Works hard for the money, so hard for it, honey....

I'm totally stealing paying homage to a post Enrickyricardo put on his blog about jobs he's had. In other words, welcome to my resume.

I had odd little jobs prior to my first real one. I babysat. I helped my aunt clean up the store she was manager of for under-the-table spending cash. I worked one day at a local deli, despised it, called and said i'd not be coming back, and never went to get my pay.



But my first 'real' job was working at Domino's as a pizza delivery person. I worked it for about 14 months or so. Had a fun time. Dated the one assistant manager (whom you may remember from THIS little tale) and she and I continued to date for a bit even after I left. Fooled around with a few other employees, of both genders, not always ending in the best of fashions (feat. a few verbal altercations and one unintended pregnancy). But it was still fun most of the time. I lived off my tips and mileage, and with gas only being like 85 - 90 cents a gallon, I lived quite well. But the manager started dating one of the girls that answered the phones, and things went downhill for the rest of us fast. And the cool people had moved on to other jobs. And I just had had it with the place, so I decided to move on.



My second job was just a summer one lasting just from May to August, working at a local crane manufacturing plant. They stored a lot of their parts on shelves spread around outside on the grounds of their plant. There were about 20 of us working on this project, and it involved weighing and measuring one of every part. The would later be fed into a computer and the computer would decide the placement of parts for optimum usage of the space. So then we had to tears shelves down, move the shelves around and put the parts back up in their new optimum places. And yes, it absolutely WAS just as much fun as it sounds like it was here.

We worked the midnight shift: 7-7 Sun into Mon and 12-7 Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri mornings. And we worked outside in ANY weather, which sucked when it rained. They had these huge, HOT, smelly yellow rainsuits for us. The first time, we didn't wear the pants, only the coats and the hats, which we soon learned was a mistake, cause all the rain ran off the coats on right onto our regular pants, where it soaked in. After that, we wore the pants too. Although, unless it was a downpour, I didn't wear any of it, cause they were steaming HOT and very uncomfortable. When I wore them, I sweated so much I was dripping with sweat, and wet anyway. So i figured I might as well get wet from the rain and just remain cool.

We worked in teams of three, but we really only required two. One person got the part off the shelves and put it on the scales. The other person recorded the dimensions and weight of it, and then we moved on to the next part. The third person would find a nearby place that had a large flat part in it, crawl up onto it, lay there and take a nap. We worked in shifts that way, so we all got plenty of sleep.

The work was boring, mind numbing and tedious. But the pay wasn't too bad. And I knew the job was temporary, as I was going back to college in the fall. And I did meet a few pretty cool people, two that I kept in touch with for about a year after the job ended.



My next job was working at a local drug store, originally Peoples Drug, but it changed to CVS while I was working there. And is still called that. My mother had worked there a few years earlier and I knew pretty much everybody that worked there already, so that made it easy to get hired, and a generally fun place to work. I started out just as a regular employee, but worked my way up to key carrier, without even pursuing the promotion. It was offered to me out of the blue, so of course, I took it. It meant more pay, and more responsibility. I had to sometimes open the store, frequently had to close it, especially on Saturday nights, make deposits, make sure stuff got done. But I met and became close friends with several people. And I met Donna, who helped me come to terms with being gay and come out to myself as well. She was possibly THE most important woman in my life after my mother. But ultimately, it was just a partime job, and I needed a full time one. But what I could do with my recently attained Political Science degree?



Nothing really, but that didn't much matter. My next job was through a friend of mine. He had the job, but found a better one, and gave my name as his replacement. And I was hired. I was the Site Adminstrator in charge of the inmate phone system at a local county jail and state prison. Yeah, has nothing to do with PoliSci, but all that was required was a familiarity with computers, which I have. The inmate phone system was all computer run, and I was solely responsible for it at my sites. No, not thrilling at all, but it was full time, and better pay. And, less than 3 years later, it led directly to my current job: a nice safe cushy county job, with my own office, good pay, excellent benefits and it's actually something I generally enjoy most days.



After being at my current jobs for a few years, though, I decided I needed a part time job to help pay off my car loan, and since Borders bookstore had just opened, I applied there. And was hired. And despite idiotic customers, some equally idiotic supervisors, and minimum wage, this was probably THE best job I've ever had.

It's the first one where I out as a gay man to everyone, and there was no issue whatsoever about it. I worked with some incredibly awesom coworkers, some of which, nearly a decade later, I am still friends with, including Ghostie, A Local Celebrity, Mr. David ParisPeking and his Mrs., The Mighty Lee, among others. And I had countless awesome Friday nights spent at TGIFridays into the morning drinking, snacking, talking and having just a great time with them.

And of course, since I LURVE books, and since I got a 33% discount, much of my paycheck was spent at the same place I earned it. And the section that I was responsible for was tailormade to me: Law, Socialogy, Psychology, African-American Studies, Asian American Studies, Politics, Women's Studies, Men's Studies, Gay and Lesbian, Mythology. I had such fun filling and straightening my section and keeping it fllushed and organized. But eventually, the cool people left, Borders policies changed and became, frankly, stupid, and I got my car paid off, so I didn't need the job anymore. And after three years, I quit.

So, what kinda jobs have you had?

POLT Listening to "You're Not Alone" by Olive

Where are you heroes with the bodies of athletes; Where are your badly shaven idiots, equipped well? - Air, Sexy Boy