Happy Humpday Tribbers! Welcome to my final Humpday Cafe as an actuary! Next week at this time I will be happily jaunting around Mexico looking for Coronas and Mayan ruins. (Not necessarily in that order.) After that, I return to you a student, and a poor one at that. I reserve the right to steal food from behind the counter, and drink from the tap in the bar when no-one’s looking. So, in honor of this glorious day, today’s topic of the day is “Careers I once had and why I left ’em or loved ’em.” Because apparantly everyone changes jobs 42 times in their lifetime (or something like that). Happy stories, sad stories, and tales of office holiday parties gone horribly wrong are all welcome and encouraged!
So without further ado, I pronounce the Café to be up and open for business!
You all know the rules – in the Café, anything goes, but please remember to tip your server. Oh, and whatever rules Diane and co. have devised restricting large pics and wide comments and all that still apply. Unless it’s a really cool picture, then it’s ok. 😉
NOW HIRING – the Humpday Cafe will need a surrogate host next week. Please post a resume indicating your blogging experience, and the reason I should pick YOU to host the Humpday Cafe!
G’morning to the westcoasters, G’almostafternoon to you eastcoasters, and G’whatereverthehecktimeitiswhereyouare to everone else!
Now who wants an egg sandwich on a big fluffy roll? And no, we cannot make that with nasty egg substitutes.
Hi, Abbott! Firstt tthings firstt. I believe I owe you some “t’s.” I am paid up on “b’s,” however. Do you charge interest?
I hate to tell you this but there’s been another shift. . .now we ARE recommending these diaries again.
Okay. . .the last “real” job I had was a long, long time ago when I wrote training lessons for Western Auto. I loved the people I worked with, or at least some of them, I like my job okay, but I kept looking at the hundreds of people in the halls who seemed to be taking the selling of lawn mowers very very seriously and I knew I didn’t take it seriously. I thought, “Do they know something I don’t?” I finally figured out that whatever they knew, I never would, and that I had to get out of the corporate world NOW before the golden handcuffs got me. So I saved my money for a year, quit, went off to meander around Yurp with my boyfriend, and then came back and started freelancing and never went back to another real job again.
I recommend this course of action for anyone who doesn’t want health insurance or a retirement fund or paid vacations and holidays. Also, you’ve got to really like worrying about money all the time. Aside from those petty annoyances, however, freedom is the best.
Now I have to go do my unreal job. See ya later.
ok, we’ll call it even if you tell me the best way to sell a lawn mower.
Okay, but first you’ve got to tell me what you want me to sell it.
well, if you don’t sell it the lawn in here is gonna get completely out of control. Maybe you can get us a discount.
Ah, Hump Day takes on a whole new meaning what with Susan’s “screwed” diary series. A most happy Hump Day to you all.
I don’t know if this qualifies as a career, but here goes. I was in college and took a job for $5/hr handing out wooden nickels for the local transportation co. good for one free ride. Yep, wooden nickels. I recall the day well… it was in the 20’s, sleeting like a bastard and I had a bad cold. There I stood, on the corner in the sleet, sniveling as I adjusted my beauty queen type ribbon slung across my chest… over my winter coat. I lasted one whole day. That was truely my “Holy shit, I’d better stay in school” moment.
sigh… now I need another coffee just thinking about it.
When I was a career office temp I made most of my money word processing, which I was really good at, but once in a while I would get something . . . different. On April 14th one year I got a call from one of my agencies offering me a one-day gig in downtown Seattle. Sure, I said, what the heck. The next day I was issued a sweatshirt and a big canvas bag full of pain reliever samples. The gig was, Excedrin had come out with a new product and we were out in front of the main post office at 3rd and Union in downtown Seattle giving sample packets of this new product away “for your tax headache.”
“I don’t have a tax headache,” one guy said.
“Well, would you like one for my tax headache?” I asked.
He took a sample.
There was also this big vinyl Excedrin bottle costume that people were taking turns wearing. I got the final shift, so for two hours on a fifteenth of April over ten years ago I was the Excedrin Man. My wife still wears the “Excedrin Headache #1040” sweatshirt to work every year on tax day.
ah coffee my god I needed that. Thank you very much!
