Army Post Road

Time for a short post, have to get ready for work shortly.

I GOT MY LICENSE BACK LAST WEEK! Yes, after fighting the powers at CST and the DOT, I finally won the battle to get my license back (6 months and 3 days after the fateful night that police officer took it away from me).  No longer must I drive with one eye to the front and one eye checking the rearview mirror for the 5-0. 

No real new progress on a job and no actual updates on whether this gig in Cedar Rapids (which I am back in for a 3rd week now).  It's fine with me for them to keep saying it's temporary and put me up in this hotel.  Haha if I do find a new job in this timeframe I wonder how angry some people will get that they were basically financing me staying here to find a new job.

On balance, this 3-week stint so far has been good socially (albeit it did take one very large, very painful hit on Friday).  Haha I've had three very hilarious nights out with Liz and some very good times with others.  I was supposed to go out with another assistant manager from up here but she never answered when I called and never called me back so :p to her. 

Ok I'm a few minutes late in starting to get ready.  Maybe I'll spend all night ruminating on something and write one of my epic posts in the morning.

Talk to you later kiddies.

     So far this stay in Cedar Rapids/Iowa City has been pretty fabulous.  I enjoy working at 504 a TON better than either store in Des Moines.  There are fewer customers overnight so even though my list of things I have to do every night is longer I get it done lots earlier and I don't get super-stressed at work and it's just working out lots better than 541 or 500.  I really hope I can stay longer than just two weeks.  Not to mention work has been much more pleasant and enjoyable, BUT I'M SEEING MY FRIENDS! Today was the first day that I haven't seen anyone (minus Liz right after I woke up but that was more a continuation of last night) and that was largely by choice while I slept.  Yesterday I saw Liz (we're talking about two different Liz's), Jen, Bob, Steve, and Liz (and I have the feeling there were more just I'm not remembering right off). Prior to this week, I hadn't seen Bob and the second Liz since December and Jen since April.  I've actually seen pretty much everyone except Patti so far.  Hopefully we won't go this entire time without seeing each other, that would be really sad.  
    I wish I had Thursdays off while I'm here though, so I could go out on Thursday nights.  Last Thursday night was pretty awesome. 
    One of the greatest things in the world is I get the ignition interlock taken out of my car and I get my license back on TUESDAY!!!!!!!!!!  Finally, after six months, I can drive without having to blow into that stupid little box and looking over my shoulder for cops (I had just about the closest call yesterday as I'd had this whole time).  I really hope I can go back to driving at Cambus this fall.  I absolutely need to find some way to be back in school this fall and to get the University to let me drive again. 

Well let's re-cap: if you didn't read the previous post, I was talking about having had a good time in Iowa City over the weekend and how I hated QuikTrip so much that I desperately wanted to just finish out the least amount of time there at a store in Des Moines.  Fast forward to now… Mark asked me to work in Cedar Rapids for two weeks to cover vacations.  Haha they asked me Thursday when I was already in Iowa City if I could start in Cedar Rapids on Sunday night…. It was a crazy situation that became clear in skips and jumps.  First I didn't know if I would have my uniform, then my mom was going to bring it, then I didn't know how I was going to get around, then my parents were going to bring it.  The big question was where was I going to stay?  That question lasted the longest, all of Thursday night and the first half of Friday.  And then when I checked my messages on Friday, I got this confused-sounding voice mail from my dad, “Uh… there's a Mr. Sullivan calling about uh…. hotel accomodations for QuikTrip? uh… uh…” So that answered that question:  I was going to stay at a hotel in Cedar Rapids on QT's dollar: nice. 

And really, this has been a really, really good turn of events.  I'm happy that I get to work in some new stores (last night was good and the store manager isn't quite as intense and high-strung as others I know) and I'm so excited that I get to see my friends.  Tomorrow Liz and I are going to hang out for a while watching movies and who knows what else.  Will has plans for us to do something Wednesday, I'm not sure what (kind of apprehensive, I think it's a business thing, blarg).  I SO hope I can stay here for longer than two weeks (haha in a hotel on QT's dime would be nice but I'll settle for more permanent accomodations of my own). 

