call me manuel laboroso
The life of a mercenary maintenance worker is a rough one. Since I finished cleaning up the restaurant/bar/kitchen, they put me to use in Housekeeping, which mostly consisted of steam cleaning YET AGAIN (at least not on my hands and knees, thanks AB), but they only needed me for half a day. So now I'm one of the jumpsuits.
8:10am. We ripped bricks out of fireplaces. 85 rooms total. I smashed my finger during the frustration of realizing my first fireplace was smarter than I. It hurt A LOT and is currently swollen. After one maintenance guy tried to coach me in how to work the jammed tiles/bricks, he finally gave in and wrenched it out in 30 seconds, in what took me 10min to fuck up. Embarrassment. Even worse was the other two housekeepers that were hired to help out figured out the fireplace in about a minute, and had finished at least 5 rooms apiece while I struggled with my first one. The Bulgarian bodybuilder said he didn't know I was lazy. More embarrassment. Frustration. I figured it out and we knocked out the rest in about 25min. Boarded up windows. Helped roll out a water pipe for some reason. Break time! Then the fun happened. We painted. In 35-39 degree weather. Raining. 11am-415pm. The only time the rain let up was when we went on lunch break. I very distinctly remember painting one side of a deck as a trickle of water fell from the roof and splashed my face and head wherever i turned. Every drip i said, "done with this place!" both aloud and to myself. I think that's why Trip looked at me funny for a little bit.
I'm starting to wonder if it was really worth the extra $150-200 paycheck to stay for maintenance.
Fortunately, it's just for 2 more days, then I pack and am out of Cooper (Cookoo) Landing by Friday afternoon.
I did learn one thing from the whole experience, if anything. I can put up with hours of cleaning/painting with or without music! Hmmm...parttime job cleaning houses? I'm serious.
I can't stop listening to the free tracks on Jenny Lewis's myspace page. They're from her new album "Acid Tongue" which officially dropped today. It might be the lack of sleep, or the repetition of the song "Carpetbaggers", but I would kill to have the warbly rattling vocals of Mr. Elvis Costello.
On that note, I miss music. A LOT. Not having a laptop/free range internet has restricted so much of my freetime, which normally consists of acquiring music. I have at least 5 CDs in my possession that I have not had the chance to upload to my hard drive or even onto my MP3 player, which pisses me off. I've had them for at least a month or more, but no one has given me the chance to upload them anywhere. This lobby computer won't let me install anything without the administrator password, which is nonexistent. Ergo, no iTunes, Realplayer, or any other MP3-ripping programs. Fortunately, when I get to San Diego I'm sure my hostess, aka the Ginger Ninja will let me do the honors of feeding my music appetite for JPP (my player). Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I stole at least 2000 songs from other people before they left, and plan on buying at least 4 more CDs before I get home. Addiction.
I've decided to label the next month on the calendar "Rocktober" because I am slowly but surely setting myself up for seeing as much live music as I can within those 31 days, namely the 15 days of it that I will be re-adjusting to life in Columbus. I already have 3 highly anticipated shows lined up. The Dirtbombs in Cincinnati 10/18. Electric Six in Columbus 10/20. Gym Class Heroes in Detroit 10/24. I'm hoping to get at least one more in to have 4 total, to make up for every month i missed some damn good acts (June-Sept). I can't wait.
On that note, I was really looking forward to the Electric Six concert for other reasons, namely the anticipated "welcome back to the contiguous US reunuion/get schwasted" night of my friend Jeff and I. Unfortunately, he made other plans. I'm still going, and wrangled another person to go instead. Just kind of a bummer because I based a majority of my vacation plans to get back to Columbus in time for the event, but it will work out just fine anyways. No biggie, the reunion night will be rescheduled at a later date.
Today, 7 KPL stragglers remain. Tomorrow, probably 3. The end draws nigh...
rock on,
-yohe
8:10am. We ripped bricks out of fireplaces. 85 rooms total. I smashed my finger during the frustration of realizing my first fireplace was smarter than I. It hurt A LOT and is currently swollen. After one maintenance guy tried to coach me in how to work the jammed tiles/bricks, he finally gave in and wrenched it out in 30 seconds, in what took me 10min to fuck up. Embarrassment. Even worse was the other two housekeepers that were hired to help out figured out the fireplace in about a minute, and had finished at least 5 rooms apiece while I struggled with my first one. The Bulgarian bodybuilder said he didn't know I was lazy. More embarrassment. Frustration. I figured it out and we knocked out the rest in about 25min. Boarded up windows. Helped roll out a water pipe for some reason. Break time! Then the fun happened. We painted. In 35-39 degree weather. Raining. 11am-415pm. The only time the rain let up was when we went on lunch break. I very distinctly remember painting one side of a deck as a trickle of water fell from the roof and splashed my face and head wherever i turned. Every drip i said, "done with this place!" both aloud and to myself. I think that's why Trip looked at me funny for a little bit.
I'm starting to wonder if it was really worth the extra $150-200 paycheck to stay for maintenance.
Fortunately, it's just for 2 more days, then I pack and am out of Cooper (Cookoo) Landing by Friday afternoon.
I did learn one thing from the whole experience, if anything. I can put up with hours of cleaning/painting with or without music! Hmmm...parttime job cleaning houses? I'm serious.
I can't stop listening to the free tracks on Jenny Lewis's myspace page. They're from her new album "Acid Tongue" which officially dropped today. It might be the lack of sleep, or the repetition of the song "Carpetbaggers", but I would kill to have the warbly rattling vocals of Mr. Elvis Costello.
On that note, I miss music. A LOT. Not having a laptop/free range internet has restricted so much of my freetime, which normally consists of acquiring music. I have at least 5 CDs in my possession that I have not had the chance to upload to my hard drive or even onto my MP3 player, which pisses me off. I've had them for at least a month or more, but no one has given me the chance to upload them anywhere. This lobby computer won't let me install anything without the administrator password, which is nonexistent. Ergo, no iTunes, Realplayer, or any other MP3-ripping programs. Fortunately, when I get to San Diego I'm sure my hostess, aka the Ginger Ninja will let me do the honors of feeding my music appetite for JPP (my player). Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I stole at least 2000 songs from other people before they left, and plan on buying at least 4 more CDs before I get home. Addiction.
I've decided to label the next month on the calendar "Rocktober" because I am slowly but surely setting myself up for seeing as much live music as I can within those 31 days, namely the 15 days of it that I will be re-adjusting to life in Columbus. I already have 3 highly anticipated shows lined up. The Dirtbombs in Cincinnati 10/18. Electric Six in Columbus 10/20. Gym Class Heroes in Detroit 10/24. I'm hoping to get at least one more in to have 4 total, to make up for every month i missed some damn good acts (June-Sept). I can't wait.
On that note, I was really looking forward to the Electric Six concert for other reasons, namely the anticipated "welcome back to the contiguous US reunuion/get schwasted" night of my friend Jeff and I. Unfortunately, he made other plans. I'm still going, and wrangled another person to go instead. Just kind of a bummer because I based a majority of my vacation plans to get back to Columbus in time for the event, but it will work out just fine anyways. No biggie, the reunion night will be rescheduled at a later date.
Today, 7 KPL stragglers remain. Tomorrow, probably 3. The end draws nigh...
rock on,
-yohe