Today is chilly, totally gloomy, and it's tiny branch time. I'm down to (well, technically up to) the smallest sized branches of my "attractive little groupings of trees". They're only 1/8" diameter and all have to be rounded off so no one impales themselves. I have to produce about eight to twelve times as many of these as I do trees, which means it takes forever. Two years ago my Dad came and helped me for a whole day with them because I was moving and it was a crazy time. At the end of the day he was like, "Now I see why you hate making these."
I don't hate the sculptures. They come out rather nice, but making them is just production work and boring and labor intensive. I'm going to be cold, get sore hands and shoulders, and it's going to take hours if not days. This has me going to "it's better than other crappy jobs I've had" territory.
Making tiny branches is better than:
1) Helping to autopsy a St. Bernard when I was eighteen and super hungover.
2) Cleaning infected cat bite wounds with hydrogen peroxide when I was eighteen and super hung over. (Without going into detail, a bunch of really smelly, gross crap foams out) (noticing any pattern here?-- ahh, the good old days)
3) Working eight hours all alone without a break at the candy store in the mall only to trudge across the hall and work the evening shift (in some kind of perverse rhyming pun-- very funny universe) at the candle store all alone without a break.
4) Working doubles (12 to 14 hour shifts) anywhere when you're tired and fed-up and someone calls in sick.
5) Having to stay until 1:30 in the morning at the import store by myself because the unexpected semi-load of freight wouldn't fit in the stockroom and there was stuff all over the parking lot I HAD to figure out how to get inside the building before I could leave.
6) Having to routinely lift and carry things much to big and heavy for me (like stacks of six chairs all tied together in a bundle, or boxes as big as I was), usually wearing, sadistically, high heels and a skirt.
7) Working an insane 35 hour shift due to a perfect storm of people calling in sick and the floor of the store getting professionally refinished overnight, then having to open the next day.
8) Any job I've had to work with, or even worse for idiotic jerk-wads for very little money.
Ok, I already feel tons better. Bring on those tiny branches! What are some of the worst jobs you've ever had?
End of day addendum-- hanging it up for the day-- yeah, it will be days not hours.... My third drum lesson went awesome though.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
How about having to clean up dog poop and pee because the jerks you worked for thought it was great to bring their dogs to work but didn't want to take them for a walk. There's no way you cannot put paper down for a poor dog in need but come on!!! This jerk even gave us written instructions on how to handle this task. As if any of us were too stupid to do accomplish it on our own. Guess we were in a way since we all put up with it, but come on, this was a professional position!
Yeesh-- that person would definitely fall into the idiotic jerk-wad category!
I did have to do the "be the owner's (un-spayed) dog's valet" bit at one place too-- where I was supposed to be a landscape designer. I was also supposed to be the owner's nut job wife's paid minder too.
Yes, tiny branches way better.
Great perspective. Thanks for the reminder. Now I am off to a day of sewing with Lucy. I have bags to crank out before the show. Lucy is going to help me 'crank'. I have a new Ricky Lee Jones CD to share . . . it should feel more like play than work. We are fortunate.
Yes-- we really are-- the self-employed creatives (or any kind of creatives really). For instance I can decide to got for a bombing bike run this morning before firing up the tiny branch factory. Good for you! Sew and jam out with your bud!
Post a Comment