What is a mother to do when her only child is six days away from turning 18? Well, I've cried a little bit - because this signals that she is entering adulthood, though in so many ways we have some time yet. But changes abound at every turn.
She has a first love. He is a sweet, kind, cute, farm-boy type of young man and he is very fond of her, too.
She is beginning to make serious plans for after high school.
She is dreading growing up - because it's kind of scary.
This girl, this almost woman, has filled all my dreams and expectations of being a mother. She was wanted and waited for all my life until I was blessed, at age 35, to hold her tiny body in my arms. She was so worth the C-section! She was so worth the 23 hours of labor, two hours of pushing until I was beyond exhaustion and then to hold her in my arms finally. Now my little one, my little ray of sunshine, is grown up. I am sad to see the childhood pass but excited to see what her future holds. One thing I know for sure: My little girl will keep on shining!
Friday, November 21, 2014
Monday, August 18, 2014
What Constitutes An Emergency
Every household deals with things specific to them. Sometimes it's that two particular siblings argue about keeping a shared room clean (I was the clean one, Kandi was the slob). Sometimes it's that the old apartment in the attic area of a house where you rent has a floor so slanted, you lean when you sit on the toilet and can't fill the tub up all the way because is will poor out on one side (yep, an apartment I once rented when I lived in Greeley). Or it could be about someone's pet peeve, a car that always seems to have problems, the hair spray that gets on the bathroom mirror and smears when you clean it off. Only the first two apply to my life, but the point is, everyone has an issue or two to deal with all the time. Around here, it's not having my daughter's computer working.
She really does get very panicked and upset if her computer is on the blitz. Because of her depression and anxiety, she has found a safe haven in her on-line friends and some of the games she plays. Shoot, she's even teaching herself to create on-line games. So, yeah, you would have to say there is some pretty significant attachment for her there. And wouldn't you know, in the last two weeks, going on the blitz is exactly what happened. And it wasn't pretty, folks!
This is our Emergency around here!
The first time it was that her power source - whatever the heck that's called - was going out. Jay happened to be home at the time and so Daddy swooped in and saved the day while she was at school and I was at work. New power supply. Last night, I caught a whiff of something burning and sure enough, it was Rachel's computer again. This time, it was the graphics card. Again, Daddy was the hero, swooped in and found out what was wrong. Off to Micro Center to get a new graphics card. Her original one was very powerful and I was worried about finding something affordable. But a lot changes in 3 or 4 years. The earlier replaced power supply ended up being necessary for the replacement graphics card AND - get this - within our price range!! Again, Daddy was the hero who replaced it for her. It was only $60.00 and is better than the old card was. Amazing! She's pleased, to say the least.
Some people might read this and think, "Who cares about your kid not having her computer?" Well, there is likely something that's a big deal in your home that I can't grasp, too. It's all about dynamics in the home. I feel lucky that she doesn't smoke, drink, do drugs, is terrified to have sex......Yeah, seriously and that's fine with me. She's a great kid. So if a little bit of extra effort keeps her connected to friends she's met on line (one she's been friends with since she was in 4th grade and I've met her mom 'over the camera on the computer'), it's worth it. Happiness comes in many shades.
She really does get very panicked and upset if her computer is on the blitz. Because of her depression and anxiety, she has found a safe haven in her on-line friends and some of the games she plays. Shoot, she's even teaching herself to create on-line games. So, yeah, you would have to say there is some pretty significant attachment for her there. And wouldn't you know, in the last two weeks, going on the blitz is exactly what happened. And it wasn't pretty, folks!
This is our Emergency around here!
The first time it was that her power source - whatever the heck that's called - was going out. Jay happened to be home at the time and so Daddy swooped in and saved the day while she was at school and I was at work. New power supply. Last night, I caught a whiff of something burning and sure enough, it was Rachel's computer again. This time, it was the graphics card. Again, Daddy was the hero, swooped in and found out what was wrong. Off to Micro Center to get a new graphics card. Her original one was very powerful and I was worried about finding something affordable. But a lot changes in 3 or 4 years. The earlier replaced power supply ended up being necessary for the replacement graphics card AND - get this - within our price range!! Again, Daddy was the hero who replaced it for her. It was only $60.00 and is better than the old card was. Amazing! She's pleased, to say the least.
Some people might read this and think, "Who cares about your kid not having her computer?" Well, there is likely something that's a big deal in your home that I can't grasp, too. It's all about dynamics in the home. I feel lucky that she doesn't smoke, drink, do drugs, is terrified to have sex......Yeah, seriously and that's fine with me. She's a great kid. So if a little bit of extra effort keeps her connected to friends she's met on line (one she's been friends with since she was in 4th grade and I've met her mom 'over the camera on the computer'), it's worth it. Happiness comes in many shades.
