recap on this past week - post 96

it's been a fairly shitty week... 

so, i went to orientation monday and they have me listed as a student driver and tell me that i'm going to have to go OTR for 4-6wks w/ trainer at a student pay of $300/wk.  i told them that wasn't what i agreed to and i was leaving.  

i walked nearly 5mi to the hotel and ended up w/ a grand total of 7 blisters on my feet in the process.  #1 drove in to pick me up (more than an hour away from home) and take me home.  i bought her lunch to say thanks.

tuesday and wednesday were rough on me since my feet were useless.  i didn't really do anything other than try to catch up on sleep and job search. 

thursday morning i went to a toastmasters meeting as a visitor (2nd one) and had the opportunity to speak briefly during the table talk segment of the meeting.  i left there and drove ~5hrs up to western NY.  stopped to see my great uncle in the hospital that night & he was looking absolutely terrible.  it was obvious that this was the end for him.

friday morning i woke up and was going to take a shower before heading to the hospital & got a call saying that he already died a short time before.  so i jet over.  came home to shower real quick then went to my great aunt's and was there for a while as the family started making the necessary preparations.

did a bit of running around saturday, over to my great aunt's again for a while, home for a nap, went to an aunt's for her 60th b-day, then home again...  a bit more job search stuff.  another cover letter written.  and now catching up here...

i traded a few messages w/ munchkin today.  she's down in nashville visiting friends and applied to a position at her university (undergrad & grad) - apparently they interviewed her already and she said that she's going to jump on it if they do offer it to her.  i'm happy for her if she gets it - but i'm a little sad that i can lose her before we ever have an opportunity to become something.

sunday and monday are going to be long days, i think.  sunday's the viewing at the funeral home & monday is the day of the funeral.  then i'm going to try to see my brother that evening.  i'm going to try to head home either tuesday or very early wednesday...

the start of an error - post 95

i think everyone knows that I had to return to driving truck over the road... since this is going to have a hugely negative impact on my dating life, I'm going to spend a bit of time going through my orientation process and getting back on the road. 

 this isn't going to be a happy series of posts. most likely, there's going to be a lot of bitching about ending up in this situation. a good portion of that bitching will be about the fact that I'm making less money per mile than I was straight out of trucking school 10yrs ago. and - i'll be making (depending on miles per week) between $12-20k/yr less than I was with my 2nd company when I left driving back in 2004. 

where do I start today? I'm going to be over $100 to the negative before I'm even out of orientation. I had to pay $30 for an overweight baggage fee since I have 2wks worth of clothing, bedding, tools, toiletries & road essentials that I need to have with me. closely following that fee is a bit over $20/day for a hotel - so I don't have to split a room with a total stranger. add in some additional costs for food (of which there's not s huge assortment to choose from), but there's a BBQ place close by advertising an inexpensive chix'n sandwich that I'll try to check out tomorrow or Tuesday night. 

the bus ride was fairly quick, just a lot of waiting... over an hour waiting for the bus to board (then we left about 15min late). once I made it to the "station" here (which is basically a bus stop at a strip mall) i had another 45min wait until the hotel shuttle picked me up. 

hopefully, I'll be able to sleep normally the next couple of nights and get through orientation and figure out wtf, exactly, is going on for the near future once I'm on the road. I don't want to say that I'll be at ease once I slip onto a routine - but I'll be slightly more comfortable once I know how much I'm going to be making and what kind of home time I'll have. 

my primary goal right now is to identify between 3-5 potential jobs every week and apply to them when I'm home and able to. 

3 other minor goals I have involve making the most out of (what I'm sure will be) my ample downtime at shippers / receivers. 

1) to read regularly 

2) to do regular pushups and sit-ups (most likely alternating days to start) 

3) work on my craft projects to build up stock to open an etsy store by the end of the year. and with that, I'll close this night on the road, in a hotel as this phase of my life that I don't want to be in is kicking off...

catching up - post 94

where to start... 

i've spent a bit of time w/ munchkin over the past month, but idk if this is going to lead to anything.  we haven't even kissed or anything like that yet.  she's awesome and adorbs and just all sorts of *¡RAWR!*

nothing has turned around on the job front.  grrr.

most of last week was spent on the couch, sick.  that was suboptimal.  hell, i was barely on the intertubes for days at a time - just trying to recover and sleep in fitful, tiny little increments.

friday & yesterday, i went to MARCON and hung out in different panels for the majority of each day.  it was interesting, even if not exactly what i was expecting, for my 1st con.

what else?  more of the same.  science pub.  speak easy.  too many chefs.  crew.  symphony (oh, yeah - i came into last minute tickets for a show at the southern & ended up taking pikachu to that one).  other programming as i can find that's free or low cost....  i'm probably going to need to look a little more into both wild goose creative and the idea foundry.

i know it's a shitty summary, but really - there hasn't been much going on or worth talking about :-/