Write about the weirdest job you've ever had.
I thought I'd take this a bit further and try to recall as may of my jobs that I have had. I will leave it up to you, the reader, to decide which was weirdest.
Age 10: My first job where I made my own REAL money was working at an antique shop owned by Mrs. Geiger, a lovely elderly lady in our church. She asked me to help her run a sidewalk sale. Thus began my love for antiques and rummage sales. In addition to paying me for my time, she gave me a vintage red hat box (I have no idea where that got lost along the way) and a milk glass lamp. Sadly, my lamp, which has sat upon my dresser for 30 years was recently knocked over and the glass shade shattered. I vividly remember what I spent my cash earnings on. Mom and Dad took me to Gibson's and I purchased a Barbie and Ken doll in matching shiny dressy outfits and, the piece de resistance, a silver Barbie Corvette...all of which I still have.
Age 12: My brother and I started cleaning a family friends' business for extra cash. Stephen did the floors, I dusted and cleaned the kitchenette, and we shared the load of cleaning the bathrooms.
Around this same time our family participated in craft fairs. We mainly made baked goods, but I sold a ridiculous amount of plastic canvas magnets. I remember sewing constantly - my needles would get rusty from overuse. I was quite the little entrepreneur. This was one of the pattern books I used:
Age 15: I opted to study American Sign Language as my second language and because I was homeschooled, my parents allowed me to take courses at Tarrant County Junior College. I took at least 4 semesters and became rather fluent. A lady in our church ran the local community center and offered me a position teaching signing classes to children. I taught a semester to kids and then the next semester started a beginner class for adults.
Age 16: I applied for a job at PetCo before PetCo was a big deal. Ha! My parents and I had decided that I was going to graduate from high school a year early and I wanted to earn some "real money" for college. Being able to lift an 80 lb. bag of dog food was a job requirement; I barely weighed 80 lbs., but was determined to get the job. I remember having to carry big bags out to people's cars for them...particularly the able bodied men...how weird was that, in retrospect?!
It was during this year that I accepted a position as an interpreter for the deaf at a local church. I thought that was the direction God was leading me, but after a month or so, I resigned because it was so much pressure to be the interpreter for sermons. I was so scared I was going to mess something up and skew the message!
College: I worked as an RA (Resident Assistant) to help with my college fees and I had several odd jobs during the holidays and summer breaks during my college years.
I worked at a mall kiosk on Christmas break selling Fuzzy Feet novelty house shoes. I wore these around the mall:
I made those chicken feet look good and was the top seller. It was actually a lot of fun! And, you guess it, I still have my pair of slippers....
The next two Christmases, my brother got me a seasonal job working with him in a nature themed shop called The Nature Connection. It was full of save-the-endangered-whatever novelty items and tree-hugger, earth friendly gifty type stuff.
I cleaned houses with my mom one summer. Another summer I worked for a high-end interior decorator faux-finish painter in some fancy shmancy houses in Southlake.
My favorite summer job was working at J.Pepe's Mexican restaurant, and not just because I got a discount on their food! I was hired as a hostess because I wasn't strong enough or tall enough to lift the giant serving trays over my head. After a few weeks the manager called me in and made me "head hostess" which meant I made more than the others (shhh! they didn't know!) and was in charge of helping make schedules and handling their issues. I'm not gonna lie, my least favorite part of the job was Sunday lunch crowds. Let me just say that after working in a restaurant, I am extra careful about how I behave, especially in my church clothes. I learned some very useful skills at this job including knowing the difference in how alcoholic beverages were served (little things like "top shelf" and "on the rocks" had eluded me prior to this experience), how to put helium into balloons (that was a lot of fun), how to make small talk to keep patrons from losing their mind and how to schmooze wait staff when I accidently over sat their section. My favorite memory was when a deaf couple came in for dinner. I was able to communicate with them and the server for their table allowed me to wait on them. I even won employee for the month the second month I was there. Part of receiving that honor was a front row parking space, which was funny, because I didn't have a car.
Post College: I was a stay-at-home-mom for almost 4 years. During that time I tried to make a little extra money from home by being a web researcher. I think I got paid $.10 for every relevant page I could find on a given subject...and this was pre-Google, so I had to hunt. I also had an eBay business selling random things, but mostly lightly used baby clothes.
Then after receiving my degree (that's another story for another day), I began teaching school. I taught first grade my first year and third grade math & science for two years. After that, I moved to my current position as music teacher where I've been happy as a bug for 11 years.
In addition to being a classroom teacher, I have taught piano lessons and co-directed a children's theater group. Nearly every summer for the last decade I have taught in an art camp setting of some sort. I have also worked as a "second shooter" for a few photography studios.
Hm....no wonder I'm tired.....
No comments:
Post a Comment