Music Fitting the Times
Am I a rock and roll mama? I would have to say yes to that. Not your tattooed, motorcycle leather lovin.' beer drinking and smoking, well, whatever, on the weekend with your hippie boyfriend
kind. Just a mama who likes her rock and roll.
That influence started with having older siblings who were growing up in the 60's. Okay, well, I started growing up in the sixties, too, but really was too young to be aware of music until sometime in the 1970's when I was old enough to pay attention. What I was aware of in our house were the hours my two brothers played Smoke On The Water by Deep Purple on their electric guitar - the only song they ever played, I might add. And not even the entire song. Just this part (you need only listen to the first 54 seconds):
Yes, that was it. That was the extent of their abilities on the electric guitar.
But then my brother, Kevin, started buying albums. If you are under 25, you likely do not know what that is, so let me explain. An album is the "old fashioned" vinyl records they put music on before the horrible 8-track tape and slightly less horrible cassette tapes were created and long before CD's:
This is a picture of the album on the record player. Just in case it seems confusing. I tried to find a recording of the obnoxious sound an 8-track tape made, often right in the middle of the song playing, but was unsuccessful.
My older sister actually played guitar quite well (folk/acoustic, not electric), and listened mostly to folk music like Peter, Paul & Mary, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Jose Feliciano - just a few that I can recall off the top of my head. My mother played piano and she played hymns and music from the late '30s, early '40s and a few from the '50s. Every so often, we could talk her into playing some John Denver or Anne Murray. And she loved Kris Kristopherson but left that music to my sister. Dad liked big band music and had many 45's - also a vinyl record but smaller and requiring a special piece you put on the record player to hold it properly because rather than having a pea-sized hole, it had one about the size of a quarter or so. And both my parents enjoyed country music, too. Thus, I was exposed to all kinds of music and realized I actually liked them all!
Tonight, I pulled up a few YouTube videos that contained some of the songs I love. It's a huge variety and if you can guess their era, you are probably my age or older. I fell in love with music. I have a lot of this music in my own collection. I have the Woodstock album, some Jimi Hendrix, Carol King, Peter, Paul and Mary, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young The Rolling Stones, The Who, Stevie Wonder......this list could go on and on.
Over the years, I've been on a binge of liking female artists, then back to bands, over to male artists, off to trios, and so on. These days, I love John Mayer, Robert Plant & Allison Krauss, Akon, Ne-Yo, Jason Mraz, again, a mile-long list. How can you not love music?
kind. Just a mama who likes her rock and roll.
That influence started with having older siblings who were growing up in the 60's. Okay, well, I started growing up in the sixties, too, but really was too young to be aware of music until sometime in the 1970's when I was old enough to pay attention. What I was aware of in our house were the hours my two brothers played Smoke On The Water by Deep Purple on their electric guitar - the only song they ever played, I might add. And not even the entire song. Just this part (you need only listen to the first 54 seconds):
Yes, that was it. That was the extent of their abilities on the electric guitar.
But then my brother, Kevin, started buying albums. If you are under 25, you likely do not know what that is, so let me explain. An album is the "old fashioned" vinyl records they put music on before the horrible 8-track tape and slightly less horrible cassette tapes were created and long before CD's:
This is a picture of the album on the record player. Just in case it seems confusing. I tried to find a recording of the obnoxious sound an 8-track tape made, often right in the middle of the song playing, but was unsuccessful.
My older sister actually played guitar quite well (folk/acoustic, not electric), and listened mostly to folk music like Peter, Paul & Mary, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Jose Feliciano - just a few that I can recall off the top of my head. My mother played piano and she played hymns and music from the late '30s, early '40s and a few from the '50s. Every so often, we could talk her into playing some John Denver or Anne Murray. And she loved Kris Kristopherson but left that music to my sister. Dad liked big band music and had many 45's - also a vinyl record but smaller and requiring a special piece you put on the record player to hold it properly because rather than having a pea-sized hole, it had one about the size of a quarter or so. And both my parents enjoyed country music, too. Thus, I was exposed to all kinds of music and realized I actually liked them all!
Over the years, I've been on a binge of liking female artists, then back to bands, over to male artists, off to trios, and so on. These days, I love John Mayer, Robert Plant & Allison Krauss, Akon, Ne-Yo, Jason Mraz, again, a mile-long list. How can you not love music?
Friday, June 20, 2014
British Isles Connection
I like British television. I just do. Anything based in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and the many isles included, though you're not likely to see any TV shows based outside the "big four". Netflix is a great source for Brit TV. I have watched a number of series through Netflix. And I own a movie that I love called, "The Secret of Roan Inish" based/produced in Ireland.
