A Money Tree to pay for Medical Care

Sometimes I wish we all had a money tree growing in the backyard. Then we could all afford medical care for our families. This week I learned that I would not have enough hours per week to maintain my affordable premium. My run was cut by 15 minutes per day or 1 hour per week and my payroll deduction goes from $52 per pay to $200 per pay!!!!! Are you fucking kidding me? That is 1/3 of my bi-weekly pay! Does this seem fair?

My local school workers union has been in contract negotiations with the School Board since last December. We currently have a mediator and it seems that we are basically screwed if we want to keep our jobs. Even though our district is thankfully very stable financially, they insist that because of "of the current economic environment, we have to be frugal." Ok, I get it, but lets be fair also. We hold to the idea that if they want us to give up our meager 2% pay increase per year so should administrators. However the administrators continue to receive pay increases of 3% or more and many are banking on 6 figure salaries. In addition they maintain affordable Health Insurance deductions.

I'm pissed. In addition to this contract bullshit, our last contract was imposed on us and we had to go to take it to court. The School Board lost and appealed the decision until it went all the way to our State Supreme Court who ruled that the lower courts were correct in their decision. Three years later and almost a million in tax payer money on legal fees, the School Board had to pay up on both retro pay and health insurance deductions from an illegally imposed contract.

Because my husband is unemployed and going back to school, I will have to drop health insurance for my family and cover myself only. I am scared and royally pissed off at the same time. I won't even get started on the fact that I am ready to leave this wonderful and beautiful country that I call home because our government is failing us in so many ways.

I know that I am not alone but that doesn't make it any easier. I can only hope for the best and take one day at a time. Maybe order will appear from chaos and suddenly we could all grow a money tree in our backyard. But isn't money what got us in this fucking mess in the first place?$?$?

Running towards the big 40!

Today I need to talk about running. My running partner is my husband for now which works pretty well because he is willing to run at my pace, which is VERY SLOW! I've never really enjoyed running nor have I ever wanted to compete. I just want some cardio that keeps my legs toned. The problem is I have this issue with wanting to run faster and longer but my body just isn't built that way. Lets just say I've got a few extra pounds that need to be shed and my husband is a 260 lb. X college football offensive lineman. He used to be 300 lbs. of solid strength but now he is 260 lbs. of big legs and a spare tire. Ok so I got off subject a little. But he keeps telling me that once we shed a few more pounds we'll run farther and faster, as long as we keep running. So we add about 5-15 minutes to our run every few weeks and we run about 4 times a week but I still can't run any faster! So why do care so much as long as we keep doing it and I get a good cardio workout? The crazy thing is that my husband could out run me any day! He has lungs of steel. He could go out and run 5 miles in a reasonable time even after taking years off from running. He was running obsessed when he was younger so I think he is naturally conditioned to running even at 260 lbs.

Over the last ten years, I've gained and lost wait several times but it keeps getting harder to loose if I gain. You see I'm turning 40 in October and I want to look and feel good. I WANT TO LOOK 30 NOT 40!!! Isn't 4o the new 30 anyway? So that's why I obsess about working out and running. Over the last year and a half I've lost about 25 lbs. and have toned up tremendously, but it's not enough. I still want to loose maybe 10 to 15 more lbs. and I haven't lost any weight in the last 4 months or so. And I'm tired of these skinny little bitches passing us on the trail while we eat their dust.

Ok so I sound like a typical woman who rants and raves about wanting to be skinny and younger looking. Why does it even matter if I am skinny or fat? I'm still the same person inside. I don't know, it just matters to me. Is that shallow? Maybe. I guess I'll keep trying until I'm satisfied which may be never. It seems I'm running faster towards 40 than ever but it's just a state of mind anyway. Right? Maybe if I run backwards I could look back at my 30's and see that age really doesn't matter. I'm sure that one day I'll figure out that it's not the destination, it's the journey that matters.

The Smoking Lounge

It's official. The 09-10 school year has begun in my universe and I'm exhausted already. Only two days into it (yesterday was one of those days) and I am certain it's going to be a pretty good year. I just need to somehow get used to the 5am wake-up call. After 4 years of driving I am still having trouble with it. It's too fucking early! But I may have never woke up at all and am still dreaming because the kids were so good yesterday.

So I was really intrigued by a request from some of the local HS Stoners who sit in the back of the bus. They had a great idea! They asked if they could take the last few seats and conceal them with a tapestry or curtain, bring in some cool rock posters and mood lighting and create a smoking lounge. Great idea I said, but they would have to take it up with the School Board because I don't own the bus... I just drive it. I did mention however, if I caught any of them smoking on the bus I would invite a very large varsity football player or wrestler to sit with them and keep them in line. Or I would write them up, which wouldn't really matter to them. But I have to congratulate them on a great idea... a smoking lounge on the school bus. Hhmmm.

