Gi-Gi Roxx - The Ravings of a Lunatic

Well the 2009 Holiday season will officially end at midnight tonight, as we ring in a new year. It has been a bustling and busy little Holiday season in my neck of the woods. I was able to be home with my family for the Christmas day celebration, thanks to a great load planner who got me a sweet load that brought me right through my hometown. I had enough time to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with the family before I rolled out the morning after bound for Florida. The best part of the brief but wonderful Christmas stopover was just being with my loved ones ON Christmas day, especially my lil' brother who recently returned from his second tour in Iraq. I totally loved being able to watch my niece and nephew tear into their presents. Seeing things through the eyes of children is always an interesting perspective, and this year was an entertaining vantage point. It seemed that before one gift was completely unwrapped, their little fingers were already digging into the next on...

Today as readers perused their beloved hometown newspaper, The Daily Mail, they found THIS . Shocking as it may seem, it's really just a simple piece about a simple girl who loves her job. There is one statement that I would like to address as not being true. I would NEVER EVER refer to myself as a "superior driver". No way. I'm a humble, learning-new-stuff-everyday-rookie-driver. I am not sure where that one statement may have came out during the interview process, but I assure you I would only have said such a thing in jest, laughing hysterically as I said those words in that order. It probably seems silly to even bother to clarify something like that, but I don't want people, especially other professional drivers, thinking I'm some sort of snobbish prima donna behind the wheel of a truck. My sh*t stinks just like the rest of ya's does. I drive, I learn, I close my eyes and try to keep it between the lines (most of the time... hey some ones' go...

I believe I have the patience OF a grasshopper. A creature significantly smaller than myself is the only thing I can think of at the moment with potentially less capacity for patience than I. And I try really really hard to be patient. Really I do. But it's so tough. Even having the very word tattooed upon my right wrist hasn't helped me in the patience department. But it sure looks pretty. haha I am pretending to patiently wait for a work assignment that will take me home at the moment. Pretending to have nothing better to do with my time than sit around playing on the laptop all the live-long day. Bah! I just wanna go home!! (tantrum break) Ah, now that's much better. Back to the task at hand. I am sitting in the wintry wonderland that is Winchester, Virginia, again waiting patiently for a load assignment. I enjoyed a delish dinner at the truck stop restaurant last night and I am currently considering lunchie munchies. I don't really need to eat, since I ha...

In a festive mood, thanks to my choice of candy cane breakfast, I have been thinking about the types of Holiday Traditions my family and I have celebrated over the years. Of course as a child I remember the countless hours, often whole days, spent splashing Holiday Cheer all over the house in the form of nick-knacks and decorations and garland and bells. I remember trimming the tree, each of my siblings and I responsible for hanging our own ornaments in just the right place on the tree branches. The smell of pine, the prickle of the needles on our skin, the sheer bliss at "blowing tinsel" onto the tree after the other decorations were hung. The grand finale... dad, and in later years mom, topping the tree with the glittery star we used every single year for as long as I could remember. These types of memories are precious to me, as they are to most people this time of year. I enjoy taking time each day to remember something we did as a family to celebrate the Holidays, someth...

I've recently been dealing with a sort of inner (and more recently outer) turmoil over a social networking site (SNS). I had been a member of another SNS for quite a long time before I even dipped my toes into the water of the one I am now exclusively on. At first I hated it the new (to me) site, swearing I'd never see myself spending much time on it. But before long I found myself deleting my old SNS account and setting up my online home base on the newer one. Bah. Since making the change, I've reconnected with even more people than I had on the other, which has been awesome. But I've also found myself spending countless hours each week checking up on the happenings of my SNS friends', more so since I found the free iPhone app that is way more accessible than firing up the laptop like in the "old days". haha All of the convenience of the iPhone app and the SNS in general has fostered a new addiction for me, addiction to the nonsense and booshie (B.S....

I can't believe after having been absent for 10 days from my blog that there was only one comment to moderate! And it was simply a note wishing me a Happy Thanksgiving. (Thanks June) I suppose that my previous bitch-fests in regards to being an absentee blogger stuck with some folks. Mission accomplished. I've been doing much of nothing really. I had three days off and then a crummy first week back to work where I drove a whole 805 miles for the week. This week is off to a fairly decent start, but I don't want to get my hopes up. I am going home next week for a two day stay, during which I plan to use my free time finishing up with Christmas shopping. Although, I did manage to get a good chunk of it knocked out while I was home before. Of course, I ended up spending more on myself than I should have but hey... I work hard for the money... right?! Plus I needed the new clothes for winter weather, since I am too fluffy to fit into the long sleeved shirts I shouldn't...

