Where Am I

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Last week I focused on how God designed us and what He designed us to do. Earlier this week Lidna Linda at 2nd Cup of Coffee (there's always a fresh cup brewing over there) asked a question that focused on what we are not designed to do. "What's the most ill-suited job you've ever had?" Now she challenges us to write about that and I have decided to take up the challenge.

This is going to get embarrasing, in part because of the job, but more than that because this story will so completely reveal one of my ... eh hem ... greatest weaknesses. I have a lot of difficulty processing my thoughts when dealing with unexpected situations. My brain works well in emergency situations and when the Holy Spirit is completely taking over but in those regular, unexpected situations I seem to think in slow motion.

Quite a number of years ago I had been layed off from my job and was looking for employment. I was a single mom and had no other financial assistance. That was back in the day before the courts got serious about mandatory child support. In any case, I decided to go though a temporary agency to find something that might become permanent. My experience was in accounts receivable in medical offices, so this agency told me they had a position in A/R at a bookstore. I have to add here that handling A/R for a supplier is very different than in a medical office. I didn't worry about it because I was confident that when they trained me I would quickly learn whatever I didn't know.

I showed up at the bookstore, went inside, and the person at the counter was the only one there at the moment so he led me upstairs to the break room to wait for the manager. I noticed that the building was a bit old and shabby looking but oh well, I needed the income. As we walked through the hall and in the break room, the pictures on the wall struck me as a bit odd for a business. (That slow motion thought process is kicking in about now.)


So I sat there waiting for the manager to come in, staring at these pictures trying to figure out why in the world they would hang stuff like this on the wall. Well I soon discovered that this was not just any bookstore. It was a ga*y por*no bookstore that sold books and videos. (Thinking process is getting slower. I'm visualizing lots of ?question marks? but can't quite formulate the questions.) Let me sidestep here and give you a tiny bit of information. I grew up in California, I had friends who were ho*mo****** , but this was really a stretch for me to deal with. This was also just before I became a Christian. So I was really grappling to get my thoughts in the proper perspective. I really needed the money but was extremely uncomfortable.

All of the employees came in at different times and I discovered that all but one (he said) of the male employees was ga*y. There was one woman that worked there and she was le*s*bi*an. And the real kicker was the last one that I met. *He* was a tr*ans*ve*st*ite. He really decked himself out too in low cut frilly femine clothing. Now I have to tell you that I have always been a people watcher. Especially in California because of the unique variety of people. I have always been genuinly interested in uniqueness. Well to this day I would have to say that *he* was the most unique person I had ever run across. 'Nuf said. I will add that everyone there was very nice but the environment was still intensly uncomfortable.

Thankfully, God watches out for us even before we give our lives to Him and He jumped in to save me. (Thank you Lord!) No one knew anything about the accounting system or the job I was to do, so there was absolutely NO training. I did stay there for one week. During that time the computer broke down every day, at least once, and for long periods of time, so I did absolutely NOTHING the entire week except watch people try to fix the computer. At the end of the week my thoughts finally came together and I told them I would not be back. I left in tears that I had actually stayed the week. I did not return to the temp agency either as I was amazed that they never bothered to tell me the type of place they were sending me.

To this day, I don't have a clue what the name of that bookstore was! LOL