"Line?"

[jmfargo]

Tonight I started a new job. It's only a week-long, and lasts from an hour to an hour and a half each evening, but it pays well, and it's probably one of the most interesting positions I've ever accepted. Coming from a man who (at last count) has held over 60 jobs, that means something. I'm not sure what it means, but something. Definitely.

I'm a line-reader. I'm helping a graduate student/actor learn her lines for a Shakespearean play in which she is taking part*. I have to correct her if she makes even the tiniest of mistakes, which means that it demands my attention at all times, but since I enjoy reading and I "get" Shakespeare, it's more enjoyable than work.

Don't tell her that, though. She might not want to pay me!

Still, pretty cool, huh? What's the neatest job you've ever held?**

*I wanted to say "play that she's part of," but felt bad slaughtering the language in such a way after mentioning The Bard.

**I'm tempted to wait until tomorrow morning to post this, because that's when I get most responses to questions like this one, but I know that if I don't do it now I'll never remember.

Comments

[angielabrie.livejournal.com]

My "neatest job" is typical for the HS/college crowd, but I LOVED it. I was a "Smoothie Girl" and a "Pie Girl" at a local gourmet grocer/specialty foods/bakery/gourmet burger bar called Ikeda's. In the summer when I was a Smoothie Girl, I operated an outdoor bad and made smoothies from fresh fruit. When I wasn't doing that, I was in the bakery, making fresh fruit pies. I worked with a lot of other "kids" my age who were also in college, and we got along well. I also learned how to make the best damn fruit pie in the world. Generally my job started at 5am (Gotta get those pies baked!) and I was done no later than 3pm, which left me plenty of time to study or play. I stopped by there on my way home when I drove from CA to NY, and I bought a few pies, bread, wine, and specialty foods I couldn't ever find anywhere else. I loved working there, and if I ever moved back to CA, I'd probably try to get a job there again!!!

[sarin-girl.livejournal.com]

over 60 jobs??? how old are you? a bazillion? hehehe..

Um, the neatest job, I have to say bartending.. I love it :)

Most strangest job, working as a PA for this guy who ran his own business, out of his garage, and apart from the usual PA stuff, my job involved scanning pictures of naked people for his swingers site.. it was one of my first few jobs out of high school.. I was very naive..

[jfargo.livejournal.com]

28 years old. 50+ of those jobs were in a 5-year period.

I'm not proud of it, but at the same time I am, I guess. :)

That one job of yours definitely sounds interesting. Not naive once the job was done, I take it?

[periannth.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a lot of fun! :)

My neatest job was probably getting paid almost twice minimum wage to sit around and surf the Internet or walk around in the woods with the DEC.

Off Topic

[jfargo.livejournal.com]

I met you tonight, at the grocery store.

No, seriously.

I know this is going to sound weird, but I think you need to ask someone if you have a twin sister somewhere that you haven't been told about.

See, I was at a store, and I saw you. I stopped, and looked again. Yes, this girl was Laura!

What the hell is Laura doing in Delaware with some strange old man?

It can't be Laura. Don't be stupid Jeremiah.

"Excuse me, I'm really sorry to bother you. Do you have a sister named Laura?"

Shock spread across her face in a flash. Her mouth opened a bit, and she spoke in your voice, "That's me!"

"Wait," I started stuttering my w's, "w-w-what? From New York?"

"Yes! How do you know me? What's your name?"

The conversation devolved from there, and obviously it wasn't you. She was from NYC. She doesn't have family near Buffalo. She's not yet 20 (so I guess not a twin, but maybe genetically created?), and she lost interest at about that point.

But allow me to say it again: I met you tonight, at the grocery store. Seriously.

Re: Off Topic

[periannth.livejournal.com]

That's really weird...I know there's a girl with my same name from this area that goes to the same college in Potsdam as my brother, but I didn't know I had a long lost sister or something! hehe

Though, apparently, there is a distant branch of my family in the White Plains area. In college, I got an IM from a guy who said we were probably cousins or something because all of us Lichtenthals are related in some way.

So it looks like I have a clone? Ooh, or maybe it's me from a parallel universe, and you briefly crossed into that one at the grocery store...Cool.

[akdidge.livejournal.com]

What's the neatest job you've ever held?

Hmmm...Neatest?

Security Guard at the college. That was the BEST job I've ever held. The pay was crap, the hours weren't enough, but by god not only was it fun, it was a variety of getting paid to hang out (talk with students, check on things around the campus), and trying to convince people that while as security I didn't have a gun I did have the incredible power to "call for backup" which consisted of a couple of guys in the 60's, and maybe the boss who was in his late 40's. Who may or may not show up. In about 20 minutes.

