SuperJanitor

Ten months after I began looking for a job, and over a year since I last held a job,  I can finally say that I am once again employed.

I spent all that time in between being fairly productive, although there are those who would say going to school full time just isn’t enough, though for some people your good enough is never enough. However, I managed to complete twenty-five credits of my degree, and at the end of this semester I’ll be a senior looking at nine credits left until I graduate. School, although it is keeping me extremely busy, is going really well, and I’m enjoying my classes. Which then brings me around to the situation I find myself in now.

After filling out well over a hundred applications, the last one was the charm. Here’s the time line:

Friday – I fill out the application online and submit it.

Monday – I get a call to come in for an interview.

Tuesday – I go in for the interview. I get hired, on the spot. Really. All I did was sit down in the office, and sign some papers. I was being interviewed for roughly five minutes. Corporate paperwork and background check are submitted.

Wednesday – I go back in to sign the returned paperwork, which by the GM’s own words came back quicker than any previous paperwork that she can remember. I sign the papers.

Friday – 8AM – I start my job.

From now on, on the weekends, you can find me working in the photo lab at the CVS on the corner of Campbell and Nantucket. And with that being said, I have to tell the bad news. Well, not so much bad news as just an unfortunate event. When I came home from work this afternoon, I had a bunch of things to take in with me, needless to say, I was just a bit discombobulated. Long story short, I locked my keys in my car. The last time I did that was several years ago, and I still lived in New Jersey, and help was never far away. But times have changed and I’m far away from home. Also no one within a seven-hundred mile radius has a spare key to my car. Yes I’m serious.

The good news about this was I was at home when it happened, the bad news was my key chain also had my house keys on it, which were in my car. Ten minutes later I get in the house through the secret passage. Four hours later the guy I called to help get my keys out of my car finally shows up and spends three minutes getting the lock open.

All in all, a pretty lousy cap to a pretty awesome week.

I was asked to produce the necessary documents, drivers license, insurance, and registration. All of which save for one was good. Well he takes these and returns to his vehicle, leaving me to sit and savor the situation. My heart is blowing out ventricles thinking about all the wonderful possibilities this encounter might have. He returns to my car, and begins the questioning.

Where ya headed this night? Where ya coming from? Do you have a job? Did you know your license has expired? The dreaded question finally arises. Faced with this inquisition I revert back to the policy that lost me the chance to get my license in the first place, honesty. Though in this situation, it was a bit more prudent that I be truthful at once, instead of taking a risky gamble and lie. So I told him that it would be a lie if I didn’t know it was expired. He just kind of looked at me, while I looked at him, then he began writing down info on a ticket. Of course, the reason he pulled me over in the first place had nothing to do with this. The reason he pulled me over was that both of the little lights that illuminate the license plate in the rear were out. So if it hadn’t been for that, I most likely would have been left alone.

But he hands me his clipboard, with his scrawlings of my infractions on it, and tells me to sign if I understand what I have been charged with. I comply and sign the piece of paper, not signing it would definitely land me in a place I don’t want to be! I hand the clipboard back, he takes his copy of the ticket, hands me mine, and a piece of paper with all the info on how to pay for it. He issues his departing words, and leaves me with a $260 gift card Judge Theresa Farris, courtesy of me. Ouch.

So I ended up having to pay for my not having a valid license to be driving a motorized vehicle. But this just left a sour taste in my mouth, and I put off doing anything about getting a new license for as long as I could, you might say the thought didn’t even cross my mind for months. I began the Summer semester at UTD, I got a parking pass with my bogus license and out of state registration. But that’s ok, this way I won’t get arrested for having a registered car without it being properly inspected, in the state of Texas. (hi Dan!) Time passed, and it was nearing the beginning of the Fall semester. I decided to quit my job, and focus on school, so after a year and a day working at PETCO, I vacated my position. This is the motivation I needed to make me finally go out and get my license.

I knew to get another job, I was going to need some sort of Texas ID (my NJ license was still good when I got the PETCO job, and they accepted it all the same). So upon realizing that without an ID, my money making abilities were greatly stunted, I began my journey anew, to claim the elusive license.

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