I'm in a goofy mood today. Maybe I'm just giddy knowing I'm merely a day or two away from going home for some R & R. Not that I really need to rest or relax since I've spent so much time in hotels lately. But it will be nice to sleep in my own bed, be at my own house, hang out in my own town, and spend time with people I love. Yes, that's exactly what has gotten me so very immensely happy. The truck seems to be running great. Today I paid special attention to a few of the small nuances during the process of shifting to see if they were still occurring. And was surprised to find that none of them appear to have been left behind. Even the clunk from 5th to 6th gear was gone, so far so good. I'm still on a waiting list, however, for a manual truck. The company has decided to get rid of the remaining autoshifts in the fleet so sometime in the not too distant future I'll be moving out of Kenny and into something else. Here's to hoping that whatever ...

Well the truck is in the shop again. I'm on a waiting list for a new one, a manual one, one that runs for more than a week at a time. I'm getting tired of hotels. I'm getting tired of getting robbed of miles because my equipment keeps failing. I'm tired of crummy paychecks. I am thankful that I am at least making a little bit of money, though. So don't think I'm ungrateful for what I do have. It's just frustrating and breakdown pay doesn't pay the bills. Good thing is that when they get the truck running again I'll be heading home. And then once I'm home I get to see the loved ones I leave behind every time I come out on the road. And I get to eat some yummy food because my boyfriends family is having an early Thanksgiving dinner for us! Yay. YUM! Perhaps after my time off, I'll get routed to my home terminal to get a new truck. Hopeful? Yes, but after all I've been through hope is what gets me through each new trial with this tr...

So yesterday I arrived in Rochelle, IL where I shall sit until the wee hours of tomorrow morning when I can leave to deliver the load I'm under. A whole 20 miles from here. Yay. When I arrived yesterday evening, I headed into the truck stop to grab dinner and then wander the store in hopes of scoring something to keep me occupied for what I knew would be a long Sunday. I found a previously viewed copy of the movie "Twilight" which I had not seen yet. I never understood the hype about it. Probably because it reminded me of the hysteria that surrounded much of the first Harry Potter movie. That, and I guess subconsciously I resisted the temptation to fall prey to the madness. But I figured that at such a cut rate price and knowing I'd be bored as hell all day today, I figured I'd finally give in and see what it's all about. I knew it was a young adult vampire love story of sorts, so I wasn't expecting much more than just that. And honestly, after watching it...

Well I'm finally back on the road again. Kenny was repaired last night and was waiting for me when I arrived at the dealership first thing this morning. After giving him a good going over we got moving on our work assignment. I had to drive down to Salem, VA to pick up an empty trailer which will be filled with freight by 10am tomorrow morning, when I make the last of three stops bound for the Midwest. I am so happy to be rolling again. Making money the hard-working honest way feels so much better than making money just sitting around doing nothing. I know, I know... I sound like a crazy fool. But that's just the way I am. I never have been comfortable with the idea of being paid for doing nothing. I just can't deal with it. Which is why office work about killed me because out of 8 hours that I was being paid for, I usually only had 4-6 hours worth of actual work to do. Some days, and some jobs, even less. It was frustrating for me to be sitting there at work with...

is not for me. I've watched too much television. Sat for too many hours in front of my laptop doing pointless crap on the Internet, including getting sucked into buying stuff on eBay! Heck, I even created my first spreadsheet in over two and a half years... to keep track of my monthly bills. I'm going insane! I sure hope Kenny gets looked at early tomorrow... and fixed quickly. I don't know if I can tolerate another night in this hotel!!! Send Kenny happy thoughts, okay? I should have used this time off to do more productive things like start on my great American novel or pumped out a few creative short stories. But nope... I vegged the entire time. I'm almost, but not quite, ashamed of wasting so much precious time. But alas... that's the way it goes. If I'd had wheels I'd have been out exploring. I was half tempted to rent a car for the weekend but that's just another expense, one I wouldn't get reimbursed for. At least the company is pick...

Things had been going pretty good since I got Kenny out of the shop in Cincy. Nothing out of the ordinary had occurred at all to tip me off that Kenny might still be sick. Until yesterday. I had picked up a load of paper waste to take to a Kimberly Clark plant where it would be turned into toilet paper or paper towels or something like that. The load was heavy but not anywhere near max gross weight. After being loaded I hit the road and planned to stop at the nearest scale just to make sure I'd put the tandems in the right place. Things were going great! I was a little behind schedule, but that was because the loading took a little longer than anticipated. I arrived at a TA truck stop where I scaled out on the CAT scales and then I parked and went inside to get my ticket. Things were still going well. It was after I got back on the road after that stop that it all went to hell. I made it less than two miles away from the truck stop when the problem that killed Kenny this time o...

