I'm so contrary

I was driving home tonight, and I was having this conversation with myself. It just showed me how contrary I can be.

I was observing to myself that I didn't want to be stuck working in one place all the time. I declared to myself that I want a job that allows me to move around as I work, even exercise a bit, all the while keeping me mentally stimulated.

Then as I finshed that thought, I realized that I was also the same person who once said he didn't want to move around much.

There is some irony there. I can say one thing and think the complete opposite. How different circumstances can change how I feel about my work environment. I grant that the reason I want to be able to move around a bit is because my last job had me tethered on a leash of about six feet long.

Yes, I was a "Customer Support Technician" in a past life. We all wore headsets that allowed us the entire range of motion of turning from one corner of our desk to the other corner. I survived for four and one third years answering such inane questions as "Where is the power switch?" and "Can you give me a discount on these parts?" I spent many a year asking such questions as "Did you plug the machine in?" and "Did you turn the contrast for the screen?" only to receive the response, "Oh! You fixed the machine!" *

If you knew how impatient I am (Hey, I am a New Yorker, we're all pretty impatient), you would understand what kind of torture it is to sit waiting for your customer to run from the front of the store to the back of the store to go check if the machine is plugged in. I whiled away many a long day staring at the windowless, gun metal grey walls of my cubicle waiting for a response.

But enough of that. I'm sure you all understand why I don't want to be stuck in one place where I can't even go to the bathroom because I am supposed to be at my desk answering phone calls. And since they were going "corporate" we weren't even allowed to have toys at our desk to idle the time away as we waited.

It's not that I didn't get to go places, usually, it was entirely last minute before I had to run home to pack my things. So, now after that wonderful experience, I want a job where I can move around. Be mobile. Talk face to face with people. Have nothing to do with phones for as long as I live as a possibility. Hence the reason I was explaining to myself that I wanted such a job that let me move around.

Now the questions is what kind of job permits me to do that? I can think of several package companies that might give me mobility I want, but traffic stinks in the New York metro area and I don't think it is exactly mentally stimulating. I hear rumor that there are some major high tech industries that have world wide customers, and they promise some mobility. Who knows, maybe that's where I will look.

* As a side note for those who don't understand why these questions are so elementary: Supposedly, they were trained on how to use it beforehand by our salesmen. That is an entirely separate story of its own that I don't wish to go into. Suffice to say that salesmen are sloppy trainers at best.