good work if you can get it

As many of you probably know, I’ve been working a “regular job” – by “regular,” I mean regular relative to my previous ways of making a living – for the last 8 months or so. The job, for those of you late to the party, is Interim Worship Coordinator for Grace Bible Church here in my hometown. It’s a good job. At least I think it is. I haven’t had a job, well, ever. I mean, I had jobs as a kid.

Let’s talk about that. I haven’t had much time for blogging lately, and it’s mainly because of my inability to re-order my life around this new job.

But I’ve got a few minutes right now, and since the topic is “ross’ jobs and how they affect his life,” this is as good a time as any to list a few of the wonderful, bill-paying endeavors that I’ve enjoyed in my life. This is always fun.

So, here are a few jobs that I had in my high school and college years:

Sno-cone stand sales guy
Apartment maintenance
Video store worker (I made it all the way to manager at that gig, thank you very much. Then I got fired)
Food delivery driver
Camp Counselor
Flower delivery driver
Travel agency courier (This one wouldn’t make any sense in an age of paper-less airline tickets)
Cotton picker for the Texas Agricultural Extension Agency
Janitor and maintenance for USDA

I did some other stuff to make money throughout that decade or so, including raising hogs for the local livestock show, writing songs for some camps and other ministries, and working at the concession stand of the Snook Rodeo. But all of those things were sort of random, one-shot deals, so I left them off the list.

But since I graduated from college, I’ve never had a real job.

I remember the day I finished my last college class, I drove over to the USDA lab and told them I was quitting. I had no idea if I could make any money in music, but I figured it would be weird for a college graduate (especially one with a prestigious, multi-dimensional degree like Political Science) to be making $8 an hour buffing floors and scraping the gum off of brick walls with a razor blade.

This was when the economy was still pretty good. These days, there might be a fair number of college grads who’d be willing to do that sort of thing.

Anyway, now I’m working for people again. It’s been interesting. I’m learning a lot about communication. I’m learning a lot about myself. I’m learning that I, myself, am not always so good at communication.

I’m learning lots of other stuff too, and maybe there will be a reason and a time for saying all of that later.

But for now, know that I apologize to those of you who probably wonder where I’ve been lately. The answer is – and I never thought I’d hear myself make this excuse – I’ve been at church.

But just remember that the first word in my job title is “interim.” That means, I think, “until they get the person that they really want.” Or something. At any rate, I’ll be back to my old ways – house-performing, worship-leading-on-the-road, etc – fairly soon.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for my children’s record. The tentative title is "words that rhyme with orange." It’s coming along great. I need to figure out some way to post demos on here for those of you who are interested. Anyone have any idea about the best/easiest way to do that? I ain’t shy about showing off my art. Show me how and I’ll show you what.

Also, check out the cool updated version of my wife’s blog.

That’s all for now.