MetaChat - Just home from work.

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13 June 2006

Just home from work. →[More:] I started at the bowling alley tonight. It was pretty neat; not a lot to do on a weeknight. I'm sure it'll be busier on Saturday. Yes, mudpuppie, I do spray the shoes. I can also dispense alcohol at the bar (though I am not technically a bartender, and our license is strictly wine and beer).

What cool (part-time) jobs have you had?

post by: Eideteker at: 21:45 | 19 comments

Oh, and I can bowl for free on my nights off. Hot-cha!

posted by Eideteker 13 June | 22:06

"Cool" is a bit subjective, but here's a sample of part-time jobs I've held in the past:

-Telemarketer (I was 13, it was like getting paid to prank call)
-Movie Theater/Video Store
-Waitress (for three days!)
-Clothing Store
-Bargain Book Store
-Census trainee (I passed all the testing and interviews, only to find out that since I wasn't 18, they really didn't have anything for me to do)
-Pharmacy
-Grocery Store
-School Bookstore
-SAT Tutor
-Department Store

posted by SassHat 13 June | 22:07

I don't think I've ever had a "cool" job. But did I ever tell you that my grandfather had a regulation bowling lane built in his basement? That's pretty cool.

posted by jrossi4r 13 June | 22:10

jrossi4r, that's not cool. That's awesome. In my lotto winning fantasies there is most definitely a regulation bowling lane in my basement.

posted by LeeJay 13 June | 22:27

I once designed a website for a gay escort. That was pretty cool. Especially when he asked me for advice on which of his naked pictures he should put online.

posted by LeeJay 13 June | 22:30

LeeJay, was it Gannon/Guckert?

posted by amberglow 13 June | 22:31

Eide, do they have leagues? what are the people like?

posted by amberglow 13 June | 22:32

In college I had a job counting worms into styrofoam cups for a bait shop.

posted by mudpuppie 13 June | 22:37

I have a temp job right now in the earth science museum. It's pretty cool - I get to give away fossilized shark's teeth to kids!

posted by mygothlaundry 13 June | 22:37

LeeJay, was it Gannon/Guckert?

Heh. No this guy was much hotter and not such a complete tool.

posted by LeeJay 13 June | 22:40

Homer, did you put your head in the shine-o-ball-o?
/homer's dream job episode

I spent two and a half years working as a valet. That was gobs of fun and easy money. A friend of mine even found a huge bag of mystery pills in a car once... Then there was the time I was all alone in the garage and there were weird noises coming from somewhere inside the car. It turned out there was a Furby under the seat and someone had left it switched on.

posted by pieisexactlythree 13 June | 23:07

I was a pea viner (harvesting combine driver), a museum exhibit designer (Pacific Science Center) and a Goodwill donation station attendant (very weird stuff goes through those places.)

posted by warbaby 13 June | 23:10

do they have leagues? what are the people like?

Not during the summer. Everyone so far seems very laid back. I keep waiting for Sam Elliot to show up.

posted by Eideteker 13 June | 23:38

eid - you work...at a bowling alley?

...you get...free games?

You are my god.

posted by muddgirl 13 June | 23:44

Whoo-hoo! Suck it, Crom; your girl's riding with me now!

posted by Eideteker 14 June | 00:36

Delivering pizza was the best job I ever had.

posted by knave 14 June | 03:23

Let's see... fast food - that sucked. Bartender at a country club - that ruled, and I made tons of money. Writer - that was perfect... I was so free and happy. But then I got hired full time, and then I became an editor. Then I started getting chronic migraines.

What I do now - designing web sites, is unfortunately part time. "Unfortunately" because I'm poor... other than that, I mostly like it. I love the work, but sometimes I can't deal with the clients.

posted by taz 14 June | 04:11

My first real job was in a bowling alley. I was an "automatic pinsetter mechanic" (a "ball chaser.")

Your ball got stuck and didn't come back? The machine dropped your pins when it should have set up the 7-10 split you just threw? You needed a friend to cheat for you and set you up colored pins for a chance to win money on rainbow bowling night? That was me, crawling around on and inside the machines.

We were all insane and practical jokes were constant in the little alley and shop-room behind the bowling machine.

posted by shane 14 June | 07:57

I worked in the box office of a pre-restored 1920s theatre. There were a lot of slow days, during which I'd wander out onto the giant proscenium stage, ait down, and stare into the house, watching flakes of plaster and paint fall gently from the ceiling onto the tattered red velvet seats.

Happy story -- the theatre was eventually beautifully restored and is now a centerpiece of the downtown arts scene in that town. In high school I also went to the workparty where we tore out the old seats and the 60-year-old carpets. We found lots of old pennies and ticket stubs, and even some petrified candy and popcorn.

posted by Miko 14 June | 08:22

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