i don't know if anyone still looks at this here blog (unless to post spam in the comments section. thanks, assholes), but i am back in the asia and have my own blog now to continue recording the korean saga.
word.
www.jamieleighmcgeorge.blogspot.com
Friday, December 15, 2006
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Seon's School of Cooking and Acting
So I checked out my former school's website yesterday, because I wanted to show a co-worker some of my former students, but the only thing that came up on the site was a little icon that said "to be continued." So I figured the site was just down for maintenance. But then today I received an email telling me that Seon's school was shut down becuase he didn't pay bills; and all of those evil, horrible people who made up lies about us and didn't pay us are all out of jobs. That means Megan, Cindy and Abby. Abby is even back in the United States, and she had just gone back in August. Do I wish misfortune on other people? No, but I certainly won't lose any sleep over the fact that this place no longer exists and will no longer screw over ESL teachers (especially ESL teachers from Columbia).
Wow.
Wow.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
i'm a trivia whiz
normally i post my profanity-laden blogs on myspace, then just repost the g versions here. but i forgot to mention something on my most recent myspace post. and that is that me, jules and rory are all now officially trivia wizards. on friday night we particated in some benefit trivia night thing for cedar creek therapeutic riding or something like that (disabled peeps get on horses and it's good for them). anyhoo, our team--which consisted of me, jules, rory, al (dr. herde's husband), and 4 people i had never met before. besides winning and learning that i am indeed a superior being, i learned a very valuable trivia strategy: make sure you get peeps from all different age brackets and backgrounds, because us young stupid folks are the one's who know the stupid stuff like the names of tyra banks' tv shows. maybe i'm not well-versed in missouri history, but the stupid stuff is just as important. we killed it in the "books you should have read" section, guessed correctly that an octopus has 3 hearts, and knew the capitol of romania. 80/90 earned everyone at our table a bottle of wine. so i just had to brag for a little bit.
so that was friday night, now about the rest of my weekend.
it's no secret that i am deeply in like with calexico, specifically joey burns. there, i said it. i've had a pretty huge crush on the band/the man for a long long long time. random, but i just told julie i had a crush on a sandwich. specifically the big tomato (add bacon) from uprise where rory works. this shows to go you that i get crushes on anything and anyone. all that's required is that someone be nice to me or that they have tomato and bacon together in harmony on ciabatta bread. anyhoo... calexico played in st. louis over the weekend, so it seemed like a swell occassion to borrow my dad's grand marquis (it's a luxury car), pack up the wife and kids and go see their rock show. so me, jules and two visiting korean students set sail on saturday afternoon for the radisson st. louis.
not really an aside: i have been a staunch supporter of priceline.com since they treated me so well when i bought round trip tickets to europe a few summers ago, so i always use them to book hotels too. this was one of my best priceline experiences. the hotel itself wasn't particularly nice or luxurious, but we were on the 25th floor and had a balcony that looked right out at the arch and the river. i could almost reach out and touch either of those things if i had super long arms. alas, i don't, but i was still pleased as punch, right as rain, super duper.
anyhoo, we get to the hotel, and decide it's time to drink at the hotel bar. the barkeep--an old timer named steve--was not very friendly as far as personality goes, but he did give us a free beer for no apparent reason at all. unless it was because the popcorn machine viciously mangled my arm (is there any other way to mangle someone, except viciously? i think not). i like the thought of all the popcorn in the bar area of the radisson st. louis being contaminated with my blood. not that there's anything wrong with my blood...but still, it's blood.
post mai tai, we headed to university city. we went to blueberry hill and crammed too many people into a photo booth. and guess who's head doesn't show up in any of the stupid pictures? yup, mine. so we ate spicy wings and circular french fries, drank beers and julie ordered shots that normally taste good but not this time. our waitress had a cool motorhead t-shirt and very red hair. not that these two things matter, but it's all about the details, so i'll include them.
