Big Q Tip – Love Your Job

Hey Gang,

Hope everyone had a good long weekend.  I was asked if I "had to work" over the weekend.  This is always a tricky question to me.  When people say “work” they say it with the same tone as they say “did you have a colonoscopy this weekend?”  What do you say to that?  Go probe someplace else?  That’s just a tad rude.  Did I go into work this weekend?  Yes, everyday, but it wasn’t really “work” in the colon vain.  I got to go on a boat.  Now how can that be considered work?

People love to bitch.  If you find yourself around a water cooler today, pay attention to the conversation, odds are high that people are bitching.  When faced with this situation, you can walk away, or join in.  Human nature is to join in and be part of the lynch mob.  When people ask me about work, sure I’ll through out a bitch or two, like a bouncer at a lesbian bar, but in the end, what the hell do I have to bitch about.  I “think” and “talk” for a living.  My hands are soft.  No getting around it.  I haven’t had to do a “hard” days work since 1995 when I worked in a meat packing plant.  This summer, when we hit triple digits for weeks on end, people will have space heaters on in my building because the air conditioner is just that damn good.  And you better believe that they’ll bitch about it being to cold.  I’m sure they wish they could be roofers on days like that so they could be warm. Oh the humanity!

This past weekend an “emergency” came up and I was asked if I could cover for someone.  The job I had to “cover” was to go out on Lake Belton for a few hours and ride around on a pontoon.  Hell Yeah!  And even better…they let me drive.  Now that is not work.  Sure it didn’t go to well in the end, but I don’t feel it was completely my fault.

It was a tad windy, and Rowdy wanted to go to the waterfall.  Well to get there we need to go across the waves.  That can get people a bit sick with the rocking, so I was taking the waves at an angle.  But then I heard, “no Q, over there.  We want to go over there!”  So, as per request, I turned “over there”.  I hit two waves, the second wave hit just perfect and sprayed the whole boat with water.  The only safe place was directly behind me, for I make a hell of a water blockade.  Well they made me go and sit in a wet spot.  Still, not work.

So if you see me around town, and ask me if I have to “work” over the weekend, the answer will be yes, but the end result is anything but.  Don’t hate me because I love my job.  I had a choice when I was younger, I could’ve joined the “lynch mob” and went to school for job I new I was going to hate, but I would make a lot of money at, or, do something I enjoyed, and live paycheck to paycheck.  I chose the paycheck to paycheck job.  Now all the people I grew up with get to take vacations to exotic areas for two weeks at a time, something I can’t afford to do, but then they have to go back to the job they don’t like for 50 weeks.  I get the privilege of working 52 weeks a year at a job I love.  Occasionally, I get to go out on a boat.  No regrets.