Saturday, May 26, 2007

On memory

I normally don't work on Fridays. The volume at work is usually less than half of normal. Yesterday though I did work. (We did have only five or six orders but I took two of them).
I went out to Easley and Liberty, both places that I had gone before. For me, the trip down memory lane came when I delivered to liberty.
That was an office I went to before...a year and a week ago.

How do I remember you ask?

That's where the memory part comes in.

As I delivered there I remembered sitting outside in Big Red (our big cargo van) reading my book on China. There are other details that I remember about that particular delivery but I won't bore you and relate the otherwise inconsequential details.

The fact that I remembered was what struck me at the time. I remembered the exact date because of other associations that I had made such as the association of when I started the book, the office itself and etc.

I've often marveled at my grandfather's memory and wondered how he can remember exact conversations from fifty years ago. (yes he actually does that) I would love to have a memory like that and perhaps I do.

I remember things that my mother doesn't remember (things that involve her as well) and other things like that.

Things like yesterday make me marvel at memory. It really is a fascinating thing. God certainly does work in mysterious ways.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

On entering the real world...among other things

Two weeks have passed since I walked across that platform (forgetting to turn and smile at the massive audience) and out of the grips of Bob Jones University.
Yes. In case you didn't know... I am now a graduate of Bob Jones University.

To be honest I don't feel all that different. It is the summer time and I would be doing everything that I'm doing anyway.

Talk to me in September when school starts back up and maybe I'll feel different.

I don't want to talk about normal things in my life...although that is good fodder for writing. I think I'll try to put down something interesting that I come across in my various jobs.

Here's something interesting that happened last Thursday when I was making a delivery for Streetside.

I got to go to the Bank of America building downtown. Now, I have to say that trying the find the correct parking lot for the building is rather confusing. There are three options of parking areas and of course I chose one of the wrong ones. The parking attendant almost made me pay but I wasn't about to (especially since my wallet was in the trunk at the time). I told her I had just pulled in and needed to go to the Bank of America building.

Anyway, that's not the interesting incident that I wish to relate.

Once I got in the building with my loaded cart (which I'm glad that I decided to rearrange the food in my car in order to fit it in) I got in the elevator and headed up to the seventh floor.

Thankfully an employee came along and helped me into the area where I was supposed to go and the room where I was supposed to set up.

Two men sat at the end of the long table closest to the door watching some sort of internal Bank of America interview with an investor or something. They didn't seem to mind the interruption.

Moments later an older almost matronly-looking woman entered the room with finger poised at her lips, shushing me when I wasn't making any noise.

With her voice moderately low she told me that I was early...that I wasn't supposed to arrive until 11:45. Speaking softly I apologized and told her that I was told that the eating time was 11:45.

She didn't let me finish my sentence before she told me to be quiet again.

I gave up protesting and told her I would be as quiet as I could (even though the men didn't seem perturbed that I was in the room).

As this woman was telling me to be quiet I recieved the distinct aura of "holier-than-thou" coming from the woman. In her eyes I was the low-level delivery girl and they were the Fortune 500 investment bankers...obviously better.

I had to restrain myself from thinking poorly of her and wanted to throw in her face the fact that I had just graduated from college with a degree in history only two hundreths away from suma cum laude and was working to save up for my Master's.

I guess this just goes to show you that prejudice still exists and that it exists here where I live.