Working!

I wrote earlier that I was scheduled to begin a job at LANL (Los Alamos National Labs) on Monday, July 18th – if I got a security clearance. Well, I guess they decided I'm secure enough to work there (and be watched moment-by-moment), but there were some delays, so they put off the beginning of the job. I was beginning to think that maybe it would all evaporate until they finally called me Tuesday afternoon to say we started work on Wednesday the 20th (my birthday).

For those of you who don’t know, Los Alamos is a 45-minute drive from Santa Fe. I had the option of driving myself and hoping I could find some people to carpool with or else to take the Park and Ride bus. When I checked it out, I had to leave 40 minutes earlier taking the bus than driving, and I couldn’t leave until 25 minutes after I was supposed to get off work. That swung it. I drove.

I expected to be working with a lot of 20somethings with no job skills. I was wrong. Most of the other guys are over 30, and one is probably over 65. There’s a computer programmer, a newspaper pre-press manager, and an 8th grade history teacher, among other “real” jobs they have or had. I’ve talked a lot with the teacher – in fact, he’s one of 2 guys that have ended up riding with me.

The first day of work the job reminded me some of working in movies – lots of hurry up and wait. We waited, in fact, most of the day, off and on. And when we did work, there wasn’t a whole lot of work to it. We mainly just pushed big computer cabinets (about the size of refrigerators) around, getting them to the place where we’d (the next day) begin to install the computer system. The next day (Thursday) was more work and more satisfying when we actually began to wire up the system.

The other main thing that stands out to me to write about is the security measures. I’ve never before seen such security measures. We have escorts with higher security clearances who go with us everywhere and who can’t let us out of their sight even for a moment. If one of us needs to go to the rest room, several of us have to go with an escort. There are places where we have to sign in to get through a locked door, then sign again when we’ve gotten through and get a badge to wear. A good part of the time, we were wearing 3 different badges. And there are lots of places with artificial lines that can’t be crossed, so one team pushes the cabinets just over the line without crossing it themselves, and another team takes them from there into the elevator. Then another team takes them out of the elevator to a door, and a fourth team takes them from that door to where they belong. There’s more, but I don’t want to write for pages about this.

I was led to expect a fairly steady 3 days per week (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday) for 8 hours per day at $18 per hour for 5 or 6 weeks. However, it hasn’t turned out that way at all. The first week we worked Wednesday 7 ½ hours and Thursday 6 ½ hours. Then we found out that something wasn’t working right, so we weren’t working Friday and maybe next week at all. Then when I took my time card in on Friday, I was told that maybe we’d start working again this coming Thursday. Or things could change again. It’s definitely an exercise in being flexible. But the money is good.

So, tomorrow I'm letting the temp agencies know that I'm available until further notice. It would be nice to get something else for Tuesday and Wednesday if we aren’t working at LANL again until Thursday.

By the way, I also applied for a part-time concierge job at the St. Francis Hotel this past Tuesday. I’d love to have it, and I haven’t heard anything at all, so I'm not feeling hopeful. I need to get back to doing my own work, too. And, of course, school and substitute teaching begins again toward the end of August.

And, of course, there are auditions and casting calls. More about that in my acting blog.

Namaste,
Michael

My birthday

My birthday was last Wednesday (the 20th). Another milestone passed. Another year to add to the count. I'm now 59 years old chronologically. Can you believe it? I can’t. I still feel like I'm 35 or 40, and most people guess me to be 10 or 15 years younger than I am. I'm sure my Real Age is less than that, too. But, I have been on earth 59 years and a few days now. I'm recalling what my friend and former sister-in-law Barbara said the year she turned 50. Lots of people told her she didn’t look anywhere near 50. She replied, “Yes, I do. This is what 50 looks like.” But age prejudice is really strong in this country – at least among the white culture. So, a lot of the time I prefer not to tell people how old I am. They have images of 59 that more accurately fit my parents than me.

Anyway, it was a good day. I worked all day at LANL making $18 per hour (more about that in another message), and it was a very light workday. That felt like an unusual birthday gift, but a birthday gift nonetheless. The opportunity to work and make some money is truly a wonderful gift.

Then I went over to Antoinette’s house. She had some gifts for me and a custom-made cake from Whole Foods – one of my favorite kinds. We drank a Martinelli’s toast and then went to dinner at Vanessie’s. It’s a restaurant she’d been to for a concierge party, but I’d never been there. She had a gift certificate that they’d given her for $100, so we did our best to eat exactly $100 worth of food. Each of us had an appetizer (I had shrimp cocktail). We shared a Caesar salad, 2 entrees (ahi tuna and halibut), garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus, and a piece of fabulous chocolate cake. The tab came to $100.03. Pretty good, huh? Then we went back to her house, and each of us ate a small piece of my birthday cake. We were stuffed, and I had enough leftovers for dinner the next day, not to mention enough cake for several days.

I noticed something important. I felt disappointed that more people didn’t acknowledge my birthday. That renewed my commitment to acknowledge the birthdays of other people I care about. It really doesn’t take much time for me to do, and it seems to me like it’s worth a lot more than the little bit of time and effort I put into it. So, if I know your birthday, I'm pledging to acknowledge it in some way when the day comes. And I'm going to see if I can’t find out some more birthdates, too.

Warmly,
Michael