Un-Employed

And the employed is now un-employed.
No, I did not get fired (though I was hoping I would be for quite some time); apparently you are only able to propogate trees for a certain amount of time, and that time is up. But, I am proud to say that I am either directly or indirectly responsible for the whopping number of 120 000 new bushes and trees being planted. My team and I are a well-oiled propagating machine.
And you know what? I actually started really enjoying it after a while. It was absolutley miserable to begin with, but one day I had a blue rubber band on my wrist from bunching twigs together, and I decided to not take it off and use it as a reminder to pray for work and the relationships there. Guess what happened? Me and mini-boss became friends (and I now retract everything I said about her), new people joined and livened things up a little, and work became a happy place. If that's not the power of God I don't know what is. It's funny what happens when you remember to pray.
I think one of my favorite days at work was last Friday, despite the 30 degree heat and working all day in it...and the 60 degree greenhouse. That was nuts. We were planting our freshly cut twigs outside, and every time we were done with a tray had to take it in there. But the temperature difference between the blazing heat outside and the greenhouse humidity was incredible, to say the least. Whenever I went in that greenhouse my glasses would fog up, like I was coming in from outside in winter, and when I got back out again I would be so cold and almost be getting goosebumps. That was ridiculous. And probably not so good for our health.
I got to drive a work vehicle that day, and not just the station wagon I had been priviledged in driving before, but...a bus! That's right, I drove a bus. What an exciting day that was. I was on a skinny road just wider than the actual vehicle between two rows of gallons and gallons of shrubs for selling. And if the pressure of not hitting them wasn't enough, I wasn't required to go forwards between them, but backwards. I finally found the reverse gear, started backing up, and then realized there was no rear-view mirror, so I had to rely on my two convex side mirrors, my cunning skills as a driver, and Hamilton (what an amazing name hey?) in the back kindly informing me (shouting) how close I was to the plants...and then Kyla, from outside, frantically gesturing right and left in those side mirrors when I kept overcompensating with the steering wheel, nearly hitting just about every pot on my way as I weaved by. What a day. What an adventure for the books. And no, I did not ruin any plants that day.
Then at break time I was cruising in the bus to go back to the offices where the break room is, and I had to turn a corner. Of course there were trees lining that corner, and of course you have to push the break petal in about a foot before it'll start working...and of course there were a few screams from the backseat, but again, nothing hurt, no lost money on broken trees, and no broken bones...or buses.
Kyla (former mini-boss) even bought Hamilton and I slurpees that day at afternoon break - 1 litre, monstrous slurpees. Talk about gut ache...and I only had about a quarter of it. Direct quote from Hamilton (holding his left over slurpee in his water bottle to take it home): "I am holding a big bottle of gut rotter." How true.
So it actually turned out to be a pretty fun place to work...besides the separate episodes of finding a dead bird and bloated, back-floating gopher with a hoard of flies swarming around it that we found yesterday. I thought I was going to be sick.
And now I am wonderfully un-employed and officially on full-time vacation.