How I Got Here

I was happy in my work. Sure I complained and got flustered, but I liked my job and liked the people I got to know through my work. Who needed to go to college when you were able to tap into the richness of information that was related to the job at hand? 

For instance, I knew nothing about wine before I worked at the Brookside Inn and Hotel Frankfort. They took the time to find a unique selection, and then let us taste as though we were discerning customers, and, viola! I was so good at teaching about German wines in particular that people accused me of being from Germany. People would come down to the cellar for the experience, not expecting to find anything beyond a cool wine cellar and part of the overall experience. These were beer drinkers, coffee drinkers, not much for wine, thank you. And I found them a match, a wine they really enjoyed, based on what they liked to drink. It was so much fun!

I could even pronouce things like "erzuegerabfullung" 

 

It was the fact that I was able to do so many jobs at the Inns that I just ended up doing just about all of them. I actually was a hostess, a position that handled reservations, check-in, check out, and also either seated or gave beverage service to the dining room and assisted the wait staff as needed. I started as a housekeeper, so I knew how to clean the bathrooms, fix waterbeds, hot tubs, and vacuums, and where there were spare towels and sheets and pillows. I could bus tables. I could cook in a pinch. I did advertising, created brochures, did inventory in the wine cellar and bar... You name it, I did it. There is a toilet upstairs need to be fixed? Send Linette. Our last guests haven’t arrived, and we know they are coming a half hour after closing? Well, Linette can handle it. We are going home. It got to feel like that; maybe it wasn’t quite like that. But I ended up working and actually living there and it got to be a bit too much. I became my job. So, I moved on after 15 years.

Closed and for sale, again.

The Rainbow Bookstore was a dream job. I have always wanted to work at a bookstore! Like many people, I never dreamed of what the job really entailed. Lifting, packing, inventory, cleaning, troubleshooting, teamwork, store change overs for promotions and holidays. Then, just three months after I was hired, they gave me the curriculum department, which I knew nothing about. Ok, to be fair, I was familiar with some Sunday school materials. But, deadlines and organization were not my strong suit. Curriculum is all about deadlines and organization.  

Still, there I was, being taught by the boss and the office manager about managing inventory and deadlines and making calendars. I was learning from each vender each and every year of work, learning from my church accounts and finding new ways to match people up with the program that best fit their needs. I grew, out of sheer fun, the Vacation Bible School event. I enjoyed the gizmos and gadgets and the energy these programs gave to the churches and to the kids who got to go and be a part of the program. The photos, the memories, the stories, my friends, all shaped me to someone who could not be happier than I was doing what I was and knowing who I knew.

Set up for Vacation Bible School

I love to read, but never was really in a position where I could share my favorite authors and find a match what the customer preferred before I worked at the Rainbow Bookstore. How awesome it was to help young readers find new authors and enjoy the stories I fell in love with!  It amazed me. It was such a good thing, a wonderful feeling, to work with hands on books, reading and listening and looking for new books by beloved authors and reading some more. I learned so much from being there! To learn that there were books that would be full of help for people who are grieving, who may have had a miscarriage or lost their spouse. To find that there were stories to support teens in making choices not to be cutters or how to watch out for their friends with signs to be aware of for drinking, abuse and even suicide. And to find out that there was some pretty awesome science fiction available there too!

I loved the gifts, the new lines and colors and shapes and creative things that came out each season. I loved the energy, I loved being able to help people out with questions about bibles and studies and resources that help benefit their studies. I loved the music, and I can still smell hot spiced cider and hear the Christmas music.

Books were rapidly becoming replaced by the Kindle and similar items. Music was downloaded, which gave the benefit of not having to purchase an entire album when there was only one song desired. Ordering online trumped most pricing breaks we could do. Suddenly, an old established business was a house of cards, we felt it falling, but didn’t know until the very end that it was the very end. My heart is still broken. It was not fair.

What you take from the work you do can equal a college degree easily. You learn about people. You learn about the thankless dirty work that is a part of the whole, and you do it, and get some satisfaction when it is noticed by the strangers who walk through your door. How some people are just unhappy, it is nothing personal, and it might be because something really difficult and terrible had happened in their lives and they just haven’t been able to go beyond their hurt. Some people just relate to other people by being difficult, and if you figure that out and rise to their challenge, you are suddenly their friend and they seek you out each time they come! Oh, the people skills you get from being in retail and hospitality! Worth its weight in gold!

There is a quite transformation in our lives that suddenly stole these much loved jobs away. A revolution, a huge change in how people spend, read, shop, travel. A rude awakening. My much beloved job was gone in a wink of an eye. Suddenly, the old faithful job I could fall back on was gone, too. Closed. Bankrupt. Gone. Business after business closed, homes were foreclosed on, people left to find jobs somewhere, anywhere.

I caught a glimpse of the end before I was totally stranded without work. I went back to another job, the second place I worked way back in the beginning of my adult life. I returned to Interlochen to clean, and that was a pure gift from God, providence to my sad and troubled mind. It was seasonal, but that was fine. I could earn a paycheck and be with people and work.

In front of Kresge before a concert at Interlochen

How pleasant it is to do work, hard work that you don’t need to be on your toes about deadlines and money and hurry, hurry, hurry, to make ends meet! Cleaning cabins is cold, wet, dirty, work. But it is work, with a paycheck, and I was glad of it. I was glad of the people I worked with, because I just cannot be without people in my life. I was relieved by the simplicity of the job at hand. If you start out thinking any job is demeaning and beneath you, you will certainly miss out. Of course, there are gross and unspeakable things. Yes, you will be utterly glad of the shower with lots of soap afterwards. Wear the gloves, use the proper equipment. You will be fine!

Not only did I return to Interlochen National Music Camp, I gathered up my courage and made a trip down to Cadillac, Michigan, to Baker College. I made a list up to present to the guidance counselor. We spent a lot of time looking at majors and what my strengths and weaknesses were, and came up with medical assistant.  

1980 before housekeeping got to wear the blues

Why did I do this? As part of my duties at Interlochen, I was assigned the main infirmary to clean. The nurses there impressed the socks off me.  I questioned them at length about why they chose to be nurses, what did they like about being nurses, and did they think I could do something like that? But the nursing courses in the area actually had waiting lists and pretty tough requirements. I wimped out on nursing, but medical assistant, now, that I could do. The medical assistants today are the nurses of yesterday. They are the people at the doctor’s office who room patients, take vitals, assist with minor office surgeries, chart, communicate, and more. They also can be in the front office scheduling appointments and making referrals.

So, after the fall of my old life, I am now living a new life as a Certified Medical Assistant. I am working with people, which I love. Sometimes I talk too much because in my old jobs, talking was a big part of things. But because of my old jobs, I can gather information that helpful in clarifying what the patients need. There are hard times, scary times in this work. This is not work I would have imagined myself doing, but I am glad of it.

 It took me quite a while to complete this two year program. I am  a little slow, and math was still a challenge. I wanted to make sure I understood things, that I could safely care for people. At 51 years old, I graduated with an Associate in Applied Science. Two months later, I passed the certification exam.

And now, I am writing a blog.