At last we reach the last part of a tumultuous decade. not knowing where I was inside or in the world half the time. One thing is certain...between the beginning of the decade and the end, I had gained a better sense of myself and some independence...in other words, a lot more self reliance. With that, let us move into...
1998
A few changes were coming down the pike this year, and most of them pretty good! For someone who did not function well with major change, I was improving.
The first big change had actually more to do with Scott. He had grown weary of his job at the credit union and was looking for something else. Somehow he got with an insurance company, who sent him to Des Moines, Iowa for training. That meant I was returning to the apartment alone. That was actually quite fine with me. It was a rainy time in Sonoma County and there was a gloomy feeling about as a result, good for alone time. Before returning home, I stopped to see Karen, and actually hung out so late it wasn't safe to drive the remaining almost 100 miles to home, so I spent the night in a guest room and left early the next morning.
I was still awaiting my sub license to come through and still had some Christmas money left, so I took a jaunt to Washington. It was all good going up, but after a few days with the family and a nice get-together with Derek, I attempted to head home. However, there was a big snowstorm in the Pacific Northwest and it was spreading into Washington fast from Oregon. In fact, after getting about 60 miles from my sister's house, I hit the storm. I stopped and had breakfast in Centralia and tried to figure out what to do, I was so stressed about driving in winter weather after so long...and a bad history of it. After a slightly stress-induced tearful call to my mom for advice, I headed back to my sister's. There was some slipping along I 5 and even more as I got closer to their hood. There were 2 roads going up the hill to their neighborhood and I chose the wrong one! I pulled off to the side and got a tow truck to bring me down for $50. My brother in law then directed me on the phone to go up the road by the hospital, which had to be kept clear. I finally got there and spent a few more days there until the wintry stuff was gone. Instead I drove through constant rain and wind. It was a long drive and I finally got to ma and pa's in Fairfield...I slept well that night before I headed home.
While waiting for the sub stuff to come, I found another temp job at a scrip company, stuffing scrip orders essentially. I did that for several weeks, actually, before the sub stuff came in early February, not the worst temp job, pretty nice people.
At last the sub stuff did come, but the jobs came slowly. I was averaging maybe 2-3 jobs a week, some of them full day, others half day. Early jobs were in Healdsburg, Windsor, Sebastopol, and Santa Rosa itself.
Now, I have to stop and talk a bit about subbing...it can be a joy or a terror. Several factors are involved: the plans (if any), the environment, the principal, and the location. I'd say the kids, too, but really the kids don't matter if you have yourself together...which I really didn't at first. A year of volunteering really didn't give me a full sense of the job. It took some hits and misses...mostly hits luckily. Kids know how to push, especially to push a sub, and sometimes I gave in. Hey, I was 25 and green at this. It was probably one of my greatest growing periods in terms of education.
Scott came back for a visit in early-mid February. During that time, he and I moved into another apartment close to the one we were in...basically we moved from Parkwood to Parkhurst, a fully owned by family building. Most of the tenants were Jehovah's Witnesses and they knew who we were so they left us pretty much alone sales pitch-wise. He went back to Des Moines afterward, but didn't stay long...the time away was giving him some stomach issues so he returned to start his real job early. The Parkhurst apartment was offered for no rent at all, provided we continued to help June with whatever she needed. I loved that woman so it was an easy arrangement.
In spring of 1998, I found myself writing a letter to my mom, pretty much saying my period of turmoil over the divorce was over. Life had gone on and it was good. We might have had one or two stress periods afterward, but for the most part we were good.
Subbing continued to be fairly irregular for the rest of the school year. I wasn't well known yet and was called pretty randomly.
In the summer I went back to temp work. One job I had was sending AT&T cellular customers replacement antennas (envelope stuffing again essentially). I met a few people in that job whom I would see in other jobs somewhat regularly for the next year or so. I had a few other jobs here and there that were fairly unmemorable, though one in the Sonoma State bookstore as a book finder brought me home a bit).
Two big events were that summer. One was the family reunion for Becky's family in Vail, Colorado. It was a long car trip there, cut in half by an overnight stay somewhere in Utah (Salina I think). Once there we did a lot of activities and it was a pretty large group. Rafting, walking, bicycling, and lots of meals comprised the 3 or 4 days we were there. We actually got to San Diego in one long drive on the way back.
The other event, so to speak, was my sister coming down to San Diego with her 3 kids for a few days. I came down to join them. On that visit, the Volvo needed a new kick down cable so Aamco got their money's worth.
