new job

My last day at the university was July 3rd. A week later I was working at a new job and I don't think it could have been more different if I'd thought about it. I actually didn't think about it much. I just sort of said yes.

I'm making signs for a Trader Joe's. I'm also organizing the sign team, giving them the time to get their shit together for when the big CEO shows up (mid-September), buying stuff so that things can get put away and not just shoved away out of sight.

I'm getting paid next to nothing.

I'm having a good time, but I'm glad I don't do this for a living. I've been having a good time with this job. For one thing, I'm close to anonymous. No one has asked me a single question, except whether or not I was a transfer from another store. I get the sense that being on the sign team is regarded as a prize for good behavior, rather than an index of any particular graphics talent. I tell them, "No, I'm not a transfer. I've just had a lot of grocery experience." Oddly enough, that's the truth. I've worked in natural food stores, for natural food distributors, and in cooperative groceries. So I know how this stuff works, if not the specifics of the peculiar Trader Joe's universe. One reason that I don't get asked a bunch of questions is that most of the people working the floor are in their twenties and someone as old as I am is simply not in focus. It's sort of refreshing.

I have told no one that I have a Ph.D.

The second thing I like about this job is that clarity of the task at hand. New product? New sign. Restocked product? Find old sign. I've been trying to eliminate the mis-spellings and really ugly signs as I go. I'm supposed to re-design the meat area, which is actually an interesting challenge.

The last thing I like about this is that I'm getting my confidence in my ability to make pictures back again. I still have some chops. Now I need some ideas.

new something or other, several days later

I had my last day at my university job on Monday. I went down for three or so hours to finish up, update the webpage, send some emails, pick some files. This was a long weekend, so there was hardly any one on campus. I didn't run into anyone. I turned in my keys and drove away. A turkey vulture was sitting on the dry grass by the visitors' center, eating something, probably a long-dead ground squirrel.

It was anticlimatic.

The new day thing. I was thinking that was the name of a Dylan song. I've been listening to Blood on the Tracks lately and I vaguely remember that about the time that album came out he had another with that song on it. As it turns out, the album New Morning came out in 1970 and Blood on the Tracks came out in 1975. I got the name wrong and the years are further apart than I thought. But I am at the beginning of a new section of my life, day or morning.

I have a new job, too.