I’ve had more jobs than I can remember but as for careers, I said three. The drug-store-film-developer-sorter job, the bindery-folding-machine-attendent job, the anti-smoking-initiative-phone-bank job (that’s anti-initiative, not anti-smoking btw) — those were not really career path kinds of employment.
Can we get a “None…yet.” option added to the poll?
I’ve had quite a few different jobs (part time while in HS and college) but only one post-college career. And I’m not sure how much longer I can tolerate being in this cubicle 🙂
was working as a cook on honeymoon sailing cruises in the Caribbean, in the early 1970’s. 3, 6, 9 and 12 month cruises, ranging from 300K to more than 900K depending on the services and type of boat required. Spent many enjoyable times cruising around the Caribbean, Central America, South America and Mexico on those cruises.
Single couple for each boat and you know what, the Europeans were the big consumers of these cruises. Damn there were some incredibly wealthy individuals who wanted to pampered and looked after on their honeymoons. I was amazed that more of them did not have their own boats, but again this was in the early 70’s and not everyone wanted to show off how rich they really were.
Where do I sign up?
I lost contact with the owner of the company who was marketing these trips, that was way back in 1976, the last time I had any contact with him. He was using Bermuda as his base of operations, when I worked for him. I spent many delightfully fun filled days sailing and cooking. lol
Oh well, at least it gave me a great idea for something to look into. 😀
At one time I thought about getting a commercial radiotelegrapher’s license and going to sea as the radio operator on a merchant ship. Never got around to it, though. I don’t even think they have commercial radiotelegraphers’ licenses anymore; the last ship-to-shore installation sent its final “30” (signoff message) several years ago.
More recently, on a cruise we took last year there was an Internet cafe amidships, and I briefly pondered seeing if that would be a viable career option. The ship’s resident magician said that when he moved aboard with his wife and daughter they got a huge stateroom; it would sure save on rent, and I could get behind being on a floating bus running from Seattle to Skagway and back on a regular basis.
Abbott – Have a great time in Mexico!! Wear sunscreen.
I’m out of here in a couple of hours myself – bye everyone! If I miss an indictment or an arrest, be sure to have a drink for me!!
Thanks for your help! I’ll bring back some vacation pics for the next cafe!
May you return relaxing and rejuvenated!
Hope you have a wonderful time. The FBC won’t be the same without ya!
and too early to say welcome back… but thanks for your hospitality…. we’ll save some stories for you and some rounds to share later…..
We’ll miss you!!! Have a fabulous time.
Thanks everyone.
Sigh, now I’m sitting here <tapping fingers>… killing time… trying not to, you know, dirty any dishes or anything before I leave…
Yep – I’m outta’ here. Bye everyone….
I need two extra-strength Tylenols and the biggest Coca-Cola with ice you can muster. I partied alittle to hard at the toga party last night.
to?
two?
tú?
ah yes, too.
Hello All,
First things first. I’d like a large iced mocha cappuchino with a slice of pumpkin bread for Kansas, and another round for Catnip and Brianne on me, and whatever militarytracy would like as well. I’ll take a triple shot americano and a fistful of Camel Turkish Gold.
Can I get that lighter, please?
Thanks!
My hubby smokes those Turkish Golds at times, I like the taste, but don’t they seem fat? Dunno, my stupid nicotine addiction is very particular about the tacticle portion of the fix! 😉
Here’s the lighter!
I am giving up cigars, Punch Rothchilds, damn I am going to miss them. But health concerns outway my selfish need to feed a habit that for me is creating destruction within me. Plus my son is now getting to a point in life where he wants to mimic whatever dad is doing and I do not want him to pick up smoking. I gave up cigarettes 16 yrs ago, picked up cigars about 7 years ago, I started just smoking one or two a week and it morphed into several a day, then back down to 4 or 5 a week. Till now it is none per day.
I will miss my old friend, Punch.
You are as good as your word! Yum. Thanks.
Just need to vent a moment.
