Memories of Randolph St

We didnt even last a full week in this new place before things were bugging him. Oh he was happy we moved and glad for a place so close to where he worked. What irritated him was the realization that his schedule and mine werent going to match up no way no how. I was supposed to train for a week during days to get me register ready (I ended up being ready to run one in less than 2 hours and was running it alone with no supervision in less than 3), as well as train me in the department I was going to be stocking by having me work some of the new displays (oh puh-leeez that's so old hat...I had the layout figured out in 10 minutes and had it set in 30...). They werent used to someone picking up so quickly...nor someone who was willing to help the stockers out. I had one of those boys tell me I couldnt help him because I was a female.....ohhh the new asshole I ripped him. I can just imagine how the nightshift would have been trying to work with a crew of guys. My luck, since it was a 24 hour store, I'd be relegated to cashier simply because I was a female. This really bothered the daylights out of me. To make things worse, I had the jerkboy at home pissing and moaning about how I was going to have to make sure to run on time because he had to pick me up and drop me home before he got to work (he'd need to be in at 630am and supposedly I wasnt getting off until 6am....but during Christmas, you always run late so I knew this was going to be an issue). Making matters worse, there wasnt public transport for me to fall back on (kinda like the position Im in now), just cabs (ka-ching). By the end of the week, I was so miserable that I was in tears by the time he picked me up. I cant believe I got that miserable that fast. He ended up getting what he wanted as I ended up taking a position in the office at the same school he going to be working for. What a mistake that was.

Dont get me wrong, I had some really good times at that school (none of which really involved him). I also had some bad moments. Most of the bad ones involving him of course. Inspite of the way he tried to keep a wedge between me and everyone else, I did manage to make some decent friends....although I never felt comfortable enough around them to just out and out tell everything. It wasnt like now where I say what I want and pretty much when the hell I want to. The school was small so whatever was said to one person made it to someone else pretty quick. In otherwords, everyone knew everyone else's business like it or not unless you kept your trap shut.

The first year was really rough. I was working at the school now and making half or less what I was making at WalMart. This year I was paid by the hour and only on a parttime basis. I was lucky if I saw $250 every other week. It wasnt so bad when school was in session, just very very tight. I liked the fact we lived so close to the school that I could walk home if I felt like it. When it was cooler out, that's precisely what I'd do. As the temperatures rose in spring...I'd stay at the school and sit in the sanctuary to read my Bible. My trips in midday back to my house were fewer and fewer because they found more and more for me to do. I was recruited for the afterschool program and so stopped going home because there wasnt any sense in going home and coming back later. When I stopped going home it got easier and easier to toss me in a classroom to substitute (glorified babysitting is all that is). They figured out pretty quick they got a twofer deal with us. This kind of sucked because if idiotboy ever needed to be away from class, guess who got stuck with it? All because I knew where they were in any given class and could just about teach the class (did I ever mention...I HATE HISTORY!!). This happened alot during football season as his job wasnt to just teach, but coach the junior varsity teams. When they were at an away game and *IF* they came back after midnight, then the students on the team and the cheerleaders AND the coaches (Jim and Hap) were allowed to come in 2 periods late. This sucked for me because since he was going, and they needed a monitor for the cheerleaders...I had to go. Why? Because Jim was there...it just made sense. Yet I still HAD to be to work at 530am because I also managed to get drafted for before care (so parents could drop off their darlings at 6am for a small fee and not have to worry about them not getting to school on time). I give you one guess how much sleep I got on a nightly basis with all that and the fact Jim insisted that I type all his crap up for his classes "because I was so much faster and accurate". Needless to say a few weeks every year I was busy typing up everything for all classes for the entire marking period. My Christmas was shot to hell because I spent the entire 2 weeks we had off typing the whole semester up (well why not, didnt have any money to go anywhere anyhow...).

