| Joshua Lopez | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Joshua Lopez | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Joshua is a reliable man and a religious man. He would say he tries his best to be the best person God wants him to be. He works hard at his job being a trucker. He doesn't like that it takes him away from his family but he knows it's his duty to provide for them. Being a bit of a wandering soul anyway he gets restless at home, always has, so trucking suits him well. He has very definite ideas about his place in society as well as the place of others. Joss was raised by devout Christian parents who tried very hard to teach him to be open minded, love his neighbor, and that God would provide for him. Even so Joss tends to be a bit closed minded when it comes to different ways of life and there's a lot of things he doesn't see even though they are right in front of him because they don't fit his world view. He doesn't trust big companies and he trusts the government even less.
The way the world is changing has him a bit on edge over the last 5 years or so and he doesn't see why women are so angry because he doesn't feel he is sexist and doesn't see sexism around him. It makes him feel like women want to subjugate men, generally he feels women should be happy with what they have because he's happy with what they have. This view extends to questions of race as well. The changes in the world and the speaking out against injustices make him feel more than a bit targeted and it makes him angry and a bit bitter at how things are changing.
He’s married to Joanne Lopez (formerly Morrison), she’s his age and works as a professional housekeeper cleaning homes. He’s got 4 kids, Harmony, Reginald, Brandy, and Micah. Harmony is only 2 and his pride and joy while Micah (14) he hopes will get some proper schooling and make something of himself. Brandy (who is 7) is a bit of a misfit and if something has gone wrong he tends to blame her for it before he has all the facts. Reginald is only 5 but hasn’t taken to his dad like Micah did when he was that age, possibly due to the fact that Joss is never home.
At home Joss is a bit lazy and definitely overweight. He has a hard time getting up to do things after he's worked feeling like it's his time to rest and his wife's time to show her appreciation for how hard he works. He hates honey-do lists or anything else that takes him off the couch when he's home. Though he adores his children he is more than a bit emotionally closed off and shows his feelings for them through spending money on expensive things they want but rarely tells him he loves them directly. He hugs, cuddles, and holds them though and will get up and play with them readily when he's home, especially with the two youngest. Joss does tend to put a heavy emotional burden on his oldest, Micah, to be better than he is.
Joss works as a long-haul trucker most of the time but will go where work takes him, be it shorter hauls or even driving different rigs such as box trucks or whatever. He likes driving and he is genuinely skilled at it. He can stay awake and alert at all hours of the night. A reliable sort though he’ll grumble and gripe about a lot of things when he’s got a job to do he does it. He talks heavy thought about quitting and throws around phrases like they can’t do that and the sort even though he’ll never act on what he says, he likes to say them. When working he’s kind of obsessed with bagels, he has to have one every morning and spends a lot of time deciding on if he can get one in a town he’s going to or if he has to bring one himself. If he misses his bagel breakfast he gets really upset and it ruins his day.
For his illegal activities he feels they are justified, feeling that people like him have been abandoned by the powers that be in favor of an overly politically correct culture. While politically he is not exactly a conservative he agrees with most conservative values. He is definitely not a liberal either, feeling they are all "touchy feely" and that the snow-flakes need to man up. He trust absolutely no politician and doesn't vote, feeling he and everyone like him are just screwed. Every election his friend Maury urges him to vote and look into the issues but Joss never does.
Special Skills
- Professional Truck Driver
- Woodworking
- Jury Rigging
- Self-Taught Mechanic
- Self Reliant
Joss knows a lot about how police work, particularly California Highway Patrol, whom he is adept at avoiding. He also is very much aware of the places and routes to take a truck for minimal questions on an average day.
Background
Joss met his wife Joanne just after high school when he and his buddies were really into the bar scene, she was a waitress at a little place about 45 minutes away from where they grew up called the Black Bear Diner. He and his friends were celebrating that one of his closest friends, Jack, had gotten into Yale. Joss's three best friends were Maury O'Moore, Adam Simon, and Jacques Gonzalez (Jack) the quartet were inseparable almost the moment they met, the freshman year of high school. All 4 tried out for football and all 4 got in. Though they liked their teammates the 4 were always closest to each other.
High school was the golden time in Joss's life. His parents were upper-middle class and worked hard, he had a nice single story home and two older brothers Robert and Samuel. He had a lot of friends and while studies were difficult at times he did well enough to keep his place on the football team for the first 2 years but his grades dropped off in his Junior year and though Jack and Adam stayed with football Maury and Joss didn't. For Maury he didn't care for it but Joss was always a bit bitter that he couldn't play anymore, even though he knew it was because he was paying far more attention to girls and parties than he was to academics. Joss never cared for academics but it was a lot easier before all the testing they started during his junior year. To this day Joss thinks that is what is wrong with America, they test kids too much, and should spend more time teaching them.
After high school Jack applied to Yale and several other big schools. While Maury started up full time at Adam's dad's hardware store while he figured out what to do with life, Joss was surprised to learn that the dot-com bubble had hurt his family more than he'd thought. As it turns out his money for school had been invested heavily in the computer industry and there wasn't anything left by the time he graduated high school in 2004. His dad had made some poor choices with the finances and they had to sell the house. He applied for financial aid and was approved by just before Christmas his brother Robert was hit head on driving down I-5 just south of Redding by a drunk driver going the wrong way down the interstate. Killed his brother instantly though the drunk driver barely survived. Joss never went to college and never touched another sip of alcohol again.
While Joss took care of his family, Maury stuck around town too after high school and went to barber college, now has his own barber shop in Chico right near California State University at Chico. Maury has even gotten a wider cosmetology license and has a side-gig helping the drama department at Chico State part time lecturing about how to do makeup and hair for various parts. Adam's family had its own tragedy, his sister killed herself and Adam was never the same after that. When finances permitted Joss went to trucking school.
Joss credits Maury with the fact that he stayed sane and the two are still very close. Maury is about Joss's only source of information about other lifestyles that he trusts, though a lot of time he doesn't understand what Maury is on about when he talks about LGBTQ rights and how bad people of color have it... He loves Maury like a brother and would do anything for him. Adam got into drinking and Joss can't speak to him anymore, though Maury and Adam are as close as Maury can get. No one has heard from Jack since he went to Yale really, except a phone call when Robert died. Joss and Jack promised to get together that summer after Yale got out for the term but never heard back and it didn't happen.
Maury and Joss often talk about the good ol’ days. He blames Adam’s drinking on some legal trouble with a DUI about 15 years ago, when really Adam has had severe depression since the death of his sister the year after graduation. Joss doesn’t see how the system could have kicked a man while he’s down. For Jack and Joss, they were never as tight as the others and Jack’s parents didn’t really approve of Joss so much. Joss is angry and even hateful at times as Jack just leaving and never even calling to see how Adam is doing. Maury stays as close to Adam as he can but Joss himself finds it unbearable to watch Adam drinking all the time.
In recent years Joss parents have started to have health problems. Particularly his mother who had to quit her job at the high school because of migraines with an unknown cause. His father has the normal aches and pains but hides it well, he knows that neither of them have insurance to speak of and has money put aside incase they need it. Though his brother Samuel moved back in with them, Joss isn't sure how much hel Sam will be not really buying the line that he moved back in for his parents.