First Day

In my last post, I mentioned that Maya was interviewing for jobs. I haven’t heard anything about the employment agency sending her anything, but she DID really like the law firm, and accepted a job offer there. Today is her first day. I’m thinking of her and hoping it turns out to be a good fit and that she excels there and makes friends and so on, all the things you wish for someone on their first day.

She left to catch BART at the same time that Puppy Boy and I were leaving for our walk, and for some reason seeing her in her business clothes (skirt, hose, pumps, blouse, blazer) on her way to a job in San Francisco reminded me of my first day at my first San Francisco job, all those years ago.

Back in 1987, I moved to San Francisco to attend college. My job was at a large, 1,000+ room hotel near Union Square. My job started a week or two before the lease began on the apartment my roomate found for us, which was another week or two prior to school starting. In this window of time prior to having an apartment, I stayed with a friend’s parents, who had an extra room and were very kind to let me stay. Getting ready for the first day at my new job, I realized that I had forgotten to bring a razor, and I wanted to shave my legs. I borrowed the father’s razor and went at it, hacking myself up pretty well in the process. I was able to stop my legs from bleeding and hopped on the MUNI to get to work. Once there, I was given a uniform by the folks in laundry, and went to the employee locker room to change. Of course, I had to use the bathroom before starting, and pulling my hose down and then up again started my legs bleeding. So there I was, wiping my bloody legs in the sink, hoping they would stop so I could go out to the front desk. It wasn’t a terribly busy time in the locker room, thankfully, but there was one other person in there, a young woman named Kris. She smiled and said hello and kindly ignored what was going on with my legs. After I finally got my legs under control and went out front, who should I be shadowing, but of course, Kris.

I worked there for 7 years, at the front desk and the concierge club and in HR. Kris and I became friendly, (though not terribly close), and eventually we did laugh about what she must have thought that first day. But she did not mention it to me that day, or actually ever, I brought it up to her quite awhile later. I hope Maya has no mis-haps on her first day, and that everything goes smoothly. And if it doesn’t, I hope there is someone as kind as Kris to help her if she needs it, and ignore the problem if she doesn’t.