Thirteen Thursday: Makin' The Bacon

Today's Thirteen Thursday is brought to you by Krisco. She's the lovely lady that gets us all knowing one another just a little bit better. And this week we are finding out about jobs of the past. I decided to exclude Mom from my list since it's the most obvious job of the last 7 years, but there is more to me than Mom. I know you're all dying to know. So I take you down my employment memory lane by way of oldest to most recent jobs.

1. Courtesy Clerk: That would be the fancy name for the person who bags your groceries and carries them out to the car for you. No, seriously. That job isn't just an urban legend. It used to be the CC's did actually put the groceries in your car instead of shoving the cart at you and telling you to have a nice day after they've smushed your bread and packed the rat poison with your organic bananas. For real.

2. Shoe Sales Person at Beall's Department Store: I really hated working in the shoe department. I was so glad when I got "promoted" to accessories. I met some nice people and got into trouble hanging with some of the girls. Good times. Anyway the cashier duties gave me the experience to move on to The Next Big Job.

3. Checker at Tom Thumb Page: I still think fondly on this job. I got tons of cash handling experience and it's where my love of accounting and seeing things balance begins. I had fun, dated the guy in the deli a few times and never had empty pockets over the summer. Hey, I was 17 years old and a making more than minimum wage. I thought I was living the life.

4. Bookkeeper at Jack Brown Cleaners: I ran all the tickets for each store every day. That is where I learned 10-day by touch and I was an adding fool. When I was hired to fill that position I heard through the grapevine the owner's son was not happy about it. Seems he thought the front office staff should be less, um...ethnic. Turns out in the end he liked me and gave me a few more opportunities to learn, which I took, but I never really got to like him because of how we started out. I saw him not too long ago and that man is bald. You know, I always say God don't like ugly.

5. Proof operator at SW Savings: Do you know where your check goes once you write it and the sales clerk processes it? It goes to the bank and the somewhere along the way the proof operator codes it so the money can move from one account to another. The operations side of banking is absolutely incredible. My 10-key by touch came in handy at this gig and gave me an idea of where I wanted to be someday which was out of the basement (that's where Proof was housed). I liked that job because it was independent work. You got your six bags of checks, coded them, balanced them and batched them. When you were done you left and put the full time on your timesheet. Now you know why I was so fast on that 10-key.

6. Research Associate: This would be a fancy name for "skip tracing". I worked to find people who owed the City money. I located people so that they could be sued. Don't you just get all warm and fuzzy thinking about it? It was like Intro to Bounty Hunter. Still, this is the job I absolutely the fondest memories of in my life. First it's because it's where I met a young and optimistic Papa and two because it was the first time I really felt I had a direction. Everyone I worked with was in school working towards something bigger. It was a great support.

7. Purchasing Clerk/Administrative Assistant: I took this job after I got married, before I finished school because I thought Papa has a degree, why do I need one? This job had one purpose and it was to teach me that I was destined for better things. I worked my ass off and got paid shit for it. The bitch of it was I would have never moved up this particular food chain because I didn't have a degree. Maybe that is not true, but what I saw was the girl who got hired for the same job as me at the same time as me do nothing each day except for sleep at her desk and got paid the same amount as I did. Those lessons best learned...

8. vault Teller: Another cool gig. Have you ever held over 100K cash in your hands? I have. As the vault teller in the drive-through the other tellers "bought" cash from my vault so I had all the loot. And I had to balance all that money at each close. That was another fun, independent job, but the City was calling me home.

9. Account Clerk: I processed some of the Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable for the library. I held this job for several years because they worked with my school schedule even in those times when I had to do split shifts.

10. Accountant: I always thought it was dumb to call me an accountant. All I did was A/P for a State run program, managed by the City. This was a boring job. It was filled with a bunch of malcontents. Mostly I just wanted to work close to school my last semester of college. I graduated and totally changed career directions.

11. Public Information Specialist: This was my all time favorite job. I responded to media inquiries regarding City projects. I did on-camera and on-air interviews. I wrote press releases. I planned ribbon cuttings and community events. I wrote copy for City publications. I represented 5 departments. I was the youngest Public Information Specialist at the time and maybe since then. I learned on this job. I would have stayed forever, but after nearly three years of infertility I finally had a baby. I couldn't go back to work and leave him when I had to try so hard for him to even be here. I don't regret the decision one bit.

12. Director of Finance: The nice thing about working for a start up company is that you get a big title that doesn't mean diddly in the scheme of things. I made the most money at this job I ever made and I hated every moment of it. I thought I would have the best of both worlds because I had a home office and all the employees were spread out so we did things virtually. It didn't really work out well. My kids were still very young and the hours for this job were long and demanding. Since I was at home the work never went away. The guy I worked for was a screwball and acted like a child. I'm sorry, but no amount of money was worth putting up with his shit. Most of the people in his employ were being moved to Georgia to work on a huge project that meant a windfall for the company, but this Texas girl wasn't moving. So before we could have that conversation I closed out their books, fedexed the files and quit. I don't regret the decision one bit.

13. Program Specialty Instructor (Teacher): That's me. I teach 3 and 4 year olds two days a week in a Mother's Day Out program. I get to wear shorts and flip-flops with the employer provided t-shirts. I get to color and make crafts. I get to work with other moms and have built a community of support. The best thing is my Z-boy gets to come not only to my class, but to his own class that one of my dearest Mommy friends teaches. And it's all at no charge to me. I feel this job has been a total blessing to my family. It's not a high paying gig, but I am sooooo happy. Can't beat that!

Are you still here? Props to you for sticking around this long. This was good for me and not just because it was free therapy. So pop on over to Krisco's blog and play next week.

The DHW