So let's talk history/genealogy!
My ancestors on my mother's mother's side hailed from Scotland, mostly, and from Ireland. This we know from extensive genealogy work done by other members of her family. My own grandmother was a member of the Daughter's of the American Revolution which requires you provide proof of such ancestry. One of those ancestors was a woman named Jane McCrae (sometimes also spelled MacCrae - 1752-1777). In July of 1777, seventeen-year-old Jane, who was a loyalist, was awaiting the arrival of her fiance, David Jones. He was a Lieutenant serving with the British. She had traveled to Fort Edward in New York to await his arrival and stayed with another loyalist, Sarah McNeil (in some records noted as a cousin). On the morning of July 27th, 1777, a band of Wyandot Indians fighting on the side of the British, staged an early morning raid on the outskirts of Fort Edward, where Jane was staying with Sarah McNeil. The women were captured and Jane was scalped by one of them after being separated from Sarah. There are several stories of why, but it appears to be speculation. Jane became a rallying call to the Patriots who, upon hearing the story of this American woman's death, joined up to seek revenge, despite the fact she was, in fact, a loyalist. The History Channel has a documentary mentioning her murder as a catalyst to the Revolutionary War. Jane McCrae's grave is in Union Cemetery in Fort Edward, alongside that of Sarah McNeil who died at the age of 77 in 1799 and Duncan Campbell, a relative to Sarah McNeil through her first husband. A monument sits on the site where Jane was killed which is across the street from the Fort Edward High School. There is also a "Jane McCrae House" which was actually owned by Sarah McNeil and now is a private residence.
Painting "Death of Jane McCrae" by John Vanderlyn in 1804:
So let's talk history/genealogy!
My ancestors on my mother's mother's side hailed from Scotland, mostly, and from Ireland. This we know from extensive genealogy work done by other members of her family. My own grandmother was a member of the Daughter's of the American Revolution which requires you provide proof of such ancestry. One of those ancestors was a woman named Jane McCrae (sometimes also spelled MacCrae - 1752-1777). In July of 1777, seventeen-year-old Jane, who was a loyalist, was awaiting the arrival of her fiance, David Jones. He was a Lieutenant serving with the British. She had traveled to Fort Edward in New York to await his arrival and stayed with another loyalist, Sarah McNeil (in some records noted as a cousin). On the morning of July 27th, 1777, a band of Wyandot Indians fighting on the side of the British, staged an early morning raid on the outskirts of Fort Edward, where Jane was staying with Sarah McNeil. The women were captured and Jane was scalped by one of them after being separated from Sarah. There are several stories of why, but it appears to be speculation. Jane became a rallying call to the Patriots who, upon hearing the story of this American woman's death, joined up to seek revenge, despite the fact she was, in fact, a loyalist. The History Channel has a documentary mentioning her murder as a catalyst to the Revolutionary War. Jane McCrae's grave is in Union Cemetery in Fort Edward, alongside that of Sarah McNeil who died at the age of 77 in 1799 and Duncan Campbell, a relative to Sarah McNeil through her first husband. A monument sits on the site where Jane was killed which is across the street from the Fort Edward High School. There is also a "Jane McCrae House" which was actually owned by Sarah McNeil and now is a private residence.
Painting "Death of Jane McCrae" by John Vanderlyn in 1804:
Monument on the location of Jane McCrae's murder:
Current location of Jane McCrae, Sarah McNeil and Duncan Campbell, a relative of Sarah's through her first husband at Union Cemetery:
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Will I Ever Get Back To It?
It has been such a long time since I posted on this blog. And I used to write so much! Can't make any promises, but I'm posting today.
I was talking at work and with my chiropractor about jobs and wishing Rachel would find one. It got me to thinking about all the things I've done over the years for work.
I started working at the age of 13 on a farm in Strasburg, Colorado. We - myself, my younger sister, Kandi, and two friends from our church - all started out pulling what we called "cockle burs" in the fields where the cows grazed. If I recall correctly, they can make them sick. It was NOT a fun job. but we earned about $1.50 an hour which was good pay for a kid back then. After a walk through the tall stalks of corn, it was discovered I was allergic to pollen. Milk poured in my eyes by Mrs. Hougen relieved the swelling so I could see and I was assigned to feeding the abandoned calves. I LOVED that part of the job. I favored a little guy named Robby. He was sweet and had those big, beautiful eyes that, okay, all cows have. After summer was gone and there was no work for us kids, I still asked after Robby all the time. One day, the family told me he'd been sent to slaughter. Not being a farm girl, I was devastated. I stopped eating beef for about two years because I couldn't bare to think it might be him. Sadly, I started up again one day when the smell of my mother's roast permeated the whole house and called to my deeply recessed caveman woman instincts.
