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Podcast transcript: EP. 1. Getting FIRED, TRUCKING malpractices & going VEGAN
Hello there. How are you doing? I'm doing very well. Been a while since I've sat here and done a podcast recording. Still haven't decided when I'm going to start putting them up officially. My name is Babalwa Brook. I don't know why I'm singing it, but it's Babalwa Brook. And I am a stay-at-home mom, housewife. No, that I am not. I am a... I don't want to say I'm a truck driver, because right now I don't know what I am. I'm staying at home. By home, I mean renting a little bit of a corner in a nice big house. And I think last time I did a recording was, oh my gosh, I have it here. It was February 26th. Wow. And today is April 30th, 2021. The reason I'm like, wow, is because so much has happened ever since. In March, my relationship ended with the previous and only trucking company I had worked for and had worked with. I went to school through that trucking company, and it was the only trucking experience I had. It was enough, though, because it was almost two months, two years. That didn't end beautifully. If it were up to me, completely, I would have rather had things gone differently than they did. But is it all up to you? No. And of course, when you're the one that's paying somebody money, you kind of have the upper hand, in my opinion. Whoever has more money has the upper hand, in my humble opinion. I then moved out of the truck, because that's where I was living, 24-7, 365.
I moved out of there into an Airbnb-type situation. I don't think I want to talk about that right now, but I just grabbed my phone and started recording, so I don't really have a plan. But for as long as we're talking, let me just give you a rough update on my life, I guess. So I went to Airbnb, stayed a couple days, went to another Airbnb, stayed a little bit, and then I asked them if I could rent a room. Not the Airbnb, but just rent it. That way, hopefully, it would be cheaper, and worked out a deal, and the deal was incredible. It was better than I thought, because I over-negotiated, thinking we were going to settle somewhere else. But they agreed, so that was nice. Then I kind of felt bad, and I wanted to pay them more. What? I'd bite my tongue, and bite my wallet, and not take up more money, because what was the point, then, of negotiating? If you're going to give somebody a bonus.
Then a couple weeks into that month, I got a job offer to go to Washington and do trucking. So, I took that job, because they were going to fly me there. I had never been flown anywhere by a job, or anybody. I've always paid for my own flights. No, I have had people pay for my flights before, but not a job. You know, I would put in a hotel for a month. I thought, why would these people pay for somebody to stay in a hotel for a month? I don't see, I just, I don't know. But I was like, okay, if you're going to do it, I'll take it. So, I wasn't really ready to truck at that point. But I took it, because it just seemed different. I had already done one day's job, which was like 14 and a half hours, and I didn't even take a break. It was a nightmare to attend the agency. I was supposed to drive to the middle of nowhere, on Route 66, as if you don't know Arizona from California. And just before the border between Arizona and California. And it was just like a nightmare, dude. You're supposed to drive an hour from here to where I'm going to pick up the truck, and then drive from there to where I'm going to pick up the trailer, and then drive from there to where I'm going to pick up the load, and then drive from there to where I'm going to pick up another load and drop my load. So swap loads, and then bring back what they had. Oh my God. And do the same dance again. Drop the load, drop the trailer, drop the truck, and then drop myself. And then, of course, when it was time to pay me, they short-paid me by six hours. Like, they literally short-paid me in America. And it was just like, nobody said anything. Like, it's normal. Like, somebody can just do that in America. In America, dude. First of all, country. I'm from South Africa, in case you're wondering the accent. I'm not from the Caribbean. I'm from South Africa. And I'm not from Kenya or Nigeria. You're not allowed to visit. And it was just like, you don't do this in South Africa. Definitely, you don't get away with it, if you decide maybe you want to do it. But it's not an experience I'm familiar with. And now, I've lived in a third world country, second world country, and now the first world. Yeah, talking about walking your way to the top. Or sitting your way to the top. Whichever comes first. So it was just like, are these people for real with this shit? So I messaged somebody, they were like, yeah, the customer says you got lost on your way to blah, blah, blah, blah. All of these things were in Los Angeles, until I had to drive towards the border. So, yes, I got lost, but the GPS was fucked. And when I called you about it, you were like, yeah, I don't use the GPS, it's fucked. I don't use it either. So, you know this, and you even admitted it. What the fuck is this? And I talked to the client, who was responsible for this whole deal. Throughout the day, texting him, he knew everything that was going on. Now, he authorized for somebody to pay me six hours of work, short. Are you fucking joking? It was beyond. I was like, I can't. What alternate universe is this? So that definitely left a weird taste in my mouth. And I'm like, oh my God, and I'm all the way in Washington State. What if these people should pay me again? Somebody recommended this temp agency to me.