Last weekend I was on another site and a couple of people we’re thinking of leaving that site due to the anti-southern attitude of a tiny, tiny group of people. Amongst my suggestions to one, was Booman. And then today I came here and saw the SLAVE STATES=RED STATES diary. Now I’m hoping they didn’t come here.
What’s a liberal southerner to do?
Thanks for letting me vent. I’m done, please proceed with your regularly scheduled diary.
I read through that diary and thread as well and it seems to me that generalizing and describing the country by dichotomies like those plays right into the Repub’s hands. They won’t have to knock us down – we’ll do it to each other. I know this is simplistic but until a state votes 100% for one candidate or another – blanket characterizations about that state are unhelpful at best, false at worst. Tomorrow, as a matter of fact, I’m flying down to a southern state with a decent percentage of Dems.
I agree. I think most non-southerners don’t really notice how much of that stuff gets posted on liberal blogs (not talking about Booman since that was the first I had seen on here). I don’t see every diary but just today there were 3 on another site (including that one cross posted). And it isn’t even that they’re posted, but people rave about how great they are and rewards these people with mojo.
And as night follows day soon a few southerners are posting about not feeling welcome and after awhile they just fade away. I don’t know if those posts are why but surely they don’t help.
Booman is a wonderful refuge from such things and I hope it stays that way.
That diary made me want to throw something at my computer. I read way too many discussions that devolved into “Southerners are fucking confederate flag waving racist assholes who won’t ever vote for a Democratic candidate because the Democratic Party supported the Civil Rights Act and they have never forgiven Democrats for that and we should just write off the South and quit looking for a “Southern strategy” because that would just be pandering to fucking RACISTS!!!!!”
(Sorry to being that into the cafe, but I’m hoping that it’s late enough that few will see it.)
What’s wrong with this picture? NEWSFLASH! Not every one who lives in the South is white! There are a LOT of African-Americans living in the South. When so-called liberals or progressives start talking about “Southerners” that way . . . well, what does it say about them that they can only “see” the white people who live in the South? That when they say, “Southerner” they mean white people only? I mean, really, how many African-American Southerners have “never forgiven” the Democrats for supporting the Civil Rights Act?
I think that a) it says something about these ranters that they would do well to practice a little self-examination on and b) as a winning political strategy – it sucks.
Hmmm. Quick check of the State Demographer’s office for stats and I see that my state is 53% white/Anglo (the majority of whom are not racists, regardless of the prejudices of some non-Southerners), 32% are Latino, and 11.5% are African American. Oh and let’s see – Mississippi, 36% African-American. Alabama 26%. Georgia 29%. Louisiana 33%. (I’m on a roll – found a good site for these stats.) South Carolina 30%. Are we sure we want to tell all of these people that the Democratic party doesn’t want them?
Sad thing is they’d probably tell you that you’re wrong and don’t understand the south. sigh They fail to see that you are invaluable to them and could help them see things that they can’t see from a distance.
By labeling groups, they can write them off and never have to try (southerners are racists, religious people are fanatics, etc). That way they don’t have to acknowledge the party’s problems (no agenda, no message, no clear stand on the issues). I was reading that 21% of southern LIBERALS voted for Bush (up 8% from 2000). They’re bleeding like a stuck pig and they don’t seem interested in finding out what stuck them.
I know it’s a very tiny group that has that anti-southern bias. But it doesn’t matter how small the group as long as the majority doesn’t speak up and support the liberal southerners.
I’m going to start working harder to make southerners feel more welcome, including posting more in the South diary that Booman provides. Maybe I’m tilting at windmills but I’m a stubborn woman and won’t be deterred by a few prejudiced liberals.
Step 1. Know by age 13 that you want to be an English Professor
Step 2. Finish your masters in 1974 in the midst of a recession, having realized that 1) you hate academic politics, 2) you hate academic research, and 3) there are no jobs in college English departments, anyway.
Step 3. Drop getting the Ph.D. Have absolutely no idea what you should do instead.
This is a fine way to get to choose the last option in the poll. However, this is not a tear-jerker; there is (eventually) a happy ending.
