Summer Jobs

Well, I was going to save these stories, but a friend of mine is having a tough time with a serious illness in her family, so I thought I needed to bring my A game today, just to make sure she knows I'm thinking about her

So the topic of "Summer Jobs" brings to mind 2 stand out stories

When I was 15 I babysat 2 of the most amazing girls, the youngest, a 6 year old, happened to also be blind. By the time I was 15 I was quite an accomplished swimmer, and I was even anxiously waiting to to turn 16 to become a lifeguard. One afternoon we were swimming in my pool, and we decided that we would play a game that involved racing to the other end of the pool, in groups of 2. A friend of mine was swimming with us that day, so I naturally assumed, I'd be racing against her. So when it was my turn, I was totally pumped up, too reved up for my big race to notice anything else... so focused...someone yelled go, and I took off like a rocket...perhaps the best freestyle of my life, I was on fire...I reached the end in record time, and my opponent was left in the dust...I raised my hands in victory, and turned around to rub it in the face of my friend, only to find out that I had, in fact, been racing the 6 year old blind child...she was about 4 feet from the starting point snorting, and gasping on a pool noodle; feverishly trying to move forward, and stay afloat...needless to say everyone at the pool thought I was a major ass

So the summer I was 19 I worked in an office in a building owned by my dad (his office was just below the one I worked in). It also happened, that summer, one of my best friend's boyfriends had developed an unhealthy fixation on me; and he showed up at my office. At first he didn't know where I was because I was sitting at coworker (Vanessa)'s desk. In lame sort of magic trick, he reached behind my head and pulled out an orange daisy in a flower pot, and said "I got these for you". I was so mortified! My friend frequently visited me at work, and some of my coworkers knew her quite well, I didn't know what I was going to do!
When he finally left I stuck the flower under my desk, I couldn't let anyone see it! When it was time to leave I snuck down to my dad's office and found a large shopping bag, and stuck the flower in it and took it home. All the while panicked that someone would see me.
The next morning at work, I was at my desk, and I could hear some of the women in the office arguing, one of them stormed off, and came over to my desk. She was in a total huff and she said "Stupid Vanessa thinks I stole her flower"...my heart literally sank, because they were close to my friend, I couldn't come clean... then Stupid Vanessa, came up to my desk, and politely asked if I had seen her orange daisy, that her father had sent her...I suggested, in a voice that cracked like a 12 year old boy, that maybe the cleaning staff had moved it...my whole body felt like it was burning with awkwardness and embarrassment
Throughout the day, Vanessa would not let up, and she kept accusing the other woman of being jealous that she had a flower at her desk, saying things like "it didn't just walk away"...So I knew what I had to do: I would have to break in that night and return the flower...so that's what I did, I got dressed in my most stealth, break-in attire, I "borrowed" my dad's key to his office, and snuck up the back stairs, sticking close to the wall, making sure no one saw me, and finally returned the flower
The next day the Vanessa was all "wow, i t miraculously returned" thinking she had guilted the other woman into returning it...all I could say was "oh my gosh, that's so weird"...and the rest of the time I worked there the women absolutely hated each other