she has left me.
my lovely, funny, talented lab partner left me and automotive school behind. I came into class last tuesday and found an empty seat and an crumpled lab coat left on the table. oh, stephanie! why oh why have you forsaked our partnership? who will be there to laugh at my creepy man voice saying "i'll break that bolt free for ya, little lady" ? who will be there to understand the need to use a 16" breaker bar on everything? or to be repulsed by every ass crack we see and plot to buy suspenders for all the guys? suspenders with theme prints on them. sigh.
i am all alone. me and 14 men. sigh. I spent two days working by myself and now have a new partner. he's lame. he keeps crowding me and doing stupid stuff. then there are the other stupid, annoying guys that i have no one to laugh at with. the old dude almost backed into a customer's car i was driving. the other talkative annoying kid was directing him right into me. they separately came up to me later to apologize and blame each other. in reality, they were both at fault. ugh. my new lab partner gets irritated really easily when I'm able to do something that he can't. such as, break a bolt free or push out a strut tower from the car. both take some strength. he's not so thrilled that i have some.
there are only two weeks left in this quarter. thank god.
so i came up with a plan:
how i will get the electrician's apprenticeship by kt
this plan will help to break down the roadblock the men have with being able to imagine a woman doing a "man's job." i finally came to the conclusion that if i'm ever going to get past this simple-minded barrier i need to pull out all the ammo i can. I need to really focus on what i really want - working in the building trades. So, i made the decision to enroll in the oregon tradeswoman pre-apprenticeship class. it's a seven week program that will teach me the things woman need, but don't always inherently have, to succeed in an apprenticeship. doing math. reading a tape measure. using power tools. seeing job sites. talking to contractors and tradespeople. work site culture. weight lifting for strength. besides all those things, we will be working on a habitat for humanity house in the afternoons. That is one of thing i'm really excited about off the list of skills women-need-but-don't-have. Then I will re-apply for the electrician's apprenticeship. maybe even chose another trade to work in.
what about automotives? well, the class will run three days a week from 8am - 5pm so I'll be taking a break from automotive school. I will re-enroll for april unless I have some amazing prospect in the building trades close at hand. I am not quiting (yet). just a break. and don't worry. I'll have plenty to write about with a new set of circumstances.
Class begins Jan 22nd. see you there!