Ok, I need to nod off for a bit longer before work and before my family gets here.

Very interesting couple of days.  Saturday I spent all day with Will and Liz and eventually ended up in Iowa City and spent the night there.  Good times, haha definitely had fun staying up until 5AM. 

Work since then has been very, very horrible.  I need to do anything possible to not transfer to a store in Cedar Rapids.

I was excited to talk about this weekend and gripe about work more than this but I dunno, I ran out of that energy.  At least in terms of talking about this weekend in Iowa City, discretion is the watchword.  Haha, yeah we'll leave it at that.

Well the big news of the moment is I finally asked my grandpa about loaning me the money to get back into school this fall.  I couldn't gauge his reaction very well but I didn't have a good feeling.  I don't think he'd completely turn me down (especially since he has loaned my uncle and my cousins SO much in comparison to me and my parents; I don't think he's ever loaned my older sister anything but she's a whole different financial story) but I wasn't getting the impression that he's going to loan me the full amount I was suggesting.  I hope at a minimum it will be enough to get back into the University this fall and then I'll continue to pay off the leaches from Heritage Property because really, what I owe the University is the only big stumbling block to really being able to be back in a normal life.

Work this week has been completely out of joint.  I worked Sunday night (got holiday pay for midnight to 8AM), left work after about 45 minutes Monday night (my knee was KILLER), worked Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 500 (my new store), worked from 8AM to 2PM at the Fairgrounds store (which was interesting, first time I'd worked during the day at any store and it was 534 of all stores) was off Thursday night, and then was supposed to work 4:30PM to 2AM yesterday but got there an hour late because of my oh-so-lovely Intox-alock screwing up my car some more.  On top of this debacle of how I found out about my new schedule our store supervisor Mark wants to know if I can stay and work in Des Moines two additional weeks.  TWO WEEKS! After I've already pushed back by 2+ months when I move back, he wants an additional two weeks out of me.  It's beginning to look more and more like I'm not going to be able to find a new job in Iowa City until I move back and maybe even until I start school when I'll have to cut back to student working hours.  I wish that weren't the case, I'd like to have something I can leave QT with much sooner than later but it doesn't look like the cards are being dealt like that. 

I cut my hair back shorter than it's been for several months, since football season sometime (I say that because I think the last time it was this short was when I did color guard for the Wisconsin game [and missed drill like a naughty little soldier]).  I was tired of looking like a long-haired hippie (or as close as I get to one) plus I wanted to go and flirt with the stylist or whatever she's called.  Both missions accomplished. 

The appointment for an MRI for my knee got canceled Thursday night.  I guess Methodist's MRI machine had a broken part that's necessary for scanning your knee (I didn't know that there were different parts of an MRI for different body parts but we learn something new every day).  That stunk but I slept more because of it.  Now I have to wait until after my consultation with the orthopedic surgeon to have it done but oh well. 

Everything is on schedule for me to get my license back the first day I'm eligible.  I got into the naughty driver's weekend this coming weekend in Iowa City (yet another trip to Iowa City that I'm only making because it's court-ordered with little to no socializing in sight) and that was the only piece left that could've delayed it.  YAY! My months of driving with one eye always in the rear-view mirror are soon to be over.  Technically I can have my license back two weeks from tomorrow, Sunday, June 19, but obviously the DOT won't be open and I don't believe they'll be opening the following day either (I think they're always closed on Mondays) so I'll have to wait until Tuesday the Twenty-First; six months and eleven days from when my downward spiral into hell started.  I just had the thought that why couldn't I have been arrested before midnight so I could get my license back a day earlier?  Well Genius, because that would still put it on a weekend.  Hey, I'm smrt like that.

I think that about covers it for today.  You're all caught up.