the next stop was vintage vinyl. i felt very weird when i walked in there for some reason--a little light headed or something. i could specifically explain why i felt weird, but i'll just be vague and say it had to do with being sweet on a musician.
after collecting lots of cds to ultimately refile after rationality kicked in, we went to a thrift store. the two korean dudes (american names jack and gun. yes, gun) had never been to a secondhand store before, so we said it was a cultural experience for them. i'm just thankful that their cultural experience resulted in my new cowboy boots and bracelet. i don't think they got anything.
it was now time to sup, and sup we did at some place called 609. jules and i had eaten there before on a prior trip. the food was pretty good, but also pretty expensive.
show time at mississippi nights. just like the last time i saw calexico in st. louis, except not at all because i was actually calm, unobsessed and unaffected by aforementioned crush on lead singer. which struck me as sort of tragic. part of the reason i became obsessed with this dude was because i perceived him to be unattainable by me, a non musician, but it seems like only on saturday did i actually care to stop worrying so much about whether or not i seemed awkward to him or worthy or whatever (note to me, i will always be awkward. it's cute. it's charming. it's a fact.). this is hard to explain. whatever... the most important lesson here is that he's just some dude in a band on a stage. just like lots of other dudes in bands on stages. but now i don't really have any crushes on anyone. and that brings me back to the tragedy of all this. perhaps others don't see this as tragic, but now who do i have to look forward to? who do i get to put on a pedestal now? i'm rambling. i'll probably regret this later.
after the show we went and bought lots of cheap wine (hooray, yellow tail!)and sat in plush chairs on the balcony of our 25th floor hotel palace, gazing drunkenly out at the arch. the nighttime arch is so much more interesting to look at than its sunny overpopulated daytime counterpart. it's a large living creature sleeping off the exhaustion and excitement of its busy, overworked daytime hours. and the moon and the river and the bridge and the relative tranquility were all pretty swell too.
random alert: i was thinking about a book i used to read when i was younger called Tallypo/Tailypo. amazon has this description: "A strange varmint haunts the woodsman who lopped off its tail." sounds about right. anyhoo, me jules and ma-licia used to record ourselves reading and it was nothing short of adorable, especially during my speech therapy years when i couldn't pronounce my "r"s. i'm a firm believer that there's nothing more adorable than a speech impediment. but there's a recording of jules and me reading tallypo to our cousin aimee. most of the time we are just yelling at her while intermittently screaming "tallypo!" this is one of those things that only julie and i think is funny...my mom used to babysit when we were little and we did lots of mean things when we were little and the daughters of the babysitter. children are cruel. i know i was. one of the girls that stayed at our house during the day was terrified of earth worms. so when she was taking a nap one afternoon, i put a bunch of worms on her face. she screamed and cried and i was impressed by my own evil. i guess i figured today was the time to come clean about that.
so that was friday night, now about the rest of my weekend.
it's no secret that i am deeply in like with calexico, specifically joey burns. there, i said it. i've had a pretty huge crush on the band/the man for a long long long time. random, but i just told julie i had a crush on a sandwich. specifically the big tomato (add bacon) from uprise where rory works. this shows to go you that i get crushes on anything and anyone. all that's required is that someone be nice to me or that they have tomato and bacon together in harmony on ciabatta bread. anyhoo... calexico played in st. louis over the weekend, so it seemed like a swell occassion to borrow my dad's grand marquis (it's a luxury car), pack up the wife and kids and go see their rock show. so me, jules and two visiting korean students set sail on saturday afternoon for the radisson st. louis.
not really an aside: i have been a staunch supporter of priceline.com since they treated me so well when i bought round trip tickets to europe a few summers ago, so i always use them to book hotels too. this was one of my best priceline experiences. the hotel itself wasn't particularly nice or luxurious, but we were on the 25th floor and had a balcony that looked right out at the arch and the river. i could almost reach out and touch either of those things if i had super long arms. alas, i don't, but i was still pleased as punch, right as rain, super duper.
