Training Day.

Today was the first day of training for my soon-to-be new job. Yeah, the same job I blogged about not taking...turns out, I'm a sucker for my Halbastram. He works for the same company and suggested that I work for them also, until we get back on our feet or until we go to grad school, whichever comes first. It's a bus driving job, which I'm not too keen on. Aside from the fact that I don't really want to drive a bus-full of loud, obnoxious kids around, I don't take to kindly to the road. I grew up in the city, where I took the bus or train everywhere I wanted to go, and I didn't bother getting my license until 18, because I honestly didn't think I would need it.

When I moved out to the burbs, I depended on friends to take me wherever I needed to go. And when it was my turn to drive to Daytona for Spring Break, I spent maybe one hour on the road before one of my friends, being scared out of her mind, decided to take over, despite the fact that we were only 2hrs away from Daytona.

Over time, after Halbastram bought me my first car, I began to feel more comfortable behind the wheel. Unfortunately, I was a bit of a hazard on the road. I tend to speed, at least 10-15 over the limit; I get very impatient and yell at drivers (with the window up, of course); I'm very well-versed in the rolling "California stop" at stop signs. But at last, I finally feel comfortable driving. It's only been...8 yrs.

And now I have to learn how to drive all over again. As a bus driver, I have to eliminate all of those bad habits and become a saint on the road.

*sidenote: why do school buses have "school bus" written across the front? is there anything else we could mistake the big yellow bus for?*

At the training session, I felt completely out of my element. I was the only female (aside from the instructor) and the only one in my 20's. There was an older man, coming out of retirement; a recently laid-off man; a non-traditional college grad looking for work; a new resident; and a guy who was a hat-diva (meaning he's into collecting baseball caps and refuses to tell people where he buys his hats because he doesn't want anyone else to have the same ones he does...diva, much?)

During the training, we watched an instructional video on the do's and don'ts of bus driving laws. This included learning the components of the bus. To me, it was like learning physics in Russian. Throughout the entire training session, the only thing on my mind was, "life would've been so much simpler if I had published that book last year."

I get to go back tomorrow and take the CDL exam. Halbastram tells me not to worry about it, since he passed. I'm not so sure, but it'd be fun to try. Plus, how bad-ass would it be to have a commercial driver's license? I could buy a truck, get a CB radio and travel the country looking for Burt Reynolds.