My first job: selling newspapers door to door as a teenager. Memorable experience: being chased by a pit bull. Learned I could vault over a fence like an Olympic gymnast.
Next job: Worked in an auto glass warehouse, pulled orders, drove delivery trucks in a large city. Learned how to navigate through bumper-to-bumper traffic and get lost downtown.
Next job: US Army, communications specialty. Dug holes, painted poles, did guard duty along with nervous armed civilians, and heard just about every joke, clean and dirty, known to mankind.
12 years pass and stints as a carpenter, electronic specialist for a defense contractor, sawmill operator, lumberjack, security officer pass by.
Now: Faceless bureaucrat swimming in a sea of e-mails, interoffice mail envelopes, law books thicker than two dictionaries apiece, and a slowly but surely expanding waistline.