anyhoo, we get to the hotel, and decide it's time to drink at the hotel bar. the barkeep--an old timer named steve--was not very friendly as far as personality goes, but he did give us a free beer for no apparent reason at all. unless it was because the popcorn machine viciously mangled my arm (is there any other way to mangle someone, except viciously? i think not). i like the thought of all the popcorn in the bar area of the radisson st. louis being contaminated with my blood. not that there's anything wrong with my blood...but still, it's blood.
post mai tai, we headed to university city. we went to blueberry hill and crammed too many people into a photo booth. and guess who's head doesn't show up in any of the stupid pictures? yup, mine. so we ate spicy wings and circular french fries, drank beers and julie ordered shots that normally taste good but not this time. our waitress had a cool motorhead t-shirt and very red hair. not that these two things matter, but it's all about the details, so i'll include them.
the next stop was vintage vinyl. i felt very weird when i walked in there for some reason--a little light headed or something. i could specifically explain why i felt weird, but i'll just be vague and say it had to do with being sweet on a musician.
after collecting lots of cds to ultimately refile after rationality kicked in, we went to a thrift store. the two korean dudes (american names jack and gun. yes, gun) had never been to a secondhand store before, so we said it was a cultural experience for them. i'm just thankful that their cultural experience resulted in my new cowboy boots and bracelet. i don't think they got anything.
it was now time to sup, and sup we did at some place called 609. jules and i had eaten there before on a prior trip. the food was pretty good, but also pretty expensive.
show time at mississippi nights. just like the last time i saw calexico in st. louis, except not at all because i was actually calm, unobsessed and unaffected by aforementioned crush on lead singer. which struck me as sort of tragic. part of the reason i became obsessed with this dude was because i perceived him to be unattainable by me, a non musician, but it seems like only on saturday did i actually care to stop worrying so much about whether or not i seemed awkward to him or worthy or whatever (note to me, i will always be awkward. it's cute. it's charming. it's a fact.). this is hard to explain. whatever... the most important lesson here is that he's just some dude in a band on a stage. just like lots of other dudes in bands on stages. but now i don't really have any crushes on anyone. and that brings me back to the tragedy of all this. perhaps others don't see this as tragic, but now who do i have to look forward to? who do i get to put on a pedestal now? i'm rambling. i'll probably regret this later.
after the show we went and bought lots of cheap wine (hooray, yellow tail!)and sat in plush chairs on the balcony of our 25th floor hotel palace, gazing drunkenly out at the arch. the nighttime arch is so much more interesting to look at than its sunny overpopulated daytime counterpart. it's a large living creature sleeping off the exhaustion and excitement of its busy, overworked daytime hours. and the moon and the river and the bridge and the relative tranquility were all pretty swell too.
random alert: i was thinking about a book i used to read when i was younger called Tallypo/Tailypo. amazon has this description: "A strange varmint haunts the woodsman who lopped off its tail." sounds about right. anyhoo, me jules and ma-licia used to record ourselves reading and it was nothing short of adorable, especially during my speech therapy years when i couldn't pronounce my "r"s. i'm a firm believer that there's nothing more adorable than a speech impediment. but there's a recording of jules and me reading tallypo to our cousin aimee. most of the time we are just yelling at her while intermittently screaming "tallypo!" this is one of those things that only julie and i think is funny...my mom used to babysit when we were little and we did lots of mean things when we were little and the daughters of the babysitter. children are cruel. i know i was. one of the girls that stayed at our house during the day was terrified of earth worms. so when she was taking a nap one afternoon, i put a bunch of worms on her face. she screamed and cried and i was impressed by my own evil. i guess i figured today was the time to come clean about that.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
absence makes my blog grow fonder
here are some facts. since last i blogged i have driven to and from the stl airport at least 5 times (in large 15 passenger vans on a couple of occassions), i have eaten sea cucumber, i have gone up into the arch twice and i have gone on a float trip with 21 asians. i suppose there are other noteworthy things, but i've been two busy really to take the time to file away the details.
