I made it a point last week to contact SAG (the Screen Actors Guild) to find out how much it would cost to get back into their good graces... having unceremoniously stopped paying dues to them, oh, 10 years or so ago.
I spoke a couple of times with a very nice young man whom, I suspect, is both a friend of Bill (W.) and Dorothy (gay as hell). He had to do some homework on my case, which took him a few days. He called me back last Thursday with the good news. All I had to do was send SAG a postal money order for $960.00 and enclose a little note explaining my past, um, er, well, "difficulties."
Well, $960.00 is a chunk of change. Still, I was determined to do it. There was a time when that union membership meant everything to me, not the least of which being that it SAG became my "parent union" and, therefore, the gateway to membership in the sister unions, Actors Equity Association, and AFTRA, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
My thinking was that once I got back in good with SAG, I'd tackle the other two unions, two.
That could add up to an awful lot of "past due" dues and fines. But I wasn't worrying about it. In the last few years I've really learned that God truly does provide and that I worry, generally, needlessly and often over nothing.
Out of the blue our office manager informed me today that I had 14 and a half unused PTO (personal time off) days leftover from last year and that company policy would allow me to "roll-over" 4 and a half days to this year... and that next week I'd be getting a "buyout" for 8 unused days. That's just 2 days shy of a full two week paycheck. More than enough to pay my past due SAG dues, and a couple of other little bills.
To sweeten matters further, I leaned on my insurance agent and got my auto insurance for this year reduced from $1,200 for the year to little more than $800.00.
All of a sudden, money seems to be dropping out of the sky, like manna from heaven.
Sometimes you just have to have a dream and then stand aside to let God take care of the details for you.
2 comments:
You're suddenly looking very attractive... (blink, blink)
You slut.
Well, Steve, you've always been attractive to me, but then there's the little matter of Jim.
One good thing about SAG membership in NYC is that you can always find work, even if it's as Juror No. 3 every week on "Law and Order."
Or "the gay neighbor."
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