Those Pesky Bills

     Page Two Hundred Forty.
     So the new job at the museum is going well. The pay is quite questionable but the job is really great (3 weeks in anyhow). I feel valued and like I'm in my element. It's kind of weird how many people walk in whom I know. Probably 4-6 people per week appear and say, "Jeremy, what in the world are you doing here? When did you start working here?" And then we chat for a while. Or, I simply start talking with customers about absolutely nothing. Being on the sales staff at the museum store, I guess I'm fulfilling my job duties (but really, I'm just talking and talking and talking.) I feel good about it and think that down the road, there's the possibility of a move to another department with more hours, responsibility and money. Optimism is in the air on that front.
     (I know that retail has a bad reputation because customers are considered meanies by store clerks. But on my first day my boss pointed out that at the museum customers are happy because they're all on mini vacations. Really, our clientele appear to have all taken many anti-depressants prior to arriving in the store.)
     At the beauty salon however, things are unfortunate. In moving locations, February, '13, we lost about 60% of our clients. (I came on board as the salon manager the day we opened in the new location.) I'm afraid that we've continued to have a variety of other issues, i.e. staffing, marketing/advertising and so forth. I'm thinking that it won't be wise for me to stick around too much longer as the earlier someone got off the Titanic the safer they were. (If Jack and Rose had jumped into a lifeboat, they might still be alive today.) The owner of the salon is a long time friend. But really, sometimes you simply have to pay bills.
   Which brings up the question: okay.. so what now? I'm someone who's notorious for constantly throwing many darts at various boards and just through the law of averages some darts hit. I'm also better at juggling multiple part-time jobs than working one at 40 hours. Right now, I'm stoking the fires on 5 or 6 completely unrelated job opportunities, hoping that they'll net some income in a year or two. But in the meantime, gotta pay those bills somehow...
     I've decided to start listing myself on a national nanny service website (Care.com). I've always been hesitant to do that as "word of mouth" is my close friend. But I LOVE nannying and cooking for kids and their parents and the phone simply isn't ringing right now. That phone got my bills paid sufficiently from 2006 when I left the nursing home industry until 2013. But right now... nothing. Notta. So I guess I need to get aggressive and proactive.
     The reason I've always preferred word of mouth is because I'm a male and historically that does throw people, let's be honest. When I was a live-in nanny for the two different families from '82-'84 then again from '86-93 it positively shocked people. And the only job I went after initially was the first one in '82. But that family, who's blood was bluer than the Danube, by the way, were amused by this guy who responded to their ad and the rest is history*. There are many more male child-care workers nowadays which I find refreshing. But there is still a certain amount of eyebrow raising that goes on and subsequently I do feel a bit uncomfortable.
     I'm not a child molester, I promise.
     And that's really what it comes down to. I will corrupt, Lord knows. I'll teach a 6 year old poker, I'll show a 9 year old how to sneak candy into a movie theater, I'll tell many stories about diarrhea and I'll disregard bedtimes, but that's about the caliber of my naughtiness.Nothing worse.
     So... wish me luck as I attempt to find a new part-time nanny position. Unless the phone rings of it's own volition.
    

     *I met the first family in spring '82 through an ad I saw at the off-campus housing bureau of Case Western Reserve. Later that summer I distributed 400 flyers in local front doors advertising myself to do odd jobs. One job I received that autumn was babysitting a family with 3 boys on the next street over. They invited me to move in, an invitation I declined because I was already taken. In mid-'83, the first family told me they'd sold the house and were moving. I then called that second family and moved in with them, staying a year 'till August '84. I proceeded to live in another situation for two years while working full-time doing hair. When I decided to resume college in '86, I moved back in with the boys and stayed 'till the twins graduated and were off to college, a year after I graduated. (I had to have been the world's first live-in nanny.) The End. 

Pepperoni Sauce

     Page Seventy-Three.
     On page seventy-two of this blog, I wrote about the world's most questionable spaghetti sauce. Let me tell you now of a truly great spaghetti sauce trick.
     It was April, 1912. I was traveling from England to New York by way of the Titanic. It was one of the more interesting experiences I've had in my life. And that's saying something, 'cause I've had some pretty interesting experiences. I mean really. Have you ever sailed on the Titanic? It's not dull. Everybody was trying to outdo everybody else, with all their name dropping and jewels and furs. And the conversations were completely over the top: which is a superior autocar? The McLaren F1 or the Bugatti Veyron. They really were arguing about this, no kidding. Also, some of the other passengers were debating Niece vs.Monaco, which is better? I just wanted to throw up. But still, it was an entertaining trip.
     I was staying in first class, and  on the third night I was eating dinner in the A La Carte Restaurant. I wasn't in the mood for anything too fancy so I ordered the spaghetti with meat sauce. While waiting for my meal, who in the world should appear in the doorway but James Dean? I was really surprised too, because I'd recently read in one of the tabloids that he was busy filming The Wizard Of Oz in Hollywood. That just goes to show how much you can trust the tabloids. He appeared to be alone so I invited him to join me as I was solo too. He was as sullen and moody as is his reputation and he also drank a lot. But he was a nice enough chap; he seemed interested in finding out about me and my interests. It turned out that we both loved the book Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner and also the rock band Joy Division. So we had a lot to talk about. He also ordered the spaghetti.
   By the time dinner showed up we were famished. The salad was great. It was a bed of greens: romaine, butter and arugula with, get this, hot, sauteed onions, red peppers and mushrooms placed on top. Then, blue cheese, whole, marinated, garlic cloves and sweetened cranberries were sprinkled on top of that. It was deadly good. There was also a hot, crusty bread to go with it. But the award really goes to that red sauce. It was a normal meat sauce, but it wasn't. It was spicier than normal and a little sweet. I was deliriously happy while eating it. James liked it too, but he didn't seem to see heaven the way I did.
     I couldn't resist and requested an audience with the executive chef to find out his secret. As it turned out, the executive chef was Marilyn Monroe! I knew that she was quite the cook as I'd read that in a number of different sources (you don't think of Marilyn Monroe as being a strong cook, but she really was). I just was shocked to see her moonlighting as the executive chef on the Titanic. She explained that she had a little time in between film shoots. She'd just finished filming Forrest Gump and had a while prior to pre-production on A Christmas Story. So during her hiatus, she'd acquired this job. (She also had never met James Dean, so it was nice to see them mingle.)
     She was as nice as you can imagine and she told me her trick. After browning the ground beef and sauteeing the onions, add tomato paste and tomato sauce as usual. But then, instead of lots of spices, cut up a good amount of pepperoni and add it, along with a dash of sugar, to the sauce. Let the sauce simmer for an hour or longer. Unless the pepperoni is really bland, the inherent spices will leach out and flavor the sauce beautifully. Marilyn further explained that this trick even works with boring jarred sauce. Pour some jarred sauce into a pan and add the same pepperoni and the same sugar. Let it simmer for an hour and serve. It always works.
     Though I didn't love all aspects of that voyage, I made some good friends and met some interesting people (James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. If that's not enough for you, I don't know who else I could add.) I also learned this amazing trick for spaghetti sauce. The trip was definitely worth it.