After a couple months at the school, he started getting pissy with me on a regular basis. I had to be in at 530am and never got out until after 6pm. Sometimes it was later if the parents "forgot" their kids. There were times I was there as late as 630 or 7pm. Id get home and have to cook and clean and damn if I didnt type up something (pop quizzes...whatever) for him that night I'd catch hell (Lord help me if I got angry because then I was a bad wife). Yet he wouldnt pitch in and cook or at least do the dishes so I could do this "favor" for him. Many nights it was after midnight before I got to bed....only to be up at 530am to place a phone call (I had a soft spot for this one senior student who had to take asthma treatments and I was trying hard to help him get through and actually graduate that year) and then get ready for the day. Somedays I felt like a gerbil in one of those plastic balls....had to keep moving and no escape.

I remember one night I wasnt required to go on an away trip because they were leaving mid-day and I was needed more to cover his classes than to chaperone the girls (they sent one of the other female teachers that didnt have any classes to teach the last 2 periods of the schoolday). Would have made more sense to have her teach as she was qualified to be teaching and I wasnt, but that's ok. I got home after a long day and made supper, cleaned then typed for a bit. It must have been 9 or 10pm when I crawled up to bed. As I was getting under my sheets, I realized that I had thrown the deadbolt (seems to be a pattern with us) and I knew we had no key for it. I was so comfy and thought I'd hear the doorbell if it rang as the chime was right outside the bedroom door. It was loud enough it had woken me up every other time. Well not this night. I was so dead tired that I heard absolutely nothing. Well not at first. The phone and answering machine were down stairs in the front office while our room was the master suite in the back and up stairs. Between the bed and the phone was a door (which was kept closed in the winter to help with heating and to keep the cats out of the Christmas tree) and the staircase. Even with the ringer full blast, it was seldom you'd hear the phone ring. Well he got home this night around midnight or so and found the dead bolt thrown and he couldnt get in. He tried ringing the doorbell.....repeatedly. I heard nothing. Now mind you if I had any idea how exhausted I was I would have hauled my butt downstairs when I thought of it and unbolted it in the first place. He rang and rang and still I heard nothing. He ended up going to a payphone and calling. All he got was the answering machine. He came home and rang some more (and swearing at this point Im sure)...then back to the payphone and swore at me more there on the machine. How do I know? Because I listened to the messages after (the words stupid bitch came into play on this occasion). Now mind you, how foolish would he have felt if I had been in the house injured and he'd sworn on the damn phone? He tried throwing rocks up at the windows to get my attention. It would have helped if he threw them at the right window....he had aimed for the front bedroom windows thinking they were the master bedroom. The cats, I guess, had been going nuts with all the activity out there....and I never heard them racing around in a panic. One of the neighbors heard all the ruckus and called the cops (maybe they shoulda kept him in the firstplace...). What can I say, when Im tired I sleep!! Next thing I know I hear this really really loud noise coming from outside. So I get up and wander down the stairs...hearing this loud talking and boy it's got me pissed to be up . When I got downstairs there were lights everywhere. So I go in the office and I hear some female on a megaphone (yeah it took lights and a megaphone to wake me...I was REALLY TIRED) calling my name asking for me to step outside. Not only were they using the megaphone but they were broadcasting it into their phone so the voice was being broadcast into the house over the answering machine's speakers. I stepped outside and had a cop in my face...did I know this man? I stepped a bit farther out and there Jim was....a cop on each arm holding him back from the door. I remember muttering...yeah that's my husband...I must have thrown the dead bolt on accident. They let him go. He managed to hide his anger til he got in the house and the door was closed. Yeah...I caught hell for throwing the bolt and for embarrassing him like that. Hey, he knew when he married me I was a sound sleeper. The next day it was like nothing happened. Not even an apology for swearing at me on the phone. The worst part of it? The fact he had his driver's liscence proving that he belonged there the cops offered to help him break in to his own house. They made this offer BEFORE trying to get ahold of me. What would have happened if I had thrown his ass out because of a major fight and hadnt had a chance to call them yet?