Yet, I never collected unemployment...

I think it's time I told you the story of my job history, and how I'm terrible bad luck for restaurants. I don't know why I'm such bad luck. I work hard, I do my job right. It's just fate I guess.

Job #1: Cox's Seafood in Kannapolis, NC. I was 15 and I was a busboy. I was getting paid $5.00/hour under the table, so I was rolling in dough. I had seriously never had that much money at once in my life. It was awesome. I only worked on Friday and Saturday nights, which kind of sucked because I had to give up my Friday nights at the skating rink (which is really hard for a 15 year old boy crazy girl to do). Then, about 5 months after I started there, I got the call, "We're going to have to close down the restaurant". So, that's job #1 that closed down. I didn't get another job until I was 16 because you have to hire 15 year olds illegally or you can only work them a couple hours a day.

Job #2: Papa's Pizza to Go in China Grove, NC. This job was awesome. They had just opened the store right before my 16th birthday and I began working there 2 weeks later. I loved it. Free food, easy job, cool people, and a real paycheck. I started as a cashier and worked my way up to head pizza cook after a year. Of course, after a year, the sales dwindled. We went through five managers (one was an embezzler). After I had been there about a year and a month, I got the call, "We're going to have to close down the store, and we're selling the store to another pizza restaurant from Concord". This sucked, as I was afraid of my job status. The new store, Pi-zon's Pizzeria, offered me a job at the new store. I was apprehensive at first because this store was run by yankee NASCAR fans. If there's anything worse than NASCAR fans, it's yankee NASCAR fans.

Job #3: Pi-zon's China Grove. I decided to go ahead and work for the yankees. I started out at their Concord store while they were renovating the China Grove store, then moved back to the China Grove after a while. The China Grove store was doomed to fail though, from the beginning. Why? Prices. Those New Yorkers didn't realize that redneck China Grove does NOT want to pay $15.00 for one large pizza. After six months, I got the call, "We're going to close the store down, but you can still work for us in Concord". I knew it was best.

Job#4: Pi-zon's Concord. This job was great. I worked with all kinds of cool people who loved me (even yankee NASCAR fans). I learned from a real New Yorker all about making real New York style pizza. I was great at it too. I could toss a pizza, and spin a pizza. I knew everything there was to know about brick oven pizza. The best part came the day after graduating high school when I met Adam, my first love. But that's another story. Then, I went away to college. I still worked there when I came home for Christmas and the next couple of summers. But alas, the next time I came home, they were closed. No more yankee NASCAR fans.

Job #5 was on campus at App, in the Park Place Cafe in Trivette Hall. As long as the school wills it, this place will stay open. This job was ok, but I only got paid once a month so I was very very very poor.

Job #6: Big Pauly's Pizza in Boone, NC. I have had a lot of great jobs, but this one was by far the best. I was 19. I needed a job desperately and so I decided to apply there. As soon as I talked to the asst. manager over the phone, I went down there. Who should I see when I walk in the door but my ex, Adam (the one from Pi-zon's). So we worked together for a while until he quit due to our manager who hated him. After 2 months, I was given the job of assistant manager, and I was getting paid $7.50 (after 2 raises) under the table. AND since the other asst. manager was also 19, when I was off work and wanted beer all I had to do was go there and buy a 6 pack from him (at a discounted rate!!!). I LOVED it. But of course, since the yankee italiano mafia a**hole who ran the place did such a shotty job with "taxes" and "paychecks" and "health inspections", we closed down shortly before that Christmas. And once again, I was out of a job. But Big Pauly (the a**hole) also owned a deli and bagelry in Boone, and I was given a job there, making pizza (even though it was a deli).

Job #7: Ma's Deli & Bagelry. This wasn't a great job. In the deli, Big Pauly's wife was in charge. And she just may be the biggest biotch I have ever known. She hated me because I wasn't a preppy little sorostitute like all the other girls that worked there. But I still had power, having been the Asst. Manager at Pauly's. But here at this deli, I had to be paid by a real paycheck, with taxes and everything. Only problem is, Pauly never paid us on time. Not once in the 5 months at the deli did we get our paycheck on time. It was always at least a week late. Once in February I deposited one of these very late paychecks into my checking account. What do you know, it bounced. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until it was too late and I had already spent the money. So I told Big Pauly it bounced. He told me it didn't. He claimed my bank must have messed up. I call my bank, get a copy of the bounced check and have hard proof that he bounced this check. He still denies it. I took a legal course of action and wrote him a certified letter demanding the money in 15 days or else I was going to sue. In the meantime I quit Ma's Deli and even worked my 2 weeks notice. Note, this is the only job I've ever quit that wasn't due to moving. On the very last day of the 15 days I had given him, I recieved another check. I immediately cashed it and savored my victory by holding onto the $367.81 for 1 year in an envelope until I really, really needed it. Two weeks after I quit, the deli closed down, go figure.

I went for a few months without a job. I went home for the summer (Pi-Zon's was still open at this time so I "worked" there). Once I got back to Boone, it took me 2 months to find a job before I finally found the Boone Bowling Center, or the BBC for short.

Job #8: Boone Bowling Center. I was the snack bar girl and I was very good at it. I learned how to bowl, and even joined a league. I worked for 2 very cool people, Mario and Diana, who were from Curacao, and island country next to Aruba. I worked here for 2 years until I graduated college and moved away. This is one place that hasn't closed. There is only one bowling alley in Boone, and I'm sure that is why they are still open. I loved this job and would go back in heartbeat if I didn't need more money than that.

Since then, I've had a state internship and now I have my real job at a real office that will never close. But at night I work at the brush. I give the brush 6 months before it closes down.

I swear I don't know why every place I work at closes down. I've never been a slacker when it comes to physical labor. I usually love my jobs, even if they suck. I'm just bad luck I guess.

I really hope the brush can turn around and come back to life, but I doubt it will happen. Especially if they move Jared to the Lenoir store like I think they might do.