I don't suppose my Pee-S-A post went over very well, huh? Only two comments? Geeze... oh well. I hope that if you took the time to read it you got a good chuckle. If not, the perhaps you actually learned a little bit of common courtesy that you will use in the future. Either way, my job in public potty's is done... for now. Things have been crazy as all hell this week. As some of you may have been aware, Kenny has been misbehaving lately. It started out with small nuances with shifting from the low to high gears, missing a gear here and there. But his problems gradually got worse with each passing day. Late last week he started something new and completely annoying. Empty or loaded, when it was time to pull up an incline he would throw a tantrum and decide that he didn't want to be in cruise control. "Fine, be that way," I told him. "I'll just stomp on your throttle pedal and show YOU who's boss." Well he didn't like that very much either. Ev...

Okay. Listen up folks. This is for every one's benefit. Consider it a Public Service Announcement . If you walk into a public restroom to find the stall doors closed, you should do one of two things before barreling into the first closed door you come to: 1) Knock . This was probably a lesson your mother and/or father taught you at a very young age. A lesson to be applied where any and all doors are concerned. It protects you and whomever might be behind said closed door(s) from any embarrassing situations. 2) Check for feet . Doing a quick crouch to check for just feet inside the stall is simple and less invasive than just pushing or pulling open a door to see if a whole person is sitting on the toilet. Either of these options are acceptable in any public restroom at any time of day. Use of both options doubles your chances of avoiding embarrassment. If for some reason you feel compelled to forgo either of these preventative procedures, do not... I repeat DO NOT get pissed off ...

I'm still alive. I've just not felt like blogging. My momma always told me, if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all. So that's what I've been living up to for the past few weeks. I haven't had anything out of the ordinary happen, nothing new and special I felt the need to blog about or share. I've been truckin' my happy little butt off and relaxing in the time I'm not stuck behind the wheel. I've read a few books, caught up with friends and family, and just enjoyed the autumn evenings as much as I can. In a nutshell, I've been enjoying some ME time. I'll get back to regular blogging before too long I suppose. In the meantime, check out some of the blogs I follow (over there on the right of the page) and enjoy them! I'll be back... :o)

Well I've been sick as a dog for the past few days, sitting at a terminal in Illinois trying to get well. I visited a doctor, who I swear was younger than me and who had never seen someone suffering so much from a simple sinus infection. Honestly, I've never suffered so much from a simple sinus infection either. I thought I had contracted some mutant strain of the H1N1 and was sure to die. But nope, just a sinus thing that antibiotics will cure. I'm on my way to recovery. yay As I sit here this morning waiting for a work assignment to get me moving again, I figured I'd take some time to filter out some of the junk I've let sit in my e-mail inbox for only heaven knows how long. And have so far deleted over 200 messages. I don't know why I keep them in the first place, if it's important information I move it to a special folder... the rest just ends up sitting in the inbox taking up space. And that's what I'm going through now. It's intere...

I think that one of the worst things to deal with as an over-the-road truck driver is getting sick. Right now I'm in the midst of a nasty-wasty head cold that is really bumming me out. I have sinus congestion, a mild cough/sore throat, and maybe even a low grade fever. And it sucks donkey balls! Plus, I don't have anyone to tend to my needs.... you know, to bring me chicken soup and tell me I'll be ll better soon... and that sucks too. But I'm tough, and I'll tough it out like a "real trucker". Speaking of real truckers... what is it exactly that makes one a real trucker anyway? I was told during my company provided driver training course that until you hit the one year mark of being over-the-road, you were merely a "driver of a truck". And that you didn't earn the title of "truck driver" until after one year's worth of real-life experience. I considered myself a truck driver from day one, mysel. I had chosen a career path...

Seems that things in Dell-land are doing much better. My computer even seems to be running a little smoother since getting rid of that icky Trojan virus. Hooray! Not only is my laptop kicking butt, so is my new Apple iPhone 3G. It's not the newest, biggest and bestest iPhone, but it's good enough for me. I bought it this past weekend! Although I'm still having some trouble figuring things out. Heck, the gal that sold it to me at the AT&T Store showed me all sorts of helpful things as a sort of mini-tutoring session. The one thing she didn't show me.... how to make a friggin' phone call! haha I had all of my contacts transferred over from my old phone's SIM card so when I went to try to make a call to one of my contacts I kept getting a simple info screen for the contact I'd selected. And I kid you not when I admit that it took me a full 8 minutes to figure out how to make a call. Once that was accomplished, things were going great. That is until ...

