<Begin Segment 12>

JO: So I started temping... I was living with a couple...

TI: And this is about, what? 1987 or so?

JO: Yeah, actually, it was. I landed in New York in January of '87, and it was a couple -- at first I was doing, I was working for... he was, I think he was a classical music promoter, just secretarial work, and living with this couple. And they said, "You know, you really should study word processing if you want to make good hourly money." And so I went to the Betty Owen Secretarial School, and I learned how to -- I didn't know how to word process, 'cause we still used typewriters when I was in college, and I learned MultiMate. And, and then I went to a temp agency, I was always -- the two things I'm glad I learned are how to type and how to swim. And I went to a temp agency and I was really fast and accurate typist, and they sent me out to, the first job that they sent me out to was the company that I ended up working for until, actually, the book sold. So I, I worked evenings.

TI: And what, what company, what kind of work was this?

JO: They, it was a construction, it was a major construction management company. Back then they were called Lehrer McGovern Bovis, now they're called Bovis Lend Lease, they're owned by the Aussies, from Australia. And I was working evenings for them -- oh, at first I was working days for them as a word processor, and then I think after about six months, I really got the yen to paint again, I really missed it. And so I enrolled in an art school called the New York Studio School on Eighth Street, and it's, it's not a degree program. It's full-time, all day long, and I, I made an arrangement with the company I was working for. They, they loved me 'cause I was a really fast, I was a fast typist. And they bought me out from the agency, and they allowed to work me -- let me work in the evenings after I'd finished art school. So I was all day long in the studio, and the tuition wasn't really high. I was able to support myself, and then I'd go work for the construction management company in the evenings, and they would just leave me whatever was, the unfinished day, day crew had not finished, I would pick up. And then at a certain point, years later, I learned how to desktop publish.

TI: So these were long days, that you -- I mean, so you'd go to school all day and then you would work.

JO: Yeah, I was thinking it was great for the couple that I was rooming with, 'cause they never saw me. [Laughs] And then I would just, I would get home fairly late, just take a cab home. They'd send me home in a cab or a car, and then I'd get up early the next morning and go to art school. But it really worked...

TI: And I'm sorry, then you said you went into desktop publishing. So you took your word processing and your, probably your, your sort of art background to start...

JO: I guess. I never thought about the visual skills, 'cause I don't have any graphic design experience. But we, at work, I, we all learned how to use a program, a desktop publishing program. We were, I was in the marketing department and then we were putting out proposals. I still say, "we," even though I'm no longer with them, it's so funny how you identify with the company. They were putting out proposals to bid on buildings, so we made some very good-looking books.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2005 Densho. All Rights Reserved.