So I went into it, not expecting them to be weird, because I trust the guy who recommended. I mean, yes, I trust him, even though he was like, oh my God, give me your number. He took my number. His hands were shaking when he was taking my number. I was like, oh my God. And he never called me. So I was like, well, should I still trust him? What are we doing? He was like, I don't know. I don't know. We were just like friends. We used to just bump into each other in the laundry room and talk for hours while we were there. We talked about all kinds of things. He showed me photos of his girlfriend of two years. And he went on vacation, whatever, and showed me all of those photos and videos and whatnot. So it was interesting that he didn't call. It was just weird. I still kind of like, I don't know why I'm going to bump into him again, because I'm no longer in that company. And it probably wouldn't be a good idea for me to go there and do laundry. Like, people don't know that I've been fired. So I can just go and do laundry, I guess. But I have a laundry room here where I live. Thank you very much. That's free. So I called the company, the temp agency, and I said, please, guys, can I have my money that I worked for? That's the contract I have with you. The contract is that, well, actually, I sent them an email. Because that's what you want to do. You want like a paper trail of some sort. So I said, you know, I understand that you say the customer is coming up with excuses as to why they don't want to pay me, which is really sad. But my contract with you is I'm going to provide services, and you're going to pay me. I've provided services for so many hours. And I would like you to compensate me. You have another contract with the customer. That's between the two of you. You guys can figure that out. But I would like you to pay me. And I’d just arrived in Washington State. And the customer there loved me, and I loved him. I love him. One of the best overall human beings I've met. And of course, I didn't want to stay too long and find out another side of him that I'm not going to like, like this guy that I thought was good but didn't call. So I guess the customer was constantly telling them how much they loved me. And the customer started me too. He'd be like, oh, I'm getting emotional now. I just haven't thought about him since I left. He's such a great guy, you know? You don't think people like that exist. And you feel like you've been sucker punched in the stomach when you meet one. And so I didn't realize this, but even though I was new with the Temp agency, the customer was new with the Temp agency too.
