WORKING -- Anthony Nguyen

-- Story by Alex Coolman

HE IS

A crossing connoisseur.

A BRIGHT IDEA

Anthony Nguyen is wearing a florescent green vest over his security

guard’s uniform. Even from halfway down Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa,

where Nguyen works as a crossing guard, he glows like something out of a

comic book, sort of like a radiated superhero.

The 21-year-old Garden Grove resident works the evening shift in front of

the Imperial Bank Tower, making sure that pedestrians and construction

workers don’t get squashed by motorists while the building is undergoing

extensive renovations.

The managers of the building decided about a month ago that they needed

to have someone out on the street coordinating the busy traffic. So they

asked their own security guards if they wouldn’t mind strapping on the

green vest, picking up the big red “STOP” sign and running a little

interference.

As Nguyen readies himself to charge out into the street and stop an

oncoming car, he seems content with his new role.

“Some guys think it’s OK,” he says of the job. “Some guys don’t like it.

But I wouldn’t mind doing this, really.”

PLANS, BIG PLANS

If Nguyen doesn’t think of himself as “really” doing the job he occupies

on weekday evenings, that might be because he looks at life in the future

tense. He may be wearing polyester slacks and clunky security guard shoes

today, but that’s not how he hopes to end up.

Nguyen is a full-time student at OCC and Coastline Community College.

When he’s not helping people get across the street, he’s studying

electronics and computers.

“The future’s way ahead for me,” Nguyen said. “Instead of going out to

play all the time, you put in some work now and later on in the future,

you’ll be able to enjoy.”

SOMETHING IN THE AIR

But stopping cars isn’t such a bad way to make a living either, Nguyen

said. He gets to see a lot of different people as they come and go from

their workplace. The he gets to watch the pink-and-blue neon lights of

the Edwards Theater marquee click on as the sun fades into the horizon.

“You get a chance to work on the outside,” Nguyen said. “You get the

fresh air.”

At this point, an enormous construction truck goes rumbling by, its

dilapidated engine clanking and spewing noxious fumes.

“Sometimes you get the pollution,” he said.

THE DEVIL IN THE DETAILS

The crossing gig is only scheduled to last until March, when construction

will finish. But Nguyen has his career planned out a few decades in

advance.

His ultimate goal is to work with computers, obtaining all eight licenses

that an “NT” worker can acquire and thereby reaching the top of the

salary scale.

“If you can get all eight licenses, you make about $240,000 a year,” he

said.

However, a question about the meaning of “NT” left him puzzled.

Nguyen considered the query, walked out into the street, stopped a car,

and then returned to curbside.

He still looked worried.

“It’s a funny name,” he said. “I forget what it means, to be honest with

you.”