After that, I worked at a little place called, The Teapot Café. It was run by a little old lady and her husband, who was known for his fried chicken. Their cats and dogs meandered freely in the "back room" where overflow customers were seated on busy days. There were rumors she chased the health inspectors away with cleavers, but I can't attest to that. She never got herself shut down, though, and no one in town seemed to mind eating in a place that felt more like eating at home with someone else doing the cooking! I can't say it was my best experience because she could be a little cutting with her words and I was a "wear my feelings on my sleeve" sort of teenager. But it was great experience. I worked as a dishwasher for a week and a waitress for two - until I unceremoniously knocked over some drinks in a couple of customer's laps.
Harvest time was a time of year small town teenage girls looked forward to. It was a time of hope for a new boyfriend, different from the town boys. And that day, I happened to have 4 of them sitting at a booth. We served our ice tea in tall glasses with long "tea" spoons in them. Unfortunately, I placed two of those glasses down in front of the first two boys and then reached over to put the other two in front of the boys further in. My arms hit the first two glasses and poured directly into their crotches - which was horrifying for a 14 year old girl. Leila was out there in a shot and removed me from the job of waitress. Thus began my internship as a cook. Eventually, I went to work at a different restaurant at a truck stop in the next town over and worked there at two different times under two different owners. This included an owner who drove by while the dishwasher, a boy I went to school with, and I stood waiting for him to come open the restaurant. He was late. Very late. He slowly drove his Cadillac by us, the smell of alcohol wafting off his breath, as it often did, and without stopping hollered, "We're closed and we're never opening again!" We were out of a job.
I went to work at a place called, Pizza Barn. The owner, Mike, was probably one of the nicest people I'd ever known. He was a young father and had a kind, good way about him. He was honest and treated people well. I cooked on both the pizza and grill side, especially once the other cook, Birdie, named for her constant whistling I assume, left. He hired another woman who's husband would one day reopen the truck stop restaurant and I would go there to work again. In the meantime, I have never laughed as much as I did with Marianne, the new grill cook! We giggled through all the busy times and the quiet times, too. We told jokes and just made life a funny, happy experience. I was happy there. But when her husband offered me a job at the truck stop restaurant, I went, leaving Mike. I felt some guilt but it was a good move for me. I ended up learning to cook things I hadn't in the other restaurants - lobster tail, nice cuts of steak, etc. And when I had to help out at the end of a busy shift cleaning up tables, I learned to NEVER bend over a table to wipe it off! This is just asking for a comment from a road-tired, haven't been home in a while, lonely trucker. And usually comments that made a 16-17 year old girl blush. There was also the one trucker that waited outside for me and when I went out to wait for my dad to come pick me up - my DAD, mind you - he said, "Hey, you wanna come with me on my run up to Montana? It's beautiful up there." I replied, "Umm, I'm only 16 and I'm waiting for my dad to pick me up. Ummm, he's a big man." LOL. The trucker seemed to think on this, said that was okay if I still wanted to go. I declined and he got in and drove away just as my dad was arriving. I never said anything to Dad because I'm pretty sure that would have been the end of my working there.
Next up was a job at the grain elevator! Yeah, I typed it with excitement but it was just exhausting. I thought I'd worked hard when Birdie quit at Pizza Barn and I had to work both the grill and pizza sides for a few days. Noooo. It was nothing compared to the grain elevator. I still hate the guy that drove the truck with no hydraulics, forcing us to hand shovel all the wheat out every time he came through. I would come home late and sit at the table while my mom heated a plate of food for me and fall asleep. She'd wake me so I could eat, then shower and drop into bed. For a month after that job ended, I swear when I blew my nose nothing but dirt and wheat dust came out!
I ended up in Greeley, Colorado. I won't go into details but it was not a good time in my life. I felt abandoned and unloved. I got a job at a grocery store as a sacker and then moved up after a few months to the Bakery. It was a good 10 - 12 years before I was willing to eat a doughnut or much of anything from a bakery other than bread after that job! The smell from the doughnut cases got very nauseating after a while. But, ahhh, the bread. The bakers would make the sourdough and put a pan of butter in with it. The butter would melt and they would pull a loaf for us all to eat. Fresh bread from the oven when bakeries still made their own dough. It was heavenly! What wasn't heavenly was trying to keep my white uniform white with no washer available. I soaked it in bleach and water every night as I only had two of them. And the embarrassing part - because what's growing up without that - was that it took me a few weeks to realize I needed white underwear only. The bakers, all grown, married men, were giggling at something when I bent over all the time to get donuts from the case. Finally, my friend that worked with me mentioned my pretty flowers! Oh, good grief! Really? Did you have to wait....what, two weeks....before telling me?? With my meager....very meager paycheck, I bought a pack of whities!
