JobSurfer

While working for Meryl Streep, we went to a lot of shows to vend her wares to the rich wives of DC. We spent a week and a half with a booth at the Downtown DC Holiday Market outside the National Portrait Gallery. It was December, and disgusting. I’m used to cold, being from up north and all. I thought DC didn’t have winter. Silly, silly me.

The sales booth was outside, in a tent with a roof… but still, outside. I had to apply every single cold-weather skill I learned growing up just to survive. At times I was wearing upwards of 14 items of clothing, in addition to the two space heaters we had running in the tent (we had three, but the fuse would blow if we tried running them all at once) . But after sitting there for 8 straight hours, no matter what you do to try to stay warm, you are going to be frozen to the bone.

Meryl and I were supposed to be working the show in shifts, so that we would only have to be outside for 4 hours maximum. More often than not she would find other things to occupy her time, and I would receive a phone call telling me to work the whole day.

During these events there is a tacit agreement between the vendors to watch each others’ booths during bathroom breaks and to keep an eye out for each other in general. They’re all usually very nice people, all in this same crazy line of business, and provide all sorts of interesting conversation.

We also give each other discounts. That’s the way it works. I got most of my Christmas shopping done due to that little bonus… and due to my naive willingness to work all of Meryl’s hours, got a big chunk of change for Christmas.