For four decades, Sundiata Kata has been coaxing the drumbeat of emotional expression out of some of the toughest kids in San Diego.
» November 1, 2009
Chris Pyles spends his days dreaming up newfangled painting tools and wants to invent a new wind turbine. He doesn't mind the mad scientist label.
» October 5, 2009
The details of an immigrant's long work day take longer to tell than the few seconds we typically allow for chatting with someone at the register of a convenience store.
» Sept. 7, 2009
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Pete Brunner has been an insurance broker by day, a hot air balloon pilot by night, for 20 years. One of his jobs is a means to an end. The other, the one he loves, is the end.
» August 2, 2009
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Jody Goldstein works long days, battling on many fronts as she coordinates research and treatment for patients with Huntington's disease.
» July 5, 2009
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Crystal Ritchie is Balboa Park's horticulturist, responsible for trees, plants and shrubs, and rooting for sustainability without sacrificing color
» May 31, 2009
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The only way Mary Yankee Peters' work goes unnoticed -- the ultimate goal of someone behind the scenes at the Opera -- is if everything goes off without a hitch.
» May 10, 2009
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Paleontologist Pat Sena extracts the fossilized remnants of San Diego's erstwhile inhabitants from the ground beneath construction sites.
» March 2, 2009
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Working out of the back of a Chevy Astro van, Nick Cutter spends his day sharpening professional haircutters' shears. His precision and skill make him one of only two working Grand Master Sharpeners in the United States.
» February 1, 2009
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All most people would ever know of Cristina Bahema is her work through the window in Old Town, her hands shaping tortillas there for 28 years. But behind the glass is a woman whose determination carried her and her eight kids from a rural village in Mexico to a better life in the United States.
» January 6, 2009
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Laid off from his manager's post in the finance industry, Dino Manning searches for work and finds an unexpected benefit in the meantime: time to forge a bond with his baby son.
» December 1, 2008
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Patrick Wilson manages the day-shift assembly of guitar bodies and necks at the Taylor Guitars factory in El Cajon.
» November 3, 2008
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Delora Snow is the woman who just brought cranberry juice and honey roasted peanuts to your seat on a flight to Las Vegas.
» October 6, 2008
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As the person saying, 'You've been served,' Andre Garrett is often the first face people see when they're being sued. But he hasn't always been on this side of the law.
» September 2, 2008
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Lachlan Oliver didn't know the first thing about opening a dessert shop. But he knew it was the way he wanted to honor a fallen, sweet-toothed friend.
» July 7, 2008
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Chelsea Hepner's a San Diegan for a summer, working as a 24-hour-a-day big sister, nurse, teacher, coach and friend at Camp Marston in Julian.» August 4, 2008
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Once an orthotic specialist installing halos and screws to heal spine injuries, Joe Crase spends his days now in his East County bounce-house birthday party central.» May 5, 2008 |
In a city in redevelopment mode, David Garcias, code enforcement officer, roots out a rather un-exotic assortment of contraband: unpermitted roof signs, illegal garage conversions and junk-filled yards.» June 2, 2008
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For some politicians, the Sunroad building in Kearny Mesa is the most infamous construction site in San Diego. For two workers from a local crane company, it's just another day on the job.» March 3, 2008 |
It would be difficult to find a more paradoxical relationship between product and CEO: WD-40 is known for its simplicity, its lack of fuss, its utility as a cleaner, a lubricant, a rust-fighter. Garry O. Ridge, though, speaks fluent corporate touchy-feely.» April 7, 2008
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Amid tulle and glitter and Hulk masks, Andrea Straw plays dress-up as a costume designer in Poway.» January 7, 2008 |
Stephen Foster knows all that goes on at the Pinnacle condo tower, and he keeps it all to himself.» February 4, 2008
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Gustavo Biccolo is a banker in his home of Sao Paulo, Brazil. While studying English in San Diego, he's a pizza deliveryman.» November 5, 2007 |
In an era of far-flung call centers, Sheila Moskaly and more than a thousand others like her answer Geico's phones from here in San Diego County. But the local cost of living has forced her to do something the company hasn't -- seek home in a less expensive region.» December 3, 2007
