Athlete

I am going to be an athlete. In three years, I am going to run a marathon. I am going to be fit, and firm and strong. I am going to be envied and admired.

I will be awesome.

I know under all this crap I'm an athlete. Under the layers of fat and grossness. There's a muscular girl, a powerhouse.

I will rule the world

Tradeworthy!

I went to the Apprenticeship Connections conference today.

I am going to be a welder. No doubt about it.

Ethical Welding

I'm wondering exactly how my ethics are going to factor in to welding. I cannot for the life of me find non-leather work boots that are CSA rated. I've also read that synthetic welding gloves have a nasty tendency to melt.
I stopped eating meat because it made me sick, but it's hard not to get sucked into the vegetarian lifestyle. I really do not want to be surrounded by dead things. I don't want to touch dead things. I just simply do not want to be a consumer of dead things.
I for some reason might be more willing to accept having a dead animal on my feet than on my hands, but I'd rather have neither. I find it really hard to believe that there isn't a demand for synthetic options. It makes me angry.

Seven Changes

They say you'll change jobs 7 times during your lifetime. I think one of my seven times is now.
My company is screwing me over and not paying me out the commission I deserve. Now one of the school boards I work with has dramatically slashed their budget. This means that the highest producing part of my route is now the lowest producing part.

This also means that I'm basically going to be surviving off my hourly wage. My hourly wage is so low, I would be earning below the poverty line. My commission is what keeps us afloat and keeps us comfortable.

Even if I somehow manage to keep my job, which this one school board essentially jsut rendered obsolete, I won't make enough money to live.

So I'm going to welding school. I'm going to sign up and start in January and be done in April. I'll start an apprenticeship as soon as I can and be ready to go

An honest days wage for an honest days work. That's all I want.

My Stalker

I have a coworker who's a little bit off.  He's a smart man; a composer, a talented musician and a technician.  The funny thing is, he is definately a little... weird.  He can't understand social cues at all, it seems. He'll start a conversation with someone and they will continue to work because they are busy.  They will answer him but not become particularly invested in the conversation.  He doesn't understand and goes on and on and on.  He will, in fact, follow someone around and talk to them the whole time.  

For the past year, his person of choice is me.  I hadn't noticed, really.  I was always really nice to him because he was a genuinely good guy and I recognized that he wasn't wired quite right.  Some people avoided him, but I was kind to him always.  It's just in my nature.  Now he follows me. 

ALL THE TIME.

He waits for me outside of the loading dock so he can have his chat.  I can have the van door open and have one ass cheek on the seat and he will come over and talk.  He'll say "I should let you go..." but then he talks again.

This can go on forever. Nowhere is really safe from him.  People at work have noticed that he follows me like my shadow. My very, very tall shadow.  He's started watching the t.v shows I watch and listening to my radio programs so he has thing to talk to me about.

He knows I'm married (happily) and I don't THINK he's interested in me, but I'm not sure. Sometimes it seems like he admires me eerily. He always tells me how good it is that I've bought a house so young. That I'm so responsible. He "forgets how young" I am.

It's gotten creepy but I don't know what to do.  I've seen him lose his shit on people and completely ostracize them, and when push comes to shove I need him to do his work so I can do mine.

I'm a little creeped out.