It turns out that a liberal arts education is a perfect choice for the career-impaired because it teaches you how to learn. And with that skill, you can bounce around doing all sorts of things that bear little or no connection to your actual education, until one day (cue happy ending music), you finally end up doing something that you actually want to do.
Perfect summation!! And I resemble that remark! 😉
BA economics, MA english — 5 years globetrotting (i.e., meandering around from here to there), 3 years teaching in Kingsville, Texas and don’t even get me started on the last 8 years (earning, persuing, going for a Ph.D. in instructional technology)….
I have had so many JOBS I can’t even count them all — my career? First and foremost: my career as a human being.
I’d give you a lot more credit than me. Not only did I never, ever consider teaching (kudos to you for your bravery), I never gave a moment’s thought to going back for another degree in something else. There was absolutely no method to my madness.
Count me as one of those that has had many jobs. I guess when you get to be my age you have lots of jobs. I’ve worked for companies like Lional Playworld, Hobby Lobby (That one was fun) they don’t pay worth a hoot but I had fun. I decided when I was 40 to go back to school and get a AAS in Office Administration. I graduated with honors and had a job for almost 3 years but my supervisor like to drove me nuts (short drive) so I moved and found the job I have now and I like it very much (ok ok so there are days I would like to string the bosses up by their toes)but we all have those.
I’m pretty boring when it comes to career.
It’s been logistics/contracting/project management since my first job (airforce). Got a degree, and continued in the same line – first in private sector (construction of platforms for offshore oilfield development) and later in the public sector in a large multilateral organization.
I mentioned in a FBC-diary last Friday that the kids were sent off to Norway for summer school. There is obviously a website and lo and behold, the first entry for this year’s school diary was yesterday w/my daughter in the middle of the pic (white top).
Beautiful little girl ya got there, Ask. She sure looks like she’s having a blast hiking… great idea to have a donkey along.
Your career sounds anything but boring. I hope you didn’t work on that platform in the Gulf that’s listing a bit.;)
Thanks Nag. You may have looked in the picture in the banner – not on the page itself.
As for the oil sector, I worked only on projects in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.
Not a tiny jack-up as mostly used in the Gulf. The topsides deck is the size of a football field and weighs 40,000+ tons. Humongous.
I don’t think i’ve ever seen a rig that big!!
Here’s a perspective (obviously pre-2001).
Different platform, though. This one appropriately named Troll.
All I can think of to say is Holy Shit!!!!!!!!!!
I am simply speelbound looking at this!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good day all! That should cover the universe I think! Great to see everyone today.Could I get a smoothie please? Finally caught up at work. I answered too may times on the poll. When I thought about it though, I have really only had three that would qualify as careers. I managed a travel agency(got me to London for free), worked for an airline(got me to Kauai for eight years)where I got into the property management business that I absolutely loved doing over there. I brought that experience back to the mainland with me and live and work at the apartment complex I manage a block to the ocean. One lucky lady. I never attended college so do feel fortunate that I have made it to a comfortable point in my life. All the other “jobs” just got me to where I am today. Life’s experiences, all one big school really.
Forty-two jobs in a life time. . .gee. . .I did that by the time I was 30.
Teaching swimming to 5 year olds! The best, the very best. . .along with the classes teaching downs syndrome children to swim. . .they were great fun and very rewarding. I mean how hard is it to go into work and have every kid in the class hollering to tell you how much they love you. Yep, hard to beat that experience.
I guess my very favorite job is the next one. . .whatever it turns out to be.
hello abbott, are you serving?
is it head-hunter day? are there talent scouts dropping in? is my tie straight? oh, forgot this is the crap wednesday tie.
would really like a beverage. an Irish Mist, if you have it… with just a few ice cubes please, and those noshy things look nice.
the quits… well factory jobs where i was required to fix the books, and that charity that was skimming and the house manager was picking on the underage Hispanic boys for improper relationships. there are the first two quits I remember.
got let go a few times too. somehow they are slipping my mind… maybe if I could revive myself with a cool drink it will all come back to me….. yes I remember one….
ahhhhh. nice not to have to worry about underemployment today……. lovely. thank you, that air conditioning is delightful. and i’d be happy to tend the cafe next week, if all the sandwiches are made ahead of time, and there’s no loud rap music…. i mean smooth jazz or nothing at all….. hmm.
here’s your drink… the regular server is off today, sorry about the slow service.
looovly! the ambiance, the camaradarie…. the jobs go flying before my eyes…. the worst job was….. the best job, patient sitting with dying patients… the hardest job is the one for which i am best suited… because it’s too much like WORK…
i enjoyed my manual labor jobs the best… outdoor work, building, housepainting and farming…. that was good…..
