NUMBER 119
Now, back from a commercial break, let’s return to “Part Time Job at the Asylum.” It’s now about 7 months into the job. It is going pretty well and have learned so much and not just about what my responsibilities are, but how it actually is to live from day to day, week to week on so little money. Yes, I’m broke like others and we have all struggled with unexpected bills, housing and such, but to live from day to day is worse than hard, it’s frustrating to the 10th power.
Which is why I still to this day, do not understand how people can apply for a job and turn around two weeks or a month later and just quit? I was working with Jake, Lisa, Leslie, Kat on the evening shift. Once in a while when I arrived early, I would run into Jessica and Dan. Not much to say about them because I usually didn’t see them. They would arrive at 5am and by the time I came in, they were gone. From the history of the place, they were the original workers. Jessica was a hard worker, but Dan, the thinnest man I have ever seen, could be a bit lazy at times. After sometime, It became clear that they needed to hire more people, especially in the morning. Three were hired. Gail, John and Jeff; all African Americans. Gail, who was born and raised in New Jersey, use to worked for the same company in and came down to SC to raise her son and was expecting, about 6 months. Jake was so upset because he did not think they should have hired a pregnant woman. “What the hell can she do? She can’t lift anything heavy and I’m not going to be here all of the time to help her.” I looked at Jake and told him to shut up since his life wasn’t any better.
She turned out to be a good worker and as time went by, I got to learn a lot about her and her 7 sisters. Yes, I said Seven. Don’t get too excited yet. One has 4 babies by 4 different men. One has 3 babies by two men and the court took all three because the last boyfriend she was living with, a white guy, was pumping drugs into her and selling them as well. One sister was pregnant, second time, at the same time as when I met Gail and she has a baby with one daddy living in another state and pregnant with the other daddy in jail. One sister is in jail, and the other three are in horrible situations. On drugs, living with woman/man, depending what their sexual preference is that week, yes I said that week. I wasn’t going to judge. I got a lot of nerve judging anyone when my life was in shit town once and I was able to come out of it, but it ain’t easy and damn near hard to come out of that world.
I really begin to like Gail more and more because she was trying to make her life better and she made me laugh at the stories about her friends in New Jersey. What disappointed me was that both of her children were by a married man. I asked her what the hell she was thinking. You know what she said, “I thought that when I got pregnant the second time, he would leave her?” Did she really say that stupid ass crap? “So, you go get pregnant again and he is still with his wife?” I didn’t like it, but who am I to judge? Some women, many my own friends, don’t figure it out or don’t want to figure it out. It just easier to go along with it then change it. Then you look up and time flew by faster than a rocket and you realize, “He was not worth it, and you end up alone.” How do I know that, not by experience, but by just knowing it wasn’t a situation I ever wanted to be in. I have watched and heard the stories for so many years. My friends suffered thru the pain and anguish and realized too late that it wasn’t worth it. It just ain’t damn worth it!
Well, que sera sera, whatever will be, will be, the future not ours to see, que sera, sera. On to books:
DARRIN LOWERY - CONGRATULATIONS - $4.99 - - - Mr. Lowery is an Urban Erotic Fiction writer and since he is a young African American male that I have never read, I’m going to give him a try. At least the plot looks good.
Congratulations is the story of Tiffany Garner and Thomas Anthony Young. After eight months of dating, Tiffany thinks that any day now, Thomas will propose to her. That is until they get into a senseless argument before Thomas leaves on a business trip. Tiffany is hurt by the words that are exchanged. To get her mind off her troubles, she decides to go a wedding with her best friend, Alicia. While there, Tiffany's world is turned upside down when she sees Thomas not out of town, but at the wedding.
DARRIN LOWERY - CONGRATULATIONS II - $6.99 - - - Regina Holiday is looking for love. She thought the logical place to look was within her church with heartthrob, Derrick Brooks. That is until he announces his own nuptials at their church hours after they were last intimate. To make matters worse, her unemployment has run out and she has yet to find a new job after a year of searching.
Reggie Howard returns to his hometown of Chicago from Hawaii to help the Chicago office stay afloat in a failing economy. Although he has no time for love, he falls head over heels with a certain Chicago Police officer who has a smile that makes a man warm all over.
Officer Alicia Goorskey meets Reggie at a neo-soul club and for the first time, she’s met a man with all the qualities she’s looking for in a man. Reggie it seems has more redeeming qualities than Officer Goorskey's husband who’s white.
Thomas Anthony Young can’t seem to shake thoughts of his ex, Tiffany out of his head. Although she’s married, he wants her back at all costs. In order to get back on his feet, his frat brother Reggie offers him a job as his replacement in the Chicago office.
In a twist of fate, Regina, Thomas, Reggie and Alicia’s lives intertwine. Both women want the same man. Both men want someone else’s wife. In the end someone will be offered condolences while the other will be offered Congratulations.
DARRIN LOWERY - CONGRATULATIONS III - $8.99 - - - Hey, the price keeps going up? Oh, well, give it a try.
