Spring Break!

Unlike a lot of college students who traveled south for a vacation, I headed back north to my hometown in Rochester, New York and worked over break.  Now most people hear that and they think, "oh how boring," but they don't know what it's like where I work.  You see, I work for the school district that I live in, on the grounds crew.  It's definitely the best job of the three minimum wage jobs I've had so far in my short employment history.  In the summer I am the "grounds gardener" of sorts but as the weather gets colder I get to work more with the guys and deliver packages and food from the schools in the district, we also rake leaves, salt the walkways, shovel, and other minor tasks.  I work with all guys and it's always fun to listen to their inappropriate jokes and anecdotes.  Sometimes they even bicker, whine, and gossip like little girls.

Thus, this past break was by no means boring.  One day at lunch I had to help them with a dispute that was started with one of the mechanics, Robbie, who was trying to explain that humans came out of Africa.  Before I continue it's important to understand that these men live in the sticks and can be very crude at times and make socially unacceptable comments.  Robbie's statement angered another mechanic, Ronnie, who truely believed that his ancestors were vikings and had always been from the north.  Ronnie just kept saying "Are you calling me black?" and "So do I have to go around with my pants down at my knees and saying fo shizzle?"  Eventually, Patrick, another non believer, asked my opinion and I had to tell them that it was true that the oldest human remains came out of Africa and that race is basically an irrelevant socially constructed concept because 99.99% of all human DNA is identical.  Robbie was pleased and continued to gloat the rest of lunch as they played blackjack--not for money of course because that's a "career ender" as Ronnie would put it.  

Another day when I was making deliveries with Patrick and he brought his police scanner that he got from his cousin who works for the state troopers.  All day we listened to the IPD pulling over "violators" and responding to domestic disturbances.  The best was the half hour drama at the the Dollar Tree store.  An officer came over the radio saying that someone reported the store looking as if it were open but the door was locked.  The officers banged on the doors and waited outside for 15 minutes.  At one point an officer who was at the back door came over the radio reporting, "We hear movement inside but no one is answering the door...I don't have a good feeling about this."  Then they banged on the back door so hard that the alarm went off at the store and they had to call all sorts of managers before one was finally reached that could turn off the alarm system.  Sadly, in the end, we missed what happened when the police finally got in the store because we did have to work somewhat. 

Overall, my spring break in the cold Rochester winter was fun even without going south to keep warm and relax.  Instead I got to enjoy the antics of my fellow co-workers who make sure work is never dull or monotonous like so many other minimum wage jobs out there.