Quite some time ago, I heard a segment on NPR about Vocation Vacations. A vocation vacation is this cool program that allows you to “try out” your dream job. I got to thinking about this again when Bethany and Heather both commented on my Working Girl post that they had been Library Pages. You see, I am fascinated by the library. I love that things are so in order, I love that there is a place for everything, and I love that there is a definite process at a library.

I am not sure when my fascination with libraries began, I think it may have been around the time I took Library Science 101 at UofO.  This class was designed to prepare Journalism students for the dreaded J202 – Information Gathering (nicknamed Info Hell). The class project for Info Hell was a two-hundred some page paper. So, yeah, you needed to know how to use the library. The class was only worth one or two credits and was only once a week, but I LOVED it. My love for it paid off, because it was the first college course in which I earned an A.

So, I began to wonder, if I were to take vocation vacation, would I do it in a library? Would I bag my big plans for a Masters in Strategic Communication in exchange for a Masters in Library Science?

And, does it has to be a vocation that I’m interested in making my own? Or, can it just be something I’d like to do for a couple hours, just to see what it’s like. Ideally, I’d like to take a week or so and try out each of these

Warning – The list below completely underlines what a strange girl I am. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Also, these aren’t so much jobs I’d like for a career, they’re just jobs I’d like to try out for an hour or two.

• Assembling the tiny meals for airline passengers
• Processing Netflix Returns
• Sorting Mail
• Doing the shopping for online orders grocery stores
• The person who makes the announcements on the PA at Nordstrom, but, I don’t want to answer the phones, I only want to talk over the PA.
• The person who gets to mix the paint at the hardware store

So, can any of you hook me up with one of the above jobs for a day? Pretty please? If you can’t, don’t worry, I suppose I’ll get over it. Just tell me, if you could go on a vocation vacation, what would you pick?

I’ve been spending a good chunk of time riding to and fro on the public transport. And, you know I have social anxiety about speaking to people I don’t know, so I turn my iPod up as high as it will go to drown out anyone who insists on speaking to a person who CLEARLY is listening to music. I’m sure it makes me look like a bitch, but it keeps me from hyperventilating. So, it must be done.

Sometimes, a song will come on shuffle that completely brings me back to a certain time or place, sometimes with fond memories. Sometimes with not so fond memories. But, I think my taste in music over the years is pretty damn entertaining. So, for you, I am documenting it. You can thank me later.

Childhood

• Gloria, by Laura Branigan (my mom had the record!)
• The Farmer in the Dell (so says my baby book!)
• Meet Me in Montana by Marie Osmond (it’s a good song and you know it!)

The Ugly Stage (Note: I had the worlds longest ugliest stage, I’d say from about 7-13)

• Electric Youth by Debbie Gibson (I also had the perfume, I meant business!)
• I Think We’re Alone Now by Tiffany (like you didn’t love this song)
• Forever Your Girl by Paula Abdul (my cousin Lisa and I had a dance that I will totally perform if I’ve had the right amount of wine)
• Hold On by Wilson Phillips (you know you wanted your hair to look JUST like Chynna Phillips’)
• Cover Girl by New Kids on the Block (I just LOVED listening to this song on my pink tape deck first think in the morning. I was a strange child.)

Jr. High (let’s all remember where I grew up for this portion of the exercise)

• Words by Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus (I downloaded this from iTunes and now want my 99 cents back.)
• He Thinks He’ll Keep Her by Mary Chapin Carpenter (according to this song, I should be delivering #3 at my age. Oops!)
• Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton (I fell deeply in love with Eric Clapton after seeing him on The Grammy’s, until I listened to one of my dad’s tapes of his and realizing that all his other music sucked. I’m guessing is target audience isn’t 12 year old girls from Canby?)

High School

• Set U Free by Planet Soul (My BFF Emily and I could not function without hearing this song at LEAST 14 times per day)
• Water Runs Dry by Boyz II Men (I went to this concert and was pretty sure that Juanya was singing to ME)
• Stay by Lisa Loeb (I sounded SO good singing this in my purple Chevrolet Cavalier)
• How Can I Help You by Patty Loveless (BFF Emily and I sounded SO good singing this in my bedroom, it was meant to be a duet, didn’t you know?)
• Creep by TLC (here’s where you should feel SO bad for Emily’s parents – they let us listen to the Crazy.Sexy.Cool CD all the way from Portland to Tacoma. And, we sang along. I owe them an apology for that.)
• I’m Sensitive by Jewel (we learned about the Cynics in Western Civ and the song brought on a WHOLE new meaning for me. HA!)
• Anything ever put on an MTV Party to Go CD (oh dear, I was a sad, sad teenager)

Freshman Year at University of Oregon

Note: This is when I became very melancholy. I don’t know how anybody put up with me. I preferred to listen to really mellow music, because if I listened to anything else, that might have put me in a better mood. Also, I had a boyfriend on a mission all the way in New York, and I liked to listen to music that made me think of how beautiful and deep our relationship was (HA!). Also, this was the era of the sleeping tape (right, Krissy?!) in which I’d spend many an hour making the perfect mix of music to fall asleep to.

