Day Nine - The Odyssey

I was thinking how bipolar I would seem if there were a camera on every bus and train that could capture my expressions as I board.  You never know what emotion you're gonna get.

Today I had to do some business stuff, finding a photo lab and dealing with SAG out here.  NYC is 100% the opposite of LA in every way.  As much as I have been blown away by the greatness of the Actor's Equity office here, the SAG office is congruently retarded.  It started off to be promising, Madison Avenue address;  the security guard in the lobby had to see my union ID to give me a fancy scan-card to activate the elevator to access the SAG floor.

I had to meet with three different people at SAG, and they all shared two similar traits: #1-complete incompetence, and, #2-utter shock that someone needed to speak with them in the first place.  After ten minutes of this one woman fumbling around her desk to try to help me, she decided to write down the phone number for her LA counterpart (sigh).  BUT SHE COULDN'T FIND SOMETHING TO WRITE ON.  She opened every drawer in her desk, and as she was digging through one of them, I finally said, "Nevermind the phone number, can I have one of those envelopes?" (I'm low of office supplies and I need to write and thank that agent from last night.  This beat having to go to the office supply store.)

On my way out I rode the elevator down with a guy in a mismatched outfit who was, upon examination, somewhat special.  He, of course, needed to talk to me during the ride.  "Can I ask you something?"  (Yes, you just did, have a nice day.)
"Sure."
"What's the deal with being SAG?  I'm AFTRA but so many of the union calls require both." (How did he get in the building?) At this point, I realize he must a professional "extra"  (you can have a prison record and do that job, btw.  The extras always wonder why they are treated so badly by production- newsflash, it's because your colleagues are from PRISON).
Everyone knows that you have to EARN your way into SAG but anyone can just PAY their way into AFTRA.  The SAG extras are snobs because of this, they are "ACTORS."

"Because the casting agency can't hire you as "union" if you can't work ALL the union gigs."
"Oh.  How did you get into SAG?"
"By working."
"Oh.....   .....    ...."
"Have a nice day."

Apparently, I'm working on my own version of Homer's "The Odyssey."  Here's my travel log for this afternoon's errands, not including the 7,000 steps I logged:
M5 bus
1 train
M1 bus
M4 bus
M3 bus
42 bus
M7 bus
M4 bus