Easing into things

Rachel Balducci has tagged me and she swears it's easy, so I'll go ahead and do the meme, as a way of easing into my day..

Four Jobs I've Had

1. The "del" (that's what they called it) at the Fountain City K-Mart in Knoxville. I usually worked 11 to 9, so it was my job to clean the area thoroughly every night, including the slicer. The oddest thing about it was that we were - all of us, employees of a store in a major corporation - paid in cash.

2. Theology teacher.

3. Parish Director of Religious Education.

4. Freelance writer. That's literally it. Those are all the paying jobs I've had.

Four Movies I Watch Over and Over Again

1. The Third Man

2. An American in Paris

3. On the Town (Gene Kelly theme duly noted...mmmmm!)

4. Pollock. Don't ask me why. It's on a lot, and I find it bizarrely hypnotic.

Four Places I've Lived

1. Bloomington, IN

2. Lubbock, TX

3. Dekalb, IL

4. Lakeland, FL

Four TV Shows I Watch

1. Good Eats

2. Lost

3. The Office, US (yes, despite my initial skepticism, I'm slowly catching on)

4. Sopranos...someday!

Four Places I've Vacationed

Nogales! Oh, well, never mind...

1. Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona

2. Montreal, Quebec City, Nova Scotia

3. Sanibel Island, FL

4. Milledgeville, Georgia

Four Websites I visit daily

1. Annunciations

2. Catholic Outsider

3. Asia News

4. Fodor's Travel Discussions

Four of My Favorite Foods

1. Grapefruit. Yeah, I know. But...

2. Olives

3. Salads with lots of olives, peppers, and a strong vinagrette

4. Fuji apples

Four Places I'd like to be right now

1. At a beach on the east coast of FL

2. Sanibel Island

3. With all of my kids, in one place.

4. In a movie theater, without a one-year old on top of me.

Four People I'm tagging:

1. Eve

2. Dom

3. Jeff Miller

4. Martin

Comments

[Mike Walsh, MM]

When you was in Milledgeville, did you do like you done in Rome?

[Gena Thompson]

I worked at K-Mart back in the 80s during my summers in college and we were paid in cash as well. I had no idea why they did it that way. My Dad said it was a tax dodge of some sort. My Mom said it was to cut down on administrative costs involving banks and checks. I have no idea if they still do it.

[K Hammer]

When I worked at Kmart, we thought the paycheck was in cash so you could immediately spend it in the store.

[thomas tucker]

Lubbock, Texas????
Not that there's anything wrong with that.:)

[Cranky Lawyer]

Were you assistant TO the manager at the "del"?

[amy]

Um, no, Cranky. I was just a college student stuck with rotten hours.

Yup, TT. I was, of course, 3, so I remember nothing, however.

[thomas tucker]

Amy- that's probably for the best.

[Tracy]

Lubbock...wow. I just graduated from TTU in '04....sister still there. Exciting.

[Jeffrey]

Your "Asia News" link is wrong...

Glad to see you're catching on to The Office. It's astonishing to see such a creative, improvisational group of actors get prime-time exposure once a week... and without laugh tracks. I can't believe it's been renewed for another 22 episodes. Fantastic.

[Mila Morales]

You were in Nogales? How come? I mean, not very many people even know where Nogales is, let alone go there! For the record, I have nothing against Nogales, having spent four years at boarding school there, with the best nuns I have ever met. I was there as a teen-age Cuban refugee and they took me in and treated me with the utmost charity and kindness. They showed me the face of God's love. I returned 15 years later with my family, and they would tell one and all "Our daughter has come home and brought the grandchildren!" After 40 years, I still keep in touch.

[amy]

Mila- It was a joke referencing something I wrote earlier in the week, on how I'd been to Mexico, although that trip consisted of an hour in Nogales, so I doubt it counts...

[Karen in Canada]

Uh, Amy--
"2. Montreal, Quebec City, Nova Scotia"???

Last time I checked my Canadian geography, Montreal and Quebec City were still in the province of Quebec, and not in Nova Scotia (where I do live).

Sorry to nitpick, but I can't let that pass.

[Emily]

Food: We're twins!

[amywelborn]

Uh, Karen:

This daughter of a Quebecois is not that stupid, and sorry you evidently think so. It verges between insulting and amusing. I've been to Quebec City, I've been to Montreal, and, as part of the trip where my 14-year old self was taken to Quebec City, we spent time in Nova Scotia - we did not go to any towns, but the landscape of the province made quite an impression on me,hence my mention of "Nova Scotia."

[Karen in Canada]

Amy:

I'm sorry you found the "nit" somewhat "insulting". I certainly assumed that it was just an accidental slip, and not stupidity on the part of a writer whose books I find very helpful to my teenage children.

I still think that the names of two cities and a province, separated only by commas, reads more naturally as two cities in that province than as three separate locations. Perhaps something like "Montreal and Quebec City (Quebec), and Nova Scotia" would have been less ambiguous.

Or maybe I shouldn't read posts late at night.