Last night my Dell Inspiron 1521 was very ill. I had been surfing the Internet all afternoon with no problems. Then all of a sudden, it just shut down in the middle of what I was doing. I let the computer turn itself off, waited a bit and then turned it back on. I keep my desktop password protected and after I logged in, things started loading up as usual. But about 15 second in, it decided it didn't want to do what I wanted it to do, and it shut itself down again. Bugger. This continued to happen four more times before I gave up and called tech support. The FIRST call to tech support got me nowhere. Dell's tech support is located in India and while they speak English, some of them don't speak it very well or very clearly. The representative and I had a very hard time communicating and he seemed fit to be tied with my problem. He said he was going to place my call on hold and get someone to assist him in figuring it out... but he never came back. After a few minute...

After midnight tonight I will no longer be in my twenties. I thought I'd be more emotional than I am about the whole thing, honestly. For the past year, though, I've been practicing by telling just about anyone who asks that I was already 30. I mostly did it because I found the reactions I got at this statement amusing. People see me and assume I'm barely legal to drive a big rig. Partially because of my height, partially because of my "youthful good looks". Okay, I'm being a little conceited there, but I do look young for my age. And that's how I hope to keep it! I don't want someone assuming that I'm older than I am because of my outward appearance. And I believe that my super awesome idea of quit smoking nearly 4 years ago will continue to help with arresting the aging process of at least my facial area. So I'm already on the right track. Anywho. I'm looking forward to another 30 years, and then some. With all that I've acc...

I am not feeling particularly creative or thoughtful today but I wanted to blog to alert my readers to a new change I've made in comment posting policy. If I got the setting change right, there will not be further allowance for anonymous postings. I'm tired of deleting comments or having to give second-chance consideration to comments that have been made on blog posts because of their content. If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all. And if you have something important to say, have the courage to say it with your name attached. Thanks!

It's been a while, huh? I've been busy, busy and sick. Not a fun combination really, but I survived. The new truck and I are still getting along, however I discovered today that there may be an issue with the power steering. Luckily it's due for PM so as soon as I get to one of our terminals I will have it checked and/or fixed. I'm wondering if I am gonna end up repeating the same maintenance process from step one again just like I did with Trucky. One of the first big problems that I had with Trucky was the power steering... I truly hope this isn't going to be indicative of the maintenance future my new truck and I will have to look forward to. Oh, and I suppose I should go ahead and formally introduce my new ride to my readers. Everyone, meet Squeak aka : Kenny . You're probably wondering, as everyone has so far, why on earth I've chosen the name Squeak? Well honestly, it was a day-one name that came to mind because of the various squeaking noises that oc...

Well I've been in the automatic now for just under a week and so far so good. I arrived at the company terminal in Carlisle, PA last Wednesday to meet and greet with my new truck. As I was driving the lot in search of it, I got such a thrill when I found it and saw that it was the shiniest truck on the lot, clean as a whistle and all mine! After having to confirm that the squeaky clean truck was indeed the one I had been assigned to move into, I got the keys and went to formally meet my new road companion. Boy, oh boy! Clean inside and out! The previous driver, who had been the only driver to have the truck since it came in the fleet in late 2006, kept the truck in great shape. It was lovely. It smelled clean, it looked clean and it felt clean. Which for me is huge because I was so afraid that I was going to get a truck that I'd have to spend three days cleaning top to bottom, inside and out before I would feel comfortable putting my things inside it. After getting acqua...

I have probably mentioned a time or two (or perhaps not at all) that I love talk radio and listen to it frequently to help me pass the time as I drive around America. I do not remember which talk show it was on, but a while back I heard someone talking about a project they under took as a sort of sociological study,pretty much just for sh*ts and giggles. The person was going to smile at everyone with whom they made eye contact with and see what reaction they got. The radio host said that all of the reactions received fell into pretty much one of two categories. Those that smiled back and those that averted their eyes and/or looked away immediately. I've been curious about the reactions myself and have been experimenting with the smile project whenever I think about it. And the radio hosts' personal experiences have pretty much mirrored my own. I have had about half and half, smile back or avert their attention. It's been pretty interesting. Once, so far, I had someone...