Yeah, fun times. Most of the trouble that happened was dealt with by my nature ability to diffuse a situation with joking/conversation. Well, that and practically everyone on the campus knew me and vice versa. I'm not kidding. I was like super-popular in college, and while it was only a community college, I was liked by everyone (young and old).

[jfargo.livejournal.com]

a couple of guys in the 60's

I read that and tried to figure out how guys from the 60's were going to get to whatever year it was to help you. Security guards have access to more advanced technology than I would expect!

[gypsychilde.livejournal.com]

I sometimes miss my old college workstudy job at the campus library.

It gave me time to do my written assignments (before I typed them up later), read the reading assignments, and even get first dibs on things that would be checked in (like, "Oh! I need this book for an assignment!" *plops it on my personal "to check out before I leave today" pile* so said book would not even reach its shelf for someone else to take) or read books assigned by professors that were on special "behind the check-out desk" shelves because they were reference books in that way and had to be asked for specifically.

When I had no homework to do, I could draw in my sketchbook or read for fun.

It was a very nerdy job, but I loved putting the returned books into the Dewey Decimal System order and putting them back on their shelves, checking the books in and out, and just being in that library - it was a beautiful building; so peaceful and the third/top floor was awesome when there were thunderstorms because of the skylights.
Also, all my co-workers were so nice. I never complained about who was on a shift with me during the school year.

What play is it? Just curious.

[enchanted-eve.livejournal.com]

I loved working in the campus library too! It's my favorite job so far in life. I didn't get much down time for homework or reading but I loved shelving books and checking people out (and checking out books to people as well... I realized how what I typed sounded while editing but thought I should leave it) and nabbing returned books to read and having access to 'reserved' material.

[jfargo.livejournal.com]

Sorry I missed this. The play is "As You Like It," and she plays Rosalinde. :)

[mobobocita.livejournal.com]

My neatest job was being a theater tech. I got paid to run sound or lights for shows. Even got to tour a few locations with a ballet company.

Great fun, horrid hours, crap pay...but great fun!

[jfargo.livejournal.com]

It's funny, but with many jobs that people enjoy and think of as different you hear the phrase "horrid hours, crap pay...but great fun!" I'm not sure what, exactly, but I think that says something about the human condition. :)

[kauricat.livejournal.com]

The rule about not ending a sentence with a preposition has its roots in Latin. Since the language we speak is not based on Latin, the rule does not apply to us. I'm not exactly sure how the "rule" came to be applied to English; it was probably someone trying to sound snooty. In our family of languages, it is perfectly acceptable to end your sentences with prepositions.

I'm now going to mangle Churchill, who once said something like "That is the sort of language up with which I will not put!"

Congrats on the job, and maybe by the end of it you'll have it memorized as well. People who have some Shakespeare memorized always sound cool when they can whip out a cool quote at an appropriate time.

[jfargo.livejournal.com]

In High School I was part of a Shakespearean Sonnet and Soliloquy competition and learned many Shakespearean quotes that I would whip out at the appropriate time. It would have helped me look cool, except for the part where I started this paragraph with "in High School."

I got beat up a lot.

And thanks for the English lesson. Normally I wouldn't go out of my way to switch around the language to what I've been taught is its proper use, but I was trying to be funny.

I laughed at myself and in my little world that's all that matters.

[kauricat.livejournal.com]

Sorry; I think I came off as pedantic. And not everyone agrees about that preposition thing anyway; lots of learned folks still say you should avoid ending your sentence with a preposition, so even when you're not being funny, you might want to stick with the rule when writing papers and such.

That's really maddening that quoting Shakespeare in high school got you punished by your schoolmates. I'm glad you didn't let it stop you from being who are you.

[jfargo.livejournal.com]

I don't let much stop me from being who I am. It's sort of the point of being me, right? In High School I was definitely a lot quieter, and not as out-going, but afterward, when I realized that the world wasn't actually out to punch me in the face, I allowed myself to be who I wanted to be.

I didn't find you as pedantic, though some may have. I find little tid-bits very interesting, and love it when friends share their thoughts on, well, anything!

But yes, I realize that in any normal written paper I should stick with the rule they taught in High School. In my journal I prefer a conversational style of writing, which is why I use it.

Thinking about it, I have to be fair to my High School schoolmates. I think the me from then would have annoyed even the me from now. The Shakespeare quoting probably just came off as pretentious, not interesting, especially as I knew they wouldn't particularly care for it.

[reverendfixxxer.livejournal.com]

What's the neatest job you've ever held?

When I was 17, I worked the door at a topless club in Panama City, FL. As a 17 year old boy, I got paid to take people's money, beat the tar out of offenders as I threw them out and look at naked breasts all night six nights a week.

"Neat" doesn't exactly cover it.