eric's little black star » Oh! Employment!

eric on Jun 9th 2009 at 8:25 am Random Life Stuff

Oh! Employment!

Well now. It seems I’m officially employed. Look at me! It’s about time, I guess.

I had this plan to find work in Pennsylvania for the summer, but there seems to be nothing that pays well enough for me to go back.

The prospect of riding twice across the country (there and back) was a huge selling point. But there’s nothing really there, job-wise.

So anyway. The job. I am an “unloader.” I work from 5-11pm, which aren’t really bad hours – though may possibly not be enough to survive upon. At five, we prep the “backroom” by cleaning up and getting ready to unload a truck at 6. From 6 to 9ish, we are killing ourselves to unload the truck. We are rated on how fast we can unload it. The faster the better (and, as we know, the faster you do something, the less safe it is – and I can see that becoming an issue).

It’s sort of similar to my job in highschool at Weis Markets. We had to unload a truck as well. But I was 17, in better shame and everything was on pallets.

Here and now, very few things are on pallets and we sort the items as we pull them off “the line.”

Now, this doesn’t seem like it would be a very strenuous job. But my 33 year old, very out of shape body is begging to differ. The morning after, I’m beat.

I am doubting that I am physically able to do this. My muscles will get used to it and as I work it, I’ll become more fit and definitely able to handle it. But last night (my first night) my knee went out at the end. I’m not really sure what it is or why it does this, but when it does, I’m done. I can’t really walk. Luckily, it happened as I was leaving. And this morning it feel fine (unlike the rest of my body).

Tonight, I get to do it all over again. I’m going to give it a shot though. It would be silly to say “this is too much! I can’t do it!” and quit in my first week.

As it stands now, I am finally employed. And though I am not fit enough to do this job, hopefully that will soon change.

7 responses so far

7 Responses to “Oh! Employment!”

Ryan Beggar says:

June 9, 2009 at 10:44 am

Soon you will have pecs like melons and knees of fringe.

eric Reply:
June 10th, 2009 at 8:11 am
I can’t wait for the fringe!
smartz says:

June 9, 2009 at 6:19 pm

melons? the kind that viri lisps over? or the kind that was on his magazine book yesterday?…i saw the photos on the camera. that was pretty awesome!

i think you’ll get used to the job. it won’t be so bad. i was trying to think of other times your knees went out on you and i just could remember, but then it hit me…

“We had some time to kill, so Sarah thought it would be a good idea to walk from 4th Street to where we were being picked up… on 51st Street. Only 50 blocks away from where we were! I figured she was joking, so said ok. But she wasn’t joking. We walked 50 blocks. Around 34th Street, my left knee gave out on me. Around 40th, my right ankle was starting to not work. But by this time, it was a great contest of endurance. New York City was waging a war of attrition on me and I’ll be damned if I was going to let it win!

After nearly 90 minutes of walking, we made it to 51st Street. I was, of course, unable to walk. I was hardly able to stand – the boots I wore weren’t made for this amount of walking. I was dead. “

eric Reply:
June 10th, 2009 at 8:10 am
It was so funny when I died and you had to drag my stinking, rotting carcass through the streets of New York.

smartz Reply:
June 10th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
it was funny!! i poked your carcass with mighty poker sticks.
Lorenzo Rubbo-Ferraro says:

June 9, 2009 at 7:40 pm

If you’re worried about safety perhaps you should suggest they upgrade their equipment. That’s some seriously dated machinery you got there. I do however like those old Gatsby hats they make you wear.

eric Reply:
June 10th, 2009 at 8:12 am
Pipes… so many pipes!