From Shadower To Shadowee

Grade nine is the milestone year where us gals get to participate in "Take Your Daughter To Work Day". You bet your hindquarters I participated back in '96 - and for some reason I didn't shadow my own parents. Maybe it was because I had already been in their classrooms countless times before, or they were sick of my face to begin with, or I was sick of their faces to begin with - whatever, it doesn't matter. Instead, I spent a squeamish day at the hospital with Lila, shadowing her Nurse mom and trying to avoid eye contact with the old man who had sores all over his body. All I really remember is that three people died that day (or was it one person on the third floor?), and the most scarring image of all: an old lady gagging on the tube being shoved down her throat for a gastro-something-something. Oh god, the agony! The visual excrutiation!! But you know, seeing the camera explore her stomach was pretty cool, I must say.

Spending a day doing something completely different than anything I had known before was fascinating, even if sometimes jarring. I guess that's the beauty of spending "Take Your Daughter To Work Day" with someone else's mom.

Today I brought my daughter to work - by daughter, I mean someone else's kid, of course. An acquaintance requested that I spend a couple of hours with her little one teenager, because my job is "cool". Basically I told her to sit in front of the computer and read blogs for two hours. No, I got her to sort some photos, resize them and post them (she did my job while I read blogs). Then we did a mini photoshoot on the roof and I took her on the "most important task of the day": a Starbucks run. She refused a free treat. What kind of grade niner is this?!!!!! By no means was her time with me as memorable as my experience, but I hope she left with a smile on her face. :)