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...