Moving on up

I was impressed with myself today. I managed to run my whole department all by myself and its still standing. Questions were answered and forms were signed. Plus I was called at home by the operations staff tonight to do some problem solving.

People actually rely on me now. Scary.

On the other hand, I didn't really solve anything tonight. I just said to leave it until Monday, which sounded good to my boss.

I'm such a dork, but its all new to me. This is the first job that I have ever had where people page me. There were so many years of factory jobs, where you punched out and went home. Then it all started over the next day. No thought required.

For me working in a factory was a great motivator to go to school. When I was going to college, three month tours of duty were all that I could tolerate. My past job history includes putting together silo unloaders, packing frozen vegetables and printing t-shirts. All of this looks mighty impressive on the resume, I might add.

I guess for some people that might be all that they need in life. A steady job with a paycheck. For me it was so mind numbing with all of the monotony and the classic rock radio in the background. Plus I have never looked very stylish in safety glasses.

Its funny, but the high school that I went to my freshman year specialized in teaching people a trade. They had everything from carpentry to plumbing. There was electric shop, auto shop, print shop and even sheet metal working. So what trade did I choose? Chemistry.

Every freshman had a mandatory two hours of shop every day. One hour might be wood shop and the second hour might be metal shop. This lasted for a third of the semester and then it would be two different shops. The rotation continued throughout the semester. This way each student got a taste of each shop and could decide what he or she was going to pursue for the next three years of their life. They even had an apprentice program when you graduated.

The high school had some rooms devoted to installing toilets and other rooms devoted to rebuilding car engines. Each discipline had their own little area. It was amazing. I never saw so many people wearing safety glasses and blue shop aprons at the same time.

In reality it didn't really matter what trade I chose, because I knew after the first semester that I wouldn't be coming back in the fall. My family was moving us out to the country.

Now here I am years later getting all excited when someone from work calls me at home on a Friday night. Hmm. What went wrong? Maybe I should get a girlfriend.