so i've been working at the asian affairs center on the mizzou campus. they were pretty great to me when i got back from korea and didn't want to work at the pizza place. when i first went and explained my trials and tribulations, they didn't sound very optimistic that they would be able to provide any work for me. but now it's a few months later and i'm working full time, getting the largest paychecks i've ever had in the united states. that's a pretty cool situation, it's also why the only things of note that have happened to me lately involve asians (and their cucumbers. heh heh). in the past couple of weeks i've met vietnamese students, korean students, chinese doctors, lawyers, professionals (i'm a language partner for the mayor of a small city in china), and thai professors. and for most of these people i am the first impression they get of the united states (or at least of columbia, mo). that feels pretty good.
when the thai professors got here on monday, julie and i got to be their tour guides of st. louis, which is sort of funny since i don't really know too much about how to get around st. louis, especially in a large van bursting with thai people and their luggage. but we did manage to get to the arch and go up it. it wasn't windy or anything, so i'd call it another let down. once you've been up there it doesn't really seem any different each time. next time i go i'll try to coincide with some precipitation or go at night. one of the gentlemen we were with was extremely afraid of heights. i've always heard of people being afraid of heights, but haven't really been in any situations where said phobics had to confront their fear. but he was sweating profusely and would only look at the floor while he held onto the ceiling. the rest of us had to escort him back to the exit tram. anyhoo, the thai professors were only here for 3 days, but julie and i were the main people who hung out with them on a regular basis. it's just bizarre for me as a totally normal, relative insignificant to be assigned the task of hobnobbing with really important people, on behalf of the asian affairs center of the university. i guess i have learned how to initiate really good small talk in broken english since i went to korea, so perhaps that's my qualifying factor. if only i could communicate this well with people who aren't foreign. when the thai people left, they gave julie and i various gifts including really bright yellow golf shirts that said something about the queen. i now have a drawer full of gifts received from visiting asians.
now comes the topic of the sea cucumber. i'm pretty pleased that i don't know anyone else who has eaten a sea cucumber (besides julie and the chinese dudes who cooked for us). there is an epac group (english proficiency and culture)--comprised of peeps from the city of chongqing and the shandong province of china--that will be in columbia for 6 months. julie and i volunteered to be cultural ambassadors of sorts, so we've done lots of field trips, grocery trips and have just been hanging out with them. in return, they wanted to cook dinner for us. so last friday, we went to the apartment of some of the epac members (all dudes). immediately we were given lots of beer, fruit and mao tai (sp? no need to know how to spell it, just know that it's a narsty chinese liquor that could probably be used to strip paint or kill large game. super narsty). it was quite funny to see this really serious looking chinese man (who actually looked like kim jong il) don an apron and dangle a cigarette out of his mouth while he cooked. all the food was delicious, but when i went to the refrigerator, i saw a very strange thing. there was a big pot full of brown wiggly things. i immediately associated the creatures with octopus and squid that i saw in korea. there are some things that simply look too foreign to eat. we continued to drink and chip away at the many plates of food before us, but then came the presentation of these tubular spiky things. i didn't want to be rude. the men wouldn't tell jules and i what we were eating until we had eaten it. so i ate it, and it wasn't terrible. sort of tasted like a sea mushroom. or like eating an ear that had been marinating in salt water. and they made sure to tell us that sea cucumber was very expensive. so i ate it all. it was a good night, but i don't think i need to eat a sea cucumber ever again.
there is a woman sitting 2 feet away from me screaming russian into her phone. i hope she's okay. she just laughed so that's probably a good sign.
