WOW!!

I have no phone fear, but I have major PA angst. But I enjoy public speaking. Go figure.

Wow, Jess might win the suckiest jobs of all time award.

My job history, more or less: Sold products of my sister's dairy farm to local customers who came by and requested them. In Spanish.
Cashier, museum gift shop. Nice, but boring.
Taco Villa. Left after having to pull ungodly filthy underwear out of the drain in the urinal, then clean the obscenties written in taco sauce off the dining room walls.
Miller's Outpost.
College Financial Aid Office
College theater - usher, then lighting tech, then 3 years of stage managing.
College library. Yep, that's 3 simultaneous work-study jobs, for a total of 56 hours/week, and I still couldn't afford textbooks.
Craptastic Dilbertland office job
Foreign Service, admin.
Teacher
Postmaster
Tech Writer
Interface Designer
Project Manager

I don't miss working.

When I worked at WGBH in Boston I got to talk to Alistair Cooke once. Shockingly, he was extraordinarily nice and civil.

And Bob Villa was still working there around the corner. And I got to eat vegetables from The Victory Garden.

When I worked for the Accounting Firm for Hollywood Has-Beens and B-Listers I talked to all kinds of people like: Bobby Womack (soul musician), Art Clokey (invented Gumby), Chris Knight (middle Brady), and Fred Willard (comic actor). We had Lily Tomlin in the rolodex too.

I don't miss working.

Me neither. I know I work now but I don't miss the other kind of work. I can take getting shit on by my kid. A boss, NSM.

I am in the loathe the phone camp. I don't mind answering at work so much, but the home phone I will ignore and not even check the caller ID. My cell I will look to see who it is before I ignore it. I will only call for food delivery if no one else is around to do so. Alas, I have one sister that loves the phone. MIL loves the phone too, but at least she understands that I don't share the love.

I had one summer job away from home that was either kid sitting or store sitting depending on what the mom felt like doing. It was at a pharmacy in a resort town and was mighty fun.

No food service except one week at a pancake house which drove me back to school. I did accounting for the next 15 years or so until I started my business in 1988.

I only had two soul sucking jobs and I quit both of them with no notice the moment I figured out there would be no joy. I've always been very insistent that the huge portion of my life that I spend at work is a pleasant use of my time. (edited for clarity)

Good to see Brown gone, but really it is only the resignation of his boss (and the vice) that cause me any hope for the administration.

Yeah, but I just talked to Lilian just then when I posted it.

I often win the bad job contest when I point out that when I was telemarketing, what I was selling was accidental death and dismemberment insurance.

And when I took "Oh, I'd love to help, but I'm living off of my Social Security check and can't afford it" as a reasonable "no," I got lectured by my boss on the Rules, which meant I had to ask at least 3 times before I could end a call. Did I mention I only lasted a week?

Ah, so this is why they keep pushing after I nicely explain that I've given in the past, and I'll give again, but only after I find another job. Because all the pushing does is make me think, "Never giving money to y'all again--there's always more than one organization raising money for any given worthy cause, and I'll stick to the ones that don't annoy me."

Oh dear Dana. Those pictures are upsetting. The rebuilding question depends on how quickly they get the water out. If the area is drained quickly there is more chance for structures to dry out. If toxic mold happens then the buildings have to go. It doesn't look like there is much in the way of structural damage. Just way too much water. I'm so sorry.

Cashier, museum gift shop. Nice, but boring.

You sold alien memorabilia, didn't you? Admit it! (I know, cheap shot. Even I get teased about Roswell just for being from NM. )

A friend of mine once worked phones for a credit-collection agency. She quit after 4 hours.

Well, I finally found pictures of my parents' neighborhood by going to a forum set up by my old grade school.

t boggles

What shrift said. It's just boggling. (eta: Also what Laura said)

I'm also in the hate talking on the phone camp.