ellen362
Feb 5, 2007, 12:43 PM
Post #69 of 2979
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Re: [Tapeworm] I'M IN!
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There's no more valuable service than providing ice cream. It makes people happy. You are appreciated.
An Iowa City DQ was hit by a tornado on April 13th. Drivers crept by to stare at the downed trees and power lines, the tufts of wet insulation like cotton candy picked apart and discarded by a roller-coaster-dizzy kid at a State Fair, to slowly drive over debris and try to glimpse the twisted tin roof sinking in the river beyond...to search for rhyme or reason in the places the tornado touched down, to construct a chronology of the path, and to mourn at the general ruins of this fragile yet iconic symbol of modern life, something innocuous from the past. Just our little Dairy Queen, if you don't mind; what did it do to deserve this? We felt its strong pulls on the heart strings of childhood, and grieved as a community at the irrevocability of this sudden destruction, blocks and blocks of damage, students homeless, which was marking time now in an undeniable way, and resetting the shared chronology of our lives..yet there was hope, too, visible from the crowded road, from the line of creeping cars crunching nervous tires over glass--the cinderblock walls and vintage neon sign, a tipsy vanilla ice cream cone like a dancing martini glass--were miraculously intact. Continuity amongst chaos.
The tornado touched down at the DQ, jumped the river and missed the Writer's Workshop by less than a mile. How these posts might otherwise have been different! As one student hyperbolically said, in reference to the general destruction: "this is our Katrina."
The DQ has since, fortunately, been rebuilt. I can't wait for summer, and a stop along the bike trail for a cone dipped in chocolate. It will have new meaning. Like college, I suppose, after you have been out awhile.
That said, food service is not in general a good career move, and there will still be better jobs around even if you don't go to grad school this year. Don't panic. Some people won't stay in the ones they get this spring, and spots open up later for other reasons. People always need good workers. Be persistent, and be enthusiastic. Good luck.
(This post was edited by ellen362 on Feb 5, 2007, 1:50 PM)
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