Seven Weird Jobs

Okay, slightly unrelated to our overarching subject, but I've been tagged by vale of evening fog for the 7 weird jobs meme:

1) As a sophomore in high school I was paid by a CPA to update binders containing finance law information. These packets of hard copy would arrive in the mail, and I'd have to find the appropriate binder out of a collection of about 100, remove the oudated pages, then insert the updated pages. I would listen to "90125" by Yes and a mix tape a really cute senior had made for me. Alas, he did not return the crush.

2) Backing up, as a freshman I lied about my age to work at a sub sandwich shop owned by an Italian-American named Charles Mastropaolo. I was hired to work behind the line, meaning I would assemble personal pizzas (pita, sauce, pepperoni, cheese), sandwiches, and occasionally cook on the grill with supervision. My main and least favorite task was to hand-scrub the grease vents from the grill every night. I would come out of the place stinking of pepperoni and grease. On Fridays my friends and I would go to an alcohol-free teen dance club downtown, and I usually didn't have time to take a shower. Nice.

3) In college I was a building manager for the student activities center. I would work one night per week from 6-midnight, and one shift on a weekend. This involved carrying a walkie-talkie, a key ring, setting up meeting rooms if needed, doing rounds to make sure all was well in the building, and sitting behind a desk studying (or reading, or visiting with friends). I didn't have to dress up per se, but I did have to look presentable.

4) Fresh out of college I landed a gig as volunteer coordinator at the homeless shelter where I'd been a volunteer myself. The job required no work - all the volunteer groups that served meals and worked the kitchen scheduled themselves a year in advance, and worked the same times every time. Had I been more industrious, I would have figured out a way to broaden the program, but the status quo was strongly in effect there. I quit when I got pissed that the board of directors voted to not give the staff a Christmas bonus, but spent hundreds of dollars getting photos taken and framed of the past presidents of the board to hang in the shelter's front hallway. Whenever I gave a tour to friends I always referred to the wall of photos as our Christmas bonus. I learned my lesson about not quitting a job until you have another job lined up, because...

5)...I became a barista. I had to arrive at 6am to sling java, and work until 2pm. The first week I trained at the cafe I would go to bed at night and dream of nothing but work. Then get up and work. Sigh.

6) After some searching I landed an administrative assistant position with a group of pediatricians at a local children's hospital. The head doctor, Gary Peck, was a real jerk. For some reason he didn't like me, although the doctor I worked most closely with, did. He got me fired, but she arranged to have me hired back through a temp agency to answer phones, so I ended up doing less for more money. I played a lot of solitaire. Plus I got to stick around and annoy Gary Peck. Doctor Peckerhead. What a jerk.

7) After the temp gig ended, I worked again as a barista at a different cafe (so GenX!) and also picked up some evening shifts at a dry cleaner pick-up location. I didn't actually handle any chemicals, but would retrieve clean clothes for customers, and take dirty drop-offs. The clothes were cleaned at another location. I would sit at the desk and read or visit with friends; the storefront was downstairs from my apartment so I didn't have far to go, and there were lots of my buddies working/living on the block. During my mid-twenties drifting-but-not-lost phase.

I'm tagging lindadianefeldt.com/blog/, because I'm sure she'll have interesting stories to tell.