Tuesday

Okay, it's Tuesday, and here I sit at work waiting for the work to come in.  My desk is clean, everything is organized...and I'm just waiting for the work to come in.  "My work" is probably sitting on a court clerk's desk somewhere, just piling up....and here I sit, waiting for the work to come in...  I know I shouldn't complain.

I should be thankful that my job isn't like most clerical positions.  I've had a few other jobs before this one, that were incredibly boring beyond belief.  Let's just say that criminals are interesting.  I've seen, and heard some bizarre, amazing stories.  I could easily write a sitcom of what goes on at a Probation office. 

Anyway, what was your first job? 

I started working when I was 15 years old.  In high school I took 4 years of typing, as well as other business oriented classes, mostly  because I wanted to get into the school work program.  The program director was also the business and accounting teacher, his name was Mr. Dodge.  I had two business classes with Mr. Dodge, one class after another, and I can honestly say that they were the most boring classes I've ever had, but at the same time, the most rewarding--money wise.  He was a nice man, but he spoke in an unbearable monotone voice.  You know like the teacher from Wonder Years?  That was him.  He was thin, short, wore large, dark rimmed classes, and dressed like Mr. Rodgers, complete with the plastic pen protector in his shirt pocket.  The perfect middle aged nerd, geeky teacher.  Sitting through a lecture in class with him, one class after the other was almost pure torture for me, especially when he had the film projector.  He would stop it every 15 seconds to tell the class, "Now, that is an important point--blah blah blah..."  or  "Take note of that....--blah blah, blah..."  Don't get me wrong, he was a sweet guy,  and I felt sorry for him when he tried to teach the class when most of his students were sleeping during his many film and slide presentations on basic accounting and record keeping--but his classes were so hard to sit through.

Anyway, he got me my first job.  I worked 2 hours each day after school at the city clerks office.  My job basically involved typing an invitation letter to the monthly city counsel meetings to different clergy.  I don't know exactly why these letters were sent to clergy, because I never questioned them.  I just suspected that each meeting would start with an opening  prayer of some sort.  I just don't know for sure.  I do know that my boss really liked the way I typed those letters.  My typing teacher, Mrs. Wilcox taught be how to type the perfect business letters and correspondence.  My boss called them "pretty".  If she  complimented me on anything--it was on my letters.  She reported to Mr. Dodge that I didn't dress appropriately for my first interview, (which was totally untrue-in my opinion-when I was 15--who says school wear attire wasn't appropriate--what did she want me go in a suit?!) and after that, I personally didn't like her very much.  I still remember her name, and I still remember how she signed those letters...  To this day I cringe each time I see the first name "Pat" anywhere or "Patricia".  (No I won't include her last name--I still work in this town!)

Another duty of mine was setting up counsel chambers for the month's meeting.  This was my favorite part of the job.  Each counsel member had a large heavy name plate, along with the city mayor, and it was my job to set them out in front of each leather chair, on the big horse shoe looking meeting table.  I had to make sure that everything was tidy, and that there were enough sugar cubes in the sugar bowl, enough coffee, tea, and made sure there was enough ice water to go around.  Sometimes I even set out donuts (yummy).  I can still remember the names on those big marble name plates...  Most of these names I still see today in the county and city government of this town.  Yes, these names shall remain anonymous as well...  I cannot say who was the one who ate sugar cubes during the meetings--the one who always left a large sugary mess on their chair. 

Among other clerical duties I possessed, was the xeroxing of the monthly city counsel agenda and minutes.  This was the job I loathed the most because it involved xeroxing 40 something agenda/minutes on a xerox machine that filled an entire room.  The machine was HUGE, and very intimidating, and it would constantly jam, or misfeed..etc..  I still remember when the collating wasn't working....oh my God...  I got so many paper cuts on that job, I'm sure I left blood stains on the agendas.  I literally workeduntil my fingers bled, and there was always someone who made me stop my job so they could copy 3 copies....  Urrrgghh...  Of course, being only 15, I felt obliged, and stopped whatever I was doing, and end up all over again because I couldn't remember what page I copied last... 

I also did filing.  Boring filing of old ordinances, in big ole' heavy ancient ordinance books.  Some of the filing, I do confess I could not find the correct ordinance book for, and I must admit to you that some of these papers were just stuck in there misfiled out of desperation.  With my luck, they were found misfiled by another co-worker, and Pat wasn't very happy, but I think she kept me because of way I typed my clergy letters--it was my saving grace.  Thanks Mrs. Wilcox for that 4 years of typing, and thanks to Mr. Dodge for my first job. 

Translated:  One little question:  How much more time until the weekend is here?  OR   Is it the weekend yet?