7 weird jobs

bitter betty has invited folks to play along with the 7 weird things meme. she made her's specific to 7 weird jobs, which sounds like fun to me. so here are 7 of the weirdest jobs i have had.

1.
i worked at burger king when i was a senior in high school. unfortunately i had big hair, not pink hair, like bitter betty. if only i'd been so hip. i lowered french fries and chicken and fish into a vat of sizzling carcinogenic oil, slopped stuff onto burgers and eventually was promoted to cashier. the supervisor was really annoyed when i quit to go off to college.

2.
i was a cocktail waitress. twice. it was my other job while a senior in high school and it was at the option house. i also served up things like hot chicken wings and fried mozzarella stix. i was a cocktail waitress again for a short stint after i graduated from college, at nietzsches in buffalo, ny.

3.
one summer vacation i found work at a weird deli in buffalo named puddi babs. the owner used to do things like put rotten lettuce at the bottom of a container, and top it with fresh lettuce. i was laid off the day i was planning to give notice. i had landed another job at a summer camp in the catskills, a camp for children with learning disabilities. that was quite a job. one of the children used to punch herself in the face and scream for matzo crackers.

4.
one summer i worked for an independent yellow pages company typing (on a typewriter, people) ad information onto little forms. it was a painful job.

5.
when i lived in seattle i had four different jobs in the pike place market. one was at a bookstore called collectors bookstore. i was going through a semi punk phase and one day the owner sat me down and asked me to start wearing nicer clothing, similar to what i'd worn in my interview (a skirt). and then she said to me, "those overalls you're wearing right now, they've got to go." another job was at a comic book store where they wouldn't let me do anything but sit at the cash register smiling at the handful of customers that came in daily. they would play japanese anime on the tv behind me and get angry when i turned my head to watch it. the other two jobs were cool, one at a health food store called magnano's. i worked with selene (lead singer) and valerie (drummer) of the band seven year bitch. the other was at a great anarchist book collective, left bank books.

my year in seattle was a very hard year.

6.
so i moved to california. my first job there was at country cheese in oakland. it was a desperate move. i wrapped big chunks of cheese in plastic and was a cashier amongst a bunch of laotion immigrants.

7.
i worked for a music booking agency for a short while in san francisco. i represented a folk singer name sonya hunter. i also had to lie over the phone for the boss to people like mavis staples. "sure your check is in the mail." most of my friends have heard this story.


ok, that was really far more than 7 weird jobs. and as i was typing it, i felt strangely like i've said it all before.

but i'm going to tag four people!
bliss blog
green kitchen
north node
patience crabstick