周六在湖边才开始钓鱼呢，老妈的电话就打进来了：女儿昨晚接到电话，要接一个新工作，约好９点见面。老妈不放心，让老爸确定是不是和人家见面。

老爸只好放下鱼杆，询问女儿详情。女儿解释说，昨晚是在email里收到的见面通知。太晚了，就没有告诉老爸。对方是大学的工作人员，是女儿高中的父母介绍的。因为女儿学过野外抓昆虫，也会制作标本，所以，她的生物老师推荐她去接这个活。老爸问清了见面地点，告诉老妈如果女儿要去野外抓昆虫，让老妈把人家的车牌号码记下来。虽说对方背景清楚，但女儿是一个人去，又是第一次和人家见面，老爸心里还是有些不安。好在一个小时后，老妈的电话又来了：“这下可以放心了。人家不用去抓昆虫，只是制作标本。给了女儿一箱子东西，让女儿自己带回家作。自己计算时间，两个礼拜后交回去。”

钓完鱼，回到家，看看女儿带回来的箱子，全是昆虫。女儿说这几天是不能作了，天气太潮湿。老爸就告诉她每次干活，得记下什么时候开始，什么时候结束，精确到分钟。不能因为人家相信，就可以多算时间。然后告诉她，不能再接别的工作了。她还是要花时间复习，准备九，十月份的考试。现在的工作，是体验一下真正的生活，不是为了挣钱，一个小时７－８块钱，也没有多少。女儿点头说知道了。老爸也就不和她罗嗦。

看来一过１６岁这个坎，马上就不一样了。去年夏天还得老爸老妈出面帮她联系，要学校批准才能打工或作义工。今年就差不多都是她自己联系，自己面谈，自己决定了。看来，这一年是长大了。

（６／２５／２００７）后记

女儿昨天交货。早晨老爸一车把她送到交货地点，指望着这份工作就此结束，女儿可以有点时间复习，准备考试呢。谁知老爸出去吃了顿饭，回来发现办公桌上有女儿的留言和几样抓昆虫的工具。女儿让老爸给她带回家。

接女儿回家的路上，老爸问女儿：“What's going on? Seems you are going to continue this job.”

“Yes, They asked me to collect bugs for them in a specific area. You know what, they are very happy with me, and paid me 10 dollars per hour, the highest pay among my 3 jobs. Because they did not establish my account in their department, they paid me with a personal check. I don‘t have to pay social security even.”女儿一脸的兴奋。

“I guess they are also happy because you wrote down in detail about your working hours.”

“Yes. The guy just looked the sheet I recorded my time and immidiately wrote the check. I saved it into my bank account.”

“So now, you know how important a person's reutation is in job searching. Because you wrote carefully about your time and the total amount of time matches their estimation, they were happy to let you continue the job. Remember record your time in the future when you go to the field to collect bugs. You should outsource the job to your brother--pay him 1 dollar per hour, and you can sit somewhere to watch him, still getting 9 bucks an hour.” 老爸和女儿开玩笑呢。

“No way! He is going to mess up my bugs.”

“Look, this is a job need your skill you leanred last sememster in biology class. That's why you get higher pay. The work in cornfield is harder, but the pay is less. So you know the importance of education. Don't forget your coming ACT test. Work hard on your test preparation and college application, ok.” 老爸抓住机会，又唠叨开了。

“OK, ok, I know what to do.”


（７／６／２００７）