I also worked cleaning restaurants overnight. This was in the "olden days" when restaurants were not open all night. Neither were grocery stores. But I was young and I could manage. It gave me enough money to manage to live and feed myself and my dog, Damascus. I didn't name him but someone who was going to be his owner did. When they couldn't keep him, I took him. He already answered to Damascus or Dac, for short, so I kept the name. Loved, loved, loved that dog! He was my baby before I had my daughter. He was my companion. He was the one living thing I believed really loved me in all the world at that time in my life. I had him until I was in my 20's and losing him was really tough. But he was a joy to me while we were together!
A year and a half later, I moved to "the big city"! Hahahaha. I moved to Aurora which felt that way to me after Strasburg and Greeley. I worked as a temp for the For Rent magazine as a receptionist. Hated it. The boss was a jerk and one of the salesmen constantly tried to look down my blouses. I left and got my first "real" office job working for Integrated Services, Inc. It was a subsidiary of Integrated Resources, Inc which was the number one brokerage house in the nation when I went to work for them. I started in the Production area as a clerk. We collated prospectus materials and recorded air shipment billing. After a few months, they promoted me to a Coordinator and I got to coordinate projects with the main Denver office, learned bookkeeping and was lucky enough to create a new time accountability system for production - since I'd done that job and now knew what was needed in the new job. I felt like I'd hit my stride in what I would do with my life and began planning to retire with this company. I moved up to Customer Service, then supervising it and then.......the 1987 stock market crash happened. This number one brokerage firm in the nation totally lost everything. I fielded calls from elderly people who had lost their life savings. Brokers jumped to their deaths because they had lost all their family members life savings. It was a sad, difficult time for everyone in the business and those who had investments. I stayed on the job until the end, when we had wrapped everything up. All the contacts I had in the business had no jobs for me. They had been forced to lay people off or had closed, too. The very well known Bill Daniels, who had owned the first cable TV company in Denver (ACT), had nothing for anyone. The great 80's had ground to a halt in the financial world. I went back to working for a temp agency in office jobs after making well over $45,000.00 a year (which was pretty darn good in the 80's).
My next temp job was at Hartford Insurance. I started at $13,000.00 a year and began handling the simple windshield claims and inputting data for the adjusters. It was easy and I made a lot of friends. Very soon, I moved up to being an adjuster and I really loved that job, too. I was young, single, a total workaholic and I just rocked and rolled that job. When I left to go to another job for more money (not my best move as it was nothing like the wonderful office at Hartford and no one there became the kind of friends I'd had at Hartford), two of my supervisors told me I was the best adjuster they had ever worked with. I was pretty proud of that. I learned to do Auto and Property Owners, Wrongful Termination (people do get fired for crap reasons), Law Enforcement Liability (yeah, cops do stick together, by the way, and I learned to really, really appreciate them as they often have to deal with the scum of the earth though they are mostly good guys), General Liability (there are a lot of people willing to make fraudulent claims but also a few honest ones), Workman's Compensation (same here, lots of, "how long can I lay around at home" going on).....anything and everything. I learned a lot at Hartford and will always have a warm feeling about that job, despite the great deal of stress and sometimes death threats you endured in this industry.
I went to work for CNA Insurance. Their offices were not warm or inviting. They did not foster camaraderie among their employees. I was making a lot more money but I was miserable there. However, I did handle all the Kroger (King Soopers, Loaf N Jugs and City Markets here in the Western States) for their general liability and transportation claims. I did enjoy that part. There could be a lot of investigation involved and I liked that. I was shopping in one of the stores when a slip and fall happened. I was standing right there and an employee and I watched a woman fall, then her husband poured water on the floor. It was shocking to me! What kind of losers behave like that?!? But I told them who I was and what the employee needed to do, called the manager over and blew their little plan right out of the water! I loved that one!
Thankfully, my husband rescued me from CNA Insurance. When we married and tried to start a family, the doctor thought all the stress of the type of work I did might be making that more difficult, so I started my own daycare. Sure enough, our precious blessing, Rachel, was born. I did daycare about 11 months before she was born and then still watched a little boy who was only 3 months old when I started watching him. He stayed until he was 3 years old and then went to preschool. I loved the next 10 years of being a stay at home mom and will be forever grateful to my good husband for working so hard and making that possible. I know it was not only great for us as a family as I was there to meet my family's needs, but it was really wonderful for Rachel!
