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A Temp Remembers

As part of my personal archiving project, I recently came across a cache of old files from my time in grad school in NYC. Among these files were documents from a temp job I held at an investment bank in 2000, which became, briefly, a full-time job. There were stories I’d jotted down, artifacts, pilfered printouts, articles, even photographs. I collected them all, scanned them, and wrote an introduction to what has become a hardcover volume in my archive, titled A Temp Remembers . I thought it might be of interest to share that introduction here, a reflection on this sliver of my past life. Names and identifying details have been changed. *** A Temp Remembers From 2000 to 2003, I worked off and on as a temp for the CEO of Global Investment Bank and his wife: Bill and Trixie Donner. I got the temp job in the ordinary way, through a temp agency, and worked there for a few months one summer and then on Fridays during graduate school (July 2000 - May 2001). After I finished my coursework, t...
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Monday, April 6 - Wednesday, April 8: Cabinets

Back to the reality of school for the kids, and the usual immersion in renovation chaos for us. The cabinets have been delivered, and we hope they'll be installed this week. That would be a good step forward. 
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Wednesday, April 1 - Sunday, April 5: The Rest of Spring Break & Easter

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The kids had a great remainder of Spring Break this week. They continued to junk journal, and I joined them each day after work. Lucia studied precalc; Greta did some sewing. We began watching the second season of The Last Thing He Told Me. We went to the club for dinner on Thursday, where we engaged in a lively conversation about all the evidence for why Andrew is either a fugitive or the father of a second family in Peru.  They also got out all of their My Little Ponies, the magic of a full week at home taking over.  Friday, Andrew went to a Pirates game. The girls and I went to Shake Shack for tiramisu milkshakes, and when we came home, I showed them all of my Skipping Town volumes since they'd been asking for stories about their baby/toddler years. While in the attic, they decided to get out all of their Shopkins, and then they began setting them all up in my office. They were immersed in this return to their once-beloved collection. Meanwhile, I took the opportunity to be...
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Sunday, March 29 - Tuesday, March 31: Junk Journaling Begins

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Throughout our time in Iceland, the girls and I were intent on collecting ephemera to use for junk journaling, a new craft we planned to begin after our trip. Maps, brochures, food wrappers, business cards, packaging, napkins, placemats, boarding passes, luggage tags--we saved it all, usually asking Andrew to carry it in his backpack as we went about our days. You probably don't have to work very hard to imagine how Andrew felt about this, or how he felt when we gathered everything up in a big, messy stack to take home at the end of our trip. One man's trash etc; except this time it really IS trash. Trash that would be transformed into artful, visually interesting pages of our junk journals. On Sunday, a fully free day, we set ourselves up at the table in the Long Room and began. We'd purchased journals at a Flying Tiger in Rekjavik, and we got out all of our collected garbage components as well as patterned papers, stickers, and other stationery items we already had. Lucia...
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Saturday, March 28: Greta's Award Ceremony

We are home, back with our precious pets.  After dropping off Mom and Dad in Connellsville, we got home around 12:30 and had just enough time to change our clothes before Greta, Andrew, and I headed down to Point Park, where the award ceremony for the Scholastic Writing Awards was being held. Greta was so excited the scheduling worked out so she could go and receive recognition for her Gold and Silver key-winning short stories. Later, the four of us went out for sushi, and then the girls and I watched two episodes of This Is Us (one final episode to go). It's nice to be home. The kitchen floors are complete and beautiful. The end of the renovation is in sight.
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Friday, March 27: Last Hours in Reykjavik (Iceland)

We bid our rented house goodbye this morning, loaded up the car, and headed into Reykjavik for a few final Iceland hours. Our primary destination was the Braud & Co bakery for cinnamon rolls, which Andrew had read about in Travel & Leisure. They did not disappoint. It was truly the best pastry I have ever had, anywhere.  We bought a few souvenirs (Lucia bought herself a ring; Greta got a necklace with a little puffin charm; I bought a book of poetry set in the Bonus supermarket, the highest-selling poetry collection ever in Iceland). A few of us had a final pylsur. We walked to the harbor and popped in to see the Harpa concert hall. Our final stop was, again, Braud & Co, where we got more cinnamon rolls and other items for the flight home. It was very windy and cold and we all agreed, pastries in hand, that it was time to head to the airport to return our rental car and catch our flight.  A pause here to praise Andrew, who drove us all around Iceland this week in a...
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Thursday, March 26: Weather Warning (Iceland)

As predicted, Thursday brought a country-wide level-two weather warning, with many road closures and the requirement to stay home. So we did, and we were all happy to be forced to spend the day in our beautiful Air BnB as wind and snow raged outside. We put a fire on and read, played No Thanks, and watched both Frozen movies in honor of the literal frozen landscape. Lucia, Greta, Mom, and Dad, had a gin tournament. Andrew did some work. It was delightful. This is the best vacation rental we've ever had. The warning lifted in the late afternoon, so we ventured into Selfoss to go into a couple of shops, and then we had dinner at the Old Dairy Food Hall: pizza from Flatey's (Andrew, Dad, the girls); fish and chips for Mom and lamb soup for me from Samuelsson's. All delicious.  Then we went back home and enjoyed the hot tub and sauna one last time. Walking through snow in our bare feet is now old hat for us. Tomorrow is departure day. None of us want to leave, especially since ...
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