Poetic Justice

I have been on training for a month now and it's finally over. I probably won't be using any of what i've learnt but it was a mandatory training, with an exam at the end so i thought, to hell with this, might as well enjoy the ride and learn something. And i did. There were 15 of us, of which i was naturally the only girl but i met some very cool people with whom i intend to stay in touch. 

I don't like venal people. Or people who just do things because they can get something out of it. I'm not saying i've never done that once in a while but i don't think i can ever truly trust someone who just live that way, 100% of his/her time. And since i was amongst the oldest people during that training, i was somehow shocked of how venal younger folks can be these days. It's all about the money. How much you make, how much you can get from this or that, not doing anything selflessly.

But more than just that greedy behavior of some of the group, i was also shocked (and profoundly annoyed) by their rudeness. They show absolutely no respect to the tutor or the rest of the group, constantly talking (not even lowering their voice), making inadequate comments, arriving late every day, always asking the tutor to repeat because they didn't bother to listen, even sleeping on the table without the slightest care in the world. I could have smacked them.

One of them in particular. So when one day, he decided that sitting next to me in the afternoon was the best thing he could come out with, i was fuming inside. I tolerated him two days before i actually told the tutor that, please, tell him something or i will and it'll be ugly. He did. But it didn't work. Mostly because that piece of shit didn't give an effing damn. 

So i took matters in my own hands. And i told him, just like that: would you please shut the fuck up for at least 5 minutes? It's annoying, it's distracting and more to the point, it prevents me from actually listening to the tutor. I don't give a flying fuck if you don't want to listen but i do so shut up.

Obviously, i said it out loud, not whispering at all and there was this heavy "i-can-hear-a-fly-passing-by" silence in the room and everybody was listening to me having this massive go at him. And funnily enough, most of them were smiling at me, daring to actually say something.

It's easy to complain about things and people. But if there isn't anybody to do or say something, then it's completely useless.

On Friday, we had the test with which we'd qualified as commercial truck drivers. He didn't pass. Karma is a bitch darling. I know i shouldn't be happy but awww, the sweet poetic justice of it all ... made me swoon.

And because i'm allowed to show off a bit ... i came out 2nd. 

This Is A Man's World

And it would be nothing without a woman or a girl. Or so he said. Truth is, there are some trades that are not made for women. Or short guys. And strangely enough, i've just started one just like that. No kidding! (do you honestly think i would bother write about something i haven't experienced myself? Of course not, that's the entire purpose of that blog in the first place!!)

I work the land. I also drain and clean septic tanks. If you still see (less and less) women in the agriculture world, they are a lot scarcer in my other job. And even though you still encounter women who work the land, we still have to face those stereotypes that are stuck in people's head: a woman in agriculture? she must be ugly, or fat, or both, submissive to her husband, not feminine at all and uneducated. 

Jeeez, where to start?

I'm not gonna defend myself on it all, i honestly don't care what people might think. I don't consider myself ugly, nor fat, let alone submissive and i have 2 degrees (which are, in all honesty, completely useless for what i do now for a living). But i'd like to talk about the feminine aspect of it.

For my new jobs, needless to say that i needed some adapted clothing. Cuz i wouldn't be using my regular everyday jeans or shoes knowing i would either be in the fields, in shit holes (literally) and doing some mechanics hence lying on questionably clean floors. 

So i went to the store which sell such clothing and shoes (amongst tools, construction material, paint and so on). And i have a few questions to ask all those people convinced that women doing men's jobs don't look feminine or pretty while working: 

- How can you possibly look good in men's clothes? 

- How do you look feminine wearing a trouser that is 2 sizes above your own? 

- How do you walk like you own the place when your safety shoes are also 2 sizes above your own? 

- How do you look good with clothes that are stained with grease that doesn't wash off in the washer? 

- How can you smell good when you spread chicken shit in your fields? 

- How can your hands look like you've just come out of a French manicure when you have to change the tire of a 15 tons truck or dig in the engine to get something fixed?

You can't.

But man or woman, you'll be happy to find your favorite bread at the bakery made with the cereals we planted and harvested, or eating your t-bone from the cow that ate those same cereals, and probably even happier to see the back of us once your septic tank is finally emptied and it doesn't smell like hell's broken loose in your kitchen and bathroom.

End of it all, does it matter what we look? 

There's a job to be done and that's all there is.

PS: and that makes me able to say that I am the one wearing the pants!

I love being a girl. And i love my masculine job. But why should i stop the glamour when i'm in my tractor? Girl power in the tractor! LOL.