t know how I manage to live on the brink of $0 and still make it work. I’m tired of it.
I need the job.
In even sadder news, I texted my ex-girlfriend something long and semi-romantic. She hasn’t responded. She hasn’t even read it.
During the weekend I did the idiot thing of checking her Instagram. And then checking her activity on OnlyFans. It hurt. It hurt like a motherfucker.
So I blocked her.
My car is still dying. It drove me to LA and back with no issues except the engine is about to fail. I poured 5 more liters of oil into it.
Want to get even sadder?
It’s going to be the 4th anniversary of my mother’s passing.
But I don’t feel that sad.
I’m not letting myself fall into the pit of depression. It can’t get worse than this. The shit river of filth outside my window. The rainy days. The loneliness. Doing nothing but waiting. I need to get busy.
I have 50 copies of my books to sell. They arrive on Thursday. Catch me downtown selling them. I need to pay rent.
I have a photo shoot this Sunday in one of my favorite fried chicken places.
I have a photoshoot next week in Alpine.
I have a tour next weekend with a guy that read my book.
My TikTok keeps getting more popular though I haven’t posted a video in weeks. Fergie is up next. Fergie is a chapter in my book. I should post about Paul McCartney as well.
Shit will get better.
That’s all I can hope for and it makes me feel better.
If I don’t get the job… then perhaps I’ll be a bit devastated. I’ll still figure shit out. I somehow survive and make money. But I want to be booked every weekend.
On both nights I was in LA I had some LA beers. The first night was at the hotel. I had an Inclined IPA by Santa Monica Brew Works. I didn’t even know Santa Monica had a brewery. It was more than decent. Then I had a Lagunitas IPA except the bottle was different and no good.
The next night I went to Far Field Beer Company. It was a five-minute drive from the hotel. I was amazed. They had two very good sours, followed by a great Mexican lager to a crappy oyster stout. Then I tried four of their IPA varieties and they were all more than decent. Turns out LA is doing great shit with beer now. Obviously, not San Diego levels. But much better than what they were doing just a few years ago. Or maybe I just got lucky with Far Field. I still have a couple of cans from Far Field, I will drink them on my YouTube.
Definitely, a place to go back to and have more beers. I will talk more about it on my YouTube and my TikTok.
Drinking beer with Matingas is evolving. It will be Drinking all the beers in the World series. Because that’s the idea with this travel job. In every different city, I will try to hit a brewery or local beer shop. I might even pay the extra at the airport to check in a bag just so I can travel with beers back.
They said the e-mail with the job offer or job rejection was going to be sent out in one or two days.
Today is day two.
I’m still waiting.
If you want to find out if I get it, then follow me on Instagram and all that shit because that’s another form of blogging that I do.
I do too much.
And I do nothing.
I need to write a cover story or three. And I need to get a job.
Support me on Patreon (and get goodies!)
Follow me on Instagram and book me for a photoshoot!
Follow me on TikTok just because it’s the thing we do in the future.
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Thank you for reading whoever you are. And I hope 2023 keeps being weird and good.
Matingas 