They Have Jobs in CaliLand?

Growing up I had a bit of an obsession with waitressing. I don't know if it was the cool pads that they got to write orders on or the idea of bringing people what they so desired but I loved it. I had my own order-taking pad from Staples and would go around our family parties taking drink orders. I don't know if I actually followed through with bringing people their drinks but I'd like to think I did. One of my first jobs was as a waitress...sort of. I worked at an ice cream shop that had about 7 tables and a full menu. I mainly worked the ice cream (because clearly my boss could tell, I knew my ice cream) but every so often I would get to play waitress..and to my surprise I was not a very good waitress. Personality-wise I was everything you would want in a server but memory/order taking?..I was not the quickest. Needless to say, I would fair HORRIBLY in a seriously busy restaurant. I imagine I would cry within the first hour of a dinner rush. My favorite memory of my waitressing days was when I was asked, by a customer, to pack up her left over fries. As I was walking out of the kitchen, boxed up fries in hand, I dropped the box and fries went all over the sticky kitchen floor. I quickly packed the fries back into the box and thought "Who reheats fries anyway?! They'll get soggy & she'll just wind up throwing them away so its fine." Awesome.

I have had a plethora of unique jobs. My dad never made me work but I wanted to. At 13 I told him I wanted to work so I got a job as a counselor in training (a CIT) at the camp I attended as a kid..at least I thought it was a job. I didn't know at the time but you have to pay to be a CIT. So my dad had to pay a hefty amount  for me to work..had I known this I probably wouldn't have been so cool with being the go-to person when campers accidentally peed themselves. Eventually I grew out of my CIT status and actually got paid to work at the camp as a head counselor.
I had a tendency to jump from job to job once I felt I could do something cooler, more fun, more profitable etc or once I felt I had learned all that I could learn from that job (read: I hated the people and couldn't take it anymore).

From the ages of 13-25 these are the jobs I held, in order :
Camp Counselor (I did this several summers sporadically through the years)
Ice Cream scooper/bad waitress
Kennel assistant at an animal hospital
Children's Toy Boutique worker (creepiest boss EVER)

--Somewhere in here I worked at a gym daycare but I can't exactly remember when..I must have blocked it out-- 

Papa Johns Pizza maker (I worked here for exactly 4hrs and 20mins)
Ice Cream masher at Maggie Moos (I eventually worked my way up to making the ice cream..which eventually just became eating the ice cream as it came out of the machine)
Veterinary technician
Alpaca & Llama farm manager (<3)
Nanny of 2 (:-\)

Pastry Chef assistant
Gym morning manager (yes, morning manager which meant I had to be there before the sun rose)
Reservation Manager at The Melting Pot
Assistant to the VP at my father-in-laws company
Nanny of a cutie pie

...and then came the job I had been waiting for while I was working all these meaningless (in comparison) jobs.

Stay at home Mommy


As you would expect a SAHM to say, it is the hardest, most awesome job Ive ever had. I get to watch my daughter grow every second. I am SO lucky to not have to drop her at daycare and worry that someone isn't caring for her how I would (a huge source of anxiety for me). I get to kiss every boo boo, cuddle before each nap and hear every laugh. It may be a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week, 365 days a year job but I wouldn't want to to do anything else!
   Don't get me wrong, it is not for everybody & I take my breaks when i can get them! (thanks to my amazing mother in law)
My working mom friends also have an incredibly hard job because they do have to drop their babies off and worry about them all day. They experience a mom guilt that I cannot even fathom and I give them SO much credit because they are some seriously strong mamas!!

My boss daughter has woken up from her nap and is sounding the lunchtime bell--off to work I go. :-)