Stories from the Road: Where would I be right now?
It's been a while since the last installment in the DU Stories from the Road series. So for those of you who are not familiar with it, I am a trucker and I write about my adventures out on the road. The theme is "Blue Collar Guy Trying to Make it in America and Finding a Lot of Other Stuff Along the Way." Okay that's kind of a weird theme. I'll shut up about it and let the story do the talking. It's all about the story and we all have stories.
Now days it's more like a Stories from the Homestead series because I'm no longer a long haul trucker. In October of 2010 I had the first date with who would become my wife and we found that long haul trucking was not compatible with relationships. By March of 2011 I had moved in with her and taken a local job. We got married on November 5, 2011.
By spring of this year I realized that if we were ever going to get ahead I'd have to find a way to make more money. I can make more money out on the road, but I will not sacrifice my relationship with my wife to do it. Trucking is all that I know career-wise, and I'm pretty much doing the best I can right now with local work. I decided to return to school.
I had two years of college from an earlier time. I live in Richmond, Indiana and, as fortune would have it, Indiana University has a branch four miles away from me called IU East. I enrolled there and all of my previous credit transferred. I'm now a business administration major in my junior year at IU.
Well, working full time and going to school part time takes a lot of time. I'm taking two classes this semester, but with the work load from work and school I'm putting in about seventy hours a week right now. I told my wife today that I would be doing homework for most of the day, so if she wanted to go out and do something with her friends she might have a better time. She said she'd do that and I told her that I would be done by the time she got home and I'd spend some time with her.
The homework took a lot longer than I had anticipated and I'm still not completely done with it. She was upset with me because I had promised to be done. There was nothing I could do about it, but she wasn't satisfied with my explanation. That's alright, though. I know how she is and I wouldn't try to change her. At the core of it, she just wants me. And if you've got a woman like that, man, you've got everything.
So I told her tonight before she went to bed, "You know, if I hadn't met you, I'd probably be out in the middle of South Dakota right at some rest area miles from civilization. I'd be sitting there in the bunk of my truck thinking up little stories to post on DU if I had an internet connection. If not, I'd be sitting there listening to the radio and killing myself with those cigarettes. I'd be killing myself with those cigarettes and that truck."
And I kissed her.
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It's a lovely story, but the kicker is your ending!
And I kissed her.
I felt a positive thrill as I read those words.
I'm so glad you two are married, and that you're still telling these great stories from the road..er, homestead.
she left here at 9:30 and I took a nap until after 1:00 then started on my homework.... Here's Jen: that was why she was a little upset with me...... are you picking up what i'm layin down? jen
But I work hard, you know? 
I really enjoy "Stories From the Homestead", ....a lot!
Thanks, Tobin S.! Hope things are well with you both!
NOTHING beats that one love, I can say that mine died seven years ago. I look around and see a world of people looking and not always finding something that is worth keeping. When it is, it shows.
AND when you have had that one person you spent your life hoping to find, ain't NO ONE
able to take that place.
Congratulations.
Way to go! 
