Greetings from the Boro;
I'm not going to lie my mood in the past month or so has been terrible; a combination of work related stress, stupidity, heartbreak, and the depression that followed the heartbreaking moment has made me one miserable motherfucker.
I was off the emotional high of our successful April 14th chase looking forward to what could have been a breakout year in chasing when things fell apart for me in a span of two weeks. Financial problems which were my doing creeped up on me at the worst possible time....2 weeks before my vacation. I had to stay behind while Ashley got to go and have a memorable chasecation. While she got to see a solar eclipse and 5 tornadoes on May 25th I had to deal with a pay cut and an angry owner of the company I work for over bad business and an investigation over his labor practices. I was at one of the lowest moods I felt in years; I wanted to have NOTHING to do with almost anyone during that period and I even took aggressive measures to keep people away from me (it resulted in hurt feelings which to this day I regret doing).
Fast forward to today which was an uneventful day for the most part until 3:00 PM when my boss called me in. As I made the walk to meet up with him my heart was racing faster than Usain Bolt on cocaine (thinking more bad news); he gave me a message and some paper work to fill out. That investigation from the state labor department yielded some wrong doings on the owner's part; he owed me back pay for skipping out on paying me over time (I work over 40 hours a week and was paid per day instead of per hour which is illegal in this state). I'm owed over $1,700 in back pay it may not seem a lot but for me, it was the miracle I was hoping for. My financial nightmare is over; within a month my debt will be wiped clean and I can focus on the future which of course involves chasing.
I've been having to stick to a tight budget just to make ends meet and even though I will be bringing in more money over the next month I have no plans to get off that budget because I have goals that cannot be accomplished without putting as much money as I can back.
This is a short list of what I want to accomplish in the next year or two:
Vacation- I still have plans on taking a vacation at some point this year (I'm targeting the week of the Weather Fest in Norman to go see some friends at that event and hopefully if possible get in a chase gambling on some secondary season magic).
Solo Chasing- This isn't an indictment on my chase partners they make chases more enjoyable even on a bust. Thing is they might not be around long (Jesse wants desperately to go home in Nebraska while Ashley may move to Norman); I have to be ready for that because I will likely be the last one leaving and until then I want to chase every chance I can get, but that's impossible to do without a car of my own. I also need a confidence booster and a feel of accomplishment and what better way for a young chaser like myself to have that than to do it on my own.
Relocation- I'm a fucking realist, and the reality is I won't be working at my job for two more years in fact I did pretty good being with that company for three years. I'm eventually going to have to move on and my heart is no longer in Tennessee no matter how much I love this state. My heart belongs in the Plains in Tornado Alley; my top two choices on where to move are Wichita and Fort Worth of course that's subject to change (sorry Norman you're a great town but you're not my idea of where I want to live).
There you have it for anyone wondering what I've been up to the past two months or so and what I hope to be doing in the future.