I also met my sons First Grade Teacher. LOVE HER! She just gets it. She also lives in the district with 4 kids and a husband who is also an educator. I really think she will be a great Teacher for my very typical 6 year old son. She made several points about how she has had to adjust to the many changes in education over the last several years and could care less about the bureaucratic bullshit. She just loves to teach these kids to read and watch them blossom into themselves with their own individual reading accomplishments. Yea! I love her already!

Anyway... tune in soon for many more school bus driving adventures.

Is it Sunday already?

My husband is in another state mountain biking with the boys for the weekend and I thought the weekend was going to drag without him. I've come to the recent realization that I crave his company desperately! I have mentioned is recent posts that he is unemployed and going back to college for another 4 year degree and a new lease on life. Therefore we have had so much time together as a couple and family with 2 kids including a month long road trip across the country! So how could I just let him leave us for the weekend? Kidding! I just hope he doesn't break something or trade me in for a younger model when he starts classes in a few weeks! He comes home tomorrow so I'll have to make a serious effort to make sure he knows I am WAY BETTER THAN THOSE CUTE LITTLE COEDS in soooo many ways!

In two days I get behind the wheel of my big yellow school bus, start the engine, adjust the seat & mirrors, check the breaks and stop lights, and all the other parts on the bus and get on my way for the 09-10 school year! Of course, after a cool and pleasant summer, the thermometer decided to rise into the high 80's with 90% humidity and it looks like it's going to stay that way for the next week or so. I normally wouldn't complain about the heat but the inside of the school bus is about 10 degrees warmer on a hot sunny day! That makes for a really sweaty butt crack when you have to sit in a vinyl seat for 3 hours straight! Let me know if that is too much information... but it is the damn truth! Although I like to sweat but only when I am exercising.

Sooo... what should I do with my last two days off without my husband? Maybe a day at the pool or lake with the kids? Or a hike and a picnic? Maybe we'll take in a Baseball game this afternoon. It is a great day for baseball. Well it seems my options are unlimited so I guess I can get by without my husband for another day and a half.

The results are in...

Ok so I have about five minutes to post so this is how it went. I got the same run I had last year though it was not my first choice because the boss cut the hours on it just enough to raise my health insurance premium by $250 per month! However, I do love the kids on my run and I will enjoy driving them to school again this year. I can probably manipulate the time to extend the run a little longer to get my insurance costs down, you know, play the game that the school administraion plays with us drivers.

The meeting was entertaining to say the least. The most flamboyant senior driver, a black grandmother who dresses like she belongs on the street corner, made the announcement to "shut up and don't ask any questions so we can go home quicker... otherwise you'll have to deal with me later. Remember now, snitches get stitches." She deserves a post dedicated to her only and I will get that done soon.

A Meeting of the Minds

This morning the School Bus Drivers all come together to find an answer to the biggest question of the year... What route will I get this year? How many hours will it be? Will it be enough to cover my health insurance? Will I beat out a senior driver for the best route in town? This day is BIG! Only the boss knows all and today she finally has to face the mob of anxious drivers and spill the beans! Our meeting starts in 45 minutes so I am getting ready for the big moment of truth. I will be there with bells on to await my yearly sentence. Wish me luck!

A Hard Lesson

What is it about people that drives them to purposefully hurt someone? How do you prepare a teenager to deal with crappy people and that in life they never go away? There is always someone out there who is miserable and mean and get off on hurting people. I can honestly say that I personally have encountered people like this throughout my entire life and it never gets any easier to prepare yourself do deal with them.

So where is all this coming from? My 14 year old daughter was singled out and cut from the Freshman volleyball team. There were not enough Freshman to complete a 10 team roster, in fact there were only 9 girls who tried out and they have all been playing together since 7th grade. Most of the players, including my daughter, have also played USA volleyball with the coach that cut my daughter. The coach decided to move 1 Freshman to Varsity, 2 Freshman to Jr. Varsity, 1 Varsity to Jr. Varsity, keep 6 players on the Freshman team and cut only my daughter from the entire roster. Now for those who don’t know volleyball, there are 6 players on the court so a 6 player roster is brutal to say the least. A typical roster consists of 10 players.

We were all upset by this worst case scenario for my Freshman daughter. So now I need to help her deal with the pain and let her take in a hard lesson. In my opinion, the coach should be developing players instead of cutting them. Just for the record, in the 3 years she has run the High School program she has lost players and carries a loosing record. However, she is the coach and we all have to live her decision.

My final thoughts are that there is a whole entire world of hurt going on. War, genocide, famine, corrupt politics, poverty, greed, disease, etc… My job as a parent is to put it all into perspective and teach my daughter not to be that hurtful person who pisses everyone else off. To hold her head up high, support her friends and family, and be an uplifting person that others will want to be around. That kind of behavior is contagious and others will want to be like her and not the crappy High School coach who gets off on killing a 14 year olds self esteem.

The end is in sight :(

Yesterday I received my bid package to pick my bus run for the 09-10 school year. Also, my unemployed husband got his acceptance letter to go back to school for his second bachelors degree. We both begin our journey back to reality as we will both have major commitments starting in a few weeks! Our summer of fun-employment will soon end! However we are making big plans to end with a bang at Moedown 10 over Labor day weekend!