When Rachel entered grade school for a full day in first grade, I did Medical Transcription for work, which I was able to do at home. Not something a workaholic should do. I worked myself to exhaustion. Seriously, I was living on 3 hours of sleep a day and trying to parent, clean, cook, and tend to my family's needs. I quickly ran out of steam. By the time I'd worked for almost a year, I was done.
Next job was at my daughter's school. Crossing guard. :) Not too bad and I loved greeting the kids every day. Soon I was a teacher's aide. When she went into middle school, I started working for the district's Medicaid department. I learned more about the politics and hateful behaviors of people who work in administration and outside actual teaching than I ever wanted to know. I was never so happy to leave a job as I was to leave that one. I'd had enough! Mind you, I admire teachers, themselves. I'd better. Though two of my siblings are retired, I have had three siblings who are teachers. They are amazing! My daughter's teachers have almost all be dedicated, wonderful teachers who really care about what they do, enjoy teaching and loving kids. I am forever grateful. But the admin part is shameful and has little to nothing to do with really teaching kids. It's all about politics, power, control. 'Nuff said.
I'm now an office manager for a CPA. She is my friend, too, which makes it comfortable and nice. My other co-worker, our bookkeeping, is also a friend and wonderful to know and work with so our office has a good flow going on. The atmosphere is good and happy. We have a lot of laughs and a lot of fun. This was my 3rd tax season working for Tamey. Need your taxes done? Have a small business or want to start one up? Come see us:
Tamey Meziere Clements CPA LLC
We come right up when you look for CPA in Aurora.
So, there is my broad spectrum of job experience. I've learned a lot from each one and, as you can see, mostly loved my working life. But nothing even compares to how much I love being a wife and a mom. July 4th, Jay and I celebrate 20 years married. I can hardly wait to see what the future holds for us.
I was talking at work and with my chiropractor about jobs and wishing Rachel would find one. It got me to thinking about all the things I've done over the years for work.
I started working at the age of 13 on a farm in Strasburg, Colorado. We - myself, my younger sister, Kandi, and two friends from our church - all started out pulling what we called "cockle burs" in the fields where the cows grazed. If I recall correctly, they can make them sick. It was NOT a fun job. but we earned about $1.50 an hour which was good pay for a kid back then. After a walk through the tall stalks of corn, it was discovered I was allergic to pollen. Milk poured in my eyes by Mrs. Hougen relieved the swelling so I could see and I was assigned to feeding the abandoned calves. I LOVED that part of the job. I favored a little guy named Robby. He was sweet and had those big, beautiful eyes that, okay, all cows have. After summer was gone and there was no work for us kids, I still asked after Robby all the time. One day, the family told me he'd been sent to slaughter. Not being a farm girl, I was devastated. I stopped eating beef for about two years because I couldn't bare to think it might be him. Sadly, I started up again one day when the smell of my mother's roast permeated the whole house and called to my deeply recessed cave
After that, I worked at a little place called, The Teapot Café. It was run by a little old lady and her husband, who was known for his fried chicken. Their cats and dogs meandered freely in the "back room" where overflow customers were seated on busy days. There were rumors she chased the health inspectors away with cleavers, but I can't attest to that. She never got herself shut down, though, and no one in town seemed to mind eating in a place that felt more like eating at home with someone else doing the cooking! I can't say it was my best experience because she could be a little cutting with her words and I was a "wear my feelings on my sleeve" sort of teenager. But it was great experience. I worked as a dishwasher for a week and a waitress for two - until I unceremoniously knocked over some drinks in a couple of customer's laps.
Harvest time was a time of year small town teenage girls looked forward to. It was a time of hope for a new boyfriend, different from the town boys. And that day, I happened to have 4 of them sitting at a booth. We served our ice tea in tall glasses with long "tea" spoons in them. Unfortunately, I placed two of those glasses down in front of the first two boys and then reached over to put the other two in front of the boys further in. My arms hit the first two glasses and poured directly into their crotches - which was horrifying for a 14 year old girl. Leila was out there in a shot and removed me from the job of waitress. Thus began my internship as a cook. Eventually, I went to work at a different restaurant at a truck stop in the next town over and worked there at two different times under two different owners. This included an owner who drove by while the dishwasher, a boy I went to school with, and I stood waiting for him to come open the restaurant. He was late. Very late. He slowly drove his Cadillac by us, the smell of alcohol wafting off his breath, as it often did, and without stopping hollered, "We're closed and we're never opening again!" We were out of a job.
