Katie Doyle, Girl About Town

Friday, Apr. 14, 2006 - 7:23 p.m.

Let's do the good things about the new job first.
I can listen to iTunes while I log b-roll.
The people are pleasant.
A guy I logged with on the show with all the roses is here, and I love working with him coz he's fun and mellow and actually a nice guy, as well as having a brain.
I get an assistant story editor credit*.
My shrink's office is on the 3rd floor in the same building, so no traffic on Weds.
It's only from 9 to 6, instead of 9 to 7, and only 5 days a week until the last week.
It's fairly light on transcription.
3 days out of 5, no one but my team is in the office.
We can turn the fluorescent lights out and just hang with the mellow desk lamps.
We have a door and an office and can close the door when it's loud outside the room.
I have my own desk, in the corner, and I don't have to share with anyone.
I have a phone on my desk.
There's a refrigerator 15' away and Sparkletts water.
The vending machine next to the fridge has frosted animal cookies.
It's only 5 weeks, so if I get sick of the show or people, it's short, and then I'm free.
I'm making slightly above average pay (though below average for my title).
I've already been told my logs are solid, and my boss knows I don't suck.

Now the bad:
The star is an unmitigated bitch, and in true reality tv fashion, we have to make her look nice so America will fall in love with her and want more episodes.
There's no craft service and nothing nearby for lunch except the El Pollo Loco across the street. This will necessitate leaving the office for lunch, which I hate and despise because it cuts your lunch hour in half.
I am eating too damn many packages of frosted animal cookies.
The head assistant story editor is an ass. And a lazy, lying ass who continually cuts out early, at that. AND he's my boss' buddy, so I have no recourse but to take it.
*I'm supposed to actually get to do assistant story editor things, as my job is actually a combination of logger/ASE, but the lazy asshat who is the head ASE (who has no former ASE experience other than a paper title) decided that as he does not like logging, he is going to handle all the story chores and leave me and Ryan to handle all the logging and transcription. So when the story editor gets here Tuesday and starts writing, the asshat will get to do all the searches and pulls and put packages together. And I know this means nothing to those of you who don't work in television, so let me put this in simple terms. Imagine we are digging ditches. You have 3 people to take turns digging the ditch and pouring concrete. The digging is ugly, back-breaking, tedious fucking work in the hot sun. The pouring of the concrete is easy, walk along and just guide the concrete applicator with no heavy lifting whatsoever and while you're at it, have a nice cold lemonade and shoot the breeze with the concrete truck driver. See where I'm going with this? The ASE stuff is where all the fun and glory are. The logging is mindless fucking tedious bullshit with no glory whatsoever. The only reason i was happy to have this fucking job was because I was going to get to do searches and pulls. Only now I don't get to, because fuckhead told his friend the boss that he felt only one of us should handle the S&P's, because that would make the logging go so much faster. So come Tuesday, his logging duties are basically over. And the fucking kicker is that not only is he making more than me and Ryan, he's doing less than half the work we're doing. Since Monday, I have done 15 tapes. Ryan has only been here a day and a half, and he's done five. This asshole has done 6.

Six.

That's like one a day (72 min. of tape, to be exact). I did more than that the first half day I was here.

I am firmly convinced that not only does the karma theory work in reverse in television, mediocrity is more often rewarded than hard work, smarts, and talent, and whoever coined the expression "No good deed goes unpunished," worked in television (or showbiz). You will never convince me otherwise.

In interesting news, my oldest brother, who was also adopted, was contacted by his "real" brothers this week. Turns out he had 3 older brothers when he was born. But his mom was crackers and had to be institutionalized when he was 2 months old. (She has since died.) His father was a truck driver with no family, so there was no one to take care of the boys while he was on the road, and he was forced to place them in foster care. They were supposed to all go to one family, but the state of California, in all its glorious fucking wisdom (ask me about that, sometime), decided instead to split them up among 3 different adoptive families. My brother obviously landed with Jack & Mary Doyle (though not without first being handed over to an abusive bitch who gave him whiskey in his bottle, burnt him with cigarettes, and gave him scalding hot baths, so that for the next year and a half of his life, he screamed bloody murder if a woman even walked into the room. My dad did all his caregiving.). His 2 middle brothers ended up together, and the oldest boy went to a man and woman who already had as child of their own who was 4, same as he was. That boy was killed a few years later and the parents - who had adopted poor little Donald - abandoned him, leaving him parentless for the second time in 2 years. He committed suicide in his 20's. So the middle two brothers managed to track my brother down. His father is still alive, and he also has a half-sister. And is an uncle, as one of the boys has children. They sent him photos, and it's just eerie looking at complete strangers who look like my brother. In one of the pictures, the guy not only has my brother's same eyes and nose, I have seen the exact same expression on my brother's face a million times. I started crying. It makes me really happy for him. I'm the only one in the family he's told, and he's afraid it's gonna really wig our parents out. I can hear in his voice that he's excited, but he's trying to be pragmatic and cool about it. For my part, if they hurt my brother, I'm going to fucking hunt them down and do serious damage to all of them AND their family members. All my brother wanted his entire life was a real family. He got married so he could have that, and was bitterly disappointed when his first wife turned out to be quite the little lying whore. Thankfully his second and current wife is a doll and adores him. She also puts up with his shit, which frankly, knowing my brother as I do, is substantial. I love him, but man, when he's sulking, he can be a serious dick. But anyway, he always wanted a real family, and I understand that. I get it. I understand my brother probably better than anyone else does, and pretty much vice versa. And if these people are serious, he will finally have what he has always wanted. He will finally belong. I can't express enough how excruciatingly painful it is not to belong. Even if they don't get along, he belongs there. They've been looking for him for years. They remember losing him. His father feels guilt and remorse at having lost him and can't wait to find him again. You can't go home again, but you can sure as hell go home the first time. I wish I could be so lucky.

As I said, if this is some sort of ploy, I will hurt them. A lot.

I'm going to France for 3 months. If I can get a job in Paris teaching english, I can afford to stay longer. Otherwise, I can't. The shit has well and truly hit the fan.

Peace out,
Katie

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Yesterday's News - Next Stop

In which Katie shares sad news - Wednesday, Apr. 01, 2015
In which Katie returns after a very long absence - Monday, Jun. 25, 2012
In which Katie pokes her head in and brushes some of the cobwebs away - Thursday, May. 06, 2010
In which Katie asks you to write your congressman again. - Monday, Jun. 02, 2008
In which Katie asks you to please click the link and send the message to protect the rights of artists - Wednesday, May. 21, 2008