I guess i’ve had more than 20 and fewer than 50 jobs, and the longest i stuck with one was probably 8 years.
i’m kind of on a lois lane trip recently, i hope you like this one:
I like how Superman is squinting at the sun here. Lois looks like she is made of stronger stuff in this one…. clearly by her body language she is shielding him… kryptonite or the hot Italian sun? it’s a sergio leone photo… hmm.
… that is me.
This is Comb Ridge, a 100 mile long formation running from southern Utah into Arizona. It’s a wonderful place to hike because there are no trails, it’s not in hiking guides, and it looks much more formidable than it actually s — a combination that guarantees solitude.
You’re dangerous, AndiF. You remember what people say from one diary to the next!
Hey–I took your GC photo from yesterday and used it for wallpaper. Is that okay? I’ve never done anything like that before and I don’t know the rules.
You remember what people say from one diary to the next!
Useless information sticks to me like toilet paper. It’s my “talent”.
As far the images I put up are concerned, I’m happy for people to have them. Did you get the ones that I put in the link for librarylil? They are collages that included the ones I posted but are higher resolution (even if you crop the single images out of them).
Thanks so much. And I forgot to mention, that’s a beautiful picture, too. What fun to climb up there and wave. Little did you know you’d be one day waving at us.
thanks for the hiking tip, Andi. I hope to make it to Comb Ridge someday. I don’t want to interrupt your solitude though so I hope not to run in to you there!
The picture reminds me of a place I’ve driven by in the same area, but I don’t remember the name. Something about books? Does that ring a bell? From a distance it looked like a line of fiery red books on a shelf.
The Book Cliffs start over near the Green River (north of I-70) and go eastward. But you could have driven by any number of cliffs in Utah because the state is covered with plateaus ending in cliffs. Besides the Book Cliffs, there’s the Grand Staircase sequence of Vermillion, White, Gray, and Pink. And there are also the Hurricane, Straight, and Circle Cliffs. And there are the ridges like Comb Ridge, the San Rafael Swell, and the Waterpocket Fold.
If you drove UT-95 or US-163 in SE Utah, you would’ve driven through Comb Ridge. If you drove UT-12, you pretty much climbed the Grand Staircase sequence. If you drove I-15, you went by the Hurricane Cliffs and if you drove I-70 into Colorado, you went by the Book Cliffs.
And I’ll bet that’s way more than you ever wanted to know.
And I’ll bet that’s way more than you ever wanted to know.
No I love that stuff. It’s been too long so I don’t remember all the routes I’ve driven through Utah. But the Book Cliffs were memorable. Also the Grand Staircase, especially Vermillion.
WOW!!!!!!! so lovely…you are the mostest of all the adventurist I have ever met…
That’s so very nice of you to say. BTW, my husband and I call that kind of picture a “scare the mothers” shot. The problem is they’re both tough old birds in their 80’s and it’s really getting pretty damn hard to shake them up.
I’ve had several good ones. I once worked at a company that makes games. I once worked in the oil patch in the Middle East and nearly got driven insane by the boss’ wife (it’s been over 25 years and the therapy is going quite well). I’ve worked in hospitals and malls. I’ve worked at the King County Department of Adult Detention, the Solid Waste Division and the Seattle-King County Health Department, which means I’ve hit all of the county’s high spots — the jail, the dump and the detox ward.
