The Beauty and Nightmares of Getting Fired

(Written By Adelaide)

A month ago Kennett was sitting on the couch and asked me, “I have a hypothetical question for you. If your neighbor had killed someone while driving drunk, would you want to know about it?

I thought for a second and said, “Is this actually a hypothetical? Are you asking me because someone nearby has killed someone or is this for your work?” He writes legal blogs and I thought it might be related.

He told me it was hypothetical. I told him I wouldn’t want to know.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t a hypothetical. Another neighbor had such a hard time processing the news that he couldn’t keep his mouth shut and told me despite Kennett urging him not to. Paige, a neighbor my age who I had been semi-friends with, killed a 16-year-old in a head-on collision when she was 18, with a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit. That’s one problem that she’ll have to live with for the rest of her life. I wouldn’t hold that against her at this point. She’s moved and started a new life. She is 28-years old and I’d hope she would have matured since then. That’s how I would have felt if the incident was a hypothetical. The real issue, however, is that she was caught driving drunk again, last summer, and has been on parole ever since. Her Ace ankle brace, which she claims is for a perpetually sprained ankle, is used to hide a GPS device that signals her parole officer when she violates her house parole, which she has done frequently in the past six months. She has continued to drink as well, with is also in violation of her parole. She even went so far as to tell my neighbor that she actually “enjoys driving drunk.”

Fucked up right? I hope you’d think so but I’m not sure everyone is as upset as I have been about this. To make the situation worse on a personal level is that Paige lied to me several times and told me false stories when I wasn’t even asking questions. “I’m not driving because insurance is so expensive” and more.

I had gotten her a job at Boulder Cycle Sport where I had started working this spring. At the time I thought Paige would be a good candidate. When I learned of her driving record I had nightmares. I still have nightmares actually. I just had one last night. I’m not sure this was the correct move or not but I called HR at Boulder Cycle Sport because I didn’t want to be associated with recommending her. I also didn’t want to work the same shifts as her. Let me remind you that I have severe PTSD from my crash and I’m having more trouble getting on the bike than I’ve ever had before. I explained why I suddenly felt so strongly that I couldn’t be near her.

I had never worked a shift with her, but with the 4th of July weekend I ended up on the schedule with her. Her schedule had to be adjusted so that she could go to court for a revocation hearing. I told HR I wouldn’t show up to work with her. I asked for the schedule to be adjusted for one day, and told them I had spent months not working with her, so it shouldn’t be a reoccurring issue.

The owner emailed me and told me not to come to work on the 4th of July. Instead, I met with him and the HR woman the next day. They fired me. They told me they were letting me go because of finances. According to them, sales had been bad over the spring. I’m pretty sure I was spending more money at the shop than I was making. They were not losing much money by employing me. Furthermore, they probably are losing sales because so many cyclists have been killed in the past year. Bill Davis was killed by a drunk driver. So I got “let go” for having PTSD around a cycling crash that nearly killed me. I got fired from a bike shop!

At the end of the conversation they had the nerve to tell me I should keep my mouth shut about Paige. They said maybe we could work out some sort of ambassadorship with them. As though I wanted to represent a company that ignored my PTSD and fired me for bringing an issue I had to HR. No thank you.

Those are the nightmares. The beauty is that I’m enjoying not having a job. I’ve taken this time to focus on writing. I’m going to have an article in the upcoming issue of Lava Magazine. I’m able to take another trip to race Steelhead 70.3 where I’ll get to meet one of my coaching clients and Kennett will get to see one of his clients as well. My parents are coming up to stay with us for the weekend. I’m back on track to have a rough draft of my book completed by October.

Alcoholism is an addiction, but you would think that after killing someone while driving drunk, a semi-ethical person would make some serious life changes. You would assume that they would at least take precautions, like leaving their car at home and not even giving themselves the opportunity to drive home drunk from the bars. Her car is littered with dings and dents, and his held together in one section by duct tape. Obviously, she drives drunk frequently and has little remorse about the young life that she took 10 years ago. She is willing to put others at risk in order to have a good time.

The self-centeredness of people can be astounding, particularly on the road. Whether that means driving drunk, texting behind the wheel, or cutting off a cyclist to save two seconds and to show them who’s boss, cars seem to bring out the worst in humanity.

Please don’t drive drunk. Don’t use your phone in the car. Save me the nightmares please. Try to remember that you’re affecting another human being’s life.