The year 2000. Somehow I hadn't been fired or quit, I was still working at the nuclear pharmacy. I'd managed to keep a low profile at work and avoided my boss as much as possible. I was making decent money at this job and couldn't afford to just split and look for a new one, I was determined to tough it out. It was getting harder and harder to do though.
I'd try to get my route together and get out on the road as quickly as I possibly could. As soon as I was on the road I was free. All I really had to do was drive the truck and listen to the radio. My first stop was in Shakopee, then on to Mankato, Austin and Albert Lea. Each stop was at least an hour from the next. At each one I'd lug my cases into the hospitals' nuclear medicine department, drop off the order, pick up the empty cases and leave. Easy Peasy. Or at least it should have been.
I ran into problems with some of the people working in the hospital labs. There were a few who were just bubbly little rays of sunshine every morning and couldn't deal with people who weren't. I'd arrive, say good morning to anyone I had to deal with, drop off the cases and try to get my empties and leave - quickly. Unfortunately my polite 'good morning' wasn't sunshiny enough for them and they'd complain to my boss. Seriously. One of my stops actually complained because I failed to say hello back to them. I remember sitting in my evil boss lady's office listening incredulously while she gave me a stern talking too about it. Are you kidding me?! I'm actually getting a verbal warning because I didn't say hello?! I explained to the boss that I simply hadn't heard them - nope, not good enough. She continued on, telling me that I was the face of the company when I was on the road and I should go out of my way to be pleasant when dealing with our clients. When she finished, I told her I'd do better and slunk out of her office feeling agitated. From then on I went out of my way to be super friendly to the sunshiny people when I encountered them. They then started to complain that I was being too cheerful. Fuck my life. I hate people.
The only client my evil boss ever went toe to toe with on my behalf was the Austin stop. For some reason the doctor there wanted to schedule her patients as early in the morning as she could, and she wanted her nuclear medicine delivered by 7am. Impossible. Nuclear medicine has a decay rate, it gets made every day specifically for the patient who will receive it based on their weight and what time their appointment is. Because of the time it took to make the doses and the distance between the lab and the hospitals, it was impossible to get it there before 7:30. If I fractured the traffic laws I could get it there by 7:15am at the very earliest - but I'm responsible for my own speeding tickets. The boss told her time and again that we could not guarantee it before 7:30 - but every time I got to her stop she was sitting there waiting impatiently and scowling at me even though I was technically on time. Guh. Whatever. If there was ever anyone on my route that I could cuss out and probably get away with it, it was her.
During this time my sweetie landed a job at a local bakery. His job was to deliver donuts to gas stations and company cafeterias, etc.. One morning we discovered purely by accident that our two routes crossed each other. I was driving south on 169 and as I was passing a delivery van I looked over and noticed it was my sweetie driving it. He stopped at a gas station for a delivery and I pulled in behind him. We were surprised to see each other. We both began looking forward to running into each other every morning even though it was just long enough to grab a cup of coffee and a quick kiss. Then it was back to the grindstone.
If I thought my route problems were bad, they were nothing compared to his. His boss apparently had more clients than he had drivers and vehicles to handle - my sweetie had to make upwards of 50 stops every day, and like me he was expected to have his stuff delivered by a certain time. Looking at his route sheet I could see that he was being expected to do the impossible. It was just an insane amount of delivery stops. To make matters worse, the donuts were almost never ready on time - this had him leaving 'late' on his route more often than not. It wasn't his fault but his boss was still unsympathetic. There was also a problem with his paychecks - the boss was constantly late with his deposits so they kept bouncing and the check cashing places wouldn't touch them. The only place that cashed them without batting an eye was the neighborhood bar up the street from the bakery.
And that caused another fight between us. I knew he was having trouble cashing his checks but I didn't like the idea of him cashing them at the bar - it was just another excuse for him to get drunk and I had been nagging him without mercy about the amount of drinking he was doing. By this time I was losing my mind over it and wound up having an embarrassing scene at that neighborhood bar. The bartender tried to claim that my sweetie only came in to cash his check and ordered coffee when he did. Yeah right. I knew my sweetie well enough to know this guy was lying through his teeth. I had an epic conniption fit right then and there. I yelled at the bartender, I yelled at my sweetie - fortunately we were the only ones in the bar at the time, but it was pretty damn embarrassing. (Sorry bartender.) I think in the back of my mind I was hoping it was embarrassing enough that my sweetie wouldn't be welcome there anymore. Not even. I'm guessing the bartender had seen much worse in his time.
