When I finished my undergrad program at Berkeley I worked as a 'waitress to support my job as a muralist to support my work as an artist.' I chose the restaurant because (a) they were hiring someone to start that day (b) they were near where I lived in the Mission (c) it was Asian fusion themed, and so am I (half Chinese, half Ecuadorian).

I lied my way into the job and was doing terribly: dropping rice in people's drinks, apologizing profusely, giving them free dessert – I ended up with wonderful tips bordering at 30% because the people felt so sorry for my bumbling antics. I quit before they could fire me, and got a job working as a human resource manager for a dot-comesque company.

Once I answered a job posting to wash someone's cement driveway in Moraga. I had just enough money to buy the gas to get out there but not enough to drive back. My plan was to get paid in cash, drive to the gas station and fill up and use the remaining $50 to buy groceries. But the guy who had hired me gave really bad directions and I had to keep pulling over to use the pay phone to call him. He was kind of an asshole about my getting lost, and I decided that since I was running out of gas and might never arrive to his house to get more cash, I should just turn back. So in the end I never ended up washing his pavement.

Later, to reduce our expenses running a gallery in the Mission, Steve (my partner at the time) and I lived in the four foot crawl space in the gallery. There were no windows, and it was difficult to clean. It was rather stuffy and really dark. At that time I worked for Steve's business making kitchen cabinets and furniture. There was a moment when Steve tried to convince me to learn the skills to become an industrial finish sprayer, painting cars and furniture and stuff. There was good and consistent money in spray-finishing, and we knew a lot of carpenters. Thankfully I ended up teaching art to teens and lil tykes instead, which I rather preferred.

Now I work on curatorial and education projects with various non-profits and collaborators, and spend the rest of the time making art. In other words, I could use some extra income - I may try my luck with an illicit racket of some kind. Co-conspirators, anyone?