Me and Numbers

Every single real job I have ever had, discounting chambermaiding, waitressing, being an au pair, or teaching adult-ed courses, from my first one at Harvard through my last salaried position at Acclaim Comics, has required at some point that I juggle numbers. Program accounts. P&Ls. Hell, at First Boston I was keeping spreadsheets with multiple millions of dollars on them. I always sort of feel that, in the interests of disclosure, I should tell the nice people I work for that I suck with numbers. I have a black thumb for numbers. The only thing in my favor with numbers is that if something doesn't add up I will bang my head against it checking my work until everything does check out.

My volunteer gig with Book View Cafe is as disbursements manager (not a real title--I just made it up, and shall have it engraved on business cards). Which means that four times a year I add up all the money each author in the cooperative has earned and send it forth. I like this because 1) everyone likes to get money, so people smile when they see my email, and 2) because I have a narrow, defined set of chores and can schedule them.

But: me. Accounts. Numbers. Don't mind me. I'll be done in a day or two and everything will be fine again.