God Bless America

Well, tuesday I started my new job. It's alright. I am working for a masonry company doing form-work. That means that I'm building the forms that concrete is poured into, like for building foundations and retaining walls. It's not that exceptional of a job, but I took it because after talking to the owner I figured I'd give this a go, see what I can do. I needed to get a real job because it'll cost around $4000 just to move back to Seattle to go to school and we presently have about $17 in our savings account for that. (not to mention the cost of going to school...)

So I've got this new job, starting at $25/hour. Crazy, huh? This might sound selfish, but I'm actually underpaid in this market with the work I'm doing. I'm the forman for the crew doing all the form work, and in Hawaii the construction business can be profitable. This is wierd for me to know, because I am doing basically crummy work in a really hot place--I'm working in a lava field, so there's no shade or wind or anything. Scorching. So it's lame work, and I could actually find a job paying the same amount doing work I enjoy (house construction) in better environment...or think about asking for a raise (already?!). I'm conflicted because I am very loyal to my superiors--I just feel like I want to reciprocate the favor that they pay me by being a good employee. Plus since I'm the foreman it'd be next to impossible to just walk off to a better job; I really have to at least finish this big project which will take who-knows-how long.

When I think about that all in my head it seems fairly logical, no matter how greedy it sounds. Honestly, I am not a greedy person...I'm not motivated purely my cash and material wealth--I'm just looking at this objectivly, trying to get the most out of the next few months.

OK, here's the new kicker: I work with a bunch of Mexican laborers, which is great for me because I am having fun speaking Spanish with guys who are culturally very open and fun. The shitty part? All three of them work making $10/hour. So I left work today at 3:30, finishing my 8 hours a day...tired and dirty...and amazingly $200 richer! These guys tell me they work 10 hours a day! That is because they want to earn $100 a day. (by the way, I was bitching about my lame work...the work they do is really, really shitty.)

What a conundrum--honestly the work I do here could be paying me at least $1000 more a month, but can I really honestly gripe about that in comparison to these men? God bless America.