After starting at Toppers Pizza, I soon realized that their drivers were getting FUCKED hard when it came to money. $3.50 per hour plus tips. It sounds.... okay. The problem is that they were really slow AND it turns out people in Charlotte are horrendous tippers. So maybe 1-2 deliveries per hour, and somewhere between nothing and 2 bucks as a tip. Basically I was making $6-$7 per hour. Less than minimum wage, to destroy my car. No thanks.
One night at Toppers it was so dead I got let off about 4 hours early. There was a Dominos almost in the same parking lot. I cruised over there just to see what was happening there. I knew I needed out of Toppers and I figured Dominos would hire me. They were so slammed that the manager didn't have time to talk to me for almost 30 minutes. When I say slammed, I mean SLAMMED. There must have been 20+ runs on the screen. Drivers were in and back out faster than I'd ever seen. After talking to the manager, I found out it was always like this.
So I got the job. After the guy told me 100% that I was hired, I just quit Toppers. Screw the two weeks. It was almost costing me money to work there. It always feels good to just up and quit a job for no reason. Most people never get the opportunity to feel the sudden rush of freedom that comes along with calling out of a shift, and then all subsequent ones all during the same phone call.
That about sums up what I spent the majority of my time doing. I was working 40+ hours per week, and doing it all in 4 days. Nobody tipped for shit, but it was ok when I was averaging 30 runs per night. I ended up making 75-100 every night just in tips, and they paid mileage. The more I drove, the more I was payed. It worked out.
One night, dominos gave me a bank deposit in a pizza box. They said to take it to the bank and drop it in the slot. They also clocked me out on a run. So i had a pizza in a pizza box, and $1600 in a pizza box. I spaced and handed both boxes to the customer. I realized my mistake SECONDS after he closed the door, but it was too late. I knocked and asked him about it, he said he had no clue what I was talking about. Long story short, I was either fired or had to come up with $1600. I borrowed it from my dad so I wouldn't be fired.
Then, I broke my teeth. Once again, lets make a long story short. It cost about $4500. I don't have insurance, and I definitely didn't have $4500. Once again I borrowed it from my dad. Now I owed him about $6000
Over the coming months, I paid him off what I could. I got it down to $4500. Then my car started having problems. I was secretly happy that my car was failing, because I hated that peice of crap. I hated it almost since I first got it. It was a crappy 4-door sedan old person kid toting slow ass nerdy car. However, I couldn't really afford to fix it. One night, it crapped out for good. We spent about a week trying to fix it but it turns out it had a cracked head. I still owed $1500 on it, so once again dad came to save the day. Back up to $6000.
The good news out of all of this, is that I ended up with the car of my dreams. I found a 370z that was affordable enough for me to handle. I even thought up a worst case scenario of me having to deliver pizza for the next six years, and everything looked great. I absolutely LOVE my car. I've done a few simple upgrades and every single day when I walk out to get into it, it's just as exciting as the first time.
After over a year of living in Charlotte, I wasn't quite so optimistic about what the city held for me. I was really bored with all the people that I met. I made a few friends, but nobody that I actually liked or cared to make an effort towards being friends with. My "gaybor" presented himself as a friend, but really when it came down to it he just wanted to sex me. It got strange to hang out with him because every single conversation that we ever had somehow turned into him hitting on me. Not really all that fun.... I was bored. Tremendously bored. I had no friends, and even when I had spare time I couldn't even spend it doing the things I wanted. I was so far in debt to my dad that every single spare penny was going to try and pay him off. It was dumb.
I started doing web design work for my friend Jimmy. I was getting more and more work to do, and you can bet your ass it was more satisfying and lucrative that delivering pizza could ever be. Turns out Jimmy needed a room mate. His currently room mate kinda just dissapeared one day, and so there was a spot open. That's about all it took. I started working 70+ hours per week and saving literally every penny. After about 2 months I just moved. Got my crap, put it in a truck, and moved in with Jimmy. I believe it was March 4th when I actually got here. So about 1.5 months ago.
I spent about a week just messing around. No work, no nothing. Just cruising around in my car, going to IKEA to see if I could find anything for my room, drinking beer, having a good time. I was expecting to have tons of work from Jimmy, but that didn't really pan out how it should have. It's not a big deal though. I thought I'd have more work but the reality of the situation is that I have no skills. Expecting to get paid for something you don't know how to do is a bit naive. So I went and applied at the Dominos like 5 minutes away. I was immediately hired.
This dominos is the polar opposite of the UNCC once I worked at before. I was used to taking 30, 40, even 50 runs per night, but now I take about 5. Sometimes i'll get lucky and get 10. Their delivery area is also the size of 2-3 normal domino's areas combined. There are some runs that are literally 20 miles round trip. They pay $1.30 per run. I did the math. Even if my car got like 38mpg, $1.30 still wouldn't cover that run. My car gets like 20mpg though, so one run is costing me $4+ dollars sometimes. This place is terrible.
Just the other day I asked to get moved inside. It looks like they're going to make me assistant manager. Any other time this would be abyssmal news, but I'm still doing stuff for Jimmy on the side. I'm making enough money for the moment, but i'm definitely not comforatable yet. My goal is to get back to the point I was when I first started at UNCC. No debt to my dad, no money worries, do whatever I want without really thinking about it. Maybe once I get assisstant manager and start doing more work for Jimmy i'll be able to get there. I still owe my dad $6k.....
So that's it. I just got off work, and I'm typing this. I have to open tomorrow so I need to go to bed soon. Trust me when I say that tons of more stuff happened in the last 18 months, but I think I covered the basics. Until next time....
My NC house just before I moved in.
Drinking rolling rock and playing video games. That almost completely sums up NC.
My dad and I at my sister's graduation.
Mom had never played "Edward 40 Hands" but wanted to start small...