At some point around that time I also visited Kimberly, who was full into her teaching career, one Saturday. We had some lunch, she showed me where her new condo would be, then we rented a movie to watch. Whatever had happened before seemed to have vanished..or at the very least not talked about. I went home that evening feeling pretty good about our friendship. To tell the truth, whenever I think of my 8 years in northern California, she comes to my mind immediately. Not really regret (though I do regret my attitude then at times) but rather a part of my heart and memories that will always remain, even in our current renewed friendship.
By the fall, sub jobs were starting to come more regularly. I was being requested by some teachers a bit more so that felt good. Healdsburg, Windsor, Wright, and Piner-Olivet were my most frequent districts to work in. The Santa Rosa City district wasn't one of my favorites. Two principals or teachers at 2 different schools didn't like me and gave me negative reviews (meaning not invited back)...a little discouraging in a first year, but like I said, I was growing and those were the only 2 I can remember...well, 1 more but that came much later.
I went to San Diego for Thanksgiving...well, actually I went with my mom for a trip to my grandma's for Thanksgiving. It was one of those tense family get togethers where my grandma was pitting my mom against my aunt emotionally. My mom was already going through some therapy and going on and on about things with me. I was in the process of learning patience regarding my job so I just let her talk.
I don't remember my 26th much.
Coming to San Diego for Christmas break, I took 101 down. At one point there was some smoke from the car so I of course panicked to check it out. I could see nothing but somehow made it to ROb's for the night. The next morning I took the car to a garage. The weird thing about Volvos is the belt connection...meaning the power steering belt was connected to the AC belt. To make the car more functional and apparently build my upper body strength, the mechanic just snipped the faulty belt(s). I'd already pumped a lot of money into that thing so luckily this was an easy FREE job. Rough steering for a year and some months.
As far as Christmas went, I don't really remember...at that point in life I don't remember where I went during those times, though I suspect I was with my mom on Christmas Eve and early Christmas morning, then went to my dad's then with him and Becky to Riverside or Palm Springs to be with her family. Either that year or the next...or both. They all ran into each other a lot of years for quite some time...right until the year before I met Vickie. As I mentioned one post or two before, I was really a tagalong visiting family member for a while.
1999
For a change I'll preface this with New Year's. I was hanging with Rob and his friends. We did a bit of bar hopping and one of them had a bit of a buffet spread. I suspect the food had been sitting out a while because I got sick overnight from a bit of food poisoning. I remember going to my dad's and falling asleep to eradicate the headache.
And then it was back to Santa Rosa and more subbing. As I mentioned before, my name was getting known among schools so I was summoned to some more than others and even requested here and there...an ego booster for a relative newbie.
I soon discovered a downfall to being a sub, well at least in Sonoma COunty. As I worked for various school districts and not the county education office, I got a lot of W-2s. Sadly, as I'd worked for 1 or 2 districts only once or twice I really had little to no withholding removed, so I owed Uncle Sam about $500! Ouch!
It was a pretty cold and dry winter in northern California, what they called La Nina....the previous wet winter had been El Nino. It lasted until about late March or early April when I came back from a visit to Washington, then some warmth came.
Things went pretty much as before until summer and then it was some more temp jobs. My dad came up for a visit in June. I was going to come down to San Diego but the temp stuff hadn't been fruitful so I decided to stay up there and temp at OCLI (Optical Coating Laboratories Incorporated). The shifts were interesting, a 3 on 3 off, 4 on 4 off schedule for 12 hours shifts. I had nothing better to do in the summer so just worked hard and made decent money. I was certainly worn out at the end of the work day, much more than a typical temp job.
In the fall I went back to subbing, though at this point I was feeling pretty good about my career choice and decided to take the next step...to go back to school and get my teaching credentials. My grandma Jo was pretty happy about this and offered to pay for the program. I took out some student loans to live on while I was in school.
I was also dabbling about in the dating world and had met several people online and even met one or two in person. One in particular was named Sarah, a Chinese girl who lived in Sacramento. We would get together here and there for the next 2 years. She was a very nice and sweet girl, but at that time of life I didn't really know what I wanted in life and I detected she wanted more of an exclusive thing.
Birthday #27 wasn't exactly memorable...meaning I don't remember it.
I don't really remember Christmas much either (see Christmas 1998). I got together with Rob and his buddies again, only this time no food poisoning. I do remember there was the odd fear of 2000 being the end. It came...it wasn't.
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