• My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion (how many times did YOU see Titanic? I saw it more than once, I know, but can’t remember how many actual times P.S. My brother SOBBED during it. I like to bring that up on occasion).
• The Promise by Tracy Chapman (perfect for when your boyfriend is on his LDS mission)
• Truly, Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden (saw them in concert with my MOM!)
• Falling in Love by Lisa Loeb (saw her in concert with my MOM!)
• Anything that would make me cry

The Clubbing Years

These are the years when we’d go out BOTH Friday and Saturday nights. Mainly to The Ram in Lake Oswego. Nights were spent dancing with random boys and drinking Raspberry Iced Teas (um, with much alcohol) served in carafes. Also, I wore extremely expensive clothing during the clubbing years. Like $80 for a top. That covered nothing. I’d like to have that body back, thank you.

• Blue by Eiffel 65 (MAKE IT STOP)
• Crazy by Britney Spears (I remember dancing away to this song after many a Duck Fart on Hollie’s and my 21st Birthday)
• Jumpin Jumpin by Destiny’s Child
• Wanna Be a Baller by Lil’ Troy (oh my freaking heck, many a memory in a bikini floating down the Willamette River on a boat listening to this song. I want those abs back. But, I’ll keep the boobs I have now, thanks)
• Also, anything that I could shake my non-existent ass to.

From The Clubbing Years on? I’ve been listening to GOOD music. My list?

• Pink Martini
• Lisa Loeb
• Emiliana Torrini
• Death Cab for Cutie
• Howie Day
• The Postal Service
• Morrissey (okay, again with the melancholy)
• and, maybe a little tiny bit of Britney

What’s the most embarrassing in the soundtrack of your youth? I think I’ll send a Rhiannon Mix CD to the MOST embarrassing song.

Any time my grandma saw me in my uniform, she’d chase me around with her camera. I found this picture recently while going through her things.

When I was 16, I got my first “real” job. I wanted a car, and to have a car my completely unreasonable mother and step-father insisted that I pay my own car insurance. I’m kidding about the completely unreasonable, they were only partially unreasonable and it was about the amount of car insurance I had to pay (um, all of mine and also a portion of theirs, makes no sense). Anyway, it was somehow decided that I would apply at Safeway. I was horrified when they actually hired me as a Courtesy Clerk, I mean I had NO experience bagging groceries. Also, I was constantly I nicking my mom’s heels with the cart while I pushed when she was shopping.

One Saturday morning, my mom deposited me at “Courtesy Clerk School” where I learned never to bag butter with onions. Or, butter with cleaning products. Or, how about you just put the butter in it’s own damn bag. Again, I was horrified when I graduated from “Courtesy Clerk School” and was authorized to go work. In an actual store.

On my first day, as my dad dropped me off at work, I burst into tears, telling him, “Daddy, I don’t want to go to work.” Shut up, you would have cried too, had you known you were going to have to count rancid beer bottles. He looked right at me and said, “Rhiannon, you’re going to be feeling this way for the rest of your life.”

And, so I went in. And, I worked. I worked there for two and a half years. In that first summer I worked there, not only was I hit by an old woman’s boat of a car (bruises only), I also got heat exhaustion from carrying out groceries in the 103 degree weather. But, I made friends. And, the most annoying, I learned.

When I turned 18, I was promoted. To checker! One of my first days checking was right before Christmas. I am pretty sure I accidentally gave away several Christmas Dinners from the Deli. Oops. I prided myself in my ability to know the most obscure produce codes (Italian Parsley! Bok Choy!) I was obsessive compulsive about the way my money was arranged in my cash drawer and the way my coupons were stacked in my coupon envelope. I cringed when a child handed me a sweaty dollar bill all wadded up from their hand. I was a little sad when a family came in and paid with food stamps, and a lot angry when someone would come and try to purchase cigarettes with food stamps.

Soon, it was time for me to go off to college, and say good bye to Safeway. I stopped by to say hello when I was home from Eugene for the weekend. After a while, most of the people I knew stopped working there. And, I stopped dropping in to say hello. But, I have fond memories of my time spent at Safeway. Especially the produce codes. Sometimes, it takes all my willpower not to shout them out when I’m being rung up at the store.

I’m curious – what was your first job? Do you have fond memories of it, or just the opposite?