Saturday, June 22, 2013

To Lie or Not to Lie

I had a preliminary phone interview for a job in Wyoming last week.  The job is technology manager for a county public library system.  Since I have a Masters degree in library science, and I've worked in corporate IT for most of the past 15 years, the job would be perfect for me.

The interview consisted of ten or so rather standard questions.  One of the questions was, "What was your favorite job and why?"  I paused for a moment.  The people interviewing me had my resume, edited for just that position.  Nowhere on it did it say anything about my being a nude model.  But my favorite job?  The job I have loved and enjoyed the most out of all the various positions I've held?  It's not even close.  Modeling, and especially nude modeling for figure drawing, has been and will probably always be my favorite job.

I like to be honest with whomever I'm talking to, but I wasn't sure how the disclosure of my nude modeling would go over with the panelists conducting the interview.  I remember a telephone conversation I had in 2001 with an associate producer from the ABC gameshow "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."  I had already won a spot on the show by playing their phone game, and this AP was just conducting an interview for my biography card.  If I made it to the "hot seat" on the show, that card would go to host Regis Philbin so that he could pick something interesting to talk about on the air.  The AP asked me about my past jobs and which was my favorite, and I immediately told her about being a model for college drawing classes.  I remember her asking how I got into it, and I told her something like, "A cute girl in my college dorm told me she drew naked models in her art class, and I just immediately wanted to be one of those naked models."  The AP stammered for a little bit, and finally admitted that this was the first time she had ever been shocked doing a contestant interview.  She asked if I really wanted that included on my card, which might then be talked about in front of a national television audience of millions.  I thought for just a moment, and said yes.  Modeling was just a part of who I was, and I didn't want to hide it in what might become my fifteen minutes of fame.  And of course, it had already been determined that I was going on the show.  I wasn't risking anything in that phone conversation.

But this job interview was different.  I wanted to continue to be considered for the Wyoming job, even though it might mean a major upheaval in my life, and I was sure that dropping the bombshell that I am a part time nude model would kill that.  This job, if I got it, might even mean the end of my modeling career.  But I'm ready for a change of scenery.  And I'm sure that, eventually, I would find a class or a group of artists to model for.  So I lied.  I picked one of the jobs on the resume that they had in front of them.  I think my answer sounded good.  I hope so, at least.  But we'll see what happens...

Monday, June 10, 2013

Hectic Schedule

I haven't posted much lately.  Of course, I haven't modeled much lately either.  The last gig I had was the Sunday drawing lab at the Dallas Creative Arts Center on April 21st.  My new job provides no paid time off during the first 90 days of employment.  I started on March 13th, so I will hit that 90 day mark this week.  After that, I will have one floating holiday and five vacation days to take until the end of the year.  I've already scheduled three days for a baseball road trip with my family the first week of August.  We plan on hitting the Louisville Slugger factory and museum, going to a Reds game in Cincinnati and a couple of Pirates-Rockies games in Pittsburgh.  I'm really looking forward to it since I need time away from everything here in Texas.

My older son's baseball schedule has kept us busy most weekends, and he usually has at least one week night practice a week.  My boss at my new job wants the IT staff to work at least 43 hours per week this summer.  My commute home from work can best be described as construction hell.  It seems as if every freeway in Tarrant County, Texas is under construction.  A new project just started on I-35W, just north of Loop 820.  Of course, none of the other projects (Loop 820, I-20 near the Hulen Mall, 183 in the mid-cities, 121 in Grapevine, I-30 near downtown Fort Worth, etc.) are even close to being finished.  My route home takes me through two of those construction projects.  If there happens to be a wreck  or a breakdown somewhere on the way, traffic is tied up for miles.  With all the concrete construction barriers, there is nowhere for cars to pull off.

I sit in traffic every day and think about leaving the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  I have applied for two jobs in Wyoming and one in Colorado, and I'll probably apply for a few more.  Such a move might put the brakes on any modeling I might do, simply because of the lack of opportunity in a state like Wyoming.  But the slower pace, the much lower population density, the cooler summers, the beautiful mountain scenery, the proximity to ski resorts, all appeals to me.  I lived in Colorado for over a year in 1994-95, and I loved it.  It has been a dream of mine to get back to the Rocky Mountain region, and Wyoming sounds wonderful (the lack of a state income tax there helps).

I don't know if any of these opportunities will come to fruition, but I keep dreaming...