I still haven’t heard anything from the post office. It’s
been over a week since I disclosed my criminal background over the web, and six
days since I gave up a sample of my urine—and a fine specimen it was—at a
clinic nearby. Waiting patiently, I would say, isn’t one of my best attributes.
I’m not stirring in my sleep or letting it dominate my thoughts at work, but it
is certainly on my mind as I go throughout my days, wondering when my last
liquid cent will be spent, and it’s time to plow further into debt.
To be honest, I think it’s a good sign that it is taking
this long. I figured that as soon as I pressed the submit button and they uploaded my record, I would get an email
stating that although they appreciate my time in applying for a job with the
U.S.P.S., they are going to consider other candidates who aren’t so risky, and
have never tried crack-cocaine, and perhaps have never been to prison. But they
didn’t, and I sit here waiting.
I’ve been a little bummed recently because I have found that
my options for a career move are severely restricted due to two main factors:
1. My felonious antiquity. 2. My premature departure from high school.
Now, I’ve been to college. I went from sometime in the early
2000’s to somewhere later in the same century. I have no idea how many college
credits I obtained over the years, but it wasn’t many, and I recently used the
internet to discover that I have just over $40k in defaulted student loan debt,
some of which was used for school, some maybe not. It’s amazing that they will
let you take so much money without a purpose. But they do, and I did. For whatever reason, they haven't come after me for their money in years. They do take my federal tax refunds, but other than that, they have left me alone.
I have no shot at getting student loans, and no chance of
paying for school out of pocket. And even if I ever did have a chance to obtain
and use a degree of some kind, I still have multiple felonies. So, my only
option is to try to do something about the latter, and that option is
expungement. I don’t know much about it other than it is a possibility. The case
must be made that the benefit of sealing a record outweighs the value of
society knowing about it. So, it’s me vs. 300,000,000 or so people in the
country that could benefit by denying me a job, and apartment, or credit
because of my past.
Hang on, let me check something.
Okay, in Minnesota, I am eligible to file for criminal
expungement five years after the disposition of my sentence, which happens to
be my sobriety date, 6/26/2014. As is the case with all court cases, it looks
like the most complicated process in the world, so I might need some help when
the time comes. So, that is a short term goal that I can start working on at
some point, but it doesn’t do much for me in the next couple months—the time it
will take in the worst scenario where I don’t get a new job and I have to wait
until summer to make money again.
And that’s really all I have to vent about.
Wait, there is one more thing. This year for Valentine ’s
Day I took Amanda out for Tepanyaki at Saji-Ya in St. Paul, which was fabulous.
I then took her to Can Can Wonderland for mini-golf,
which was a terrible idea. Apparently several million people also had same idea
that night and we were told there was a two-hour wait to golf. So, we played
some arcade games and drove home. I suppose that overall; it was a nice night,
and our first date night in a while. I think next time we will do something a
little closer by, and a little less crowded. Also, I hate traffic.
This wasn’t much of a post, I just wanted to write.