The stress of the impossible route and the check cashing fiasco was too much for my sweetie and he quit the bakery gig. I was almost relieved - more stress meant more alcohol and we definitely didn't need that. Since he didn't have a job to go to, he was helping me with my caretaker job. In the summer he mowed the grass and in the winter he shoveled snow. He also started helping out with the household chores - laundry, dishes, cooking dinner. It was nice to have some help and he seemed to be buying less beer, which initially seemed like a good thing. Little did I know...
My mom needed to go back down to Oklahoma to handle some personal business and asked me if I'd come with to keep her company on the ride. I was nervous about leaving my sweetie unmonitored for a few days but I didn't want to turn my mom down, I said 'sure!' and we left. We stayed at my brothers house and after a day of sightseeing I called home to check on things. Oh dear. I could tell he was drunk again as soon as he answered the phone. The stereo was way too loud and he was sounding pretty sloppy. When I confronted him about it he became belligerent. "You didn't really think I wasn't going to drink while you were gone, did you?" Probably not, but I didn't think he was going to use it as an excuse to go on a bender - which is what he obviously did. I couldn't enjoy the rest of the trip, I was too worried about what was going on at home. On the return trip my mom let me drive for a while and drive I did. Like a bat out of hell.
When we finally got back home my mom helped me carry my stuff inside and I wished she hadn't. I could hear my stereo blasting as soon as we got in the building and when I walked into my apartment I found my sweetie passed out on the living room floor, an empty vodka bottle laying nearby. There was a few more empties on the counter and I saw another bottle in the trash. Fuuuuuuuu..... I quickly stepped over him and shut down the stereo, and then apologized to my mom and sent her on her way.
After she left I walked over and gave him a swift kick in the ass. I wasn't proud of that then and I'm not proud of it now. I wanted him up and out of my apartment. We had yet another fight, I piled him into my car and dumped him off at the house of his buddy - formerly roomie #2. Back at home I started tossing the empties in the trash and discovered his stash of booze in one of the dresser drawers. I was pissed off. He had started drinking vodka to supplement his beer drinking. This way he could drink less beer in front of me and still maintain the level of alcohol he wanted in his system with me being none the wiser. It worked too - he was actually able to fool me for a little while, but those days were now over. Now that I knew what he was doing, I'd be on a constant lookout for his hidden stashes and dump them when I found them. And dump them I did. It was an exercise in futility - as fast as I got rid of it, he'd get more.
Despite all this, I still loved him and we still had a good time together much more often than not. We really did enjoy each others company and when I'd see something of interest along my delivery route, I'd tell him about it and we'd both go check it out on the weekends. We visited roadside railroad museums and still went fishing and camping together. He knew I enjoyed taking pictures so he bought me a new camera and accompanied me on my picture taking excursions. I didn't have to ask him - he just wanted to come with.
Through all of this, I was trying and failing to get my credit cards paid off. The interest was destroying me and I couldn't make a big enough payment to knock down the principal. I tried using a financial planner and arranging payments with the credit card companies - no good. The phone was ringing off the hook daily. The creditors calling me didn't give a shit that I had made payment arrangements through the financial planner - I was past due and they wanted their money now. I gave them the planners number and told them to discuss it with them. No dice. I complained to the planner, who said I should be able to make the payments they arranged without difficulty. Except for one thing: While dividing my check among the creditors they had completely neglected to allot me any money for gas, groceries, soap, etc.. I can't keep going to work without gas in my car, food in my belly and wearing dirty clothes - my evil boss lady would never stand for it. After bringing that to their attention they finally came to the conclusion that I was in a situation I couldn't dig out of and suggested a bankruptcy lawyer. I decided they were right and I filed for bankruptcy. I felt like such a loser, but at least the phone stopped ringing.
As 2000 came to a close, my mom quit the job at the pharmacy. The office politics were driving her nuts and she was over qualified for the job anyway. She took a supervisory position at the casino. I was bummed - her presence in the lab was keeping the evil boss lady in check, and now that she was gone I had nothing to shield me. Boss lady knew it too and immediately started looking for reasons to rake me over the coals again. All I could do was grit my teeth and ride it out.
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