thursday and friday (yesterday) julie and i were given the privilege of teaching the shandong esl class. we thought it would be good to get them out and about, so on thursday we decided to talk about theatre and then take them on a tour of the missouri theatre. so six dudes show up who can barely understand a word we say. jules and i were very excited to get to teach the class, but we had no idea that their level of speaking/understanding was so low. we were used to the college aged korean kids who understood pretty much everything. so thursday was like pulling teeth, poor english speaking teeth. they were pretty ambivalent about the tour of the theatre, so on friday we thought we could talk about pets and then take them to the humane society. but on the way to the humane society we took them to rock bridge state park. it just so happens that on the way to rock bridge (if you keep going down rock quarry) there is a family that owns a camel and a zebra as pets. so we parked the van and took pictures with the camel. it was initially about 50 yards away, but when the chinese men started yelling at it, it actually came over to the fence and didn't spit all over us. so some peeps took pictures and some were actually frightened by it. the zebra didn't want anything to do with us.
so we had just shown them a camel and a zebra and were feeling pretty good, but then we got to the humane society and they just didn't care. i don't know if it was because they don't like animals or they couldn't understand the tour guide or maybe it was a combination of both. they like hanging out with me and jules, but they don't necessarily want to listen to us. fair enough.
last topic for now, the epi float trip on the current river. there were a lot of asians. i happened to be stuck in a canoe with the two smallest girls who were afraid of the water and didn't wear swimsuits. so i made sure to tip us over within 15 minutes of departure. i also was the only person who drank while we floated. it seems sort of sacreligious not to drink when you're in a canoe. after we'd been on the river for a while, i saw some white trash people (in a canoe? really?) with a beer bong. they invited me to "party barge it up!" and i accepted their invitation. i'm quite sure that will be the only time the two girls i was with will ever see a beer bong.
the day after the float trip we spent 3 hours outlet mall shopping at the lake of ozark. it was whilst sitting half asleep in a cold stone creamery that one of the korean students asked me the profound question "don't you ever get lonely?" they all think there's something wrong with me because i'm 27 and single. both of my sisters are married, so there must be something wrong with me. the emotional and physical pain of not being married! woe is me.
other than asians, not too much going on. last summer i called myself "the party." "the party" did lots of stupid things involving alcohol, swimming and bicycles (the best events happening when all three drunkenly collided). this summer i have been productive and haven't really gone out too much. dear god i hope i'm not growing up.
so i've been working at the asian affairs center on the mizzou campus. they were pretty great to me when i got back from korea and didn't want to work at the pizza place. when i first went and explained my trials and tribulations, they didn't sound very optimistic that they would be able to provide any work for me. but now it's a few months later and i'm working full time, getting the largest paychecks i've ever had in the united states. that's a pretty cool situation, it's also why the only things of note that have happened to me lately involve asians (and their cucumbers. heh heh). in the past couple of weeks i've met vietnamese students, korean students, chinese doctors, lawyers, professionals (i'm a language partner for the mayor of a small city in china), and thai professors. and for most of these people i am the first impression they get of the united states (or at least of columbia, mo). that feels pretty good.
when the thai professors got here on monday, julie and i got to be their tour guides of st. louis, which is sort of funny since i don't really know too much about how to get around st. louis, especially in a large van bursting with thai people and their luggage. but we did manage to get to the arch and go up it. it wasn't windy or anything, so i'd call it another let down. once you've been up there it doesn't really seem any different each time. next time i go i'll try to coincide with some precipitation or go at night. one of the gentlemen we were with was extremely afraid of heights. i've always heard of people being afraid of heights, but haven't really been in any situations where said phobics had to confront their fear. but he was sweating profusely and would only look at the floor while he held onto the ceiling. the rest of us had to escort him back to the exit tram. anyhoo, the thai professors were only here for 3 days, but julie and i were the main people who hung out with them on a regular basis. it's just bizarre for me as a totally normal, relative insignificant to be assigned the task of hobnobbing with really important people, on behalf of the asian affairs center of the university. i guess i have learned how to initiate really good small talk in broken english since i went to korea, so perhaps that's my qualifying factor. if only i could communicate this well with people who aren't foreign. when the thai people left, they gave julie and i various gifts including really bright yellow golf shirts that said something about the queen. i now have a drawer full of gifts received from visiting asians.
