David took this job at UPS in early March. I thought it would be a great opportunity for him. And it has been.
But... there are a few slight drawbacks.
He has to leave at about 4:30 in the afternoon everyday. This often means that he travels through some rush hour traffic. David has learned a thing or two from me over the years and one bad habit of mine that he has picked up is getting impatient with traffic. I can't stand inconsiderate drivers. Sadly, David now can't either. He usually calls me on his way to work as this is one of the only times that I will consistently take the time to talk to him (because I know it's not really possible for him to do much else with that time other than talk and drive). Almost daily he comments on the annoyance of driving through heavy traffic. I feel sad that my poor character in this area has rubbed off on him instead of his patience rubbing off on me. I hope we can slowly revert back to patient driving, but living in ORL makes it a lot harder because there are sooooo many inconsiderate drivers. (Drivers in ORL are crazy!)
Then he works for about 5 hrs a night - from 5:15-10:15. After he's done with work, he calls me on his way home again and tells me about his day. Sometimes I will get time to tell him about mine before he arrives home. When he gets home he wants to shower, eat, and relax.
This job has already been a strain to our relationship as it causes him to have unusual eating and sleeping hours. Soon I will hopefully have a job, but if it is an 8-5 job I may not see him at all except on the weekends (I suppose I will "see" him in the morning when I wake up, but looking at a person hardly counts as time together).
Anyways, now it's 12:10 in the middle of the night and I still have not received a call saying that he's on his way home. When I don't receive that call I begin to wonder what's happened to him. Then my mind goes wife-worry crazy and I imagine terrible situations that I don't really want to think about. In the back of my mind I know he's probably ok and either not calling because he's upset about something or perhaps because he is pulling a double shift (an unlikely, but possible event).
I guess this job is what's best for us for now since it is our sole source of income and is also providing health benefits for us. I also know that it makes D happy to have a job and be making a weekly paycheck. All in all, I have to say UPS is a blessing to us. A blessing in disguise.
Posted by Joy at July 15, 2005 12:15 AMMy cell phone ran out of juice from talking all the way to work (oh, and not charging it last night... it didn't look like it needed a charge!)
Anyway, I am home now and Joy has gotten some of my attention.
Posted by: David at July 15, 2005 12:35 AMGetting upset at traffic is no good in Orlando. Since you realize that you are going to be in it everyday preparing your mind to be alright with it would be a good thing. It sucks that David picked up that habit because then when you get to your destination you're all irritated by the traffic, but that's a good lesson we all need to realize. Our behaviors are not only seen by others and hurt others, but can also be picked up by others (and then perhaps used against us). Maybe that will give everyone more incentive to change for the good.
I've noticed that getting impatient in any driving situation is pretty useless anyhow. So what if there's loads of traffic, it's not going to get you there any faster to be mad. So what if you are crawling at 5 mph in the middle of LA because you were stupid enough to drive to disneyland during 8am traffic in Los Angeles (long story), disney will still be there. So the traffic makes you late to work one day, being late one day is ok it happens to everyone (if traffic is making you late everyday then clearly we both see that leaving earlier is a good idea). But you see what I'm saying, getting all upset is pointless. Now I realize there are plenty of other things that are completely pointless that we all get upset about, more of a reason to not get pissed off at things on the road.
Posted by: Jessica at July 15, 2005 07:52 PMYeah, it is pretty pointless, but it happens sometimes. I used to drive around and not think anything of the people that were driving the other cars. I had this long conversation with Joy in which I tried to explain to her that they were pretty much just boxes in the road -- no reason to feel anything about boxes.
Then she clued me in to the fact that they were people, and that I should care about how they are driving. After that, I did start to care. I want to go back to when the cars were just boxes.
Posted by: David at July 23, 2005 10:26 AM