Back to the Grind

Now that it's July, there is only a little over a month until I embark for Copenhagen for my semester abroad so things are slowing getting more exciting here in Virginia. I got my pre-departure packet in the mail detailing everything I need to get done before I board the plane in August. It looks like most of the important paperwork will be done once I arrive there so for now my main problem will be deciding what to pack.

The past few weeks were pretty busy for me. After a few weeks of just being a couch potato I finally got to work earning spending money for Europe. I decided not to go back to my old job in Maryland since I didn't want to commute again and also because the manager changed and is apparently batshit crazy. I firmly believe a good or bad manager can make or break a work experience so I didn't want to mess with that again.

At the end of June I was working with a vendor from San Francisco at the Fancy Food Show at the D.C. Convention Center for a few days. The company was a wholesaler/online business who represented a couple thousand small companies at expos and brought in a couple dozen to display and demo at the show. I helped set up and stuff but during the show itself I got to manage and represent three companies at the stand which was cool. The guys from the San Fran company were also so chill; they were all pretty young and were great to work with. The show covered two floors of the convention center which, if you've never been inside, is a lot of space. When I did walk around and explore, I got to try so much food. I had seared Chilean scallops, bugolgi at the Korea pavilion, quiche at the France pavilion, tons of pasta at Italy's, and all sorts of sweet and savory food from around the world. At the end of each day, we had a happy hour with all the vendors near us. The show itself was open for three days though I worked for five and at the end of it all, I came home with so much free food it was insane. I scored about $250 worth of food and alcohol including two handles of vodka from our stand since we ordered too much and overestimated the happy hour need. In the end, the gig was really awesome. All my coworkers were really cool and the people I was next to and I exchanged info for the next time they were in DC so I could help them when they next to a show.

Yeahhhh buddy.

Working at the show was probably one of the best jobs I've ever had. It was fun, involved food, and had me interacting with hundreds of foodies and business owners and as getting paid $10/hr for it; it was my personal heaven pretty much.

A week after the show ended I started my next gig which I just got off of a few days ago. I worked at a fireworks stand here in NOVA with a few other people, all college aged. I wasn't really looking forward to it quite honestly because the hours were long (42 hours of work in a 72 hour period) and it would be outdoors in 100 degree weather during the period before, during, and after July 4th. My days spanned from 8AM to 11PM in a metal trailer with only a fan, an ipod dock, and the company of my coworkers. Things ended up being pretty good in the end though. My manager was nice but kind of weird. One of the first things she said to me was "Sorry if I complain a lot in the next few days, I'm having boyfriend problems" which didn't really set a good tone. During my few days working with her though, I got to see a veritable soap opera unfold before my eyes. Day one, her boyfriend pretty much dropped off the face of the earth and she was flipping out over it. She talked about how she was the best girlfriend ever and didn't understand why he would leave her but she was not clingy (yeah...right). She even went into really unnecessary details like what she got him for his birthday (six lines of X and an hour long blowjob) and how they would spend hours together. Didn't need to know that? Well, I didn't ask to be told that either. On day two, July 4th, things only got worse when I came out to her and then she kept asking for a gay guy's opinion of what to do, which I'm not terribly good at so that was a lot of stumbling conversation. July 4th in general was a mess since pretty much from when we opened to when we closed, we never stopped and caught a break. People go freaking crazy over fireworks here even though VA law prohibits anything fun or exciting. The next day wasn't much better. It was pretty busy and my manager and her boyfriend ended up breaking up after she went on a stalk mission to his house to find him. Strangely, late on he came to visit the stand and they were all over each other again (!?). After he left she asked my opinion if he was cute (he wasn't) but I said he was anyways for her benefit. It was really awkward.

Despite all the drama with her and her bf and sweating my ass off, the job wasn't too bad. I doubt I will want to work at a fireworks stand again but it did pay decently, I met some pretty funny people, and I got about $70 total in tips which is solid. I'm also pretty good friends with my manager now despite her daytime television life. I told her to keep me updated with her little saga.

So what am I up to now? Well, I just got hired to help out with a new little and local pickle company to help them sell at local farmer's markets. I met the sister of the owner at a farmer's market in DC a few days ago and now they want me to help out for what looks like the rest of the summer until I leave for Europe. If the weather isn't feeling like having another heat wave I think this could be a pretty awesome gig. On top of working, Maria is also finally back from Spain and her friend Tanya from Egypt is also visiting which means we'll probably start going out a lot soon. We've already proposed some plans for clubbing and going out. Tanya also wants to go to a strip club some time after we went out to see Magic Mike this past weekend. I'm not so sure about how I feel about that but maybe I'll warm up to the idea.

All the best,

JP