Five Paychecks

In honor of getting hired for the assistant librarian job at the high school (though tentatively pending school board approval per the letter) here is a list of five organizations that have put my name on a paycheck.

• Great Road Pharmacy, where I was a cashier (the closest I will ever come to working in the field of medicine!). I worked for Bob the pharmacist, who also owned the pharmacy. Small independent pharmacies are rare these days (in fact, the Great Road Pharmacy no longer exists), but we are lucky enough to have two here in Springville. We get all of our prescriptions from the one our old neighbors own, and we get ice cream at the other one, which still has an old-fashioned soda counter.
• Camp Arcadia in Casco, Maine, where I was a swimming counselor and a lifeguard. I believe there was only one paycheck at the end of the summer. Once, when the girls in my cabin were driving me crazy, I calculated how much I was earning per hour. If the girls went to sleep when they were supposed to and didn't get up early, I figured I made about ten cents an hour! But I had great job perks, including swimming in a pristine lake every day!
  
• Novell, Inc., where I was a managing editor and then a marketing manager. My last stint after about a decade working in the computer industry (where I always managed to have the least technical jobs in the least technical departments, so don't ask me too much about how computers work on the inside - I only know how to use them).
• Utah Valley State College, where I taught writing classes as an adjunct instructor. I loved, loved, loved being in the classroom. Hated, hated, hated the stacks of grading. But I think I've figured out a few ways to grade more efficiently and still give individual feedback, so I've decided to go back to teaching this fall. But this time (and officially as of the stroke of midnight tonight!), my paychecks will say Utah Valley University on them.
• The U.S. Treasury. Yes, I've actually received paychecks from the U.S. Treasury, not just tax refunds. Two summers in a row I filled in for two different secretaries on maternity leave, both at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., where I interned in college. I worked for the staff attorneys one summer, and then for Judge Helen Nies the next. That was an amazing experience, not the least of which because I got to live in one of my very favorite cities!