Actually, it was one of the simplest, most mindless jobs I've ever had, too. For a teenager looking to earn some spending money, it's not a bad gig -- groups of kids would do this to raise money for their school clubs/functions, I believe. Perhaps the funniest thing was that after you got through counting a rack full of stuff and marking it on a sheet of paper with a black or blue pen, the Executive Checker would come by and recount everything, and verify your total with a red or green pen. Ooooh. That red/green pen was a power trip for some people. Someone made the mistake of counting a rack of stuff with a green pen and got a very stern talking to by the Executive Checker for that area. Whoop-de-friggin-doo. Ironically, after doing this two summers in a row, I got to be an Executive Checker (guess they didn't have many recidivists). And let me tell you, that's where the big bucks are, baby!

Anyway, after having been on the other end of the line, I'm usually very nice to telemarketers now. Yelling at a telemarketer may make you feel better, but it won't take your number off of that company's phone list (many of whom just call every number in the phone book), and your frustration won't go any farther than the poor sap who has that thankless job.

After my friend came face-to-face with a growling, unchained pit bull terrier in one such place, we decided 'to Hell with GTE' and just put the phone books wherever we felt was "close enough" to the front door, plastic bag or no plastic bag. Unfortunately, this being the Northwest, many of the books got rained on so GTE was unhappy with our performance. Oh well!

One of perks of the job was that, working in the stockrooms, you could find all sorts of odd merchandise for really really cheap prices (no one bothered to update the prices). I remember one of the other temps finding some kind of industrial strength solvent and buying two gallon jugs of the stuff for $5; and I found a hunting knife which I managed to get for about $10, so it wasn't a total loss.

Initially, this plan worked. The Shell station I worked at was just one of those bulletproof box things where the cashier has a tray that they slide out to accept your money. It was a very strange atmosphere sitting in that cramped space locked behind bulletproof glass and a steel door with a thick deadbolt. Ironically, the station sold soda and candy which was in stands outside of the cashier's bubble. If someone were to grab some of the goods and take off with it, or drive off without paying for their gas, station policy was that the cashier would have to leave the bubble and chase after the culprit, leaving the bubble unlocked, all the while. This made no sense to me. Thankfully, I never had to test that theory.

Anyway, two things stand out about that job. The first was Muzak. I have come to hate Muzak with a passion. The station subscribed to some kind of piped in music system. While this wasn't inherently a bad thing, the problem was that they music selection was very limited and would repeat over and over and over again. I still cannot listen to Cyndi Lauper's song "True Colors" without having flashbacks. The other thing that was actually pretty cool about that job was that there was a 24-hour donut shop next door. I used to go there a lot, so some nights when they had a bunch of day-old donuts left over, they'd come over and give them to me. Yum.

Eventually, I got rotated off the graveyard shift and tried my hand at morning and swing shift. That didn't work well with my class schedule. Plus, I found that I really hate working with the public. So...

I decided that working for the University of Washington was the way to go. I figured that working in an academic environment would give me the chance to learn new things, especially since UW staff get to take a certain number of classes for free. I also figured that the College of Engineering would be one of the more cutting edge Colleges on campus. To an extent, both things were true, but not as true as I had hoped.

So, I spent a lot of time debating whether or not I'd stay at the UW. It wasn't a bad job, by any means. And there were certainly a lot of benefits (not the least of which was working on campus and feeling like a youngster again). But, as it happens, a friend of mine mentioned that the company where she worked was hiring. I was dubious, but sent them my resume anyway...

I sent my resume to InterNAP while still working at the UW. I really did not expect that there would be a good match between us. Quite frankly, I was making much more money as a contractor than I was at the UW and didn't feel that I could take another pay cut (which I figured would be the case with a start-up). Moreover, I didn't think that they'd want to hire me for something that I'd want to do.