Seasonal Job

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Experience your America.

This is the current slogan of the National Park Service — my employer for the next two months.

Monday marked the tenth summer that I have worked for the National Park Service as a seasonal employee. At this point I have seen all sides of the job. I started out in maintenance and grounds crews, did some administrative work, moved to natural and cultural resource protection, assisted in law enforcement security, and then moved to the interpretive division.

Baltimorians, are you aware that you have two of the best kept treasures of the area in your own backyards?!

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Go check out both sites. There’s definitely something for everyone. Fort McHenry National Monument & Historic Shrine is the birthplace of the national anthem and a major battle site of the War of 1812. (By the way it’s the big Bicentennial year of that event!) And in Towson Hampton Mansion & Historic Site is a well preserved southern plantation and slave quarters venue with great examples of Victorian landscaping and Georgian architecture.

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I love being a Ranger in the summer. It’s really just a different form of teaching and it’s an opportunity to cultivate my passion for American history. History was my first major back in college, after all. Back before I changed it to English.

This year I switched sites and will be working out of Fort McHenry. I’ve got to learn completely new facts and how to articulate them in an engaging narrative for the visitors. While it can be challenging, I am up for it. I’m excited to be doing something so different.

My only real Ranger woe is that there is a A LOT more standing at the Fort than at Hampton and my teaching job combined! I like all the walking. That I can handle. The standing still for an entire shift on a concrete floor in the visitors’ center or the Star Fort is a little less enjoyable. My feet are killing me!

Anyone have any ideas or tips about great boot inserts?

 

 

*Picture Sources: National Park Websites for both sites, which are linked in this article.*

Let’s make a deal

Today was a whirlwind of activity. If you don’t mind, I’ll just bullet point.

  • I bought a new Kenmore Elite gas dryer with steam feature off of Craigslist. It was originally listed for $300 and I talked the woman selling it down to $250. It was a year old. Nothing was wrong with it. She just combined households and it wasn’t being used.

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  • I bought a cute holder for the hose in the front of the house for $2.50, a nice staple gun for $1, a cordless wall phone with built in message machine and caller ID for the kitchen for $3 and a rake for $2 all at yard sales this morning.

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  • I found a dining room table for $100 in the French Provincial style that I like so much on Craigslist. When I got to the consignment store I was able to talk them into the table and the two expandable leafs for $75 total. $50 of which I paid and the $25 Dad chipped in.

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  • I put down brown paper in all but 2 rooms and plastic in the master bedroom to protect all the hardwood floors. We are prepping for the removal of the plaster textured ceiling in the master bedroom and getting ready to treat the other walls to paint.

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  • I washed and sprayed out the trashcans and took them around back where they belong.
  • I bagged up existing trash outside in the front yard.
  • I sprayed some Poison Ivy Roundup in the front of the house.
  • I trimmed back a couple bushes.
  • I got most of the other supplies we needed at home depot with the generous $100 gift card to Home Depot that my realtor gave me.

Did I mention I didn’t.fall asleep until 4:30am last night and was up at 8am??? I’m pooped!!!!

Reality Check

1 day after closing on the house I find myself having a serious… very serious… reality check.

No joke. It’s like life slapped me and said “wake up!”

Wondering around The Home Depot today it set in how expensive everything is going to be. I eventually went back to the house to start some basic cleaning. After removing everything this is what I found… and the shelves weren’t much better!

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Barf! It’s like these people NEVER EVER  cleaned the refrigerator! How do you let it get this bad?! Oh. And the freezer drawer below is worse… so much worse that I couldn’t tackle it today. It took me 3 hours just to scrub and clean the top part!!!

Here’s what it looks like all sparkly and disinfected:

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In full disclosure this is the first time I have had to clean every square inch of a fridge by myself. Mom handled her own fridge at home. I had to do a little Pinterest “how-to” searching. The *best* piece of advice that I saw was to take all the shelves out first thing and let them get to room temperature before scrubbing with hot water. This way they won’t shatter from the drastic temperature change. When I was done I went and stocked up on drinks for the “work crew.”

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There’s plenty more to do! I’ll have to tackle the freezer and the upstairs bathroom tomorrow.