I met a woman today at work. I arrived before she did at the yard where we get ready to go out in the field, more specifically to a road and control traffic as Flaggers in constructions zones. I checked in with the supervisor at 6:30am and we waited for instructions from the power company. Instructions never came. We waited on call at the meetup location for 7 hours before it was called off. The woman arrived not long after I did. I forget her name. I introduced myself and held out my hand to shake hers. She shook my hand. She had a story to tell. She didn’t tell me her story, just her name. She had tattoos on the side of her head, a puzzle piece.
She was a similar age as me. She had shoulder length straight blond hair and pale white skin. We all waited in our cars for the instructions that did not come. In my car the thoughts in my mind about her were “don’t speak unless spoken to” That statement I’ve never used. I won’t teach my kids to behave that way if I have kids. The women I met for a moment surely had many things to say. I noticed her reading a book in her car. I thought maybe she ate fried eggs for breakfast. She’s beautiful. Later she joined the supervisor in the supervisors truck with her book. Maybe they are friends. I would like to speak to her, the opportunity didn’t present itself. I’m new as a Flagger. I can speak to her at another shift.
Sometimes words come to me when I meet people, the statement, don’t talk unless you’re spoken to was clear in my mind when I met her. I’m glad she introduced herself after I reached out to shake her hand and introduced myself. I shook her hand for a moment. It was a human connection. I’m glad I reached out to her. Overcoming barriers is important. I did ask her if she liked the work and she said yes.
I noticed she had a big smile when she joined our supervisor in her truck. The seven hours went fairly fast. I turned music on and air conditioning and dozed off. I ate lunch. And dozed off again. At 7 hours another supervisor from the power company drove over and gave us papers with our 7 hours for the day. Getting paid to sit in my car for seven hours was my luck I suppose. I like to stay busy, I’d rather get paid to work than to sit in my car. That doesn’t happen very often.
Interest or not 