NUMBER 113
Well, day by day, I’m getting all of my “groove” back. It wasn’t hard, it was just me. You know, like that guy or girl tells you when the end is near, “it’s me, baby, not you.” It was me. You cannot let people take your joy away and I allowed those jackasses to take my joy. I had to get back on track with God and church and find myself all over again. What the hell am I talking about? I’m talking about not doing what I love. Not doing my passion and not giving you guys who subscribe to my blog, my best. I know better.
On another rambling thought, I appear to be getting happier and happier each day. Maybe I am finally realizing that, it’s what you take from a bad situation and how you react to it. I have started to react with, "OK, no big deal, my life will go on and I'm loving it". Just move on and slide to my passion. “Huh, got that out of my system.” OK, now that you are going, “what the hell is she talking about?” I’ll move on to “Drama at Part Time Job in Asylum,” more places and characters you will not believe.
A year ago, I was hanging out with my friend from overseas and talking to her about finding a part time job to help me become debt free, when we stopped at this store for a cup of coffee. I saw two people standing outside the store, Jake, a white guy about 45 years old, tall, scraggily gray not washed hair and smoking a cigarette, standing next to him was Lisa, a petite young and smiling happily white girl. They said hi to me and I asked if they were hiring for any part time positions. Jake said yes and went into the store with me to find the manager, Kat. It took about 10 minutes before she and Jake came from around the back of the store and brought me an application. I filled it out, brought a cup of coffee and was about to leave, since I knew like so many other places I applied for, they would give me the same spiel, “thanks, we will get back to you.” I handed her the application and she ask if we could talk for a few minutes. I sat with her in the lobby of tables and chairs for customers and told her I was only looking to work on the weekends, Friday thru Sunday. I have a full time time job and don’t need health insurance or any other benefits they may offer. I figure if I use that pitch, my chances would be greater since I knew many other applicants probably wanted benefits. She thanked me and said she would call. I left on the pretense that I would never hear from her again. It was a Thursday. The next day she called and offered me the job. Shock, I was.
Was given instructions to go the following Monday to fill out the usual tax papers and such. The address given, to me, seem very sketchy. When you apply for a job, you enter an office building or the actually place of employment, not some trash-trailer-park neighborhood with run down homes, a beat up house used as a day care center and cops. You don’t feel comfortable and wondering, “is this for real, or are they pulling my leg and creeping me out.” It took me a while to finally locate the “house” where I was instructed to submit my paperwork. I kept driving by it. You would too if you saw this neighborhood. Can you believe it, a small house where if you did not know the address you would have never and I mean never know it was a home used as a office. Drove around the back of the house, which had about 5 parking spaces, walked to the front and saw a brown and metal front door with a sign on it to go around the side and knock. In the front of the house, a 3 foot tall wire fence with a small yard and no damn sign and you had to look real hard to locate the house number. Creepy!! Why did I continue, because I’m a nut, that’s why.
Knocked on the side door and a young white woman with too much makeup and too little clothes on opened it and led me into what was the kitchen. Not set up like a normal kitchen, it was set up like an office kitchen. We then walked passed the dining room, which had another office setting with a long table and chairs and one or two small computers and proceeded to the back of the house. There were three rooms. Usually used as a bedroom but instead used as offices, so I felt better, but still creepy. I filled out the forms as they checked my SSN and such in some database connected to the IRS and SS. Oh, yeah, I was looking and watching everything. Damn, I thought, this could be the setting for some 1970s badly made horror movie and I’m the latest victim. I can see the news now, "black woman is missing and her car was found in a swamp five days later. Police are still trying to figure out how the books belonging to her, were found in this particular neighboorhood with her name written in the book jacket, but her car was found miles away. More on this story later. "John, now back to you and this beautiful weather." That's as afar as my life would go.
I started telling my self that if that muther from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre comes thru one of those entrances with a metal door slamming open, I am jumping out of that chair and flying thru that window and running my but off. That has got to be the most craziest experience I have ever had in looking for a job and yes, I have had some lulu.
