Episode XXVI: Adventures in Philadelphia

As many of you know, I have moved to South Jersey, which, like Southern California, should be its own state (in my humble opinion). South Jersey is where all the farms are; North Jersey is where the factories (read Industry) are. Oh, and North Jersey is basically suburban sprawl from New York City.

Simply put, the political differences between the farmers in the south and the industrial folks in the north are reminiscent of the Civil War days.

None of this really has to do with me, save that the land in South Jersey is very rich; that is apparent in the humongous vegetables I have been growing this past year.


Anyway, I've been living in my wonderful house for over a year now, and I'm still loving it. I couldn't handle the 2-hr (one-way!) commute anymore; after a year of being cramped on smelly buses, sitting in traffic for a job that I didn't like was making my soul sick. So I quit my job at the crazy law firm and set out, once again, to pastures unknown.

Temping in the South Jersey/Philadelphia area is no picnic. As you all know, the job market is terrible these days, and nobody wants to hire someone like me, with such an erratic schedule.

You see, I had promised myself that I would make my music a priority rather than a "steady" job. I know it may sound naive to some of you, but I truly believe that my path lies in music, not behind a desk. And once I had decided to follow my heart on this, opportunities just started to open up for me.

But more on that later. I managed to find a small niche of business working as a transcriptionist at a tiny word processing company. They really only need a part-time person, and I can't work a full-time job (due to gigs), so it works out well for both of us.

The biggest problem is that I got the job through a temp agency, so I'm getting paid a measly $10/hr, while I'm sure the agency is getting twice that. Apparently I have to work at least 500 hours with this company before I can get put directly on their payroll (with a big fat raise, hopefully), but due to my sporadic schedule, I've only clocked 275 to date.

Being a transcriptionist is very interesting. Most of the time I have to struggle to stay awake through badly-taped medical conferences (guys, there's a reason why I didn't become a bio major!) where numerous doctors of varying accents talk over each other in a highly echoing room.

But sometimes I get the pleasure of transcribing auto insurance claims; those are always good for a laugh. Or even more educational are the Comcast management meetings...I get to find out what's coming up before most of the country. :)

Yes, transcription can be interesting, but I've already started to feel the wear and tear on my hands and wrists. Yet another reason not to go full time on this job. Besides the fact that I was put on this earth to sing.

To see where that has taken me, you might as well just keep reading on to the next adventure, “Shameless Plug.”