But the best job I ever had? In the fall of 1981 my friend Stomper, the afternoon guy at KLYC radio in Laurel, Montana got me a gig filling in once in a while, then when the station went 24/7 that December I took the graveyard shift. I’ve had jobs that paid better (that one paid minimum wage); I’ve had jobs that lasted longer (that one lasted about six months); but from the age of about nine, shortly after I had discovered radio in a big way and my father took me to visit a radio station to see what actually went on, I had wanted to work at a radio station and be a disk jockey. It was literally a lifetime ambition come true.
I have worked as a steam tube repair specialist, in a steam turbine, in Unit 1 of the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant, in San Diego County.
The most bizzare, exciting and one of the best paying jobs I ever had. 700 a week, in 1982. Of course that entailed being available 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, for the more than 9 months I worked there. I took three days off in 9 months. I learned one hell of lot about nuclear power in those months.
Unskilled construction, boatbuilding, carpentry, clerical, programming, computer support, and now stay-at-home craftsman making arts equipment and doing the cooking and laundry for Mrs. Gooserock.
Florida Mom is settling in for her visit and went off with Mrs. Gooserock down Sound into Seattle to take one of our 2 13-year-old toto dogs to the eye doctor for an update on his progressing blindness. I’m just finishing lunch break, headed back down to the dirty shop sanding wood and turning metal on the lathe till they return.
Meanwhile, here’s a shot of wave clouds generated in an otherwise clear blue sky by the Olympic mountains, seen at bottom right among their own private shroud, taken last year courtesy of Mrs. Gooserock.
I can’t say I’ve ever had a career. Sure, I’ve been a legal secretary for longer than I care to admit, it was not because I wanted to make a career out of it. It was always just supposed to put a roof over my head until I figured out what I really wanted to do with my life. Unfortuantely, I still don’t know what I want to do when I grown up!
The best job I had was working as a jeweler’s apprentice after I graduated from high school. It was fun to play with gold and diamonds and stuff. I left it after a year to go to college.
The worst job was working for the County agency that handled child abuse cases. It was a temp job. There was a room full of stuffed file cabinets with files of cases of abused children. There was no more room for files, so they needed to go through the files and try and throw out anything unnecessary like duplicate pages, envelopes, etc. That was my job…to go through a seemingly endless number of files, each depicting gruesome pictures and stories of kids suffering unspeakable acts by those who cared for them.
Not sure what to call it — I couldn’t sleep so pulled an all-nighter; I used to have what I call “grey nights” very frequently, but this is the first in a while. I’ll monitor things to make sure they don’t become a habit. Anyway, I did get a few hours sleep, from 6 to 11am. It’s warm in the apartment, though, so I’m probably going to shower again then put on my real clothes (as opposed to my lounging clothes). Spouse finally has his transit physical today (then has to go to DMV tomorrow to get his paperwork turned in), so we’re going to head for Sweet Tomatoes for soup/salad afterwards. Yum!
Happy trails to all our travelers!
Ghostdancer — good luck on giving up the cigars. I don’t care if cigars are different from cigarettes — it’s still all the “evil weed” in my book. I’m glad you’re putting your son’s welfare and future health ahead of your own supposed pleasure. Just keep him away from the dammed bubble gum cigarettes; those are as bad as fake guns that look real. (Will someone please hide my soapbox???)
Have a great day, folks — I need to wake up a little more…
So I rush home from the school this afternoon, after leaving in a big hurry (I was calling over my shoulder as I headed out the door, “You can install that yourself, can’t you?”) and arrive home in record time, only to find that C-SPAN 3’s promised coverage of the Shuttle’s Return to Flight is instead coverage of some aviation & homeland security hearing. OK, I guess that’s kind of important. But what about my Shuttle launch? I’m so disappointed. 🙁
Turns out a sensor in the external tank that helps control when the SRBs cut off went on the blink. That bit is pretty important, so better safe than sorry. NASA have a couple more opportunities to launch over the next couple days, but otherwise they’ll have to wait ’til September.
So today’s launch has been scrubbed, but zander’s still going on vacation. I’m beginning to suspect zander’s not going on the Shuttle after all. The mystery deepens….