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Five months into a drywall apprenticeship downtown, Jose Powell starts to think in the future tense.» September 4, 2007 |
For a handful of young men in southeast San Diego, working at the Chicken Shack on Wheels points them in a different direction from where they were once bound.» October 1, 2007
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Tanya Hatch has patrolled the sands of Pacific Beach for 30 years, collecting empty cans from beachgoers to pay for her groceries and gas.» July 2, 2007 |
With cemeteries filling up and more people choosing cremation, business isn't what it used to be for funeral director Elmer Geissler.» August 6, 2007
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Emmanuel Burgin spends his days in a Point Loma cafe, but writing consumes his attention. His life has given him ingredients for a thousand stories.» May 7, 2007 |
When television stations need a sketch of what's going on in a courtroom, they call Greg High.» June 4, 2007
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From his condo decor to the ballet lessons, it's easy to see that John Sevier's life is in the trees.» March 5, 2007 |
If the kids see you crack a smile, Darrin Harian says, 'they think they got you.'» April 2, 2007
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In the mechanized phenomenon that is the all-night fast food drive-thru, Lateisha Parker works and dreams behind the sliding window.» January 2, 2007 |
Janice Aud is a parking enforcement officer, also known commonly as a meter maid, also called commonly by a list of other, unprintable, names.» February 5, 2007
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The face of the storied tuna industry in San Diego today less resembles a weathered fisherman with a knit cap than it does a savvy international businessperson or the corporate taste tester.» November 6, 2006 |
In a county marked by perpetual sunshine, Alan House, an owner of a Christmas tree farm in Alpine, is winter's caretaker.» December 4, 2006
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For 30 years, Chuck Thomas has worked as a painter on the Star of India and the San Diego Maritime Museum's other ships on Harbor Drive.» September 5, 2006 |
Eric Hunter is a builder, but not a typical one. Instead of working with steel, wood and glass, Hunter builds with bricks -- Lego bricks.» October 2, 2006
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About the Series  E-mail your ideas for future installments of People at Work to Kelly Bennett at kelly.bennett@voiceofsandiego.org
What are you going to be when you grow up? It's a decision we start thinking about as early as kindergarten, dreaming of fighting fires or visiting the moon or driving ice cream trucks for a living. Whatever you call it -- job, career, 9-to-5, vocation -- it likely occupies at least eight hours of your day, five or more days (or nights) a week. Some work solely for sustenance, for food and shelter. Others pursue hobbies or interests and find ways to make money doing what they love. In a feature appearing the first Monday of every month, voiceofsandiego.org staff writer Kelly Bennett documents days in the life of San Diegans in their jobs -- why do they do what they do, and how did they get there?
» Celebrating Two Years of People, Working
About the Author
 Kelly Bennett joined the staff in July 2006. She covers the quirks and frustrations of the local housing and job markets in full-length stories and in posts on her newsblog, Survival in San Diego. Bennett's series, "People at Work: A Monthly Look at the Things We Do for Money," has taken her all over the county to tell the stories of San Diegans in their jobs, from a wee-hours drive-thru worker to a career funeral director.
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Copyright © 2009 voiceofsandiego.org. All Rights Reserved.
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King of the Music Room
A Modern Inventor, Honing Ideas in His Mira Mesa Garage
There's So Much More to 'Frank' Behind the Counter
He Moonlights at Sunset, Becoming Lighter than Air
Fighting a Lethal Disease She Doesn't Carry
Keeping an Urban Forest, and Resurrecting Trampled Flowerbeds Besides
She Says 'Go!' and Makes the Opera Sing
Imagining Downtown San Diego 500,000 Years Before Condos
Never a Dull Shear
The Woman in the Window
A Person Not at Work
Presiding over Necks and Bodies
Her Office Is a 737
Looking at the Law From a New Angle
Shop's Sweet Success Rooted in Owner's Loss
A Day in the Life of a Camp Counselor
A Mid-Career Bounce
The Unflappable Rules Man in Imperial Beach
Friendship and Crane-Operating in the Shadow of a Towering Scandal
Slipping a Workbench Staple into the 21st Century
A Dream Disguised as a Job
Guardian of the Condo Tower's Secrets
In This Hemisphere, He Delivers Pizza
Answering the Geico Phone in Poway
After a Rocky Start, an Apprentice Finds His Way
Now Serving Chicken Wings, Gizzards and a Way Out
At the Beach, Finding Treasure in the Trash
His Life's Work -- The Dead
Living by Bread, and Writing, Alone
Drawing the Last Moments of Freedom
The Urban Lumberjack
At the Wheel -- Bus Driver Plays It Cool
'Good Morning, This Is Lateisha'
Aud's Job -- Parking Enforcer
A New School of Fish
In Soil, Man Toils in Life, Death
Painting India's Star
Building a Career, (Lego) Brick by Brick