Today's Fib

While I was teaching today, I asked a visiting actor to remind me what the title of a script was. He showed me the page and pointed to the title, which of course I couldn't read. But, at that moment, I remembered what the title was, said it out loud, and thanked him as if I had been able to read it.

So, was this a lie, or was I just being expedient? Do I owe everyone the truth of the moment? I really don't know.

The fact that I'm sort-of-blind came up later in the class, when I said that I didn't know the name of someone who had handed me a nameless script the week before. This, I contend, could have happened just as easily to a fully sighted teacher -- I only see these students briefly, twice a week -- but it was a good excuse.

I Have a Job

Governor Paterson often calls attention to the staggeringly high unemployment rate among the legally blind: nearly 70%, by some accounts. But, as a friend recently reminded me, we are not statistics.

I got a call this afternoon confirming that I have been hired for a job.

It's not full-time work, but as a teaching artist, my goal is to cobble together enough part-time work to support myself as I write plays and participate in theater. Sometimes, I get paid to do all three.

Most organizations that hire teaching artists keep a roster of them. I already belong to one such roster. Getting onto this one involved a highly competitive interview process, two separate stages of training, a third stage of training (if you make the cut-off), and a trial teaching unit, where they send you into the schools. This process started when I interviewed way back in the spring.. It ended today.

This still means that I have to spend a good amount of time looking for work, but I'm guaranteed a certain amount of employment now, which certainly takes off some pressure. Interviewing for jobs is hard enough, even if you don't have to deal with the whole, "I can't make eye contact, but please hire me anyway" thing.

I think I can actually relax this weekend.