Things To Do During the Writers' Strike

1. Help your former employers work on various spec projects.
2. Lend moral support by walking in picket lines*.
3. Get cracking on your homework, so you can graduate on time.
4. Always the right answer: vacuum.
5. Go to Disneyland in the middle of the week.
6. Wonder if this means you might go home for Thanksgiving after all.
7. Done vacuuming? Why not do a little laundry!
8. Make a cup of tea.
9. Try to find a screening of "Eastern Promises" before it leaves L.A.
10. Watch that three-week-old Netflix copy of "Romancing the Stone."
11. Visit the Beverly Hills Cheese Shop.
12. Consider applying for a job at the Apple Store.
13. Wish you had not killed yourself catching up on all your Tivo'd shows last week.
14. Brush the cats.
15. Vacuum again because there's cat hair everywhere.
16. Take your plastic bags to Whole Foods for recycling.
17. Balance your check book.
18. Cry.
19. Brainstorm shows you might want to spec, since you have so much free time anyway.**

And the 20th thing to do during a writers' strike...

20. Pray like hell that it all works out. And soon.

* I am going to do this, but I have to work up my nerve. Obviously every picket line in town is full of, gulp, professional writers. Very intimidating, even if the WGA has said repeatedly that it welcomes the support.

** Spec scripts as in, writing samples with which to get work when the strike is over. NOT spec scripts to sell during the strike.