Knocked on the side door and a young white woman with too much makeup and too little clothes on opened it and led me into what was the kitchen. Not set up like a normal kitchen, it was set up like an office kitchen. We then walked passed the dining room, which had another office setting with a long table and chairs and one or two small computers and proceeded to the back of the house. There were three rooms. Usually used as a bedroom but instead used as offices, so I felt better, but still creepy. I filled out the forms as they checked my SSN and such in some database connected to the IRS and SS. Oh, yeah, I was looking and watching everything. Damn, I thought, this could be the setting for some 1970s badly made horror movie and I’m the latest victim. I can see the news now, "black woman is missing and her car was found in a swamp five days later. Police are still trying to figure out how the books belonging to her, were found in this particular neighboorhood with her name written in the book jacket, but her car was found miles away. More on this story later. "John, now back to you and this beautiful weather." That's as afar as my life would go.
I started telling my self that if that muther from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre comes thru one of those entrances with a metal door slamming open, I am jumping out of that chair and flying thru that window and running my but off. That has got to be the most craziest experience I have ever had in looking for a job and yes, I have had some lulu.
On to books because I have talked too much for today.
LORI THARPS - SUBSTITUTE ME - $11.99 - - - My book club, Book Club GrOuPiEs, are scheduled to read this next month. It has been a while since I read it, but I just love to re-read books, it brings back good memories.
Tharps's debut novel contrasts the lives of two polar-opposite women living in New York City with likable characters but common prose. Kate Carter is successful, white, and married. She hires Zora Anderson, a 30-year-old black woman, to nanny her infant son Oliver. While both women are from privileged backgrounds, their lives have taken divergent paths. Zora is still trying to figure out what to do with her life, and uncertainty over her nanny position, especially in light of her successful corporate-lawyer brother, wealthy parents, and awareness of "mammy" stereotypes, cause her great uncertainty. Kate's husband, Brad, becomes Zora's friend and confidante, encouraging her to pursue her passion for cooking and reconnect with her family. As Kate becomes busier at work, Zora and Brad grow inevitably more attracted to one another. This unsurprising turn is the book's major downfall, but the issues of race and relationships that Tharps extracts from the situation largely make up for it. While Tharps's prose leaves something to be desired, the reader is left to ruminate on some real questions concerning the modern family, and can draw on authentic characters to put a face on an otherwise abstract predicament.
TYORA MOODY - WHEN RAINS FALLS - $8.79 - - - First her mother, then her detective husband Frank and now her best friend Pamela Coleman: Murder keeps striking down those who Candace Johnson loves most, and now she faces a terrible crisis of faith. Enter Detective Darnell Jackson. He’s determined to track down Pamela’s killer, but he’s going to need Candace’s help. In Darnell, she sees a chance for justice in Candace, he sees a beautiful, dynamic woman who desperately needs God in her life. As Candace reluctantly opens up about some unsavory aspects of her friend’s life, Darnell starts to see disturbing connections between Pamela’s killing and Frank’s. But the culprit is still out there, and if Candace and Darnell can’t put the pieces together soon, they may be the next victims!
EDDIE JOHNSON - BILLIONAIRE’S RETREAT - $3.99 - - - As you know, I love a murder mystery, and maybe, just maybe, this will be a good one. I’m going to give it a try.
Sarah Giltry's husband, Jared Jones, goes missing after retiring from a local fire department. She offers a quarter of a million dollars to anyone that can find him. Jared's Mother, Rachelle, is convinced that she is linked to his disappearance. Fraud charges fly rampant as one of Sarah's government contracts comes into question. Also, she is accused of having an affair with the City Councilman that is alleged to have taken the bribe. The desire to have more and more seems to be her sole motivation. Rachelle hires Private Investigator Daniels Burks to locate her son.
Got to get one in for Black History Year
A look at Muhammad Ali ("the man behind the myth") in a video interview with George Foreman, daughter Hana Ali, and biographer Thomas Hauser
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