Swift - Starting the New Year training with Swift 1/7/13 - A long read...

Lol, that is too funny. I hope she (your ex?) doesn't read this!

I almost screwed myself on the second one but I shouldn't have apologized so much to her since we ended up meeting up at a pizza place north of Seattle. Overall she was cool but the issue was that she had been drinking a lot lately, she said, and that when she was sober she was feeling like poop. So, having been there once before with one of my ex's, that was a big red flag for me.

Actually, you didn't jinx me nor am I superstitious. The second date did decide to meet up and it wasn't worth it. The good thing was that I finally found a genuine, decent pizza place here in WA - Brooklyn Brothers Pizza up in Everett, WA. Brought back a calzone with me instead of the head case I met up with.

Not sure if I'm cut out for all this dating stuff just yet. I may have to go the "casual encounters" route they have on some of these sites instead. Besides, as I'm finding out, dating is way too expensive and the R.O.I. is not there.

Yes, there is always one that will say "yes". True. I'm happy that I'm still talking with the first one and she's a freak. Freak in a good way, not psychotic.

 

lol, I'm just reading everyone's posts now so I'm late on the advice. But, maybe that is good. No, definitely it is good.

But, I will say this. I really didn't want to bad mouth the first girl I went out with to make good with the second. Out of respect, even if she wouldn't hear me, I didn't feel the need to say anything negative since the first was pretty cool and I have a decent chance at something with her later. Screw the second anyway, she wasn't worth a fake explanation as I found out!

Good stuff. At the truckstops, unless I have no time I don't mess around with any tough backing situations. Whenever possible, avoid backing if you don't need to. If you need to, avoid blind side backing.

Maybe a little bit of both and neither too. lol

Thanks for your service!

I never did see my recruiter. Mine is based in El Paso, TX and when I hit that terminal I didn't have time to see her. I wish I did.
I'm not sure how the pay for schooling works for veterans but I would definitely keep asking them. Dont' let the issue drop, if that opportunity is there make sure you look out for you and take advantage. One thing I've been learning, and others have said on here, is that you have to make sure you get paid for things otherwise no one else will do it for you. Keep at it and get a definite answer.

Regarding the DOT physicals, I paid for mine at a Swift approved (very important!) DOT physical office. However, when I got to class there was about 4-5 students who had not had their DOT physical and they were taken over in a shuttle to a Swift approved facility and given the DOT physical for free. So, I'm not sure why that was like that. I paid something like $85 and their's was free. I would check into this as well as I'm not sure if it varies from terminal to terminal.

If you have any questions at all feel free to post them here or PM me. I'm more than happy to help out.

 

So, regarding my rogue text message to the wrong person...

She finally got back to me late that night or was it early that morning. She stated that she was hurt by my text and that she had put dates off all week due to me. That was odd by itself since we never made plans prior and the only plans we had were for Friday. Not sure why that messed up her whole week. She also said she had been emotional all week so that was playing a part. She didn't want any more heartache or whatever it was. Weird, again, since we really only have been texting each other, exchanging pictures and we had one phone call whereby she called me after a night of drinking. So, there wasn't really a commitment in anyway. So, red flag #1 was raised on the DocWatson radar...

The next morning, feeling a little bit bad, I texted her one more time apologizing and saying that I would be up at this Brooklyn Brothers pizza place around 12:30 and that if she wanted, she could join me. If not, I would understand. She texted back that she had her grandson until early afternoon and I stated I would just take my time getting there and wait once I arrived. So, I did.

Got there early. I was hungry but to be a gentleman I didn't eat. Sat there sipping a soda for a while fiddling with my phone taking pictures of the menu and different angles of the tablecloth thing. Eventually sometime after 2:30 she showed up as I was talking on the phone with my little bro...I had that weird feeling that someone was staring at me, as I was engrossed in little bro's conversation, and I looked to my right. There she was, all 5'0" of her. I quickly hung up, apologized, we hugged and I pulled her chair for her...

