Working

[glatt]

When I was a kid, I would mow lawns and shovel driveways around the neighborhood. Babysat too. Must have been around 12-13 when I started those odd jobs.

First real job job was working in a college bookstore for the last summer of high school.

Then had cafeteria jobs all through college. Everyone should work food service at some point in their lives.

For a few summers and winters I worked at a local mom & pop corner store. That was awesome, ran the place myself for up to ten hours a day. First job with real responsibility. It was the store I used to take my pennies to when I was a kid so I could buy candy. Felt like I had come full circle when I was selling the same crap to the next generation of kids.

My first post-college job was working in an antique furniture restoration place. It was fun, but unhealthy. Scary warning labels on all the products we used. I learned a lot about furniture there. And racist southerners, like the owner.

Then I was unemployed and borrowed/embezzled enough money to live poorly on from my parents for 6 months before I got a job temping in a law firm. They know about the money, but forgave the debt a long time ago.

That temp job turned into a permanent job, and I've worked my way up the ranks of this firm over the last 15 years. Don't see myself leaving any time soon.

[glatt]

Oh I forgot the question about what it was like to be not working.

It sucked. I lived in a cheap basement apartment alone. I had friends in my town, but rarely saw them because I had become nocturnal. Actually, that's not true. I didn't become nocturnal, I started a new sleep/wake cycle. I like staying up late at night, but also like getting a full night's sleep. I found that the ideal length of a day wasn't 24 hours, but was more like 27 hours. So I started living a 27 hour day, which meant that I was coming into and going out of phase with the lives of my friends. Sometimes we would be awake at the same time, and sometime we wouldn't.

Those six months were both wonderful and depressing at the same time. Like a long lonely slovenly vacation in a dump.

[melidasaur]

My first job was when I was 15 - I worked in a donut shop called Donutland in Ames, Iowa. It was really fun.

In the summers during high school, I worked at Six Flags Great America.

In college, I was an RA.

After college, I was a residence hall director.

During law school, I was a residence hall director (free rent, who can pass that up?).

Now, I'm a law clerk.

I'm sure there were other jobs in there, but they weren't as memorable.

[Spexxvet]

Sold knives the summer between high school and college.

Through college, I delivered copy paper at Penn.

I've been hired by 4 optical companies, all of which changed hands while I was there.