I went to work at a place called, Pizza Barn. The owner, Mike, was probably one of the nicest people I'd ever known. He was a young father and had a kind, good way about him. He was honest and treated people well. I cooked on both the pizza and grill side, especially once the other cook, Birdie, named for her constant whistling I assume, left. He hired another woman who's husband would one day reopen the truck stop restaurant and I would go there to work again. In the meantime, I have never laughed as much as I did with Marianne, the new grill cook! We giggled through all the busy times and the quiet times, too. We told jokes and just made life a funny, happy experience. I was happy there. But when her husband offered me a job at the truck stop restaurant, I went, leaving Mike. I felt some guilt but it was a good move for me. I ended up learning to cook things I hadn't in the other restaurants - lobster tail, nice cuts of steak, etc. And when I had to help out at the end of a busy shift cleaning up tables, I learned to NEVER bend over a table to wipe it off! This is just asking for a comment from a road-tired, haven't been home in a while, lonely trucker. And usually comments that made a 16-17 year old girl blush. There was also the one trucker that waited outside for me and when I went out to wait for my dad to come pick me up - my DAD, mind you - he said, "Hey, you wanna come with me on my run up to Montana? It's beautiful up there." I replied, "Umm, I'm only 16 and I'm waiting for my dad to pick me up. Ummm, he's a big man." LOL. The trucker seemed to think on this, said that was okay if I still wanted to go. I declined and he got in and drove away just as my dad was arriving. I never said anything to Dad because I'm pretty sure that would have been the end of my working there.
Next up was a job at the grain elevator! Yeah, I typed it with excitement but it was just exhausting. I thought I'd worked hard when Birdie quit at Pizza Barn and I had to work both the grill and pizza sides for a few days. Noooo. It was nothing compared to the grain elevator. I still hate the guy that drove the truck with no hydraulics, forcing us to hand shovel all the wheat out every time he came through. I would come home late and sit at the table while my mom heated a plate of food for me and fall asleep. She'd wake me so I could eat, then shower and drop into bed. For a month after that job ended, I swear when I blew my nose nothing but dirt and wheat dust came out!
I ended up in Greeley, Colorado. I won't go into details but it was not a good time in my life. I felt abandoned and unloved. I got a job at a grocery store as a sacker and then moved up after a few months to the Bakery. It was a good 10 - 12 years before I was willing to eat a doughnut or much of anything from a bakery other than bread after that job! The smell from the doughnut cases got very nauseating after a while. But, ahhh, the bread. The bakers would make the sourdough and put a pan of butter in with it. The butter would melt and they would pull a loaf for us all to eat. Fresh bread from the oven when bakeries still made their own dough. It was heavenly! What wasn't heavenly was trying to keep my white uniform white with no washer available. I soaked it in bleach and water every night as I only had two of them. And the embarrassing part - because what's growing up without that - was that it took me a few weeks to realize I needed white underwear only. The bakers, all grown, married men, were giggling at something when I bent over all the time to get donuts from the case. Finally, my friend that worked with me mentioned my pretty flowers! Oh, good grief! Really? Did you have to wait....what, two weeks....before telling me?? With my meager....very meager paycheck, I bought a pack of whities!
I also worked cleaning restaurants overnight. This was in the "olden days" when restaurants were not open all night. Neither were grocery stores. But I was young and I could manage. It gave me enough money to manage to live and feed myself and my dog, Damascus. I didn't name him but someone who was going to be his owner did. When they couldn't keep him, I took him. He already answered to Damascus or Dac, for short, so I kept the name. Loved, loved, loved that dog! He was my baby before I had my daughter. He was my companion. He was the one living thing I believed really loved me in all the world at that time in my life. I had him until I was in my 20's and losing him was really tough. But he was a joy to me while we were together!
A year and a half later, I moved to "the big city"! Hahahaha. I moved to Aurora which felt that way to me after Strasburg and Greeley. I worked as a temp for the For Rent magazine as a receptionist. Hated it. The boss was a jerk and one of the salesmen constantly tried to look down my blouses. I left and got my first "real" office job working for Integrated Services, Inc. It was a subsidiary of Integrated Resources, Inc which was the number one brokerage house in the nation when I went to work for them. I started in the Production area as a clerk. We collated prospectus materials and recorded air shipment billing. After a few months, they promoted me to a Coordinator and I got to coordinate projects with the main Denver office, learned bookkeeping and was lucky enough to create a new time accountability system for production - since I'd done that job and now knew what was needed in the new job. I felt like I'd hit my stride in what I would do with my life and began planning to retire with this company. I moved up to Customer Service, then supervising it and then.......the 1987 stock market crash happened. This number one brokerage firm in the nation totally lost everything. I fielded calls from elderly people who had lost their life savings. Brokers jumped to their deaths because they had lost all their family members life savings. It was a sad, difficult time for everyone in the business and those who had investments. I stayed on the job until the end, when we had wrapped everything up. All the contacts I had in the business had no jobs for me. They had been forced to lay people off or had closed, too. The very well known Bill Daniels, who had owned the first cable TV company in Denver (ACT), had nothing for anyone. The great 80's had ground to a halt in the financial world. I went back to working for a temp agency in office jobs after making well over $45,000.00 a year (which was pretty darn good in the 80's).
