My life; woman on a man's 'turf'

I say man's turf, because, it stereotpically is. I could of also made a pun and meant turf literally. Ha. But no, I didn't. I mean the real deal.

I work on a construction site.

It all started when I needed a job (aka since after college) and couldn't find a permenant one. My bro Garrit (aka bro-in-law) knew this, because he is a smart chap, and without me realizing it - though I might of semi been aware of it - he hooked me up with a job at his work. And of course you can assume that he works at a construction site; he actually works for his dad. But anyways, the point is, I work at a construction site, as I stated above.

I find this kind of funny actually. I realize now if someone asks where I work, I can say, "A construction site", and then I can watch their faces quickly turn surprised...how delicious. Amanda, working construction...who would of thought?

I probably have you now speculating what I actually do there, and that is a very good question. Absolutely nothing. Ha, just joking of course. I'm basically like a highclass/hardcore janitor. I don't even think Garrit used the term 'janitor' when describing what I would be doing, but I guess that is basically what I do. I go from house to house (very nice houses I might add) and starting from the top, I scrape, broom, then sweep, then vaccum, and if I have to, I exacto-knife. It sounds pretty simple, so I assumed it would be easy. Man, I really need to think things through.

Note: Now is the part where I essentially 'complain'. I haven't felt so exhausted in the longest time. My muscles hurt. My back hurts. My feet hurt like mothers. I have beautiful blisters on my hands. I stink. I itch from all the dust I have inhaled and practically bathed in. But you know what? I like it.

I basically get a workout while I work, but I get paid for working out. Soon, after working for awhile more, I'll basically be a hot babe, with muscles. Not huge hunky ones (eww...), but toned and strong ones. I'll be in shape, and hot. Well, that's the plan anyways.

Another great thing about working there, is the flexiblity. My bosses' boss (aka Garrit's dad) said if I want I can work 5 days a week, but I don't need to feel pressured to. I basically have the amazing option of asking for days off, and coming in when I want to. There is no schedule. I love it! Also, the pay is sweet for what I'm doing. Basically...I'll have my car soon. I'm pretty stoked.

Also, I can listen to music, ALL DAY. Yeah, I'm pretty stoked. AND, I don't have a boss hanging over my shoulder watching me work, because I work by myself. Man, pretty sweet deal I got.

The one awkward thing though is at lunch. Ill be sitting in the trailer/office eating, and the conversation that is happening around me, I wont understand or know what is being talked about. I dont know anyone there except Mr. DeVos and Garrit, so if I can cling to Garrit, I will, because Im horrible meeting new people.



But I did make a friend today. His name is Brad. He happened to being doing his job in the house that I was cleaning; I think he is a sider. Anyways, I was being nice, because it's the nice thing to do, and I smiled at him a couple times, because if I pretended like he wasn't there, that would be ten times more awkward than if I simply smiled. So he smiled back and said "goodmorning" just like a polite person should. Then later he started making small talk like, "having fun yet?" and "do you think you can clean the window sills too while you're at it?" (No, I'm not having fun you ninkompoop, and do the sills yourself! Ah ha, joking...of course). Maybe that is smaller than small talk, but I think it's considered. Oh, what made it even more awkward was the fact that I was wearing headphones (oh, other sweet thing about work, I can listen to music) and couldn't hear him if he said something. To be honest, I didn't really want to initiate conversation, because if you're a girl at a construction site, that might come off as, "holler back girl, I want to get wit chu!". Sorry guys, but I don't want to "get wit chu", I've already been gotten.



So later he tried to start up a conversation by asking, "so is this your summer job?" and then by me asking, "so is this your permanent job?". I thought my question was witty. It amused me if no one else. Then he asked if I just graduated (haha he just wanted to know if I was legal HA joking). And then that started the conversation. So we talked about school and how we both find it way to expensive so we have to work - hense the job. It was really a short conversation, but a conversation none-the-less. I ask him his name, and then we shook hands and he asked me mine. It was nice, I now know another person there. The only problem is, being a girl in this type of work setting, you never know if the guy is just being nice or if the guy wants a piece, aka hitting on you. Really, you just don't know.



So basically, doing this job you can become a babe, meet babes (if you're single, though I think a lot of the 'babes' are probably sketchy, though there are some nice guys that work there. I mean Garrit is and he works there, and he doesn't go to a strip club during lunch hour. Not even joking, he told me some of the guys will go to a strip club during their half an hour lunch break. Sickos.), get paid for becoming a babe, take some babe time off, and listen to some hot babe music. Woaw, I don't think I have used the word babe so many times in my life.



It's a hard job, but someones gotta do it....and I need the money.

Mermen do exist...and they eat veggies.

One a hot summers day, not too long from today...

Okay correction, it was a spring's day, not summer, because this story takes place this year, and summer hasn't technically happened yet; but I will say one thing, it was darn warm outside, definitely hot enough to tan.

Or go to the beach, which, is what I did.

Not by myself of course, it was Alicia and I, the dou to end all summer time dous...yeah, I have no idea what that means, just do your best to disregard it.

Anyways, from what I can remember of that day, it was unusally warm for a spring day, and going to the beach was a definite possiblity, one which I was willing to take. So on that brisk Sunday afternoon, later afternoon I might add, we set off to centennial beach to get some sun, and of course, some girly fun. (Why didn't we leave when the UV rays were at their prime? We were cleaning Alicia's college stuff up. It took hours. Nah, it didn't take hours, but it would of if I didn't help her. Ha, ah. Also, we didn't want cancer.)

So we went to the beach around 4pm, and surprisingly it was still really warm out; which was grand, because it would of been a waste of cleaning up her stuff to drive out there and then right away having to come back home again.

There we were, eating away, having our girly fun on a blanket (forgot to mention, we stopped off at a 7-11 to pick up a few, items...aka Surlpees, Ben and Jerry's icecream and two sorts of junk food. Ben and Jerry is a girl's bestfriend.), and then out of the blue, Alicia makes a comment:

"Do you see that guy?"

So I turn and face the direction she nodding in, and see this man with jeans on, a purple shirt, backpack, and boots, or some sort of running shoe. It looked like he came out of no where. It looked like he came out of the ocean.

And that's because he did. Because, my friends, this man was a merman.

As we were discussing how it was possible for this, man, to come out of no where, he comes to sit down and lean up against a big piece of drift wood (more like log) almost right beside us. And guess what he pulls out from no where.

Broccoli.

He just starts chomping away at the two broccoli bushes he is holding. Who does that? I mean, who just pulls out a whole thing of broccoli for each hand, sits down against a piece of driftwood on the beach, and stares into the deep blue yonder?

I'll be honest, it was beautiful.

He was beautiful. Well he was. I guess mermen are just naturally beautiful. It was just like I imagined; he had blonde hair.

Anyways, so Alicia and me are still talking girly (boys, food, tans, God, friends, boys...), and then Alicia points out the whole broccoli thing to me, and I'm thinking, "This guy is cool." Then she tells me to take a picture, subtly with my camera. Let me tell you, we were no where near subtle, but we did manage to get the pictures.




I know what you are thinking. Stalkers. Yeah, you might think so, but seeing as though we will never see him again, I think we can pass as admirers. (We actually saw him walk into the wilderness. We think he is going to give up his life as a merman to live among the wild land animals.)

Anyways, after that, we had a fun eventful evening picking up trash from other people during the annual junk week, and managed to confiscate two broken microwaves, one sweet corner chair, a real working lamp, a night table, and a Garfield picture that says, "Diet is 'die' with a 't'"

But remember, it wasn't about junk week, it was about the Merman.