Stilettos to Steel Toes

I had an orientation Tuesday for the internship I will be starting in January at a chemical dependency clinic.  Later that day I was walking into work at UPS and as I was clomping across the parking lot in my steel toe boots with my work gloves hanging out of my back pocket I thought about the diversity of my wardrobe for these two jobs.  I do not actually own any stilettos, but it sounded good as a title for my post.  The last time I bought heels from a salesperson I asked if they came in a lower heel.  The saleswoman said that's as low a heel as you can buy.  

I've had a fair number of jobs in the past.  My first job was washing dishes at the Gausthaus.  My second job was as a soda jerk at Donatelli's in White Bear Lake. I liked that job because it was either super busy or very quiet and I was never sitting down.  Eventually, I thought I wanted a grown up job, so I talked my way into a front desk secretary job at a commercial real estate place.  The only reason I got an interview was because I wrote softball under my hobbies and the employees happened to have a team.  I hated sitting at a desk all day and I didn't get a lot of actual work done, but I had a wonderful conversation with everyone that came in the door and happy customers was good for the business.  I quit two weeks before I had Andy.  I made it almost a year there. I tried working at a marketing place a few years ago.  Again, I sat at a desk and my brain turned to mush.  I only made it five months there.  My favorite job so far is my "smelly" job.  I'm an assessor at St. Croix Sensory where I get paid to smell stuff.  I only work 20 hours a month there at the most, so it's not a reliable income job, but who else gets paid to smell stuff?  I got a temporary job correcting tests at DRC in Woodbury.  It turned out to be more temporary than I thought.  I made it about 6 weeks through one project and then I wasn't asked to come back for the second one even though they needed people.  I did a good job according to the numbers, but I think playing Bingo and passing notes was frowned upon.  I was grateful to leave because reading the same test for 8 hours a day was making me want to poke my eyes out. 

This last time around I decided I needed a job that would keep me busy. No more desk jobs.  I applied at Michael's craft store, but I didn't pass the online psychological test.  Not super surprising, I guess.  Then I found the UPS job.  It didn't pay much but it did reimburse students for tuition and that's exactly why I was getting a job.  On our tour they explained how loading the truck was a little like playing Tetris, you have to fit the boxes into the spaces and do it fast or fall behind and everything stacks up just like the game.  I was hooked.  It's hard work, but I like the people I work with and I lost some weight.  The problem is that Tetris is not fun forever.  So, it will be a relief to move onto a new venture in chemical dependency soon.  I will be sitting at a desk half the time doing paperwork, but I think the other half will keep me interested because even though there is a system for helping people get sober, everyone is different, which should make every day a little bit different.  (I hope.)  So, even though I'm more comfortable in my steel toe boots I will be happy to trade them in for my half inch heels. I'm sure I could use those steel toe boots for projects around the house.