I once worked answering phone complaints for a medium sized traffic department. It was actually one of the most fun jobs I ever had, even though it payed less than a secretary’s wage, because although I’m shy in person I’m quite comfortable on the phone. And the service expectations were so low that I’d take the complainers’ side, and they’d soon run out of steam with me politely and cheerfully retreating, and then we’d work out whatever solution we could.
At the same time I played in a folk band, and it happened that one of the practices fell on my birthday. There was something about an oversized beer mug and then somewhat fuzzily I was peddling my bike in the morning down to work.
Just as I walked in and was fumbling around for some tea, my phone rang. I weakly croaked “hello?” without even thinking to identify the office, and heard a very frustrated young woman on the other end:
“I’m a nurse in the hospital cardiac unit and we’re supposed to be able to park in the doctors’ spaces overnight and we worked on this patient all night long and then near morning he crashed and we had to keep working and I couldn’t goouttofeedthemeterandhisfamilywasthereandhewastooyoungtodieandwewereworkingandtwoofourothernurseswe
reoffsickand”
See, I’d come in out of breath from pedalling, and this poor frustrated caller seemed to have a whole lot more to say, she’d spent a gut wrenching night ending up losing a patient she really felt shouldn’t have slipped away, and then this parking ticket, and I happen to be the human being she runs into at one of the more heartbreaking moments a person can have.
But by this point I’d long since heard everything I needed to take a good shot at waiving her ticket. So while I was fumbling to take off my jacket and get my desk light on, I just held the phone up with one hand.
Clerks and supervisors who were just coming on shift paused and gathered around. I swear this woman didn’t break for nearly 10 minutes. Finally she just had to breathe.
“Well,” I yodelled like the Simpsons’ teenager. “…..what do you want me to do about it?”
She broke down laughing, and then I did, and then the whole office did. I finally got my speaking voice and we put the ticket in the works to be waived for extenuating circumstances.
Then I went and got 4 badly-needed aspirins.
laughing so hard my ribs are hurting and tears coming down from my eyes!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy s**t
Left a perfectly good career (engineering) and went back to school (law school). It’s tough! Your finances take a huge hit. You have to sit there and be treated like a student when you are used to being an adult. On the other hand you get to dress crumby, go to movies in the afternoon with your new buddies, sleep in on Fridays.
I like my new career and think it was a good choice. But I never want to do it again, though!
yeah, I will miss my office and to generally professional atmosphere in the office, but I won’t miss the day to day grind of a job I never really enjoyed…
and the no class on Friday thing will certainly be nice!
If I were to do it, it would be purely selfish, to get on the rec list. :O </snark>.
do what?
Host this!
ah, I see… your honesty is admirable. If you want the job, it’s yours. I warn you though, there are a lot of dishes and the pay is sh*t.
You got paid in sh*t? I wish I got paid sh*t. All I got instead were these worthless stock options….
You get stock options? All I got were these lousy html codes.
Trade ya! Futures of FBCCORP are junk-status. HTML, that’s pure gold! Oh wait — did I say that out loud?
well, I’ll email you some of my sh*t if you’d like.
I was just making a joke, I’m at work during the day anyway, sorry!, and am not around a computer. :]
That’ll teach you to joke in this super-serious atmosphere!
If you ever get near a computer during the day though. . .
Try it out by subbing for Abbott next week! If you like it you can become a regular host. Or an irregular host. We’ll all help you do it. (Like it’s hard, right, Abbott? Well, we don’t want people thinking any idiot can do this, or what does that make us?)
Do it, deano, do it do it!!
it’s only hard when you actually have work to do. today has been chaos in here, which has lead to very sporadic hosting…
Sure, that first Rec’d List diary is such a rush, man, but then WHAM! that buzz dies and it falls off, like, overnight, and man, that’s one f*cker of a hangover. Then your next hit, er, turn comes around, and it’s like, How the f*ck am I gonna top it, man? And you, like, f*ckin’ trash the joint, and hock your soul, man, just to maintain that rush. But man, you gotta keep comin’ up with sh*t to hock, and soon it’s not just your mortal soul, man, in that pawnshop’s jewelcase, it’s, like, your innocence, man, and your proud self-regard, man, and your sense of childish f*ckin’ wonder, man. I tell ya, man, just the sight of your f*ckin’ handle at the top of the f*ckin’ Recommended List, man, is the f*ckin’ sh*t. But you gotta ask yourself, man, you gotta ask yourself, was it, like, all f*ckin’ worth it? ‘Coz man, if you think it ain’t, then, man, stay the F*CK away from hosting the FBC.
