Working It

ON THE JOB: This past week brought a few firsts around MPA, as CJ and Annabelle each started their very first summer jobs.

They each have impressive resumes with a long, strong history of volunteer work, but now they are both eager to earn some money. They each applied to a few different opportunities, and they each wound up finding what appears to be a good fit.

Annabelle is now employed by King County Parks and Recreation. She is working as an aide for their Sack Lunch Program. Part of her duties involve helping make sure kids get healthy, nutritious lunches even though school is out. The program also has an arts and crafts component, so she helps assembly take home art kits. 

Annabelle's workplace is Steve Cox Memorial Park in White Center, which is just south of West Seattle. As part of her work she'll also be making tutorials for craft projects. At some point, those will wind up on a YouTube channel.

Meanwhile, CJ was offered a guest services position with the Seattle Mariners. That means when the Ms are in town, he's at the stadium, helping in a variety of customer service roles. 

Before he could even start the job, we had to go buy black pants, a black belt, and all black work shoes. I pointed out to CJ that meant before he earned a dime, there was an outlay of about $100. I pointed out to him that for some people, that is a real barrier to employment. How do you get the job if you can't look the part? 

Back when I used to work for WorkFirst, we would help job seekers get clothing vouchers. And while that was helpful, it could be a days-long process. That's not something that is going to work for some job opportunities where they'll hire you if you can start right away. Anyway, I realize I digress, but I just wanted to point out the realities for some people who are less fortunate.

CJ already has some entertaining stories from his first couple of days on the job. Guess that's bound to happen when your work involves interfacing with thousands of people each shift.

RED, WHITE AND BLUE: Speaking of the ballpark, we went to a Mariners game last Friday night. It was a notable occasion because it was the first time the stadium has been open (no COVID restrictions on seating) since the 2019 season. 

To celebrate, they had hundreds of tickets on the main level for $17.76, which is less than half their usual cost. So we snagged some of those and enjoyed the scene.

The weather was perfect, and our seats were great. We don't sit on the first base side of the ballpark hardly ever, but I remembered that at some point, the setting sun would shine through an ingress tunnel 

At one point, when he was on a break, CJ stopped by for a couple of minutes.

Christian also spotted him 'in the wild' at the top of the home plate seats.

It was a looooooong darn game, "thanks," in part, to a number of errors by Mariners' players. But they fought their way through, the game went into extra innings, and they won in the bottom of the 10th - four hours and nineteen minutes after the first pitch.

So, it was nearly 11:30 when the game ended, and then it was time for the big fireworks show!

During the ninth inning, we'd headed out to some outfield seats so that we could see the show better (where we were before, our seats were under an overhang that would have impeded our view).

It was fun sitting out there, as well. It almost felt like we were standing in the outfield!

I have to think Annabelle and Kennedy's rally caps helped the Mariners in the 10th.

Eventually the pyrotechnics got started. They did not disappoint.