My Jack-Off

The Saturday after Thanksgiving was my last ever shift at Jack's Coffee - Greenacre Park. Despite the total and utter boredom of the last few months, I'm grateful for getting to know Charles, Durell and my fellow work prisoners - Colleen, Duncan, John, Meghan, Sydney, Daniel and my Sunshine-rescuer Scott. It was a crazy rollercoaster ride with some staffers lasting only weeks. I am proud to be the last remaining original G-Ateam member but also sometimes wonder if I was duped. My wage rose from $10 an hour to $12 and my interest in coffee maintained an even keel at zero. I learned a lot (I had a lot of spare time for crosswords, sudoku and reading the newspaper) and I ploughed through many library books. I watched a few films (The Eagle, Blade 2, That horrible cave-diving-everybody drowns one) and threw out my fair share of expired milk. I cleaned the stir-brewer umpteen times and the espresso machine less than I should have. I mopped maybe 3 times. I ate too many croissants and West Coast Chicken sandwiches and devoured a tonne of Aunt Rosie's cookies. I drank lots of tea, lots of hibby and started an addiction to bad, burnt drip coffee sweetened with agave (it's better for me right?). I burnt my belly, my leg, my foot and my hand and rocked out short shorts when they could well have been a health code violation. I wrote a solid chunk of film reviews and most of the blog entries you've read up until now. I finally made friends with Harvey, with only a week to go.

I did my best in cleaning and packing up the junk in our tiny kiosk so that we wouldn't leave a lasting mark on Greenacre Park. Surely, most people didn't even know we were there to begin with. I've met some total nutjobs and some sweethearts and way too many Australians for this to be New York. I'm going to miss my uncomfortable wooden stool and the unflushable toilet. Most of all I'm going to miss my all-day chats with Durell and watching him and Charles take down disobedient park dwellers with just a look.

Greenacre Forever!