So they paired me up with this new customer, new driver, new customer. And they said all the way to Washington, there's a new deal altogether. So they didn't know how it was going to work or whatever. And I got there and I impressed everybody of the agency and the customer. And the customer is the customer. The people I was delivering for, which is a government agency. All the different branches that I went to, I hate to say it myself, but they loved me and I loved them. And it was just, so they were telling him they liked me and he was telling them. It was just so great in that regard. The job was back-breaking. I'm telling you. So I guess the Tampa agency, when they heard those things, that also created, like, because they didn't know me. So this just created like a nice impression on my behalf. And my team called me and said, you know what? I'm going to take care of this for you. You will get paid. We'll figure it out. We'll talk to the customer. So just like you said, you're welcome. True. I said, by the way, you are doing us such a favor by being out there for us. And this customer is very happy with you. And I thought, oh, that's so nice that not only the customer told them, but that they're telling me that the customer told them. You know, I was there for a month. I'll tell you more about it some other time. Maybe I'll put more details on the blog. It's mobileupbrook.com. I also have a YouTube channel, which is just, you know, mobileupbrook. And social media, blah, blah, blah. After a month, I came back. And my room was still available. I was in touch with my land Lord, who is incredibly incredible. I don't think everybody's incredible, but I've just been so blessed to come across some of the greatest people I've ever come across. I am very humbled by these meetings with these people. I don't know if I'm worth all of this favor, but I'm grateful. My land Lord said, I'll keep the room for you until you come back, as long as you need me to, and I won't charge you. Like, what the fuck? Then I come here, and he said, I'll just start charging you when you check back in. I checked fucking back in last week, 21st or 22nd of February. I gave him money. He says, no. I talked to my wife. My wife said, let's not charge you for the rest of April. Like, dude, these people only know me for a couple of weeks. What is happening? Like, so I was so touched. I still am. And now I'm like, oh, my God, what can I do for them? Like, do they like flowers? Like, what are we doing? What do we do? I thought, you know what, just continue to be the person that you were consistently, maybe something that left a mark with them. They did tell me even then, like, we like that you respect other tenants, and you just clean up after yourself. You're very respectful. So, like, for me, that's normal. You treat people how you want to be treated. Like, when somebody really appreciates it, it's really, really encouraging. So basically, I'm staying here for free right now. Like, what is life?
I just came from an Asian store from stocking up for the first week of May. I do grocery shopping for a week. I mean, I keep going back and buying, like, nuts and snacks and random shit. But I buy groceries for, like, a week, do meal prepping for that week. I've been eating vegetarian when I was in Washington State. I ate vegetarian strictly for the whole month. My birthday, I was there for my birthday. Even then, I still didn't, like, eat that much. And so, all of April, and most of March, I was eating. In March, I was eating, like, maybe chicken or turkey or whatever. Yeah, only chicken or turkey. One meal per day, I would eat meat. So I was transitioning. And now I just, I think it's probably too much fiber, roughage, stuff like that for my stomach. I have, like, I'm sure I have, like, some kind of conditions that are maybe IBS-relative, stuff like that. IBS standing for Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Because a lot of, like, roughage-y things, like fruit, a lot of fruit, it goes ruff ruff ruff ruff ruff in my stomach. Like, it gets, like, acidic. And then, literally, you can feel the ruff ruff ruff ruff. The stomach is swelling up. There's nothing worse than that feeling of bloatedness. You're walking around feeling and looking pregnant, but you're trying to be skinny. You feel skinny when you're bloated. Um, so, not only am I, like, trying to remember what other vegetable eating to eat, okay, can I eat pasta, is it good for, do I have a gluten problem? Why do I eat certain things and feel certain ways? It's just like, oh my gosh, I'm trying to figure out all of that. I probably could just go to the doctor, or the nutritionist or dietitian or whatever, and do all those tests. But I, not first to doctors out there. I trust myself more than I trust, like, a doctor. How does, like, how's he going to know what's going on in your stomach? He's not, I've been living in the stomach longer than him. Why don't I just figure it out? I'm sure he can. You know, they have science behind them. But, to back them up. So, that's why, um, I've been doing lots of vegetables here. And, like, plant-based milk, like almond milk. And stuff like that. I have been doing, when I was high-proteining, I would do vegetarian weeks, maybe even months. But I was doing high-protein vegetables, vegetarian. And, like, low-carb. Now, I'm not counting my carbs. I just, I'm eating potatoes and stuff like that. But now, I'm having, like, I don't know, I'm going to eat something. And I won't