now comes the topic of the sea cucumber. i'm pretty pleased that i don't know anyone else who has eaten a sea cucumber (besides julie and the chinese dudes who cooked for us). there is an epac group (english proficiency and culture)--comprised of peeps from the city of chongqing and the shandong province of china--that will be in columbia for 6 months. julie and i volunteered to be cultural ambassadors of sorts, so we've done lots of field trips, grocery trips and have just been hanging out with them. in return, they wanted to cook dinner for us. so last friday, we went to the apartment of some of the epac members (all dudes). immediately we were given lots of beer, fruit and mao tai (sp? no need to know how to spell it, just know that it's a narsty chinese liquor that could probably be used to strip paint or kill large game. super narsty). it was quite funny to see this really serious looking chinese man (who actually looked like kim jong il) don an apron and dangle a cigarette out of his mouth while he cooked. all the food was delicious, but when i went to the refrigerator, i saw a very strange thing. there was a big pot full of brown wiggly things. i immediately associated the creatures with octopus and squid that i saw in korea. there are some things that simply look too foreign to eat. we continued to drink and chip away at the many plates of food before us, but then came the presentation of these tubular spiky things. i didn't want to be rude. the men wouldn't tell jules and i what we were eating until we had eaten it. so i ate it, and it wasn't terrible. sort of tasted like a sea mushroom. or like eating an ear that had been marinating in salt water. and they made sure to tell us that sea cucumber was very expensive. so i ate it all. it was a good night, but i don't think i need to eat a sea cucumber ever again.
there is a woman sitting 2 feet away from me screaming russian into her phone. i hope she's okay. she just laughed so that's probably a good sign.
thursday and friday (yesterday) julie and i were given the privilege of teaching the shandong esl class. we thought it would be good to get them out and about, so on thursday we decided to talk about theatre and then take them on a tour of the missouri theatre. so six dudes show up who can barely understand a word we say. jules and i were very excited to get to teach the class, but we had no idea that their level of speaking/understanding was so low. we were used to the college aged korean kids who understood pretty much everything. so thursday was like pulling teeth, poor english speaking teeth. they were pretty ambivalent about the tour of the theatre, so on friday we thought we could talk about pets and then take them to the humane society. but on the way to the humane society we took them to rock bridge state park. it just so happens that on the way to rock bridge (if you keep going down rock quarry) there is a family that owns a camel and a zebra as pets. so we parked the van and took pictures with the camel. it was initially about 50 yards away, but when the chinese men started yelling at it, it actually came over to the fence and didn't spit all over us. so some peeps took pictures and some were actually frightened by it. the zebra didn't want anything to do with us.
so we had just shown them a camel and a zebra and were feeling pretty good, but then we got to the humane society and they just didn't care. i don't know if it was because they don't like animals or they couldn't understand the tour guide or maybe it was a combination of both. they like hanging out with me and jules, but they don't necessarily want to listen to us. fair enough.
last topic for now, the epi float trip on the current river. there were a lot of asians. i happened to be stuck in a canoe with the two smallest girls who were afraid of the water and didn't wear swimsuits. so i made sure to tip us over within 15 minutes of departure. i also was the only person who drank while we floated. it seems sort of sacreligious not to drink when you're in a canoe. after we'd been on the river for a while, i saw some white trash people (in a canoe? really?) with a beer bong. they invited me to "party barge it up!" and i accepted their invitation. i'm quite sure that will be the only time the two girls i was with will ever see a beer bong.
the day after the float trip we spent 3 hours outlet mall shopping at the lake of ozark. it was whilst sitting half asleep in a cold stone creamery that one of the korean students asked me the profound question "don't you ever get lonely?" they all think there's something wrong with me because i'm 27 and single. both of my sisters are married, so there must be something wrong with me. the emotional and physical pain of not being married! woe is me.
other than asians, not too much going on. last summer i called myself "the party." "the party" did lots of stupid things involving alcohol, swimming and bicycles (the best events happening when all three drunkenly collided). this summer i have been productive and haven't really gone out too much. dear god i hope i'm not growing up.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Saturday, July 15, 2006
things and stuff
i guess someone needs to write something new on here. so it will be me! i am getting ready to go to kansas city with the korean epi (english proficiency & internship) group. it should be a grand time. i'm just excited because i remembered to bring some cds with me for the drive. good thing it will be nice and hot when we get to the plaza.
