Or is that a bad thing? Would you rather have the details? Oh, not of the chores, but of my life? You get some of that, of course, but it's always carefully selected, polished, displayed. Do you think it shallow of me? I think of it as being careful. Well, you can see what happens when a diarist puts everything on display. It's always a bad idea; people think just because you discussed your evil relatives or vented your anger unfairly that you are asking for email on the topic. No, thanks. That way lies flame wars, hate mail, deleting journal pages.

So you can't have the details up front. But they're there, I believe. If you care, if you read regularly, you will have gathered quite a bit of data on me. I'm told I leave out large portions of my personal history, such as what I really did in the 80's, but that's not by design. I find I focus most on what's happening right now, what happened in my distant past, and relatively little in between. Maybe I should just list my jobs in the 80's. They'd reveal a few more details.

1980 - Sang professionally with church choirs, symphony choirs, and did solo gigs.
1981 - Accounts Payable clerk at electrical contracting company. Waitress at sports bar.
1982 - Secretary at University of Washington by day, waitress at rock and roll club by night.
1983 - Housekeeper. Temp clerical worker, mainly word processing.
1984 - Temp clerical worker.
1985 - Paralegal.
1986 - Paralegal.
1987 - Paralegal.
1988 - Paralegal.
1989 - Production assistant on PBS series about China. Cashier at Macy's during holidays.

There you go. As you can see, my nine years as a travel agent are by far the longest I've ever stayed with one type of job. I've also done stints as a janitor, graphic artist, bartender, legal secretary, theater usher, fast food peon, publishing house factotum, and performed every variety of clerical task ever invented. I always thought people had an obvious career that was perfect for them, like nurse or fireman, and one would mysteriously know what it was when one grew up. It didn't work that way for me. I tried anything anyone would pay me to do except sex work, drug dealing, and physical labor. I can't stand being bored, so I changed jobs frequently. I also traveled incessantly. I stumbled into the paralegal thing because all my friends were doing it. It was all just a way to pay the rent. The only job I ever deliberately set out to get, after giving up singing for a living, was what I do now.

Hey, you get all the details on that job. The weird and wonderful ideas the American public has about geography, airline schedules, and the definition of "proof of citizenship" never fails to amuse me, so I pass it on to you. If I don't exactly live to serve, I definitely live to entertain.

The rest you can work out for yourselves.

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