know, like, if it's a mixture of vegetables, which vegetable is in there. It's making my back hurt. I have this pain, like, in the back of my back. What? In the back of my, I guess the back of my stomach, I don't know. It appears through from my lower, my lower rib to, in the front to the back. It's, there's a lot of it on Google. But you, I don't know what it is and what causes it. Because I used to get it a lot when I eat boiled eggs. As soon as I finish eating up all the eggs, I have to take a pain pill. I don't live like that anymore. So, that's what I did today. But mainly, the main thing that I left the house for, because since I came back last week, I have been pretty much sleeping all day and night for seven days straight. I was so happy when I found out the other day that it was the 29th. So, that was yesterday when I found out it's only the 29th. And I've been back for a week, not two weeks, because I thought, like, for Monday, I thought it was a new week. It was, but not for me, like that. So, I'm like, oh my gosh, thank God. I haven't been unproductive for two weeks, only for one week. The temp agency is like, are you available? We have a company, they want you to work tomorrow morning. I'm like, just a second. Like, don't be trying to manage me like the people that owned my soul. The reason I'm with the temp agency is because I don't want someone to own my soul like that right now. Like, I'm still recovering from that experience. And now they're trying to act exactly like that. I'm like, oh, these people are going to get blocked just like the other guys. Like, I don't want to feel constrained, constricted, restrained, whatever those words are. I don't feel like somebody put me in a trunk of a vehicle and locked and threw away the key. That's how I felt when I was in that one relationship that I talk about a lot on my blog. I don't want to feel that way. So, they'll be like, I'm like, I'm not available this week. What's your availability this week? I'm not available this week. Somebody else will text me on the same phone number. Like, they're all texting me from the same phone number. So, that's interesting. What's your availability? I'm not available this week. I'm like, oh, my God. I appreciate that. They're not doing this because they're trying to get me money and make me money and get me jobs. They're doing this because they have customers who have maybe their drivers, stand them up, and now they're contacting the temp agency to find somebody to fill in for that day or whatever. It's not for me. So, they gave phone numbers to customers, but I told them I'm not available this week. And I'm having people call me left, right, and center. So, nobody's phones get picked up, of course, because, like I said, I'm not available this week. Right? Isn't that the beauty of working for a temp agency? You work a part-time job when you want to temporarily. You're not in a full-time contract where you owe anybody anything. I had somebody leave me a message at like after 10 p.m. Hey, can you send, send, send, send, send, send, send, send, send, send, send, send, send, send. And it's just 6 a.m. tomorrow. They want me to show up at a job. It's 6 a.m. They're calling me around 10 at night. We were joking. So, that didn't happen because, first of all, I'm not available this week. So, and secondly, please, people, don't call me at fucking 10 p.m. Maybe it's only behind me, but I've just got a lot of issues with the whole trucking industry and how truckers are being treated. In my experience, at least how I have been treated since becoming a truck driver, by people in managerial positions, supervisors and whatnot, I think that's it for now. I took my car to the mechanic and costed this amount of money, three zeros. And there's a lot of other things that need to be taken care of with the car. I had a check engine light for months, maybe longer. And yesterday, two days ago, it went away. After I made an appointment with the mechanic, it went away. So, of course, the problem is still there because it was there for a long time. And now the thing that they fixed is to remove the check engine. But I can't tell because the light was not there when I got there. So, that was fun. So, I'm going to add a fun cherry on top to add to my situation.
I'm going to go ahead and put the food away now. It was just nice to sit here and look away. Maybe I'll post this eventually. Maybe I won't. But it's always good to have material. So, yeah, I'm going to put my groceries away. I'm going to do my grocery journal. Maybe I'll listen to a podcast. Maybe I'll listen to a podcast, but I definitely will watch a current documentary if I can find a new episode. I've been watching First Dates and First Dates Hotel. Check that show out. If you like to watch some kind of reality TV, if you fall in love, they have Ireland version. They have London. They do New Zealand. I know London is not a country. They do New Zealand and stuff like that. So, it's a nice show. People write to the show and then the show finds the most perfect people for each other. I don't know how they do it. They should hire the same people who set up people on First Dates to set up people on Married or First Date. So, yeah. Something I wanted to say about Married or First Date, but we won't open that kind of forums. Thank you very much for hanging out with me. I will talk to you some other time. Again, it's @BabalwaBrook on all social media, Babalwabrook.com on my blog. I will talk to you next time. Thanks. Bye.
