Nothing Gold

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay. -Robert Frost

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Location: Arlington, Virginia, United States

I am a white American middle class suburban housewife trying desperately to tell herself that that is not who she is. One time I was a glowing young ruffian. Oh my God it was a million years ago.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Every Job I've Ever Had

Okay, so this might be boring to read after the brickman's, because our lives have pretty much gone down the same path since high school, but I may as well jump on the bandwagon, right?
My sister Claire was born when I was 9. Following her were Peter, George, and Mary. So I babysat fairly constantly from about age 10 to 18. Occasionally for money.
At age 16, starting in summer, I worked at Mr. C's pizza. I started washing dishes (yuck) and worked up to cashier. I generally didn't get breaks for lunch, but I filled up on handfulls of pepperoni and croutons, so that was okay. Unlike the brickmeister, I continued working during the school year and saved up to buy my own tv. We still have it in our living room.
I held that job simultaneously for awhile with an after school job at an ear, nose, throat doctor's office. That job paid $5.25 instead of $5, so I kept it longer, actually until I left for college.
My freshman year of college, I lived off financial aid and scholarships and never got a job. It was pretty sweet.
That summer I worked with my now hubby at the cherry processing plant. I worked there for three summers. I had one of the worst jobs there. Schuyler would dump the cherries with his forklift and I would spread them all out with my hands so that the bins could be stacked. The cherries used for maraschinos are generally pretty gross and squishy, so I got pretty filthy and wet doing this. I was the 'spreader'. I endured a lot of jokes about how I was spreading for Schuyler. One time a live bat flew out of the cherries I was spreading. When the cherries were dumped and spread, I joined the others, putting on lids and stapling plastic to them. The staplers were these huge ones that you swung down and hit hard on the lids. If you got a finger, it was like hitting your finger with a hammer that has staples sticking out of it. One time my sister stapled her glove to her hand and was too embarrassed to say anything so she just kept working. Tough girl.
When cherry season was over I worked as an associate at JC Penney and learned that you can be really dumb and still have a career in management.
The next school year, I aced a class called 'Dinosaurs' and got a job at the Burke Natural History Museum in the vertebrate paleontology department. The vertebrate paleontologist would give me afossil, telling me the age and genus or species. I'd write a number on it, look up the family, order etc, and list it in the computer before putting it in storage. It was way more fun than it sounds, although it could get lonely down there in the basement by myself. Here's a picture of me at Dinosaur Day 2001, teaching kids about fossils.

Then that summer back to the cherry job, then get married then back to school and the museum job. Back to the cherry job again and then back to school. I didn't have a job again senior year, but I felt pretty busy anyway.
After college, I didn't get a job, but hubby did. We traveled with the company for awhile and then settled in Moses Lake. I never did have a real job there, although I did attempt to sell Discovery Toys products. I didn't make much money, but I got a lot of cool toys.
Anyway, now my full time job involves helping a toddler to grow into a good and healthy person. I could wax eloquent about how wonderful my job is and about how horrible it is, but I'm sure you've heard all that before.

2 Comments:

Blogger Liz said...

Well, if you wouldn't mind. It would make me feel a lot better to hear how awful it is.

6:01 PM  
Blogger kate said...

Spreader... Cherries...
*groan*
Jokes aside, it sounds horrible. You're tough to go back for more later.
I think you have the best job in the world right now. And you're doing a wonderful job at it!

2:20 PM  

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