Caterwauling

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Originally uploaded by dcwriterdawn

I <3 my new bling. Almost as much as the “festival diet” that included a half-dozen muffalettas and almost as many beignets, lamb-and-feta sliders and various Captain Morgan cocktails!

(Anyone wanna join me on the post-festival “sex diet” to burn off all that good food? I’d hate to do this one alone. …)

Volunteering was QUITE the experience. I had fun. Of course, our bright-orange shirts made us all look like dreamsicles, but I stuffed that bitch in my bag and got a tan before and after my shifts.

Ah, the shifts. I spent two days in one VIP area. It was fun but tiring. The leader of the area (male) was never around, and all the kids on my shifts basically just came to look toward me to fix everything that went wrong. And I did. 🙂 Well, with as much power as any idiot in an orange shirt can wield. But I met some AWESOME people and we’ve already connected by text and Facebook. So, I win.

Yesterday, I was in another, albeit less-exclusive, VIP area. But I got to sit in the shade instead of standing in the rain, so that was awesome. And I had female supervisors this time around. Which was … different.

The men on my previous days basically had me acting as the accountant, the bouncer and the maid. Given that the median age of the volunteer shift was 15, I understand why. But they left me the hell alone and I loved it.

The women, well, one was awesome. But the one over all of us, including her, was one mean whore. She reminded me of somebody. …

So anyway, this kid Mike joined us for his shift at the table. He was very sweet and smart. I liked him immediately.

The job was easy enough — giving out goofy necklaces (not the one pictured — I bought mine and it was cuter, IMHO) and checking packages in from people who spent ridiculous amounts of money on artwork and who didn’t want to carry it around. Easy-peasy.

The witch sent Mike away to do another job. And she told us that she didn’t trust him — she didn’t want him with all that merchandise.

The gal I became friends with said to me later, “Yeah, I guess that’s because he’s young.”

And I said, “No, it’s because his skin is four shades darker than ours.”

I caught a lot of other comments from this “leader.” Nothing directly harmful, but just enough to make you wonder.

There was another younger girl on our shift who came in to replace him. Very talkative but I didn’t mind. She told me her mom had just overcome breast cancer and meanwhile, her brother came out of the closet and another one is in rehab. Poor momma!

The girl said she was a slacker her whole life, but recently raised her grades by three letters. And she’s joined the Science Club, volunteers at events and works with a group that makes/sells bracelets for breast cancer awareness.

I am so jealous of these kids. My own volunteer experiences at their age was a joke. I never did anything that meant anything, you know? I volunteered at the local hospital and basically got stuck wheeling people around and lining them up in hallways. Very depressing and, frankly, unnecessary.

I did events, too. Anyone remember the Rib Cook-off in South Park? Holla! 🙂

Anyway, it figures that my only fun jobs are the unpaid ones. Woo. Friggin. Hoo.

But it just reinforces that I need to be in leadership because you can trust me to not screw shit up and to fix what IS broken, and because I LOVE getting to know new people and training them and discovering what makes them tick so that I can play to their strengths.

Anyway, the free time I spent there was even better. Styx, Jeff Beck, Memphis Soul Revue, OAR, Earth Wind and Fire, Cherry Poppin Daddies … I heard a lot of great live music. And this is the first year I haven’t gotten a sunburn at the festival — I’m just a normal bronzed goddess. Ah, Florida. I hated you when I got here, but I couldn’t imagine thriving anywhere else….

Sparklies

Originally uploaded by dcwriterdawn

I just realized that I get paid four times less for a hard job in comparison to the other (easier, better, and more pleasant) job where I get paid four times more! What gives?

It’s Wicked Witch of the West Coast time. Whee! She was threatening to fire me today. She may still. I dunno. Once again, I am smarter/more experienced/more-capable and -competent and, yet, I’m the one making the little bucks but getting the big headaches.

I was just thinking about adding another job to the failure pile when I read an e-mail that didn’t send me into convulsions. (Unlike all the others.) It’s from the Daily OM, and today’s message is fittingly called “The Upside of Irritation.” To wit:

“The more we try to eliminate annoyances, instead of learning to handle them gracefully, the further we get from developing the qualities that come with spiritual growth, such as patience, tolerance, and acceptance. It is often in the presence of people and experiences we find annoying that we have an opportunity to develop these qualities. Fortunately for most of us, our lives offer an abundance of opportunities to practice and cultivate these traits.”

The thing this person can’t figure out is the rest of us are signed up to work five hours a week (others are 10 or 20; I took on five). And yet, I am putting in 20 hours a week.

And it’s not even the pay that’s bothering me right now. It’s the fact that since she’s immersed in this 24/7 … and the rest of us put in different shifts to meet their needs as well as have REAL jobs on the side … she is yelling at us for not getting shit done. Which, we ARE. A surprising amount given that it’s mostly volunteer work and the fact that we all pull extra hours to coincide our schedules with each others’.

I don’t want to lose this gig. It’s not that it’s wonderful but it’s something that can be something special, someday. But I talked to my whole team today (hey, who knew I had a team — don’t I get more for leadership?), and she’s making everyone want to cut their wrists with a machete.

Once again I am thrust in the role of giving people comic relief and understanding where there may be little or none. Pity. Clearly this pattern needs to end.

I met some wonderful people while I was volunteering. Exchanged a few sets of business cards. I know a nice Cajun restaurant up in Jax that needs to broaden its South Florida audience. Now if my ass is gonna be on fire every damn day, it should be from eating spicy foods and not having some crazy person kicking it!