/takes stiff drag from a ciggy
… man ….
Too funny! I love this! Just one “innocent” comment on somebody else’s diary, and before you know it. . .
take that ciggy out to the patio! this Cafe is hosted in CA today! No smoking indoors unless you get the approval of all the staff.
I guess you didn’t notice me over here smoking, in the smokers corner, I thought….
I am hoping we can declare FBC a smokers zone….
How ya all doing today and Abbott there, hi…
First visit here today and boy am I tuckered out, I need a nice big glass of coke on ice.
Dude, you’re harshing my buzz…. Wait, I don’t smoke.
Oh and be sure to bring pics back of the mayan sites, one of my great interests and I envy you your trip…
no doubt! Pics are the easy part…
I am currently trying to figure out if I need travelers cheques. And why are travelers chec(ks) so french? And how much cash should I have? And should I buy some Keds so I can hide it in the zippy pockets???
Also, how much clothes do I bring? Only going for 9 days, but I don’t want to pack more than one dueffel bag (so I won’t have to lug it around). I am such a novice traveler. In fact, I just found out I won’t even get my passport checked. BOO! I want a stamp. Maybe I can bribe someone.
I need to get some sandals and sunglasses too. so much to do!
Oh, I can’t stop laughing! I’ve read it 3 times….
And I can’t read it to anyone — know one here would get it at all. I can hardly type. (Staggering wildly, and chocking)
STOP IT NOW!!!!!!! YOU GUYS ARE GONNA HAVE ME ROLLING IN THE FLOOR HERE VERY SOON!!!!!!!! I can not take it any longer….just tooooooooooo funny!!!!!
I’m out for a while… gotta head home and run some errands. I’ll check in later to make sure everyone’s mugs are filled, but in the meantime, you are all in charge! Now behave yourselves.
While our host is out galavanting, I’m gonna pass out a present to everyone:
I know I needed one….bottle.
Could we turn it to Lost? This is the one where they’re getting ready to move to the caves.
I am gonna change careers just for tonight. I am gonna be the fairy godmother and sneak into the WH and put vicks into George’s vasoline jar….wanna come along???? I promise it will be fun to see gannon’s eyes pop out…:o) remember when richard clark said they were running around with their hair on fire????/,…….wellllll, we will see it in action tonight for real!!!!!!!!!!
Here’s a view of Florida Mom, Democrat-to-the-end, shivering in the warm Puget evening sun after our early pub supper.
The pub managed to deliver fish tacos without either the fish or the tacos. You wouldn’t think that would be possible for non-Republicans. Fortunately I had some homemade wild salmon curry to tide me over to the forthcoming brewsky hour.
Verdict for our toto dog (below right):
His right eye must go, fairly soon. The specialist wanted $1,000 but we can get it done rurally for less. Yikes! But he’s otherwise chipper, loving and enthusiastic for 13, so we’ve set the appointment.
Meanwhile Mom at 80 is talking with us about the next stages in her life. She’s aware of losing functionality, and has already done a lot of planning, but that doesn’t necessarily make decision time easier.
In our ethnic group, moms and kids are often great friends. Mom positively adored having my siblings and me as children, but was equally eager for us to grow up so she could know us as adults. With these issues facing us, it’s a time of life where we begin to appreciate why our old folk tunes are so incredibly joyous in one bar, and two beats later plunge to the depths of sorrow before bounding back again.
So tonight we’ll be in the back room sharing some beers, enjoying a few subdued jigs & reels and some thoughtful conversation.
Fingers crossed for your pup. I have a one-eyed cat and you’d never know it from the way he leaps and bounds around. Of course, it happened to him soon after birth, so he has never known anything else. I hope your cutie-pie has a quick adjustment and learns to get around easily.