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Saturday, August 14, 2010

I'm a Maniac Maniac

That, is a really blurry picture of me arc welding. The fuzziness actually makes it more accurate if you imagine it as sweat running into your eyes. It's over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Texas and my welding class is in a big metal building with no A/C. Add long pants, long-sleeve shirts, leather boots and gloves, one of those welding hoods plus 10,000 BTU's of heat and you've got a real swampy mixture.

As I'm standing there, listening to the instructor caution us on the dangers of 125 Amps of electricity arcing to molten steel, all I could hear was "...She's a maniac, maniac on the floor!" I said, "Oh my god. I'm the chic in Flashdance." Which dissected the class into those older than 30 and younger than 30. The younguns were blank.

"I'm a maaaaniac-maaaaniac!" and I did the running dance. Still blank. I did the running dance again and mimed dumping water over my head. "Nothing? It's an 80's movie about a girl who's a welder, but she really just wants to dance. Look it up on Youtube."