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March 25, 2005
backstory 
So, I'm camped in my living room. The animals are all locked up in the upstairs bedrooms, and boy, are they unhappy about it. The marmoleum guy is laying the marmoleum as we speak. I can't believe how beautiful it is! And, I can't believe how much I just want to go into the kitchen, and I can't!
I am aching, top to bottom, from pilates last night. And when I was in pilates, I was just wore out, so while I was trying my best, I don't think I did as much as well as I have in the past. The ability of my body to be achey is just astounding to me. Right now reminds me of when I worked at UPS.
Back maybe a dozen or more years ago (oh my gosh!), I fell into a bad depression which was partially related to a bad job. Now, by depression, I mean the medical term—I hit the point where I was unable to go to work, to leave the house, to talk to my housemates. I got into therapy and onto psychotropics, and a few months later, I was beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel. And I decided to go to school.
I love school, love taking classes, and then I suddenly realized that my loans weren't covering me, and I needed to find a job. I talked to the career people at school, who got me in for an interview at UPS. I did some aptitude testing, and ended up as a sorter.
I had never made more than about $6 an hour, so UPS pay, union pay, was incredible. And the job was so much fun!
Basically, imagine if you will a giant chute that propels packages at you. The end of the chute is maybe 12 feet long. The conveyor belts are moving the packages at you at a tremendous rate. You're on a catwalk of sorts. And behind you is a train running on a loop, with maybe 12 traincars, and each car having 9 or so compartments. I don't recall how many areas I was sorting to, but there were quite a few.
So. I'd grab a package, look at the address, make the decision which area it was by its street address and zip, and sort it to the traincar compartment. And of course, this wasn't something you did leisurely—this was an aerobic activity. I spent 4 or 5 hours a night doing this. And I loved it.
Long ago and far away, I used to be a cab driver. I have an almost photographic memory as far as streets go. So the challenge of picking up a package, a heavy package, and deciding in a split-second where it needed to go was a great one for me.
I was come home and I'd be filthy dirty, completely sweaty, and my body, especially my upper body, would ache and ache. I'd take a hot shower, put on some iceyh0t, slide into bed, and sleep like the dead. I felt so good, so strong, so sexy.
So why aren't I doing this now? Man! On heavy-heavy packages, I used to hoist them onto my breasts before hoisting them into the compartments, and my manager was sure I was going to injury myself. They offered me a traffic job, basically being the traffic controller of the plant flow, and I should have taken it, but I wanted the fun job of herking things around.
Hope everyone has a great weekend! Don't eat too much chocolate!
Posted at March 25, 2005
Comments
what a weird coincidence...
last year, after more than a year of unemployment, i decided to go back to school. loans wouldn't cover all of my expenses, so i got a job at UPS on Swan Island doing pre-load. i started two weeks before my first marathon. that just about killed me... heh.
i'm impressed you dug working as a sorter-- that there's some serious labor, dude. not to mention the mental challenge of sorting.
amusingly, my former box line supervisor joined PFit last year and we ran a lot of the season together. we made a lot of jokes about our boxline in the later miles of those long runs...
Posted by: AC Hollumns at March 25, 2005 4:24 PM