She was kind of cute. Short blonde hair, I could see the darker roots. Sort of a bob or something. Who knows, I'm a guy. Let's just say shorter blonde hair. Had some kind of shirt thing showing the tops of the tettas and that was kind of pleasing. Jeans and a jacket and everything was put together pretty well. I don't know if I've ever hugged anyone that short before but it was kind of nice I guess. I'm 250 so I felt like I almost crushed her but didn't hear any complaints.

I asked her if she wanted to look over a menu. She immediately went to the beers asking for a "red beer". They didn't have it but a Bud Light sufficed. A "red beer", which I'm totally ignorant of prior to meeting her, is a beer with V8 veggie juice in it. It is used for hangovers I am told. After looking over the menu forever, she decided she really didn't want to eat other than a couple of breadsticks. I asked her if she wanted to go somewhere else and she didn't. At times she seemed really engaged and kind of happy then she would dip off into her own world, obviously pensive lost in thought. I asked her if everything was ok and she stated that the only time she is happy lately is when she is drunk and drinking. When she is sober she feels bad. This was sad but for me it was a huge Red Flag. #2. I had a heavily alcoholic ex-fiance and I've had them in my family and I'm not ready at this early in the stage of meeting for this kind of stress. No way.

So, the rest of the afternoon there at the pizza place was ok. Off and on, she was happy and then lost in thought. She explained that she had a lot going on at home with her daughter and was thinking about the passing of her dad a few years back. Again, it was sad and I felt for her but not sure what to make of all of this.

As a couple of bad omens, when we were at one time standing out front of this pizza place a cute girl walking by slipped on the iron grate and went straight down on her back. It looked really painful. I jumped over to help her up but she got up really quickly herself and was embarassed. Before I could give her a hand she got up and walked off. Then, right before the "date" and I leave, an older gentleman misses the step up into this dining room, immediately to my right, and he crashes down face first into the wood floor. It was unreal. I helped him up along with his family and his nose was immediately bleeding and pretty busted up. They sat down and were helping him out as her and I left the place. I ordered a calzone with homemade sausage to go and bought their t-shirt. I walked her down to her car and gave her a hug goodbye. Uneventful. I texted her immediately before taking off on my bike to have a safe drive home.

I never heard back from her.

Relief.

I'm glad I wasn't the one that had to say this isn't going to work out. So, no Romeo here. Maybe I'm just not ready for it. Yes, I'm pretty sure I'm just not ready for any of this yet and will just focus on me and my job. I'll continue to see the first girl whenever I come back this way, as long as she wants to, but otherwise I'm not going to go out of my way for anymore of these unless they really put something into this. I get the distinct impression from this dating site that people want everything in a guy but don't have much to offer themselves. It's all about what us guys can do for them...have this job...look this way...walks on the beach...win an Academy Award...smart but ######...nice guy with a dark side...bad boy who will treat me sweet...ad nauseum. Maybe the women see it the same way as I do with the men. I don't know but the process leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'm a little bit bitter and if I do this again I may just play it like a playa instead of the chump I kind of feel like I've been (not including my first date who has been cool).

So, I am officially ready for dispatch at 0700 this morning. 0700 rolled around and all was quiet on the Qualcomm. Same thing with 1000, 1200, 1400... It's Saturday so I expected this.

I made my way from my truck into the terminal. Once outside at the smokers pavillion I got to talking with a few drivers there. One of them stated that he has been here since Wednesday. I asked him if his truck was being repaired. It was not. He was waiting to be dispatched. That got me a little nervous since I'm guessing he, along with many others, will be dispatched out before me. I asked and he was OTR like me, not a heavy haul driver.

Went out to Puyallup to hit up the Wal-Mart. Got on the bike, went over there and got stuck in traffic for a huge rodeo event at the Western Washington Fairgrounds in Puyallup. Not sure how much ticket prices were but if I was better prepared this sounds like a good time. Wish I could have went. Maybe I'll see if it's going on tomorrow and if its not sold out and not too expensive, I'll check it out.

Saturday night at the Sumner Swift terminal...