Well, Green Acres didn’t work out too well for “Oliver.”

Five days a week, six hours a day, a ten minute break, no lunch and an hour commute round trip, all for twelve dollars an hour wasn’t gettin’ it.

But, I was proud of myself for keeping my mouth zipped; it was a conclusion he had to reach on his own. 

In truth, working in a garden nursery wasn’t what he really wanted in the first place but it popped up and he wanted to get back out there in the employment world and experience it from a different view.  

He got a kick outta the interview process (done in groups now with questions like, if you were a dog, what kind would you be and what kind of flower would you be) pertinent stuff to decide if you’re right for the job I guess in today’s world?

I mean, for sure they don’t want to hire someone who’s wanting to work in a garden nursery thinkin’ about peein’ on the plants like a dog or saying you’d be a weed instead of an amazing flower. Right? 

His dog answer by the way, was a Labradoodle because……they’re athletic, intelligent, with a great disposition and everybody loves them. 

Know any people like that?   

And it cracked him up him when he was actually hired. 

In the few weeks that he worked there, he learned the ins and outs of working in a nursery during the spring in California.  

They called it their Christmas time.

He worked the register and learned how to scan purchases, do returns and he learned a lot about flowers and plants and people who buy them.

We were still working on a better line for the used-by-every-cashier meaningless question of…..”Did you find everything OK?”

My daughter Melissa suggested he do a Saturday Nite Live thing and with every credit card sale, raise his arms to the sky and yell, “APPROVED.”

It began being her hello to him when she’d see him, up went her arms and out  came a loud and very funny…..APPROVED!

We laughed about a lot of our ideas but I wouldn’t have been surprised to hear he was using some of our material at his register!

He enjoyed the experience and came home every afternoon with a big smile on his face. 

However after the first couple weeks, he began looking tired and would barely finish dinner before he’d be snoozin’ on the sofa.  

I had no problem with him falling asleep on the sofa, it happens to me too BUT….I didn’t know how to work that damn TV clicker thing. 

He’s the clicker captain and I’ve been fine with that but I was forced to deal with it or watch the same channel all evening. 

One night I mentioned ever-so-gently how tired he was beginning to look and…..BINGO!!!!!!

That was obviously the teeny push over-the-edge he must have been waiting for.

One little tidbit from me and Oliver retired his Green Acres T-shirt.  

He decided at that very moment that he was DONE.

He’d originally applied for two jobs at the same time; the nursery and the city library.  

The nursery offer came through first so he took it but the library is where he really wanted to be. 

He was sure before much longer, he’d hear from the city library.  

And he was just as sure they’d hire him. 

His plan…..he’d work the nursery ‘til he heard from the library.  

But then he changed his mind, he’d just finish out the week and then, GONE.  

On further thought…..further like maybe two minutes later, he decided to just work the next scheduled day and then VAMOOSE.

And finally minutes later from that decision, he concluded that he’d go in the following day which was his day off and he’d quit and right then and there, he’d be HISTORY.

The hiring decision by both nursery and library jobs were similar.  

Each chose six people, five being female and…..Lobo.  

He enjoyed his female register co-workers at the nursery and no doubt he’ll like working with these home-for-the-summer, young college women.  

Once again I felt compelled to remind him of the “ME TOO” world we now live in.  

In truth I’ll bet THEY’LL end up lovin’ working with HIM.

So…..”Dewey Decimal” as he will now be known, begins his new position at the city library next week.  

This time, he’ll be working less than twenty hours a week and it’s only a ten minute commute. 

I think we’re BOTH gonna like this better.

My girls, ever so tactfully, have suggested a little practice with his “library voice” might be a good thing.  Maybe take it down a few octaves.

Guess they haven’t been in a library for a while.  

Things aren’t so quiet in there anymore.

Me? 

Well, here we go again.

I’ve got my library card in my wallet and I may stop in from time to time and check-out a book or two and while I’m at it…..maybe check-out the cute guy who works there.

And hey, who knows? 

If he helps me find a book, maybe I’ll go on that YELP thing and tell them what a great employee Roseville has working in their library and give him five stars. 

Oh, and the flower he’d be if he had to be a flower?

Mini carnations because they last a long time, which…..he didn’t!