a walk in the park

(Note: Due to the difficulty in finding internet access, this post was written several days before I could get it posted. Read the following as if today were Saturday.)

Well, I’ve survived my first week of full-time summer work. My art department project is going well—I’ve gotten through five chapters scanning slides. Now there’s only ten longer chapters to go in modern art. It’s fun because I get to see all sorts of famous paintings: Picassos, Matisses, and yesterday, that Salvador Dali piece with the melting clocks. I have a good time. And the best part? It takes about five minutes to scan each set of four slides, and I can’t do anything else on the computer while that’s going on. I finished two books this week because of the time my jobs give me to do what I really like. I’ve also gotten some good editing done on my novel, but that happens mostly at the park, when I have longer chunks of time to myself.

When I accepted my job with the parks department, I had no idea what a good deal I was getting. Not only do I get to work outside in a beautiful park (Tuthill, in case you didn’t know), but, working the evening shift, I get a good deal of time to myself. Most of the work is done in the morning, when fewer people are in the park. In the evening, my most important job is to drive around on a gator to remind kids that they’re being watched, so they don’t destroy the place. It’s pretty much great. And now, so that I don’t forget any of the fun things that happened this week, I’ll go through it day by day.

Monday: first day. I reported to Tuthill at 2:00 and found the shop empty. After hanging around for about fifteen minutes, my boss, Larry, showed up. He gave me my keys, explaining that they were infinitely important and must never be lost. The green key opens every padlock in every park in the city of Sioux Falls. The big key opens the house in Tut and every park bathroom that doesn’t use a padlock. And the yellow key? Larry wasn’t sure about that one. He told me, “If there’s anything the green one doesn’t open, the yellow one might do it.” But we don’t know for sure. Mostly, it just makes my key ring look more impressive. After I got my keys it was decided that I should go to McKennan park instead of Tut for the night, so I wouldn’t have to work by myself. Throughout the summer, I will work by myself on Monday, Thursday and Friday until Jason shows up at 9:00 to go lock up bathrooms. I’m fine with working alone, but it’s not a good way to start a new job. So Mark decided I should go to McKennan, and follow their night guy, Kenny, to learn how to do the whole park thing. (Note: Mark is the polar opposite of Larry. Larry is big, Mark is small; Larry gets cranky, mark is good-natured; Larry gives the impression of a Wookie, Mark is a Hobbit.) It was a good time. I learned how to take pool readings, which is pretty much useless information unless I randomly get asked to fill-in at McKennan at some point, which I doubt will happen. The most interesting thing that happened was that early in the afternoon the cockatiel lady came through. There’s a lady who likes to walk around central Sioux Falls with a cockatiel on her shoulder. When they got to the park she left the bird to play while she sat down at a picnic table. The bird climbed up a rope ladder and just sat there staring at us. It also said hello to all the children when we got close. It was pretty sweet to watch.

Tuesday: I met Jason and he spent the afternoon showing me how to do various things around the park. The first and most important thing he taught me was how to drive the gator. It’s not complicated or anything, but it’s vital to doing pretty much any job Larry can think of for us to do. Then we talked to Jack, the guy who mows the grass at the park. He had a bit of mowing left for us to do, so Jason showed me how to drive the big mower. I drove it around for a bit but didn’t do any actual mowing. Later Jason showed me where the sprinklers in the garden are and how to set them. There’s pretty much no way to set sprinklers without getting wet. Later in the evening we went for a drive on the gator so I could get a feel for the park. It’s a bigger place than I thought, and there’s all sorts of places in it that are nearly hidden. Oddly enough, we also had to drive on the bike path. There are two trash cans across the river that we’re responsible for, so we went to go check them. It’s quite a ways away, and I saw a deer while we were out. At the end of the night we have to drive around a lock up the bathrooms in five different parks. One of them was on the west side of town, so that took a while. With both of us doing the locking, though, we can get it done pretty quickly. I was off by 10:00, which is a lot better than the 11:00 I had been told when they first hired me.

Wednesday: Jason and I worked together again. We had to find sprinkler heads in the lawn and spray paint them orange so they’re easier to find. Other than that, we spent most of our time driving around picking up branches. The wind was really strong, so there were some pretty big ones coming down. That night they changed our route so we wouldn’t have to drive to the park across town anymore. We now lock up Tuthill, Spencer, Tomar, Yankton Trail and Sertoma parks. It’s a fun route. Oh yeah, and in the middle of the afternoon, there was a group of kids playing Quidditch on the lower field. It was funny to see them running around with brooms between their legs. When we drove back up to the upper playground, we saw one of the Seekers running around with his broom, apparently looking for the Golden Snitch. I had to laugh at that.

Thursday: First day working alone. Larry had me move some picnic tables with the gator and water the flowers down by the park sign. Other than that, the night was mine. Good times. And at the end of the night, my friends got bored and decided to surprise me. They actually got to the park while Jason and I were out locking the other bathrooms, so it was a surprise to find them there when we got back. Actually, we drove into the parking lot with our brights on to scare away the kids who hadn’t left yet, and then I realized that the third car was Tarah’s little Bug. Apparently they’d been doing circles around my car in the upper lot when some teenagers started following them, and they were relieved when we scared them off. There’s never a boring day at the park.

Friday: I got to remove graffiti from a dumpster. I also got to clean out the house between two groups that had reserved it. Apparently we’ve got weddings booked in the house and formal garden every weekend for the rest of the summer. A couple of fun things happened last night. There was a caterer who got confused and didn’t know which picnic shelter he was supposed to be at. After I helped him figure it out, he gave me food. And it was good food. Also, there were hot air balloons taking off from the lower field. They did it earlier in the week too, so that in itself isn’t weird. However, there were also about 50 people wearing white shirts who drove in on a charter bus and lay down on the hill to spell out “marry me?” for one of the couples in a balloon. I was right there when it happened. It was so cute they was everyone on the ground clapped and cheered when it was clear she’d answered “yes.” It was the most elaborate proposal I’ve ever seen.

So that’s my week. I love that even though I’m working evenings, this job hasn’t killed my social life. I went to Sankofa a couple times after work and hung out with Caleb and did some work on my story, Thursday my friends kidnapped me after work and we did silly things, and last night we made s’mores in the Sully parking lot and watched Freedom Writers. So the way things are working out, I’d say I found pretty much the perfect summer jobs.

-Kim