I survived it, and I'm as surprised as you are.
I had heard the Sundance Film Festival was a crazy time to live in Park City. That every January a whole herd of PIBs (People in Black) would descend upon the town, in a fury so overwhelming I would beg my teams to take me to the mayhem of the X Games in upcoming years.
As you may or may not know, I work a second job in order to party with all my friends who are in love. With now FIVE weddings between July 18 and September 5, 2015, I found a nice bar that caters nicely to locals to be a barback and "doorwoman" (BOUNCER; I throw a lot of 'bows). I work Friday and Saturday nights, running around, restocking, doing dishes, and hanging out with my favorite Aussie coworker and two great old bartenders.
Now, we have to remember what my life consists of. Five years ago I was finishing up my liberal arts career at a top small college. I could write philosophical papers on the inner workings of the South American writer's mind and move to analysis of political economy regressions. I carried my own intellectually and moved to DC to be surrounded by debates and constant workings of the deep chasms of my brain.
Since then, I followed my heart and my energy. Living in Spain, I worked on my language skills (let's just call them social skills, a spade is a spade after all). Now I work with athletes and I love it. I love the drive, the determination, the wide range of marketing, competition, travel logistics, and apparel I get to be a part of. It's awesome and I know it's something I should be doing.
Sundance, though, brings people that I just don't know how to deal with. As a bartender, my life revolves around being semi-social for 8 hours straight. I struggled.
The last movie I tried to watch was Django, and I fell asleep. The last movie I watched straight through was in early December when I watched (and quoted to my friend) Jurassic Park for the millionth time. The last full-length movie before that? Elf last summer, and please don't judge me for watching Elf in August. It's my birthday month and I'm a Leo so I can.
The cheap level of the clientele impressed me. "How much is vodka? How much is a beer? OK I'll have water. And fries. And do you have like... free bread?" Yes, we do, and please leave.
The lack of wifi in our BAR was unacceptable. How else were they to blog on all the new films they were enjoying?!
We have a blatant "NO Alcohol Beyond This Point" sign that I or my coworker stand beside. I caught a customer going downstairs at 10pm with a glass of wine. She was appalled that I would prevent her from INTERVIEWING the other woman she was with there because the bar "was just too loud". Well, honey buns, it's a BAR. It's what we do. I don't always love the decibel regime we work under, but how else are all the kids in town to grind on each other!? The neighboring coffee shop opens at 6am; I'd try that.
Then one night I worked with the other girl barback who I got hired. Two blonde girls running around with cases of PBR, changing kegs, and checking IDs at the door. An older, long-haired (he reminded me of Captain Hook from the movie Hook) man stopped, was taken aback, and said to the two of us "Two nice-looking girls like you should be on the stage dancing not doing this!" I smiled, said thank you in the sugariest voice I could muster, and told him he should leave. The power I have has definitely gone straight to my head.
The town was packed, all kinds of people in a rush for their way-important festivities (being drunk all day from what I can tell) and the traffic was ridiculous. I never had trouble parking on the street at my house, but it was close and my anxiety driving home from Real Work every day escalated as I got closer to home.
Sundance was an adventure, one that I don't really ever want to repeat, but it did bring me the same as a two-week paycheck from Real Work in the first weekend, the same weekend I worked 36 hours from Friday at 7pm to Sunday at 7pm and returned home to eat cereal in a delirium and go to bed.
I had heard the Sundance Film Festival was a crazy time to live in Park City. That every January a whole herd of PIBs (People in Black) would descend upon the town, in a fury so overwhelming I would beg my teams to take me to the mayhem of the X Games in upcoming years.
As you may or may not know, I work a second job in order to party with all my friends who are in love. With now FIVE weddings between July 18 and September 5, 2015, I found a nice bar that caters nicely to locals to be a barback and "doorwoman" (BOUNCER; I throw a lot of 'bows). I work Friday and Saturday nights, running around, restocking, doing dishes, and hanging out with my favorite Aussie coworker and two great old bartenders.
Now, we have to remember what my life consists of. Five years ago I was finishing up my liberal arts career at a top small college. I could write philosophical papers on the inner workings of the South American writer's mind and move to analysis of political economy regressions. I carried my own intellectually and moved to DC to be surrounded by debates and constant workings of the deep chasms of my brain.
Since then, I followed my heart and my energy. Living in Spain, I worked on my language skills (let's just call them social skills, a spade is a spade after all). Now I work with athletes and I love it. I love the drive, the determination, the wide range of marketing, competition, travel logistics, and apparel I get to be a part of. It's awesome and I know it's something I should be doing.
Sundance, though, brings people that I just don't know how to deal with. As a bartender, my life revolves around being semi-social for 8 hours straight. I struggled.
The last movie I tried to watch was Django, and I fell asleep. The last movie I watched straight through was in early December when I watched (and quoted to my friend) Jurassic Park for the millionth time. The last full-length movie before that? Elf last summer, and please don't judge me for watching Elf in August. It's my birthday month and I'm a Leo so I can.
The cheap level of the clientele impressed me. "How much is vodka? How much is a beer? OK I'll have water. And fries. And do you have like... free bread?" Yes, we do, and please leave.
The lack of wifi in our BAR was unacceptable. How else were they to blog on all the new films they were enjoying?!
We have a blatant "NO Alcohol Beyond This Point" sign that I or my coworker stand beside. I caught a customer going downstairs at 10pm with a glass of wine. She was appalled that I would prevent her from INTERVIEWING the other woman she was with there because the bar "was just too loud". Well, honey buns, it's a BAR. It's what we do. I don't always love the decibel regime we work under, but how else are all the kids in town to grind on each other!? The neighboring coffee shop opens at 6am; I'd try that.
Then one night I worked with the other girl barback who I got hired. Two blonde girls running around with cases of PBR, changing kegs, and checking IDs at the door. An older, long-haired (he reminded me of Captain Hook from the movie Hook) man stopped, was taken aback, and said to the two of us "Two nice-looking girls like you should be on the stage dancing not doing this!" I smiled, said thank you in the sugariest voice I could muster, and told him he should leave. The power I have has definitely gone straight to my head.
The town was packed, all kinds of people in a rush for their way-important festivities (being drunk all day from what I can tell) and the traffic was ridiculous. I never had trouble parking on the street at my house, but it was close and my anxiety driving home from Real Work every day escalated as I got closer to home.
Sundance was an adventure, one that I don't really ever want to repeat, but it did bring me the same as a two-week paycheck from Real Work in the first weekend, the same weekend I worked 36 hours from Friday at 7pm to Sunday at 7pm and returned home to eat cereal in a delirium and go to bed.
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