Thursday, September 24, 2009

Working/The Plague of Texas


I have finally reconciled three work schedules and am finally working at all of them. I don't do much else, but I am working. Yay!!

Last Saturday, I worked at the home football game on the third deck in a trailer full of shirts, hats, stuffed animals, and other memorabilia. By the middle of the third quarter, I wished the game would end soon. It wasn't too busy or too slow. It was warm but not unbearable outside. What was the problem? Moses sent the plague of locusts to Texas, and they were all at Kyle Field. Every shirt and hat was covered with inch-long crickets, moths, gnats, and other creepy crawlers.

By the fourth quarter, I was swatting in every direction like a madwoman. When the alumni left their seats at the end of the game, I heard tons of horror stories about crickets landing on people's faces and shirts and crawling down people's shirts and about people's needing to basically brush and groom the backs of those in front of them because of all the bugs. Yuck!!!

Above is a picture from Texas A&M's student newspaper depicting the conditions at the game. Yes, all those black things are crickets. The headline above this picture read, "Bugging Brazos County." I'm glad I'm not the only one. Tracy tells me that in late October the bugs will go away. Needless to say, I'm counting down the days and praying for seagulls to come and eat all those nasty crickets. What did I do to upset you, Moses?

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Widowed

Friends, family, and loved ones.

I want to announce that I am unofficially a widow for the next nine to ten months. College football season starts in September and the NBA Finals end in June. I say again, I am a widow.

Although I admit that I enjoy a few games with him (BYU wins, Notre Dame losses, USC wins, and Texas Longhorn wins), after two games a day, I'm done with football for at least a week. When he watches sports, Tracy becomes a machine. He can't get enough football and basketball.

So, here's to all those good times I had with him. I'll remember him, and I look forward to seeing him again in nine months. Until then, I live with this guy. I guess he'll do until I get Tracy back.

A coerced sports spectator/commentator shows his enthusiasm.
The enthused spectator/commentator caught in action.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Laboring on Labor Day

Today I went to work and Tracy went to school just like any other Monday, but it isn't another Monday. It's Labor Day.

I'm confused. Aren't we supposed to have Labor Day off? Isn't it a national holiday? I found out that Labor Day was created to celebrate "the social and economic achievements of American workers" (United States Department of Labor) and give the working man (or woman) one day's rest he (or she) rightfully has earned. Even though I've worked at my new job for only one week, I worked well over forty hours (actually closer to fifty hours) doing rather frustrating tasks with people not too eager to help out. Why does Texas hate the common worker?

I'm happy I have a job--don't get me wrong--but getting a day off is always nice.

I got another job at the Texas A&M Writing Center, and coordinating two schedules is way more difficult than I thought it would be. But again, I'm grateful for my jobs, and I will work hard. Too bad I don't have a holiday to celebrate my labor!