Rene Alexander is guilty. She's guilty of love, guilty of being faithful, and guilty of being a dutiful wife. She helped make her husband, William Alexander the man that he is today. She held him down when he went back to school, she took care of him when he was sick, and when the world told him he was nobody, she told him he was somebody. Rene always had William's back. One day she catches him in the throes of passion with another woman in their home. Rene takes matters into her own hands costing her five years of her life in prison.
Now Rene is three weeks from being released on parole only to find out that her husband has since married again. Rene wants the life that William promised her. Only now there is another woman in the way, Tiffany Alexander. Her ex, Thomas Anthony Young, will stop at nothing to get her back. Thomas recently discovered a way back into Tiffany's life where she can't say no. Two women want the same man and two men want the same woman. The question is who will walk away and who will be offered Congratulations?
PAT TUCKER - DADDY BY DEFAULT - $11.99 - - - I did not complete this book and now don’t remember why. I happen to see a recent post by her on Facebook, which reminded me about the book. I also met her in Houston last year. (Don’t get me started on Houston. I’m trying to get back to the National Black Book Festival in June, but money is not working the way it should, damn!). I also heard her on 3 chicks on lit and do remember that the book was more about the lying aspect of baby mama drama with a bit of humor. Let me know what you think.
A court-system mistake forces a man to pay child support for a child that's not his. Tucker addresses this surprisingly not so unlikely situation and other Texas law conundrums in this dazzling drama, her first trade paperback after a series of mass market titles (Proceed with Caution). Parker and Roxanne Redman are heading home in sadness after Roxanne's suffered another miscarriage when Parker's pulled over for speeding and arrested for ,000 in delinquent child support for a child that's not his, by a woman he doesn't even know. Meanwhile, Parker's best friend James, who's divorcing his wife, Serena, has just agreed to pay child support for six-year-old Semaj, ill with sickle cell anemia, although James later learns through a blood test that Semaj is not his biological daughter. Tucker's dissection of family law and corruption in the welfare system is both fascinating and horrifying. The men and the women involved, including Parker's distraught wife, Roxy; working-the-system welfare mom Lachez Baker; and out-of-control Serena come vividly to life, along with the innocent children caught in the crossfire of paternity fraud.
KENYA WRIGHT - FIRE BAPTIZED (A DARK URBAN FANTASY) (SANTERIA HABITAT SERIES 1) - Free if you are a Prime Member or $1.99 if not - - - I am into sci-fi, especially since I am the biggest Star Trek Fan. I even dressed up as Uhura when the latest version came out in 2009 at the premier party at the SC Aquarium. Yes, I did look good, but there was a short, white guy trying to pick me up who was dressed like Captain Kirk, or so he thought. I guess I thought I was ‘the bomb” to, but he was just creepy and smelly, yuck!
Here’s what the book about:
Since the 1970s humans have forced supernaturals to live in caged cities. Silver brands embedded in their foreheads identify them by species: a full moon for Vampires, a crescent moon for Shifters, a pair of wings for Fairies, and the list goes on, for each supernatural species has been tagged and categorized by humans.
Lanore Vesta is marked with a silver X, the brand of Mixbreeds, second-class citizens shunned by society. She stays to herself, revealing her ability to create fire only during emergencies. All she wants to do is graduate college and stop having to steal to survive. But when she stumbles upon a murder in progress, she catches the attention of a supernatural killer. Now all she wants is to stop finding dead bodies in her apartment. Enlisting help from her Were-cheetah ex-boyfriend MeShack and a new mysterious friend named Zulu, she is steered through the habitat’s raunchy nightlife. But their presence sometimes proves to be more burden than help, as they fight for her attention. While the corpses pile up, and the scent of blood fills the air, Lanore is left wondering: will she find the psycho or die trying?
Got to get one in for Black History Year
VIRGINIA HAMILTON - THE HOUSE OF DIES DREAR (DIES DREAR CHRONICLES) - $6.64
Here’s a review by “A Customer” on Amazon - - - Virginia Hamilton does a superb job of combining historical facts with mystery. This book is about a boy who moves in to a house that used to be part of the Under Ground Railroad. When Dies Drear, the original owner of the old house, sends 3 slaves on a mission back to slavery to give slaves money to help them escape to freedom the legend begins. 2 of the three slaves were killed, and one fled to the north, the ghosts of the 2 slaves were said to have murdered Dies Drear the very same week. When Thomas's family moves in, Thomas finds out that there is an exquisite network of tunnels that run all through the house... he also finds out that the ghosts of Dies Drear and the 2 slaves are said to haunt the old, gloomy house. When strange things start happening, Thomas begins to believe that there really are ghosts. Then, one night, while Thomas and his father are determined to find out who-or what is creating these strange happenings,, the mystery starts to unravel. This book got directly to the point, and kept me hooked. I couldn't stop reading this book, it is one of the best books I have ever read, and I would recommend it to anyone-whether you get scared easily, or love horror novels!
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