Gi-Gi Roxx - The Ravings of a Lunatic

Well week four is coming to a close. I've got four more shifts over the next two days. I'm exhausted. My morale is low. Today's second shift whipped me and my confidence. By the time we got the bus back to the garage this evening... I was ready to turn in my uniforms and cry mercy. The driving part of the job is fairly easy. Adjusting from bus to bus is a little annoying but doable. Learning the routes is a little less easy, learning the time points and fare zones and dealing with the people, I'm finding quite difficult. I am starting to wonder if I'm cut out for "public service". And of course, my brain is fried and as I said before, I'm exhausted. Zzzzzz

Yeah, so I totally didn't feel like blogging about week #3 until now, which happens the beginning of week #4. Primarily because week 3 kicked my butt. It was my first week out with the seasoned drivers, learning some of the routes as well as the in's and out's of bus driving. And it was mentally exhausting. By Friday, I was a zombie. Honestly, even after a holiday weekend, I still feel like a zombie. My brain is on mega-ultra overload. And even more honestly, my morale is low. I know it will take time to learn it all. But patience is something I am typically low on anyway. So the fact that I'm not getting it all right away just frustrates me. It's just one of my issues that I have to deal with on a daily basis. Last week, week 3 was a doozy. And on one particular day I met with my first real emotional struggle where carrying passengers is concerned. I was at the helm for my first circuit on a route that had many twists and turns. The trainer had driven the route onl...

Week two started off with an immense amount of anxiety. I was feeling mega butterflies as I arrived to the garage that morning. I knew that this week was gonna be the week we really kicked it up and got into the nitty gritty that is bus driving. The previous week, we'd only taken out what are called the cut-away buses. They are smaller than what you would typically assume a bus would be because of the tight places they go in the outlying areas of the Charleston Metro area. If you're from the area, think West Side hill, South Hills, Fort Hill (notice the "hill" trend there?). So anyway, I knew that the second week of training we'd be getting our big bus legs. I was scared stiff. On Monday, we took out one of the cut-aways on some of those difficult hill routes. I had the (dis)pleasure of driving the outbound Fort Hill/Montrose route. For one thing, I'd never even really HEARD of Fort Hill. Second, a lack of knowledge meant also I had no clue where it was or, on...

Seems kind of like I've been here before. Posting information about the first week of training for a new and exciting career is how I got started on this little bloggy of mine a few years ago. And so now here I am, retraining into another new and exciting career and blogging about it. Week one was definitely a challenge, but I fear that the worst is yet to come. Sure it was tough learning what I have so far, but I don't honestly think I learned more than maybe 5% of what is needed to be successful at being a professional mass transit operator. I can say right now with complete certainty that I've got many more challenges ahead of me before I am even 50% "learned" for this new job. I feel, however, that this is gonna be a great career move. I am truly excited about it and really do look forward to working with the public, getting them where they want to go safely and efficiently, and working for what I refer to from now on as the "Authority". The Authori...

I'm so over that bubble gig. Yesterday I started training for my new job. Super fun... or something. My new job in literal translation is: "transit bus operator". In layman's terms: city bus driver, In the world of all that is moi: Gi-Gi the Bus Driving Adventuress. ;o) All aboard, sit down, shut up and enjoy this whole new ride folks! It's gonna be something! So, day one was pretty much just butt loads of confusing info, tons of forms, more confusing info, and a trip to the Golden Corral lunch buffet. My brain was on overload and my behind was sore after the 8 hour day of sitting and listening. So much so that I had trouble doing much more than being a complete couch potato once I got home. I even had trouble sleeping last night because of all the things running around inside my head. It was pure madness in there. Today was day two. We were fed still yet more info, however, today it seemed to be less confusing. We pretty much focused on ADA training. ADA is the ...