"Work, Job, and Play" or "Don't Skimp On the Magic"

Carlo's Magenta Wig=Magical Work Uniform

October 1 marks the beginning of Halloween Season for Carlo's One Night Stand, a costume-rental and vintage clothing store for which I work. Halloween Season proves to be an interesting time. People come in the door and characters go out. Sometimes characters come in and sanity goes out. It is a shiny Magical season.

My job, and the jobs of the other girls working at Carlo's during Halloween (aka Carlitas), is to make sure that everyone who comes in the store leaves with something that makes them happy (and of course make money for the store).  Sometimes a person will come in looking for a costume to a character so obscure you'd have to have been alive at a certain obscure time period, at a certain obscure town in a certain obscure city, wearing certain obscure clothes to even get the obscure reference. More than likely that person will have to make said obscure costume at home because the Carlitas and I have scoured the thousand-costume-countryside and come up with "not exactly" what the person was going for. BUT. We will make sure that we give them ideas on how to make their costume and suggest pieces of clothing and accessories they could use to make that obscureness shine just a bit brighter than all the other obscure costumes this Halloween.

Carlo Really Does Have 1000s of Costumes

It's a fun job and at Carlo's we don't skimp on the Magic of Halloween (think eclectic, electric-colored, multi-decadal, playhouse crammed from ceiling to floor, wall to wall, front to back with costumes, vintage clothing, and accessories). I love running around the store putting things in their place, pulling out the perfect hair piece for Jane Austen, showing Gonzo the perfect Hawaiian shirt, getting the bride of Frankenstein all decked out, finding Waldo and Carmen San Diego talking in a corner next to the assassin capes, and helping someone decide on a costume they love. I love dressing up, and costumes, and playing. It's a pretty awesome job.

But it is a Job (a Job that I love, that is fun work, and for which I am grateful, mind you). It is not my Work. My Work is writing and making art. My Job pays the bills, makes ends meet, and makes it possible to do my Work. But too many times I make more time for my Job and skimp on my Work/Magic-Making hours. Too many times I have forced myself out of bed to get to a Job I didn't like but then slept through the hours I could have used for my Work/Magic.

Carlo's reminds me that if a Job can be fun work then Work can be a fun job. Set the hours, force yourself to get to that Work you love on time, and Don't Skimp On the Magic.