U-Turn Ahead

Here’s the deal, WAH(web)Mommy (who, by the way, has one of the coolest blog designs on the Net) was tagged to post seven weird facts about herself on her blog. I was enjoying reading them until I got to the bottom of the post. There I saw it…I was being tagged to write seven weird facts about myself.

Well, keeping with the career change theme of this blog, I’ve decided to post seven strange job related facts about myself.

1) I was a waiter for Olivia Newton-John and her date. To make it even stranger, the dinner was under a circus tent in the middle of the field on a horse farm. So let me explain…it was Anita Madden’s famous Kentucky Derby Party being held on her horse farm in Lexington, Kentucky. I was a waiter for the Marriot Hotel that was catering the dinner. Olivia and her date were the only guests at my table. That was 24 years ago and we both looked a lot hotter.

2) I was paid $20 to paint a 12 foot mural in a church Sunday school room. It was my senior year of high school, and I was really into art (paintings, drawing, ect.). The scene was a creek running through the countryside with trees, butterflies and a couple other animals. Was it good? Nope. I was really disappointed, but the church folk seemed to like it.

3) Two weeks after I got married, my wife and I moved into a group home to care for six troubled teenagers. And we are still together today! My wife and I…not the six boys. We worked in the home for a year. That work lead to me getting my Master’s in Social Work and a career in nonprofit administration.

4) When I was a teen, I worked as a bouncer at our county fair. Okay, this one needs some explaining. The main attraction at the county fair in Harrodsburg, Kentucky is the horse show. I got a job working in the reserved seating. I had to check a list of names to be sure no one without paid reserved seating was in the section. At the end of the week, I would make another $20-40 helping the carnies break down the rides. It was my one week summer job.

5) I once made a nearly $200 tip tending bar for a reception with the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Jeane Kirkpatrick. She was speaking to the Fort Worth, Texas Chamber of Commerce during her last year as ambassador, and I was assigned as the bartender for the reception before her speech. The tip was 15% of the bar tab for only about 40 guests. They liked to drink.

6) I created the term jobrepreneur to describe those of us who start a business while remaining employed. Jobrepreneuing is not so weird, but the word sure is. I first used it on this blog a couple months ago. I needed a word to describe what I was doing, but couldn’t find the right one. So, like any good wordsmith, I slammed two words together! BTW, did you know that Coryan is also a word smash? It combines the names of my sons, Cory and Ryan. My real name is Jim Lockwood.

And I’ve saved the best for last…

7) I once sold Avon products door-to-door. I was the second leading salesperson in our region despite being a 20 year old man selling in the housing projects. I had just graduated college and needed money for a car. This was the only work I could find in our small town. I sold five days a week for six months, even recruiting other moms to sell for me for a small commission.

I hope you enjoyed this little break from the regular U-Turn posts. Now, I’d like to see some weird facts from Ben at TheBlogscape.com, Tish at BloggingGal.com, KoTa at Ko-Ta.com, and Shari at ExpressMarketingMemo.com. You’ve all now been tagged! BTW, these are all great blogs, so check them out.