Human GPS

Everyone knows that one of the best things about getting a new GPS is that you get to choose the voice that gives you directions. I suppose it's also kinda cool that you now have directions to where you're going, but that's just a happy coincidence. :) I think my family first chose the Australian accent when we got our GPS, but I know that my father preferred the female voice because it was more soothing and less bark-ish. My softball team had named the GPS that took us through Florida, Margaret and had a good old time when she would tell us that she was recalculating the route, or that we needed to make the next possible U-turn. There were a lot of laughs and "Get it together, Margaret!" coming from the back of the van while coach steamed because she had missed yet another exit.

Needless to say, we all enjoy that little perk of our GPS system. Yesterday, I was lucky enough to have a GPS with a French accent (which I don't think is a normal setting). However, after the initial luster and excitement of the exotic accent wore off, I learned to hate it's lack of personality because it was silent and didn't care about much except giving instructions. You might be thinking "Isn't that what a GPS is supposed to do?" You are indeed correct. But you have to realize that my GPS was a person that I spent 13 hours of my day with.

I woke up at about 4:30 yesterday morning, threw an outfit together I thought would be casual enough to look like someone who had picked up temp work, but formal enough to look like someone capable of driving them around for four or five hours, as I had been told I would do (surprise! 13 hours). I wore a plain orange t-shirt and was glad that I had thought to wear a tanktop underneath, since it was the only thing that kept the rest of the world from seeing how much I was sweating. I also wore some pretty thick brown pants and hefty shoes that didn't help anything.

The drive was nothing I could complain about, there's something about a sunrise that makes you think you'd like to wake up that early everyday.

I arrived at Labor Ready at 6am as I had been told to do, received my work ticket at 6:02 and gas up. I arrive at the place where I'm supposed to pick up my rider for the day at 6:20 and wait 25 minutes before calling to tell him I was there. He said he'd be down in ten minutes. Half an hour later, he finally showed up. From there, I was directed to go to a fast food parking lot and park. There, we wait for two hours until his company is actually ready for him. Let me take this two hour break to explain to you what he was doing and how. I was driving a van with only one captain's seat in the back. There were two computers, and quite a lot of wires in the back as well, and about 50 little atennae on top of the van. Apparently his job was to literally drive around the country and test the cell phone reception for all of the carriers (Verizon, Cricket, AT&T, etc.). There are obviously more people like him driving around the country, or he would have a more horrible job than he already does. I think the job takes some skill because he graduated with a degree in computer engineering and had to do some code while the whole process was going on. 

At around 9:30 we finally hit the road and I drove him around Sioux Falls for about and hour and a half until he hasd to go back to the hotel and upload information to his home base. This took about half an hour after which he decides we're going to lunch. This is slightly awkward for two reasons. The first being the comment he made earlier in the day in response to me saying I had interned for a fitness company. "Oh, that explains your body." Which is nice enough, but not something I think you should say to a person you're trapped in a car with, if you want them to be comfortable. Second reason, he went silent after I mentioned that I had a boyfriend. He sort of grunted about it and stopped talking to me. We were seated in a booth and sat diagonally from each other. I did my best to make small talk and  found out that he'd grown up in France and learned English as he attended school here. I couldn't understand what school he said he went to, but I'm sure that it was a good one. I ordered a soup and salad hoping it would be a little better than the turkey and cheese sandwich that had melted and gotten very hot awhile ago that I had been provided by labor ready. I'd managed to eat one while I was waiting for him, but I wasn't sure how well turkey kept in the heat so I didn't want to eat the other one. Which reminds me that I forgot to tell you about my sack lunch. It was two turkey and cheese sandwiches with butter on hamburger buns. Some old Scooby snacks, a fruit cup, a bag of M&Ms, a granola bar, and cheddar cheese crackers. I munched away on the smaller items throughout the day and was very glad to have them since I had such a sporadic eating schedule. I think the best part of the lunch, though, was the little green piece of paper, about half as thin as a fortune from a fortune cookie and twice as long that read, "No great man ever complains of want of opportunities" I thought that it was kind of ironic that they would put that in the lunch sack, but Connor just put in to perspective for me. I was quite the whiner and took my frustration out on the poor guy yesterday. I'm sure a lot of people would be much more appreciative of the experience afterward which is part of the reason I keep this kid around, to keep me in check. :) And I guess I kinda like him. ;)

After lunch we went back to the hotel and because he said that the next upload would take about 20 minutes. Two and half hours later, we were back on the road. Another thing to note, is that every time we went anywhere we had to leave the car running with the air on and I got to sit in it so I was sweating a lot. But, me being the really smart girl I am, didn't think I still needed to drink a lot of water so I got a little dehydrated, which probably didn't help my mood. On this last trip, I drove more than an hour south and had to park at a few places along the way. For these stops, I had a nice little system and was all set up reading a book and playing on my phone so I was fine. I ended up back in town around 8:30 and a little excited because I had 13 hours of work under my belt. However, the guy I worked with decided to cut the first two hours that we had to sit waiting in the car out of it and wouldn't put it back in when I asked about it. I ended up making $70 at $7.25 and hour. Taxes were about $15.

I think that I would have been a little happier about the whole occasion had that not happened, but I guess these things are just another part of life and a good lesson to learn. Life isn't always fair and fortunately enough for me, cutting those two hours doesn't really  hurt me. I just hope this isn't the insight into the treatment of others who aren't lucky enough to have the financial stability that I do.

We'll do a little exploration about wages and hours as I go further in to what I am doing. But, this is what I have been up to!