After 15 years as a cabinet maker, my husband plans to endure 4 more years of college for a new career in engineering. I don't think I could ever go back and do it again but I am so proud of him for making the commitment and doing it. All I can do is be supportive and hope for the best as we begin a new chapter in our family. Ironically, when my husband is about to finish school in four years, our daughter will be starting college. I'm sure we are in for an interesting journey.

Fun-employment in the summertime!

I mentioned in yesterdays post that one of the fabulous perks of being a Bus Driver is Summer Vacation. Before I became a bus driver, I always worked all summer and scrambled to find and pay for daycare for my children as well as find time to enjoy summer. I have been off for the last four summers but so far this summer has been extra special because my husband is home as well. He was laid off at the beginning of April and with some sacrifices we have managed to make a bad situation great by enjoying an entire summer of “fun-employment.”

Rather then discussing every detail of our five week long, 7,000 mile journey across the beautiful Northwest United States, I am going to share an entry from my personal journal written about a week and a half into our excursion.

July 2, 2009
The drive to Deception Pass took about 3 hours as we drove through the North Cascades and stopped at the visitor center. We saw tons of bicyclists cruising the highway!! It seems a popular sport out here and highway 20 has huge, clean bike lanes and plenty of camping along the way. Of course my husband is already planning our bicycle trip across route 20 in the beautiful Evergreen State!

We booked our camp site here on Deception Pass having never heard of or seen this place. We did all of our research on-line and man did we hit the bulls eye! The State Park sits out on a small peninsula with amazing rugged beaches surrounding the entire park. Just inland is a gigantic Cedar forest where all the camp sites are. Its so primal. My son compares it to the forest of the ancient dinosaurs. There are over 300 camp sites, yet it doesn’t seem crowded because the park is so vast. I love it here!!! In fact I want to live here. When you sit on the north beach you can see The Cascades in the backdrop highlighted by Mount Baker. When you sit on the west beach, you can see the Olympic Mountains as a backdrop. The water is spotted with islands everywhere you look in the distance. However this park sits directly across the Straight of San Juan de Fuca so you can see water as far as the eye can see.

Yesterday we decided to take a ferry over to the Olympic Peninsula because the mountains have been calling us over there all week! We couldn’t get our car on the ferry so we just walked on and took a bus around the town of Port Townsend, WA. We decided to head over to Fort Warden and check out a tiny Marine Science Museum with all hands on exhibits. It was quaint and perfect on a huge wharf surrounded by beautiful beaches. Then we wondered around the town and ended up having a wonderful local seafood dinner at The Belmont. The Belmont patio was nestled in on the waterfront with a small beach in front of the public wharf. My son played on the beach and we ate halibut and crab legs! We walked around town a little more until we caught the ferry back to Whidbey Island at 8:30 pm. Perfect timing for a little sunset cruise on the Washington State Ferry in the Puget Sound. I want to live in Port Townsend. What a cool town. The more I see of the Great Northwest, the more I love!

Tomorrow we head to Seattle for an urban adventure for the 4th of July! We are staying in the Doubletree Arctic Hotel downtown so I am excited to get a nice shower and see the sights and sounds of Seattle!! Until later.

First Post... About my Blog

So, do you really know what happens on the School Bus when you send your kids off to school every day? Well I’m going to tell you!!! This blog is about the daily life of a middle aged bus driver who wants to become a writer. I will remain totally anonymous as to protect myself and the identity of the children I drive to school everyday. With that said, I guarantee you will find Miss Bus Driver and the many people and situations I encounter on a daily basis entertaining to read about.

So here is a little information about me, Miss Bus Driver, and why I chose to blog about this subject. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and I still can’t figure out what I want to do with my life! I landed here, in Suburbia USA, as a single parent without child support and moving in with my parents at 25. I lived an exciting life as a young adult living in many different cities and meeting many interesting and unique people, but I ended up pregnant and broke. When I finally moved out of my parents house with my 4 year old daughter, I met my devoted husband who was willing to take the both of us. We have a son together and so now here I am a mother of two amazing children and a School Bus Driver in the school district we live in. So the Bus Driving thing was an ongoing joke in my life as I jumped from job to unsatisfying job always joking about just becoming a bus driver so I could spend more time with my kids. Well I’m in my 4th year and I never know what I will encounter from day to day. I deal directly with parents, kids K-12, a strange boss, teachers, school administration, a tough school board, an egotistical superintendent of schools, coaches, whiney bus drivers and a bad Union every day! Except now while I am on summer vacation, one of the many benefits of my very rewarding job.

I’ve wanted to write a book for a long time but I am scared, confused and have no idea where to begin. I was reading an article in a writer’s magazine about how blogs have ended up as books, even bestsellers and then the light bulb went off! I need an excuse to write often and I can’t think of a better subject at the moment sooo… Miss Bus Driver, because that’s what the kids call me. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell them my name.