Out of Egypt:

"Girls only date guys with skills"

I got a job in a warehouse last Wednesday. I got a sinus infection three weeks ago. The combination can be obnoxious.

But at least I'm learned lots of valuable skills. In the past week, I have:

• Torn open hundreds of large green mailsacks and dumped them out into crates for others to sort.
• Moved giant boxes, called Gaylords (for some unearthly reason), onto skids.
• Unloaded many boxes of toys (it's a returns warehouse, primarily for Toys 'R' Us) from a truck.
• Crushed a variety of toys in a trash compactor.
• Sweated much.
• Learned that my sandwiches don't survive heat very well.
• Avoided slicing myself with a boxcutter, somehow not being able to not think about terrorism while doing it.
• Learned how to operate a hand jack thingy for moving skids, though I haven't learned the real name of it.
• Spent hours (some pleasant, some frustrating) taking apart little kids' motorbikes to remove the batteries, a process which involves the use of pliers, wrenches, hex wrenches, screwdrivers, wirecutters, your feet, and other miscellaneous tools.

At least it's better than the box factory. There I only learned how to make boxes. This is a little more tired, but though there's not much opportunity for independent thought, at least there's some variety. As my fellow temp said while we worked on bikes, "Each one has its own personality." As I said, "Some personalities are more pleasant then others."

He's an interesting guy, by the way. At first he was nearly silent and I didn't bother saying much to him, assuming that, like most of my coworkers at other temp jobs, we wouldn't have much to say to each other. But that was a false conception.

We started talking first about my college and what I was studying and what I planned to do with it. I said I wanted to write, then fumbled as usual for words to make that seem practical and not a pie-in-the-sky dream. Journalism was mentioned, though, of course, I'm a bit disenchanted with it at the moment. Philadelphia came in there too.

As for him, he's an elderly black man, formerly of New York City, who said he worked in advertising most of his life, writing copy and occasionally doing photo work. He also writes screenplays and short stories, he said. I told him plot was a difficulty for me. He gave me some good advice, though I'd heard some of it before.

He said he does temp work now because he's used to changing his job fairly often, since advertising is a fast-moving field. Also he said that it gives him a variety of experiences which help with his writing. Writer need to meet people, and temp work has introduced him to some unusual ones.

He actually gave me an assignment on Thursday, as we talked and ate the hot dogs that our employers were cooking for the staff. He suggested that I write an editorial about Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court. I've never written an editorial before, I said. Perhaps I will.

Flipping sweet.

Posted by: funkefreak at July 25, 2005 4:29 AM

Have you thought of applying for tech writing jobs? Apologies if this is something so obvious that I am insulting you in saying it.

Posted by: joel wilhelm at July 29, 2005 7:09 AM