Timothy McAvoy:  

l as basically an English teacher. He told me he was leaving soon, and that I should take over the class. I figured that it shouldn't be too hard, so I said I would. So, every Friday night, I'd drive out to this place to help these folks learn English. The best part about this is that I was a 20 year old American GI, and my class was comprised of roughly 20, 18-20 year old women........I was not upset about this duty. After class, they'd all take me to dinner, and I'd get a little envelope of money. I tried to return it the first time, but my friend told me that they'd be insulted by that. He said to just use the money for gas to get there and not worry about it. It was a really entertaining side interest at the time. Once I came back to the states, I got a part time job at a convenience store to make a little extra money. The job was pretty basic, but I got to eat for free (as it was a deli too), and it was close to base. When I got tired of that job, I found another with a lot of my Marine Corps buddies. We all worked part time at night at National Car Rental. I will tell you right now that that was the most fun I've EVER had at a job. Nevermind that it was basically minimum wage.....we got to abuse brand new cars and get PAID for it! I think that's where I learned most of my driving skill that I have now, as I had been known to drive through the weeds along the freeway, slide sideways through intersections, slide sideways into parking spots, drive backwards from the airport to the office (yes, I actually did that), and even jump cars well over 6 feet in the air over intersections going in excess of 120mph..........I misbehaved a bit. Let's just say that you should NEVER buy a car from a rental agency......EVER! After the military, I went to college, and had a bunch of part time jobs. One of the first was delivering pizza. I did that for two years, and then was approached by the owner of Pizza Haven to create and run a delivery system for his store. I did that for another year, and then moved to a job at a paint store where my boss eventually let me go for caling him on committing fraud, only to have him kill himself and his partner while torching the building a week later......let's say I was pretty happy about being let go the week before.......otherwise, I might not be here talking to you folks. Once I left that, I found a job at a TV sales/repair shop, and stayed there for another year all while still in school. During graduate school, I didn't work, as I finished my 2.5 year program in 12 months......no time for work on top of that......I was braindead! Once I got out of college, I saw you folks at the 10 year reunion, and then got a part time job at Diamond Airport Parking in Spokane while I looked for work. Finally, I found a job with the federal government, and have been doing it ever since. I'll get into the details about that more should I catch up with anybody. Anyway, that's pretty much the last 20 years in the employment nutshell. 'later! Military My military experience was pretty much like a lot of people, I suppose. I do think it's funny that for those of you who knew me, when I told you I was headed into the Marine Corps, a lot of you would stare blankly at me as if to say, "Dude, I'm pretty sure you'd get creamed if you did that". Well, obviously I didn't get creamed, although during bootcamp, I did feel as if I was being beaten to death sometimes. I've got lots of stories about my bootcamp experience, but can save those for another time. After bootcamp, I got sent to NAS Millington, TN for my first school, Basic Electricity and Electronics. I was at that base for 1 month, as I hated everything about the place. So, since the school was self paced, I finished the supposed 6 week school in 8 days....I was motivated to get the hell out of there! Since I did so well in the first school, I was given my choice of 3 schools after that. The first was Weather School, up in great lakes, and that didn't strike me. The second school was Air Traffic Controller, in Millington, TN, so we know what I said to that......HELL NO! The third and final option was Primary Electronics Calibration/Repair School in Denver, CO. I said "Send my butt to Denver!", which was great as it was located on an Air Force base. It's a little strange being in a tiny detachment of Marines on an Air Force base. We had a gung-ho commanding officer, so while my Air Force buddies were in their barracks studying or relaxing, we'd be out running in formation in the snow or some ridulous thing like that. They used to ask me, "Is your commanding officer insane, or something?"......I never quite knew how to answer that. After Denver, I got sent out to the fleet, and stationed in Iwakuni, Japan for a year. I loved it there, and went and got myself lost as much as I could. I loved the people, and just enjoyed the general feel of that society. Being a dork jarhead, though, I did manage to get myself into a lot of strange situations over there too. Somehow, purely by accident, I ended up being sent to a rifle/pistol competition and ended up with the secondary job as marksmanship instructor. After my year in Japan, I headed home to the United States, and was stationed in MCAS Tustin, CA. It was a heavy lift helecopter base, and was right next to El Toro, CA. I generally worked in the lab on the equipment I was trained to fix, but was also sent out to another rifle/pistol competition. I missed the bronze medal by 5 lousy points! Oh well. I also was assigned to Camp Pendleton from time to time to be a marksmanship instructor, and teach people how to fire their weapons properly and accurately. It was a nice break from the lab work, so I didn't complain. While in California, I did manage to have some fun, and try not to get myself into TOO much trouble, but jarheads will be jarheads. I got out back in June of 1989, and immediately translated myself into college life. I started at Washington State University that fall, and spent the next 6 years there. Being the prior marine, it took me some time to adjust from the direct, no-nonsense, efficient form of communicating in the Marine Corps, to the liberal, warm and fuzzy, touchy feely form of communication that takes place on most college campuses. I adapted, but sometimes I looked at other students that had no outside life experience, and wondered, "Was I ever that damn naive about the world?" The answer to that was a resounding "yes". Well, I know that wasn't too detailed about my military life, but this thing only gives so much space. So, I'm sure if you have questions about anything, you'll let me know. See you later!