When I graduated college my Mom gave me $1,000 and wished me
good luck in my future endeavors. This
was a nice way of saying “don’t come home, you’ll be miserable. And probably not the best
roommate/tenant.” So I moved to Chicago
with two girlfriends from school with no job and no prospects.
My first goal was to introduce myself fully to the local
nightlife. I knew my Mom’s seed money
could only go so far, so I signed up with a temp agency and was quickly
placed. I can’t remember the name of the
firm, but it was something like Cary Schiff’s Law Firm and I think we
specialized in kicking people out of their apartments if they didn’t pay the
rent. My boss was Tammy, a local
Dwarf. I am not saying that to be mean –
she was probably 4’5” and had a limp.
That’s a dwarf right? I don’t
know if she lived under a bridge or not.
Anyway, with virtually no training by Tammy The Very Mean
Dwarf, I proceeded to fake-work at this job.
Filing papers anywhere I felt like, occasionally shredding things, and
fake typing 250 words/minute.
Surprisingly, Tammy did not think I was doing a very good job. She was fairly vocal on this point.
Cary Schiff, head of the office and only lawyer on this
crack legal team, was a nice guy. When
he first met me, we engaged in some idle chatter about where we were from,
schools, etc. When I heard he went to
Emory Law School in Atlanta, and noticed in my shredding that he was an eviction
attorney, I had to ask: Had he ever read A
Man in Full by Tom Wolfe? His
background reminded me of a character in the novel, which I had just finished
the previous week.
Not only had he read the book, but he know the real person the character was based on. I was (lamely) star struck. My question and reaction made me a Person
Worth Talking To, much to Tammy The Mean Dwarf’s annoyance.
Cary took me out to lunch – a big deal for a struggling temp
like myself – and we chatted about his kids, my family, my goals, etc. It wasn’t creepy – he would tell me all about
his life and family and just thought I had Potential.
I only worked at his firm for 2 weeks before I landed an internship at a
PR firm where I ended up working for 3 years without ever shredding a document.
Cary called me last week just to say hello. We hadn’t chatted in years, and caught up for
less than 10 minutes. He remembered all
about me – where my brother went to college, when I had worked for him (likely
because of 2 weeks of mysteriously missing documents), etc. He just wanted to check in and see how I was
– he said he always thought I had a special spark. He promised to call back in another couple of
years. I am sure he will.
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| My roommates and me on the porch of our first apartment in Chicago. Two out of three roommates apparently ok with baring stomach. If done today, Bookworm would scare children and adults. |
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