Day 1 of 30

Your trash keeps me busy...

...or I thought it would.

6:15...

I arrived as instructed at 6:30 AM. Actually I got there about 6:15, just in case. Just in case what... I'm not sure, but I was there. There were three others standing there outside the jail, waiting for something. No one seemed very happy. I am sure they were just as innocent as I was of the crimes that we were being punished for. The time seemed to crawl!!! Slowly, one by one, more people arrived. By 7AM, there were about 100 people there. I thought, "WOW! There are a bunch of us criminals here!"

7:00...

Eventually this tough looking, short deputy walked over and yelled. I found out later his name was something like Officer Quiggly... I think. I heard someone call him Squiggly. Everyone makes fun of the cops here.

He called attendance and once your name was yelled and you hollered back, you had to go to the other side of the building to sign in. Because it was my first time there I had to sign another paper. The paper told me things that I should have been told from the beginning.

• Be On Time
• Wear work clothes. T-shirt and jeans are fine. No restrictions on colors, logos, styles, etc. They preferred long pants because we would be walking in tall grass at times.
• I would be charged $5 a day to work for them. (ANOTHER FEE!!!)
• No cell phones.
• No smoking.
• No Drugs
• No Weapons
• No Explosives
• etc.

All good things to know.

I was relieved however, that it said nothing about an iPod. That would definitely make the day pass faster. Over all the rules list eased some of my worries. I would not be bringing bombs, drugs, or guns to work anyway, so I was fine!

Not to mention, most people there were wearing shorts, smoking cigarettes, carrying small bags with their lunches in it, listening to iPod, reading books, etc. So it seamed like just another day on the job.

That didn't last long.

7:30...

They sent us over to an area of the parking lot where we were to pick up our bright yellow caution vests. They were all stuck together with the Velcro that is used to fasten them around your waist. A big guy named Ray sat on the ground and started pulling them apart and handing them out. Ray seemed like a nice guy. Gentle Giant kind of guy. I could tell that he had been established in the group as the guy that is quirky enough that he could not avoid certain taunts and teases, but only to a certain point because he was always willing to help somebody out, and lets face it... EVERYBODY here needs some helping out.

8:00...

The buses started to arrive around 8, and certain people went to certain buses. I asked Office Quiggly what I was supposed to do. Were we assigned to certain buses? Did they all go the same place? What was I supposed to do? He informed me that There were not assigned buses and that they would not be going the same place. I decided to just get on the bus that had arrived first. I walked on the bus and started looking for a seat. It felt like 3rd grade again. A grown woman yelled from the front of the bus,

"NO ONE SIT IN THE SECOND TO LAST SEAT ON THE LEFT SIDE, THAT IS MY SEAT!"

The bus actually filled up fast and certain people were NOT going to share their benches at all. Another guy yelled from his seat to the driver.

"Hey Lee!!! There are too many people on this bus, some need to be kicked off. Just remember who has been working with you fpr all this time!"

It felt like a... "MOM, Bobbie won't clean up his half of the room, and I cleaned ALL of mine!" Nananana boo boo...

I quickly volunteered to leave that bus. They were ALL grumpy.

I walked over to where everyone was waiting to board the other two buses. It looked like one group was all latino, and the other group was everyone else...