Oh the things I do for a couple of bucks.

I'm working for the Mafia now. I've got a couple hours to kill between an audition and rehearsal, I'm debating if I should trek back to Queens or not. My Greek neighbor calls me.

"Hey Jodie, you wanna make some money," says Chris.
Uh. Let me think about that one.

"Yea."

"Ok. I need someone to sit in my car while I take pictures of buildings," he says.

Um. Let me think about that one.

"Basically, all's you gotta do is sit in my car so I don't gotta pay for parkin'. Usually I got one a' my boys do it but none a' them are around. Aight? So I'll pay you like ...pssssshaw... ten dollas an hour for four hours work. But it'll probably only take two. I'll give ya forty bucks."

This sounds sketchy. Then again, Chris is sketcky. "Ok," I say. "Why not?" Because why not? is a slogan for a very interesting life, I think.

I meet Chris at 42nd & Lex and we drive to God knows where, and he illegally parks, and I illegally sit in the car, while he takes pictures of buildings. So normal.

The best part of the job is that I get to listen to all his secret Mafia phone calls. About money. And "deals." And "closings." And more money. There's a lot of money. Chris won't settle for less than two million on one particular project. And forty of that is mine...

I find out Chris is in charge of sales for his own construction company. He's selling his new company to some new clients, but he's not admitting that he's new. Instead, he fills the company's resume with projects his buddies' construciton companies have completed. It's a great system him and "his boys" got going on - they all share the credit for each other's work and therefore make themselves look bigger and better than they stand individually in order to get bigger jobs. And then they kill the guys who disagree with them.

Chris is in the car talking on his cell as we're illegally parked on the side of the road. I'm soaking up the reality of my situation and debating whether this or dogsitting tops the chart of Most Bizarre Jobs I've Ever Done when a traffic patrol officer walks up and puts a ticket in Chris' window. I wonder if he'll still give me the forty bucks...