Proof I DO Have Time To Clean My Kitchen

Thanks to Rachel, I'm doing this MEME. I don't even know how to pronounce that because I believe it's french, but I know it stems from imitation. Either way, it's something a lot of people do and that's usually not my thing. For example, I changed the spelling of my name four times in school because there were 5 other "Tammy"s in my grade. I went from Tami to Tammi to Tamie until I finally decided on Tame'. That little accent on the e was very important. It was actually one of those ~ over the e. So in high school my friends nicknamed me Tame, as in shy or quiet. It was much like naming the husky kid "Tiny".

On with the imitation of being like everyone else!

Four Jobs I've Had:

I have been at the same job for 11 years and I didn't start working until I was 17, so this was difficult.

Service Learning Volunteer:

Obviously, as a volunteer, I wasn't paid for this but it was still a responsibility. It was a school organization I was apart of where we'd volunteer our time and services. We sang carols at a Hills Department Store for Christmas and other random acts of kindness. But one thing that was constant was every week a group of us would go to a retirement home after school and visit the elderly. We were each paired up with a resident by our advisor. I LOVED my advisor and I think she really thought about it before she paired me off with Marie. Marie was this beautiful, articulate, knowledgeable woman who just happened to be blind. This meant that while all the other volunteers were making Christmas ornaments or playing bingo in the activity room, I got to go back and spend a whole hour, one on one, with Marie. I remember how special I felt when I would come in and she recognized my voice right away. She always seemed so happy to see me. She talked about her upbringing, her husband who had passed, her children and grandchildren. We became close right away. One thing I never got the courage to ask her was how (or when) she lost her sight. Honestly, most of the time I forgot she couldn't see me physically, because almost right off the bat I felt like she could see straight to my soul. The only regret I have is that after the program was over, I only returned once to see her. I promised I would stop in again, but I never did. That was over ten years ago.

Professional Ice Cream Scooper:

This job sucked and thankfully it was short lived. This was my first tax paying job and I dreaded going every day. It was at a Dairy Queen located in a truck stop. I was trained on a register for barely an hour and then I was told I was ready. The chick that trained me took an hour break and I was left to my own misery. I had no fucking clue what I was doing. PLU codes and the like were so foreign to me that I started giving away free food. When she finally got back, the look of disgust was the cherry on top, so to speak. Not only were my coworkers all clique-y and bitchy, but 95% of the customers were sweaty, horny, male truck drivers who studied every inch of me while I made their Blizzard. I am in no way saying all truck drivers are sweaty and/or horny...just the ones that came in for a cone around 10 pm asking me when I "got off". One of the most ridiculous things that happened was I was called on a big fuck up and was screamed at by the manager, alerted to by my co-workers. Only later did I realize that I hadn't even worked on the day in question. Thankfully (and yes, it was so much better than working there) I caught the worst case of poison oak a doctor had ever seen and decided to just not go back in after working there only a few months.

Assistant Group Supervisor at the YMCA:

Yes, this sounds wonderful, but all it really consisted of was mopping the floor, disinfecting toys and filling a quota of children to adults while the Group Supervisor barely acknowledged me except when she was out of coffee. Above all the shit I went through here, the way they treated the children was the worst thing and this is why I left. I will not go into details, but I will never work there again.

Mascot at the Local Fruit Farm:

This was one of the funnest jobs I've ever had! I was hired by Mason Farms for the month of October in '96. I was a tour guide during the week for all the schools who brought their children in to see the displays and I was the big pumpkin on the weekends. Towards the middle of this month, I applied for my current job as a nanny. Looking back, it's so funny how it all fell into place. The tour guides could pick any costume they wanted. I was a bunny. It was actually a Playboy bunny outfit that I whored down. When I wasn't doing tours in the morning, they let me work in the bakery icing cookies or wrapping baked goods. The owners were so generous and genuine. I didn't drive and my mother would pick me up after she was done working at 4:30 pm so they just let me stay after and work (including overtime). Everyone that I worked with was so nice. I had such a great time.

Well, those are my jobs. More to come soon. Brit is currently without pants and watching a DVR'd Dora for the fourth time. I'm feeling a bit guilty. Just a bit.

DISCLAIMER: For all intents and purposes, Brit has no pants on because I'm trying to potty train her and those damn Pull Ups do not work no matter what Proctor & Gamble says. And while Dora IS DVR'd, I was being sarcastic when I said it was the fourth time she has watched it today. In all actuality, Britain bores easily (especially when it comes to TV) and between laundry, my disgusting basement, changing the sheets, going over ABC's and the ongoing saga of trying to teach Britain to spell, this has taken me hours to complete.