When I was in 8th grade I got my first job. Employment opportunities tend to be limited for 14-year-olds, so my Dad landed me dishwashing gig at the Cougar Country Drive-In. For a year and a half, until I turned 16 and could legally handle food, I scrubbed dishes, pots, and every sort of vile nastiness that the kitchen threw my way. $4.25/hour seemed fair at the time. My friends stopped hanging out with me because I became the smelly-kid… the stench of bleach could never be washed off. (I made that last bit up… I wasn’t the smelly kid… just the kid wearing sweatpants, skin-tight polo’s and a fanny pack. My friends hung out with me anyway).
Where was I? Oh, the dish-washing bit…
Yeah, so this week I found out that I’ve still got it. In addition to sweet nunchuck, bow-hunting and computer-hacking skills, my repertoire includes superhuman dishwashing skills. Yeah, girls only want boyfriends with great skills.
So, as it turns out, my newest form of employment has more or less placed me in the “Galley” for an indefinite period of time. I am a DA… a Dining Attendant… a position that would that would be more aptly titled “Dish Washer, Who Sometimes Helps With Food-Prep and Dining Hall Duties, But Mostly Just Washes Heaps and Heaps of Dishes”. But you know… I think DWWSHWFPADHDBMJWHAHOD wasn’t a great acronym for the folks in payroll… they're always griping about something.
It’s a job, you know? And… I get to work with some of the best folks at the station. I heard a statistic the other day that said that the Galley employees more Masters and PhD holders than the Crary Laboratory. I’d believe it too – one of my supervisors is a Masters-level biologist.
The 10-hour days fly by, and we get to crank up whatever music we want to work to. Nothing’ like scrubbing pots and pans to The Decemberists.
One of my supervisors, Spit-fire-Kim, was sitting with me during our breakfast break. She’s explaining to me the importance of taking care to avoid repetitive-motion injuries…
“Really, Tim, you have to take care of your body as a DA. Did you know that more than half of our staff right now is injured in some fashion? Most are suffering from…” she glanced down at my plate of orange slices, and blurts out, “Hey, Freshies!”
She darted for the food line and never completed her thought. On my flight from New Zealand we brought in a pallet of fresh produce.
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I guess I would classify as one of your old buddy that thought you were smelly...but that usually came from walking home with ainge, as he used to apply the cologne like it was his last chance with Tammy Boyle...Oh to be a kid again, glad to hear that you are back behind the old sink to be scrubbing your life out...Like you said at least you got the tunes, I saw Cope last week playing solo, what a let down I tell you what...If I find the bootleg I will send it your way and you can make your own assesment. Love reading the blogs and checking out the pictures, keep them coming...If you get to cold, well you better figure something out, cause now I am used to about 74 degrees every day and wouldnt be able to give you anything usefull...Take care bro-deucer
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