Odd Jobs/Good Lessons

So...I like to say I've got a "varied" work experience, which basically translates into...I took what came along. Luckily, for the most part, I've fallen into some really good things. Talking to our host while filming..."oh. my. gawd. Did you SEE what he was wearing? I know. Oh there's a sale at GAP? Let's go after we're done taping." As I've mentioned, I was an intern and eventually associate producer at KNME-TV in Albuquerque for a year. I also taught political science labs to intro poli sci students, gave study strategies workshops, and tutored writing at UNM at a little place I like to call The Center for Academic Program Support. Actually, I like to call it CAPS because I'm lazy. I even wrote a song about CAPS once. I call it "The CAPS Song." If you get hired there, they'll play it for you. Don't all rush the application process at once. I learned a lot at CAPS, and took a lot of learning style/personality tests. I am an INT...something on the Myers Briggs test, a "4" on some other (ask me about it and I'll tell you what a 4 does), and neither left nor right brained. (It's not called whole-brained, sadly. More like..."Confused"). I ate a lot of muffins and bagels at CAPS, too. The coolest photo I have ever taken...and it's of a MUFFIN??? I sold pizza for a summer, and never really got the hang of explaining to people what pesto was, and I never got over the copious amount of pronunciations people have for marinara. (My favorite was "maryann.") I have a good appreciation for a nice crust and every slice of pie tastes better with green chile on it, I promise. When I moved to Texas and was, well...bumming for 4 months, I had a one-day stint picking cucumbers and zucchini on an organic farm outside of town. I accepted the job with a doe-eyed wonderment, thinking, "YES. My family comes from a long line of Midwestern farmers. My uncles farm. My parents grew up on farms. It's in my BLOOD. I will be so artist-like in my Bohemian pursuits of the land and put true meaning in my life." Well yeah. One day of hacking cukes off vines and "watching out for rattlers" and I really just...well, I didn't return. I felt like a wimp, but I couldn't physically move without intense pain for 5 days after. I know I would have worked through the soreness eventually, but...as a kid raised in a not-big-but-big-enough sized city...I decided to save my tanning efforts for outdoor gigs only. Your ashamed folkie has faults, ladies and gentlemen. "Um. Maybe even zucchini won't grow here, huh?" I did ultimately enjoy the farm and the thought of eating something I knew I had picked hours earlier...and that it was grown without chemicals and pesticides seeping into its little cuke-y pores...well I like that. So I guess the lesson learned from that...one day I'll have a big garden and you all can come over and eat zucchini bread. Stacks of it. Just watch out for rattlers.