Jobs: Stavis (Part 4) & Berklee (Part 5)

IV

Stavis Seafoods would probably label themselves as Distributors. I like to think of them as Boxers.

They buy the big boxes from the Big Box companies. They take the product out of those boxes into smaller boxes. They sell the smaller boxes to the small box companies that can't afford to buy from the big box companies.

It's sly business and I love that. The monkey wrench is that the product is seafood, which is perishable. The idea that a percentage of this inventory expires every week or so still makes me queasy. The Stavis' have iron stomachs.

I worked in the fresh warehouse. Shoveling ice into the boxes. Putting fish in the boxes. Boxes on wooden palettes. Palettes put onto trucks. Trucks sent around the country and world. Probably another 2 or 3 steps away from your dinner plate, which is pretty amazing too.

The smell of fresh fish at 7a on a Sunday morning as a hungover 17 year old. I did one or two summers in the warehouse and maybe 6-8 months of Sundays thereafter. That smell doesn't come off after your shift. Changing your clothes won't help. Putting them in a plastic bag in the trunk won't help. The seagulls would follow my toyota home over 30 miles and I would scrub myself with real lemons in the shower and still smell like a fish all week. They are a wonderful family and it was a great place to work and I don't miss it one bit.

*****

V

I started in the Student Affairs Office at Berklee College of Music through the work program at the school. I didn't land the gig until my last semester. They don't usually do it that way. They usually get em young and fresh and keep em and watch em grow. I was realizing that was the case, throughout the school, and had assumed it wasn't going to fly. More than a day late, and thus about to be more than a dollar short.

I kept shooting and lucked out that this one particular office needed a 1 semester fill-in. I once read that "luck is where preparation meets opportunity" and actually that quote is from a book the Director of the S.A. office let me borrow.

(The book is "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch and you should read it if you haven't. It's not that long but it's Heavy and will change the way you think)

When my one semester was up I graduated and went on my way, landing at a Customer Service gig (see next post...) but was soon miserable. I called them back, literally within a day of an admin giving his notice. The season was changing, a massive tide of students on the horizon, and with my familiarity with the office, and a little faith on the part of my boss, I got to slide into the position. Administrative Assistant to the Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs at Berklee College of Music. It's the longest title I've ever had.

I worked with students, professors (who just so happen to be world class musicians), assisted on photo shoots, took notes at meetings, and witnessed a high school jazz festival take shape over a year's worth of meetings and planning behind the scenes. Fancy music magazines were delivered to the office every day. I read them. I was there for about 18 months but had also gone to school there, so I was ready to move on.

The same core of hard working people remain in the office. They are also activists, singers, actresses and organizers, in their "spare" time, when they are not moving the wheels of the College with their own brute strength. I could never complain about being tired from a gig, because Everyone had gigs the night before. Everyone is crazy gonzo and love being crazy gonzo and they inspire me to work hard and play harder and sleep when I'm dead.