The View From Hell (plus teen photos! and Rock Star comments!)

Well m'dears, it appears it's on to Plan B on the earning a paycheck front. I don't know exactly what Plan B is. Ok, I don't even know approximately what Plan B is, but what the hell. Details, details.... Pardon me while I whine for a few paragraphs, but I feel the need. Grab some cheese, put your feet up, and I'll tell you what I've been up to lately. I spent the past two days in hell. That's what I've been up to lately - checking out the view in H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks. When I signed up at the temp agency, I had office work in mind. You know, answer some phone calls, do some typing, some filing, maybe count boxes of paper clips or something. Unfortunately, they didn't have anything like that available right now. (Very small town here, y'all!) But they said they had a "light industrial" opening and would I be interested? Hhmm....well....I had some misgivings, but they did say "light", yes? So, ok, I said I'd give it a try. How bad could it be, right? HA! HaHaHA, and again I say HA!!!!!!!!! Light, my ass. I spent Wednesday standing on concrete for 8 hours doing a task that could have been accomplished by a reasonably bright chimpanzee. My surroundings were hot, noisy, stinky, and dirty; I was bored out of my freakin' mind; and by the time I got home Wednesday afternoon I was exhausted, achy, and thinking maybe this wasn't one of my better ideas. But hey, it was only the first day. First days are always the worst, right? No. Totally, totally wrong. Yesterday made the first day look like Margaritaville. They moved me to a different part of the building, where I spent 8 hours standing on concrete again, this time doing a task that probably required more brainpower than a chimp could provide, but which also involved hideously stinky, no-doubt-toxic chemicals, no gloves or mask, and a trainer who didn't seem to much want me to be there. When I'd been there all of four hours, I got written up for making "too many mistakes". Uh...HELLO!...First day doing this people!! It's called "training" for a reason. By the time I left I was exhausted, in so much pain that I could barely stand, and seriously wondering exactly what sort of chemicals I'd been stewing in all day. I came home. I talked to J about it. I got out the calculator and figured out what I'd actually made the past couple of days by the time they deduct the government's cut. And I said screw it. They weren't paying me NEARLY enough to do what I've done the past two days. So I called them up this morning and said I wasn't coming back. No notice, no nuttin', which is something I've never done before, but seriously...life is too short. There's got to be a better way. So that's where I've been the past two days, kiddies. This is a cautionary tale. When you are at a temp agency and someone says the words "light industrial assignment" to you....RUN, do not walk, right on out the door. Seriously. And to end this on a lighter note (Deb hears big sighs of relief from the crowd), since Gabrielle posted a pic of herself at 17, here's one of me at the same age. This was taken just after my cousin Michael's high school graduation. I'd just graduated myself a couple of weeks before, just about 2 months after I turned 17. I certainly had a LOT of hair, yes? And damn, I was thin! I'd love to have that bod back. But otherwise I like myself better at 43 than I ever did at 17. Even if I'm a sad failure at factory work. Heh. Oh yeah, and about Rock Star - I hated to see Jordis go, but it was the right thing. It was time. I was disappointed to see Marty not get the encore, but I liked JD's song too. I was relieved to see Brooke wearing clothes. Already looking forward to the next round!