Shortest Job Interview Ever

It's that time again.
I have to freshen up my resume to forward to a person, so I was searching Gmail for past resumes I'd written. Gmail's ancient archives can reveal many emails and events lost and forgotten to the past and I've had a lot of different and odd jobs over the years. Friend's often contact me with various opportunities and it's frequently a source of humour for those that know me.

Where is he now? What's he doing these days? What's he doing this week?

The following piece of email correspondence received from a friend/co-worker, while not illuminating my process (which I don't understand anyways), shows a glimpse of the situations I find myself in.

David, meet Jordan ... (email address removed)
Jordan, meet David - your new boss (email address removed)

And PS. (Jordan, it would be a good idea to send David a copy of your resume)

PPS (Jordan- it would be an even better idea to tell David where and when you'll be in town on Friday so he can pick you up!)

:)

For those wondering about the job? During a couple weeks break between semesters I took a job guiding school groups around Newcastle Island. I taught about nature studies, lead some inter-tidal zone exploration, helped run some group games, and also spoke about the regions quite interesting history. You can read more about it's fascinating history by clicking on the link above, ok ok or click here. It's a great park and you can take trips there throughout the summer from little boat launches in Nanaimo. Or you can kayak.

It was a short, fun, wild job and I made a few more good friends, and great memories..

Memories like:

Sleeping in the ancient dilapidated boathouse with a fellow interpreter because we gave up our tent for kids who's tent had collapsed.

Getting hungry in the night and only having horrible horrible dry old cookies to eat.

Realizing that after eating a bunch of packages of the cookies they kind of didn't taste that bad, maybe.

Still getting cravings for those evil evil cookies.

Capt. Dave teaching us from his "island lore and nature knowledge"

Capt.Dave: Look at this!! This is a shell from an oak nut! Isn't it amazing?
Me: Capt.Dave, that's a pistachio shell.
Capt. Dave: You do know your stuff!! Just make it exciting.

Me: I love finding the few pacific yew trees around the island. They're rather rare and always so beautiful. It's great that there are 3 along the path in a couple spots.
Capt.Dave: Yew trees?

Ok so maybe he was more in his element as the skipper of his schooner. ;)

Capt. Dave told great stories. He'd traveled all over the world and could spin a yarn like nobody else.

Capt.Dave had a great spirit and loved to make the trip memorable for all the kids. He'd navigate the Chebucto (a sweet 62 foot schooner I got to bunk on the first few nights before the kids arrived) out and around the local islands showing the kids seals and telling them ghost stories about Peter Kakua the Kanaka who was hung, back in 1869, on nearby Protection Island for killing his wife, child, and in-laws in a drunken rage. The body was then buried on the backside of Newcastle Island. Capt. Dave would then tell the kids that the body was discovered with it's face chewed off by raccoons and that his demon spirit still lived inside the local raccoon population (which shared a genetic anomaly that caused many of them to lack pigmentation in their fur which was considered to look ghostly, or "champagne", in colour). He said that not all raccoons were haunted though... and if, while you were sleeping in the tents, you were awoken in the middle of the night by the sound of creatures outside, you could tell the possessed raccoons by the fact that their eyes would reflect back red in your flashlights.

Of course all raccoon eyes do that.

Like I said, the island has a fascinating history spanning the first active coal mine for the British Empire on the West Coast, to shipping quarried stone for pulp mills and buildings ranging from Christchurch Cathedral in Victoria to the "Old Mint" aka "The Granite Lady" in San Francisco. It has survived two major earthquakes, become a US National landmark, and is being turned into the permanent location for the Museum of the City of San Francisco.

It was a very fun job that I look back on fondly. I'm thankful for the opportunity to spend a few weeks sharing my fascination and love for local nature and local history here on the West Coast of Canada.

Too bad the Chebucto blew up.

and I better get back to refreshing that resume...