I received a comment on a blog post that I figured would be way more fun to publish it as a post, rather than a comment on another post. So here goes.... BTW, Thanks Steve (who ever you are, where ever you are) for a great list of questions! ================================================================== Hi Gi-Gi!! I have followed your blog for quite a while now. I find it VERY interesting! A few weeks (months?) ago you asked for questions from your faithful followers. I'm a little slow but I have some now ... Ready? 1) Is trucking everything you thought it would be? Everything and more actually... I honestly didn't have any idea what to expect from life on the road, but I suppose that as far as my imagination went, I got way more than I'd imagined. I mean, weenie sightings just weren't anywhere in my imaginings. ;o) 2) What do you find positive about trucking? For me the biggest positive is the whole traveling thing. I love to be on the move and this is certainly on...

Apparently I live in a fantasy land and have a strange affection for inanimate objects, which I give names to. Honestly. I'm okay with that. If you're not... perhaps you should find another blog to read. .....anywhoodles! I was supposed to be in Carlisle to get acquainted with my new truck on Wednesday. I have to take a quickie training session and then take the truck out for a test drive. I'm nervous about it because as hard as I try, I still feel deep down that I don't really want an automatic big truck. I want to at least give it the good ol' college try, though. So I shall and we shall see how it goes. In the meantime, I've had a crappy couple of days. I've been barely eeking by with just enough hours to get a little bit of work done each day. Yesterday I delivered a load in St. Louis... AFTER waiting for 2.5 hours for the SLPD to arrive to get me out of a jam. Retardo directions in which St. Louis'ers don't understand left from right, get m...

My dearest darling Trucky will be leaving me soon. I was informed the other day that he is to be turned in by the end of the month. Trucky is a 2005 year model Freightliner Century Class that is apparently costing the company way too much mula to maintain. The company has been retiring all of the fleets' 2004-2005 trucks as quickly as they can. I had hoped that Trucky would be overlooked by some super miracle. But alas, our time together is shortly coming to an end. I will hate to see him go, as we've been together since the very start. But honestly, it's time for me to meet someone new and exciting. Change is good, right? Recently Trucky has been feeling ill and sluggish, anyway. I thought that the new alternator would have helped, but his condition is just not improving as I'd hoped. He has a terrible clanking noise under the hood which I am pretty sure is a bearing somewhere in there about to give up the ghost. So I suppose that our parting, while with swe...

Saw Weenie Wagger #4...or is it #5... heck I've lost count. I wish I wasn't the one getting to see them all the dang time. Why aren't any of you seeing them? Or are you and you are just not reporting it? I think you should share some of your tales from the road! While you're thinking of a good tale to tell... here's a tale of my own. I was driving along minding my own business yesterday when I noticed another company driver in my side mirror coming up behind me. I assumed that at the rate of speed the truck was approaching me that the company truck must have belonged to a team. The company team trucks are set at a higher limit than solo drivers' trucks are... by nearly 7 mph. As the truck approached I realized there was not the tell-tale team sticker on the side so I figured it was just a solo driver hammer down. You see, our solo trucks will allow you to go 63 mph using the throttle pedal.. but when set on cruise control, the max speed is set for somewher...

I had a series of events regarding my blog/website over the past 24 hours which rendered my blog un-viewable by pretty much anyone but me. Sorry for that. I had been trying to detach my blog from my domain name so I could actually start building a website and it proved to be a huge pain in the rear. But after a few irritated clicks and a chat session with a friend for possible solutions, some how or another, it was all fixed! I'll still be blogging here on blogger but you will have to either click on a button on my website (if you have www.gigiroxx.net bookmarked) or type in www.gigiroxx.blogspot.com to get to me from here on out. Nothing major, just back to the way it was before I bought my domain and attached it to my blog. I have no freakin' clue what I am gonna do with my website yet. I'd like to do something trucking related, maybe post a little creative writing about some of my experiences or something like that. If anyone has any ideas for a website that would...

My goodness, I've just been living up a storm without taking any time to actually blog about it! Shame on me. ha! I enjoyed a few days off during which I took a mini-day-vacay with my beau and our roommate. We loaded up the truck and headed into the mountains for a day of sightseeing and nonsense. We had a blast and even got to see some interesting wildlife. We saw a black bear and what we have determined to be a very large bobcat. It was exciting. We also hiked a couple of short trails and took tons of pictures of leaves and twigs and flowers and such. I might post some if I can ever remember the password to my photobucket account. Sadly it is attached to an email account I no longer have access to so when I try to "reset" my password or have it sent to me, it goes into the far reaches of the universe, not to my inbox. It was a pleasant day which I enjoyed thoroughly and wish I could have more of. Maybe I will make more time for mini-adventures during my time off....