Log 13: Pay Day!
Did I say I was in a groove a couple days ago? Last night I came home late after hanging out with friends and when my alarm went off this morning I realized I had only gotten about five hours of sleep and almost started crying. I downed a five-hour-energy drink to get the total up to ten hours (isn’t that how it works?), but it just made me feel nauseous for the rest of the day. Then I got home and immediately passed out for three hours. Groovy indeed.
My mom often says that if you see a problem somewhere, don’t just complain about it - take the initiative and do what you can to fix it yourself. That being said, I can now confirm that I have made good on my promise to provide lotion to everyone in the office. I packed a large container of Curél along with my lunch this morning, and placed it on a shelf in an easily accessible corner of the shop when I arrived.
So far, I haven’t seen anyone take advantage of it, but I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled. Perhaps I should send out some kind of mass email or memo to let everyone know it’s there.
Today an exhibit for a company I’m not familiar with was being shipped out, and had to be packed and ready by the end of the day, so there was a sense of urgency in the air. I worked with Preston and Graeme to clean, photograph, pack, weigh, and load all the pieces of the order in time for pick up. Cleaning an exhibit is a two stage process. First you apply lacquer thinner to a heavy duty, industrial paper towel. It looks and smells like rubbing alcohol, but must be more dangerous because everyone’s always telling me not to get it on my hands. Mike told me he spilled some on a calculator once and it melted right through it. Second, you rub down the metal frames using the saturated paper towels. The paper towels are in large rolls, mounted horizontally on stands that look like hobby-horses around the office.
To begin cleaning the exhibit, I went to get some paper towels off of the roll. Like I said, we were in a bit of a rush, so I yanked a few sheets off the roll rather aggressively. But, instead of them breaking off along the perforated line, they held together (because they are heavy duty) and I accidentally pulled the entire stand to the ground. I tried and failed to catch it on its way down, and it clanged noisily on the concrete floor. I turned around to see Graeme standing a few feet away from me, watching my debacle in silence. Then he gave me a pat on the shoulder, said “I got you covered,” and set the stand back up for me.
Highlight: Whenever I tell friends about my work here at Featherlite, one of their first questions after, “Are you qualified for that?” is usually, “How much do you get paid?” The thing is, I actually had no idea what I was making until today. And to be honest, anything over minimum wage is enough to get me in the building everyday. Don’t tell my uncles that. Point being, today was my first pay day. I got an official check from the company with my name on it. Tod came down and handed it to me just before the end of the day remarking, “Good job, Taylor.” I’ve never received a paycheck before. Hell, I’ve never had a real job before, unless you count working for Doordash on and off last summer. I smiled all the way home.
