Okay, let's get this party started! It's time to start from the beginning. I can't think of any other way then to give you some background of where I was in life and what was going on.
I did something that started a chain of events in October of 1997. I walked off a job! I still cannot believe I did this. I am a single mother who has always worked my ass off and this was right before the Holidays! I had had enough and could not walk into that job again. It was such a difficult decision to make. I had to save my sanity! I'd been in accounting for 7 years and was still making less than I needed to live on and putting up with office politics like you cannot believe! This was a family owned and operated business and things went down hill fast when they hired an ex girlfriend of their son, who also worked there. Need I say more. I could not work with her anymore. I heard she quit the next week but it was already too late for me.
I spent a week in shock and tears. Then went through the paper and put in applications for anything. I sat down and searched my head for what I really wanted to do. I had done this for accounting too but that had gone its course...
Finally I came up with working around kids. I had run my own home day care while in Idaho putting myself through accounting classes. This was my most favorite and fun job. The other thing I love to do, is drive. I kept coming up with a school bus driver because of the hours. I could stay home on weekends and be with my son on Holidays. That would be perfect. I called DMV and spoke to a wonderful lady who recommended Laidlaw Transportation for the course. I called them and made the appointment.
I went for my appointment and signed up for the course and on the same day, went for an interview and test for a job. I got accepted for both in perfect time. The Laidlaw course would be during the day so I signed up for nights at my new job as a paging company operator. It was a low paying job that fit perfectly with my day course (with no pay or fee) for driving a school bus. The course would take 3 to 4 months. Yikes! I put in some long hours and my 13 year old son would have to stay home alone at night during this time. I had 3 neighbors that I got along with very well in the same apartment building for him to go to in case of emergency. It was a very difficult time for us both. It was only for a few months and my options were very limited. I felt lucky to have things work out so perfectly in their timing.
I soon became a school bus driver and was hired on with a closer school district and worked my night job on the weekends. Things were looking up. The school district was paying me fairly well. I was a sub driver for over a year, which meant we did not get paid for those winter, spring or summer breaks. The pay was still better than anything else I had done. My good credit was saving my butt here. I was racking up the cards. This was the year my son didn't have a Christmas. That was heart breaking but things were looking up, right?
In 1998 I was hired on as a bus driver. This meant I had medical insurance again and got paid vacation and sick days! Yeah! I was also diagnosed with early menopause. What, at 38 years old, me with early menopause? It was true. My doctor wanted me to take vitamins to help with the symptoms. Okay. This is when I became vitamin queen. I can tell you that I had a lazy suzanne in my cabinet full of vitamins. I was taking multiple vitamins and all kinds of others such as C, iron, calcium, Q enzymes, folic acid and E to name a few. I was getting more and more stressed.
In 1999, I had a bus run from hell. It's funny how the kids normally do what the parents allow them to. You would be amazed at how many parents don't think I should be able to move their child's seat on the bus for misbehaving. I wish parents would come and ride the bus their child takes to school and meet the driver. That would definitely give the parent an idea of what 50 to 80 kids on one vehicle, with only 1 driver in charge, is like. While I'm on my soap box, please stop doing anything you can as a driver to get in front of a school bus. We will get out of your way as soon as we can. We can only go as fast as the bus and the speed limit allow. Pretend we have music on our vehicles like the ice cream trucks. Y'all seem to slow down for them? Maybe pretend that we have your child aboard. Maybe that would help those drivers to slow down and give us some room. We are a vehicle over 10,000 pounds and cannot stop on a dime. Okay, enough about that.
So in 1999, I had a tough bus run, was still not making enough to live on, and was going through early menopause. I remember being very short with my son. I thought it was because of the rude kids on my bus. I was not going to put up with anything from my kid after a day of obscenities from them. Little did I know that the low tolerance for other drivers was getting bad too. If one more person had pulled in front of me and stopped, I was just going to scream. I knew that something was not right. I went to the doctors and they put me on hormones. That should do the trick. These were supposed to make me feel much better!
I was having back pain also and my doctor sent me to a specialist. She was shocked at my curved spine. I had worn a back brace all through Middle School because of my scoliosis. I had that taken care of, I thought. The back doctor told me that I was past the point of needing surgery and would probably be looking at complete spinal fusion within the next year or two. He wanted me to set up an appointment in a year to do another check up. Wow!
That sent me into a tail spin. I did not have insurance for anything like that. If I was unable to work, what would I do? My son could be alone. I was horrified. My grandfather had died and left me some money during this time. I paid off enough credit cards to qualify for a manufactured home in a trailer park. That was as good as I was going to get with my credit card amounts. I thank God for my grandfathers money. It saved my sanity for the next year and helped to get me into a nice home. I purchased a house in a park and got insurance on everything I could. I felt like my son would be taken care of whatever happened to me. I was still not making enough to do what I needed to do. The early menopause might be because of stress and I know my mom went through it very early too. This explained a lot! I remember how she was when I was in Middle School...
The hormones were not helping my mood troubles. There were a lot of issues on the table at home and work. Nothing was going well. I was crying at the drop of a hat. Stress was taking over my life. My poor son put up with a lot during this time. He had no where to run. I could not stop the words coming out of my mouth. It was an awful time for me. I remember walking into the medical center where my doctor was and ordered that they do blood work (without an appointment) and schedule an exam to evaluate the findings. They did and increased my dosage of hormones. My mind was just not working right and I knew it.
I struggled to survive all this for a couple of years. This is a good area to take a break. Imagine a life of spinning your wheels and getting no where. Working your butt off and not being able to pay the bills. Living for a purpose of survival only. What a way to go, day after day...
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