Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia in a week!

WOW!!! What a week!

Where to start? I pulled up my big girl panties up and realized I had to be the bigger person in this awkward job situation so I told the wife/owner lady that I could sense that she hadn’t taken a liking to me and, since she was the owner, I didn’t want to make her feel obligated to keep me and that it obviously wasn’t a good fit but that I could stay for a bit longer if she needed and didn’t want to put her out since she had guests. She insisted she didn’t hate me all the while telling me how “cocky” I was and how she could tell, from the moment she picked me up from the airport (after making me stay there overnight since they couldn’t be bothered to pick me up when I arrived the night before), that I wasn’t going to last.

I tried to keep my cool but when she insisted that she wasn’t even going to pay me since I didn’t have the Social Security Card on me, I told her, again, that if I could only show her the I-9 form. She then blew up and started yelling at me, telling me how disrespectful I am and how I should be apologizing to her and the cook.

I’d been in the middle of cleaning one of the guest rooms and she just yelled “Get in the truck! You’re leaving NOW!”. I asked her if I could have an hour or two to figure out the logistics. She said no and told me she was just going to drop me off in some small town with not even a train that could get me to a friend’s house in Virginia.

She followed me to the room in the barn I was staying at. When I told her that I didn’t need to be watched while packing, she said “I’m going to make sure you don’t go in the other rooms and steal their stuff”. WHAT?!? I just shrugged. I was so over this petty and completely unnecessary drama. She rushed me out, saying I had 20 minutes or I could walk to town – which is FAR away and I’d have no cell service until I got out of the mountains.

I got all my stuff packed, while using breathing techniques so I wouldn’t start bawling. I’ve never been treated like this. Ever. Even at the boarding school that I went to school at (where the principal had been a drill sergeant and yelled at us constantly, made us do push-ups for talking back, march for hours and do obstacle courses, etc).

We then went to switch over to the van from her truck. She came back with some cash in her hand and, after having flashed it at me, said “I’ll give you some cash instead so we can have this over with but, first, you need to sign this piece of paper stating that you received the cash and quit of your own accord”. I agreed. It’s what I would’ve done too, were I giving cash to someone. So I signed the piece of paper and instead of giving me the money, she pocketed the cash saying she wasn’t going to give it to me. So, I grabbed the piece of paper I signed that was sitting on the dashboard in between us and pointed out that then the paper was not true. She launched herself over the middle console and pinned me against the passenger seat, scratching at my hands and arms, trying to get the piece of paper in my hand. I told her to get off me and couldn’t believe she was doing it. She said she’d tell everyone that I slapped her.

Feeling numb with shock, I turned on my recorder and got her to admit she was full of shit about me touching her and got some of her threatening me some more. She finally agreed to give me the money. I just took the money and put it in my pocket when she says “You didn’t even count it! You’re a fuckin idiot!” and laughs. I told her it’s because I tend to trust people.

She knew, by that time, I was recording her, so she shut up for the rest of the van ride. It was probably THE most awkward 1 1/2 hrs EVERRRRRR. Seriously weird.

She then just dropped me off at the Greyhound station in Asheville, NC. By that time, I’d been able to have cell service and an Instagram friend in North Carolina told me she would drive down and pick me up.

I still can’t believe that all happened and that someone I’d NEVER met would be such an angel. She seriously saved me and immediately took me on a hike which cheered me up tremendously. I stayed with her, her beautiful daughter and their wolf – yes, a 100% wolf who ate my flip flops and trail runners 😝- for a few days and we went exploring. It was like we’d known each other for forever.

My friend in Virginia, another beautiful woman, told me I could stay with her so I got a ticket out of Toccoa, Georgia to Charlottesville, VA and my IG friend drove the few hours to get me there. It was a tiny, unmanned Amtrak station. I’ve taken the train plenty of times and have never had issues with my luggage but when I went to board the train, the train conductor lady told me I couldn’t come on. She seemed to hate me on site – don’t know if it’s my faux-hawk/short hair or what – and refused any solution I proposed. I tried to appeal to her compassion and explained I knew nobody there and had been driven hours and hours by someone in NC to get me there. She didn’t give a shit and told me the only solution was if I left one of my pieces of luggage there. I told her that’s not a solution at all since it was an unmanned station and it’s my entire life’s belongings. She then told the train engineer/driver person to go and off they went.

The nearest bus station was 75 miles away. No Uber or Lyft in the area either and couldn’t find a proper taxi but finally found something on google. A man by the name of Greg told me that he normally doesn’t work at that hour – it was around 11pm by then – but he didn’t want me stranded so would come pick me up. No buses or trains were leaving until late the next day so decided to get a hotel.

All I wanted was a glass of wine after all this craziness and, come to find out, you can’t buy any alcohol after 11pm in the town. WHATTTTT???? I think I was the most upset by this. lol. I JUST WANT A GLASS OF FUCKIN WINE!!!! ONE GLASS!!!! or a bottle… 🙂

After some sleep, I just decided to just get my ass in gear and stop obsessing about the recent events. Greg, the sweetheart taxi guy, drove me to Anderson, South Carolina. I just hung out around there all day and then took the bus to Virginia.

I haven’t been on a Greyhound since I was 18. Many interesting characters and stories I heard while going there but that’s neither here or there.

Soooooooooo, long story short, I’m now in Lexington, Virginia. Looking for more jobs and trying to decide what to do.

Alls I got to say is: that was one CRAZY ASS WEEK!!!

Now, here are some pics:

Some old outside movie theatre in North Carolina! Crazy. The old projector is there hidden somewhere

Just proof of scratches. I’ve had worse injuries but took the pics to cover my own butt. 🖕🏻

Teaching friend’s kid to selfie. Because it’s an important skill 😜

Being a paparazzo to my friend’s kid.

Behind the scenes Instagram shots. Catching mom getting shots of daughter. Why do I have such a weird fascination with taking pictures of people taking pictures? Lol. It was awesome hanging out with my IG friend since we both understood that every moment could turn into photo-worthy shots if angled and positioned correctly. Basically, every day was a photo shoot. Hahaha