hurry up and wait some more

Once you've been in the military, and dealt with all the many MANY occasions where you are made to hurry up and wait, it is easy to deal with. For those of you that do not quite understand the term "hurry up and wait", allow me to attempt to explain.

In the military, especially when I was being honorably discharged, or even before then. When just needing to get some paperwork taken care of, or a task completed, or whatever, it'd be "get over there asap! GO! GO!" and then you get there and its "take a number . . . " and you'd wait like 2 hours before you could do what you came there to do.

That's basically the best way I could describe hurry up and wait. You hurry to get there to get it done, but then you have to wait. In the trucking field, you have that happen a lot. Yes there are times when I get to customers and I check in with the receiving or shipping office and get started being loaded or unloaded right away. But then there are also the times like tonight where I get to the customer in good time, but then sit for however many hours and wait for my appointment. Hense, me referring to it as hurry up and wait. ;)

So tonight, I arrived here at the BJ's in Rochester, NY, that I'm delivering at. Midnight appointment. I arrived like, 8pm? I picked up the load last night around 10pm, and shut down for the night in the parking area of that distribution center. Took of from there around 11AM today, drove 2.5 hours to the fuel stop which was a pilot just inside the boarder of ny, after leaving mass. Instead of fueling right away, I parked, grabbed my shower stuff, went in and hit the showers. There was hurry up and wait right there too, because they only have 3 showers, and they were all being used and so there were like 5 of us that had paid for our showers and then were just waiting around to have one available. So, even though I usually like a long "HOT" shower, I figured while I was waiting that I would be best to not take too long since others were waiting. Before hitting the showers, I got a sub from the subway inside the pilot.

There's this new sub they have now called the Chicken Enchilada Melt with Fritos. Seriously! Fritos on the sub! I heard it advertised out in Ohio last week, and I stopped and got one to try, and OMYGAWD!!!! lol. I'm still a meatball guy, but I LOOOOOVE chicken enchiladas, and to make a sub of it? and then to add frito corn chips on it? wow. Gives it a really good crunch. Mmmmm. So freaking good. LOL

One of the managers came back there to help make subs, and I swear he must have been the nicest customer service I've ever received. He smiled and was like "Hey sir! How are you doing on this beautiful but really cold day?" I was like "I'm not too bad, and you?" "Great! What can I get for you today?" Then when he was putting the fritos on, I was like "that's the best part i think!" he was like "Would you like me to put more on?" I was like "suuure!" so he did, commenting that drivers deal with way too much stuff and that we should be able to be happy with the way our food is prepared at least. Smiling the whole time.

Then when I was waiting for my shower, he walked by and asked me how my sub was. I was like "oh man it was great!" he was like "thats what I like to hear! Better than just 'good', tell everyone you know if they come down I will make sure to do whatever I can to make it a great experience for them!" I was like "i appreciate it sir! Thank you and have a wonderful day!" All the time me thinking "wow, I've never had anyone in the service industry act that nice." I mean, everyone is "polite" and "kind" for the most part, but never that much. I have one guy at an arbys in a Love's truck stop that I swear if he is at the counter, I wont order. He's kinda the "yeah what do you want." type. Then if he gets your order wrong, he's like "oops, oh well." I'm like "fucking seriously dude?" He clearly just is there for a paycheck.

So anyway, in conclusion, tonight I got my final exam turned in for my current class. Then I stumbled on a link from a popup that directed me to this info about getting certified as a pharmacy technician. It said "only $200 down! and then $95 per month, graduate debt free!" I thought "hmm. I'll check it out." Then I thought "well let me look up what they make," and i saw the low end was like $14 or $15, and went up from there. Personally, although my parents suggested doing a pharmacy tech training, personally I don't see myself switching to something else just to make the same as I do now, or less. I'm in a good career right now, and I'm not going anywhere in the forseeable future. I'd love for Erin to look into something like that or cna or something that would be a stable and higher paying job than her current, but when looking at the cna, I didn't forward the link because I thought "you know? I want erin to be happy. I don't want her to go into a field just because the money would be better. If that means that we stay how we are with me working my trucking career, and her working whatever hours giant will give her, and we just do the best we can? Then so be it!" I figure if something is meant to happen, then it'll happen. I'm not going to try to force anything. And all the same, although erin would love for me to try to get a local job where I can be home more, she knows I wont just jump at anything. It has to be worth the switch. Just getting me home more isn't necesarily a good change because if I'm still making what I am now, or less, then we will still be struggling. So, I'm open to change in the future if it improves things all around. Oh well, guess I will just keep pushing forward and doing what I do best!

Hope you all are doing well. God Bless!