My next temp job was at Hartford Insurance. I started at $13,000.00 a year and began handling the simple windshield claims and inputting data for the adjusters. It was easy and I made a lot of friends. Very soon, I moved up to being an adjuster and I really loved that job, too. I was young, single, a total workaholic and I just rocked and rolled that job. When I left to go to another job for more money (not my best move as it was nothing like the wonderful office at Hartford and no one there became the kind of friends I'd had at Hartford), two of my supervisors told me I was the best adjuster they had ever worked with. I was pretty proud of that. I learned to do Auto and Property Owners, Wrongful Termination (people do get fired for crap reasons), Law Enforcement Liability (yeah, cops do stick together, by the way, and I learned to really, really appreciate them as they often have to deal with the scum of the earth though they are mostly good guys), General Liability (there are a lot of people willing to make fraudulent claims but also a few honest ones), Workman's Compensation (same here, lots of, "how long can I lay around at home" going on).....anything and everything. I learned a lot at Hartford and will always have a warm feeling about that job, despite the great deal of stress and sometimes death threats you endured in this industry.
I went to work for CNA Insurance. Their offices were not warm or inviting. They did not foster camaraderie among their employees. I was making a lot more money but I was miserable there. However, I did handle all the Kroger (King Soopers, Loaf N Jugs and City Markets here in the Western States) for their general liability and transportation claims. I did enjoy that part. There could be a lot of investigation involved and I liked that. I was shopping in one of the stores when a slip and fall happened. I was standing right there and an employee and I watched a woman fall, then her husband poured water on the floor. It was shocking to me! What kind of losers behave like that?!? But I told them who I was and what the employee needed to do, called the manager over and blew their little plan right out of the water! I loved that one!
Thankfully, my husband rescued me from CNA Insurance. When we married and tried to start a family, the doctor thought all the stress of the type of work I did might be making that more difficult, so I started my own daycare. Sure enough, our precious blessing, Rachel, was born. I did daycare about 11 months before she was born and then still watched a little boy who was only 3 months old when I started watching him. He stayed until he was 3 years old and then went to preschool. I loved the next 10 years of being a stay at home mom and will be forever grateful to my good husband for working so hard and making that possible. I know it was not only great for us as a family as I was there to meet my family's needs, but it was really wonderful for Rachel!
When Rachel entered grade school for a full day in first grade, I did Medical Transcription for work, which I was able to do at home. Not something a workaholic should do. I worked myself to exhaustion. Seriously, I was living on 3 hours of sleep a day and trying to parent, clean, cook, and tend to my family's needs. I quickly ran out of steam. By the time I'd worked for almost a year, I was done.
Next job was at my daughter's school. Crossing guard. :) Not too bad and I loved greeting the kids every day. Soon I was a teacher's aide. When she went into middle school, I started working for the district's Medicaid department. I learned more about the politics and hateful behaviors of people who work in administration and outside actual teaching than I ever wanted to know. I was never so happy to leave a job as I was to leave that one. I'd had enough! Mind you, I admire teachers, themselves. I'd better. Though two of my siblings are retired, I have had three siblings who are teachers. They are amazing! My daughter's teachers have almost all be dedicated, wonderful teachers who really care about what they do, enjoy teaching and loving kids. I am forever grateful. But the admin part is shameful and has little to nothing to do with really teaching kids. It's all about politics, power, control. 'Nuff said.
I'm now an office manager for a CPA. She is my friend, too, which makes it comfortable and nice. My other co-worker, our bookkeeping, is also a friend and wonderful to know and work with so our office has a good flow going on. The atmosphere is good and happy. We have a lot of laughs and a lot of fun. This was my 3rd tax season working for Tamey. Need your taxes done? Have a small business or want to start one up? Come see us:
Tamey Meziere Clements CPA LLC
We come right up when you look for CPA in Aurora.
So, there is my broad spectrum of job experience. I've learned a lot from each one and, as you can see, mostly loved my working life. But nothing even compares to how much I love being a wife and a mom. July 4th, Jay and I celebrate 20 years married. I can hardly wait to see what the future holds for us.
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