2 weekends ago some of the epi gang came to videology ("indie" rock music videos on a big screen + dancing = happy fun time). it was pretty funny and we danced like idiots. all the hipster kids were wondering where the hell julie and i came from with a posse of asians in tow.
2 weekends ago some of the epi gang came to videology ("indie" rock music videos on a big screen + dancing = happy fun time). it was pretty funny and we danced like idiots. all the hipster kids were wondering where the hell julie and i came from with a posse of asians in tow.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
rex in effex
i know i probably didn't spell that correctly. but i have a funny carpentry story. first things first, my left foot stepped on a nail yesterday. that's it! that's my funny story! just kidding. it didn't go in very far, and it didn't really even bleed too much. so i guess that's good. it was quite the odd sensation. i've only stepped on a nail once before in my life, when i was little, and i cried/bled a lot then and dad wrapped my foot in a red bandana so i couldn't tell just how much blood was exiting my body (smart move, or maybe that's the only color he had. i dunno). anyhoo, i poured water on my foot then smeared some neosporin and a bandaid on the puncture wound and went back to work. and yes, i've had a tetanis (sp?) shot in recent years. i don't know when those things expire, but i guess i'll know when i get deathly ill here in the next couple of days....perhaps my foot will fall off. so it's a very good thing i'm right footed.
other stuff about the jobby job. i've only been really working in one house for the past two weeks. it's unfinished (duh) and i'm there to install baseboards and door frames and other random wood-requiring jobs--i put a picture frame type thing over the attic access in the garage yesterday so it doesn't just look like a hunk of debris falling out of the drywall sky. the two houses i've actually seen since i started working have been pretty ginormous and extravagant. the one i'm working in is the lesser of the two--i call it my practice house. i'm sure the future homeowners would love to know that their less than humble abode was my guinea pig. a wooden guinea pig. so we're there doing the wood stuff, and then the hardwood floor and tile people come and then the air conditioning folks. plus the contracter (who vaguely resembles einstein) walks around in his penny loafters inspecting everything and mumbling curse words under his breath.
it's kind of bizarre to think that i'm helping construct a kind of house i will never ever be able to afford. and neither will any of the other laborers there on their hands and knees. but i guess i don't really need a 3 million dollar house with a separate shower for the dog. surely there's a better way to display one's wealth...
but there is something really satisfying about going into an un-air conditioned house for 8 hours a day and messing up a bunch of wood. i don't remember ever sweating as much (except maybe show me state games basketball, but that's a whole nother beast), and i come home exhausted and covered in a thin layer of sawdust and random grime. for the most part i only work with one other person, and i get to work on "projects" all day long. there's no customer service to worry about--being polite to people for whom i have no respect--and i get to actually learn a trade. all in all, it's pretty great. i also like the fact that i'm the only chick. which leads me to rex in effex.
on wednesday, there was some other dude in the house i was working on. he never introduced himself, but i figured out his name was rex. he was installing doors and seemed to be struggling a bit with the miter saw. he couldn't get the angle to set because one of the handles was broken, replaced by a wrench. so i see this man having problems and i hesitated to tell him how to work the saw, because he looked like a good ol' boy from jeff city and would probably take offense to being instructed by a female in the arguably male domain. anyhoo, i show him how to use it and he doesn't say thank you or anything at all. he sort of snorted a little as if to say "i don't need your help. i'm a perfectly capable carpenter who knows how to work a saw with a wrench for a handle." but i guess that's reading a lot into a snort.
