Job History:
1. Soccer referee: I was a ref in high school for rec league soccer. I think I only reffed 2-3 games, it was too high stress!! Soccer parents are for real! Yikes.
2. Waitress: I did this job for a year in high school. Looking back the job was pretty fun and I worked with crazy people, including an elderly woman waitress who called herself Nutty and the Greek Mafia. I was 16 when I worked there, and I took the job because I wanted a car. I bought a raspberry Plymouth Sundance. It was a terrible car, but it was pink.
3. Nanny: the summer after my freshman year of college I was a nanny for 3 kids. It was really boring, the kids never wanted to play outside or really do anything other than watch movies.
4. Playground supervisor: For 2 summers between college, I worked for the Parks and Rec department, it was basically a day camp for elementary schoolers. It was a fun job, especially for someone that really enjoys kickball.
5. Phonathon representative: For 1-2 months during my junior year of college. I called UMW alumni for donations, it wasn't fun. We did get a free dinner out of it every shift, but it was usually pizza from the dining hall anyway. I was terrible at this job because I would definitely take no for an answer. I was not interested in talking people into giving money when they clearly didn't want to. One good thing happened, I called one guy who was an alum and he told me that he studied abroad during college and fell in love with a woman there, then they lost touch, and recently they reunited! It was cute. That was the only nice story, most people said they already gave their money in the form of tuition and a lot of people were still paying back loans.
6. Babysitter: I babysat for a few different families during college, my favorite was babysitting for a 1 year old, Lola. She was cute and her parents had a sweet farm house. That started my love of old houses.
7. Therapeutic Recreation Aide: I think this was my best job ever. I had an hour commute, so I was a little worried about it, but it was so much fun, and only 4 days a week. Although they were 10 hour days. It was basically a day camp for middle school kids, and I was assigned to a special needs girl that I helped accommodate games, arts, etc. for. She really didn't need that much help, and she loved to dance, she was a blast to hang out with.
8. Substitute teacher: Hit or miss. I enjoyed subbing at the elementary school I student taught at, so I knew all the kids and that was pretty fun. For 3 months I was a long term sub for art at the high school I did student teaching. That was totally awful, I do not enjoy high schoolers- especially ones that just take art because they think they will get an A, and then complain about failing when they do no work.
9. Art teacher: 2nd best job. There were a lot of downers to the job, ie principal using the art budget for copiers for the school. But mainly it was fun, I liked most of the other teachers, and the kids were really fun. Except the 5th graders, they were monsters! It was very cool to teach the kindergarteners because the majority of them couldn't speak English at the beginning of the year, and by the end of the year they could do so much!
10. Preschool/daycare teacher: The job I quit in January. Worst job ever. I accepted the job because at the interview I was told it was an art-based school, so I thought that was cool. However, several months later and there was still no art, when I brought it up to the bosses, they said I could clean out a spider filled garage and start up the "Art Barn" on the weekends or stay after work for no pay. Um, no. I worked with 2 year olds, and that age is pretty funny. I didn't really have much experience with that age group before and thought they wouldn't be able to do anything and it would be really boring, but they are pretty smart at that age.
11. Professional artist: Current job. Unfortunately, this job seems to need some sort of marketing background that I clearly do not have. I have met with a woman at a restaurant/gallery and she will be showing my art sometime in the spring! That is exciting. I really like painting and working on art projects, but there is not much human interaction. So, I am starting to look for a real, paying job! Next post will be about that.
Time to go volunteer!
I made this delicious smoothie! I get into food ruts, where I get obsessed with a type of food and want to eat only that for a few weeks, and then I move on to something else. Lately I have been making and eating a lot of smoothies. This smoothie contains: fat free vanilla yogurt, sunny d, frozen peaches, frozen pineapple, one kiwi, frozen raspberries and ground flax seeds.