after that he wouldn't even look at me and he kept stealing my tools and saying "are you finished yet?" go get your own nail gun! then he was waiting behind me to use the saw and he's holding this giant door. so i finish with the saw, he waits for me to leave, then he goes and fetches the other guy who's working so he can help him hold the door while he cuts it. i was standing right there, but he didn't want to ask me for help. with my weaker female genes, there's no way i could hold up a man's door.
on thursday, rex doesn't come to work. apparently he wanted $30/hr. and he didn't like blacks or "mexicans." and when scott (my boss) told him that Jamie was a girl, his response was "you hired a girl?" i think that's funny. scott told him he didn't really have enough work for him anyway.
not really much more to report. things are relatively tame in my life right now. i will be starting some random work at the asian affairs center pretty soon. i get to take asians on field trips throughout missouri. and on tuesday i get to pick up a group of koreans from the stl airport. my smiling face will be their first glimpse of columbia, mo. and i think that's pretty damn cool.
other stuff about the jobby job. i've only been really working in one house for the past two weeks. it's unfinished (duh) and i'm there to install baseboards and door frames and other random wood-requiring jobs--i put a picture frame type thing over the attic access in the garage yesterday so it doesn't just look like a hunk of debris falling out of the drywall sky. the two houses i've actually seen since i started working have been pretty ginormous and extravagant. the one i'm working in is the lesser of the two--i call it my practice house. i'm sure the future homeowners would love to know that their less than humble abode was my guinea pig. a wooden guinea pig. so we're there doing the wood stuff, and then the hardwood floor and tile people come and then the air conditioning folks. plus the contracter (who vaguely resembles einstein) walks around in his penny loafters inspecting everything and mumbling curse words under his breath.
it's kind of bizarre to think that i'm helping construct a kind of house i will never ever be able to afford. and neither will any of the other laborers there on their hands and knees. but i guess i don't really need a 3 million dollar house with a separate shower for the dog. surely there's a better way to display one's wealth...
but there is something really satisfying about going into an un-air conditioned house for 8 hours a day and messing up a bunch of wood. i don't remember ever sweating as much (except maybe show me state games basketball, but that's a whole nother beast), and i come home exhausted and covered in a thin layer of sawdust and random grime. for the most part i only work with one other person, and i get to work on "projects" all day long. there's no customer service to worry about--being polite to people for whom i have no respect--and i get to actually learn a trade. all in all, it's pretty great. i also like the fact that i'm the only chick. which leads me to rex in effex.
on wednesday, there was some other dude in the house i was working on. he never introduced himself, but i figured out his name was rex. he was installing doors and seemed to be struggling a bit with the miter saw. he couldn't get the angle to set because one of the handles was broken, replaced by a wrench. so i see this man having problems and i hesitated to tell him how to work the saw, because he looked like a good ol' boy from jeff city and would probably take offense to being instructed by a female in the arguably male domain. anyhoo, i show him how to use it and he doesn't say thank you or anything at all. he sort of snorted a little as if to say "i don't need your help. i'm a perfectly capable carpenter who knows how to work a saw with a wrench for a handle." but i guess that's reading a lot into a snort.
after that he wouldn't even look at me and he kept stealing my tools and saying "are you finished yet?" go get your own nail gun! then he was waiting behind me to use the saw and he's holding this giant door. so i finish with the saw, he waits for me to leave, then he goes and fetches the other guy who's working so he can help him hold the door while he cuts it. i was standing right there, but he didn't want to ask me for help. with my weaker female genes, there's no way i could hold up a man's door.
on thursday, rex doesn't come to work. apparently he wanted $30/hr. and he didn't like blacks or "mexicans." and when scott (my boss) told him that Jamie was a girl, his response was "you hired a girl?" i think that's funny. scott told him he didn't really have enough work for him anyway.
not really much more to report. things are relatively tame in my life right now. i will be starting some random work at the asian affairs center pretty soon. i get to take asians on field trips throughout missouri. and on tuesday i get to pick up a group of koreans from the stl airport. my smiling face will be their first glimpse of columbia, mo. and i think that's pretty damn cool.
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