the job - week one

so the first week of the new job is over. went pretty smoothly. until friday.

i had called chris and we made plans to go to the cheap flicks. gonna see vantage point. heard it was pretty good. so i'm all amped up to see it, plus i haven't hung out with chris in a little while so i'm looking forward to going right? he says he's gonna pick me up at work when i get off at 5pm so we can hit the 5:15pm showing. i'm like "cool".

to preface this, let me fill you in. the night before i got a call from a tenant saying her toilet, sink, and bathtub were backing up sewage. ok, crisis situation as that is a bio-hazard and just plain nasty. so i call our contract plumbers out (at $120/hr). i figure they can handle the situation at that price LOL

next day as soon as i get to work, she (the tenant) calls me saying her bathroom is still jacked up. she says the plumber was there for like 4 hrs but didnt fix anything. she said he (the plumber) said that its a city matter. so i call my boss; she says call the City and see what the status is. i do that. they tell me that NOTHING has been reported to them. so i tell them whats going on. they say they wil send an engineer out. so now i'm feeling good thinking that the 'engineer' will get to the root of the problem.

wrong. the City showed up, messed around in the street for a bit, and declared the issue wasn't theirs but inside of my building. great. so now i call the plumbers back and they say that they "didn't" say to call the City and they will be right out. over and hour later they show up. after 'roding' the outside connection and the toilet in the affected unit. he says that it was indeed the 'main' that was clogged and the City needed to fix it. also by this time, 3 other units called in to report backups. suffice to say that by this time i was pissed. its like 7pm and i've BEEN ready to go home. so i call the plumbers back, and tell them whats going on. they say they will be there first thing (7:30am) saturday morn. so i call the infinitley patient tenant, to give her a heads up so she isn't woken up unexpectedly. the plumbers never showed.

so saturday morning the tenant calls me wondering whats up. i immediately call the plumbers and bitch them out about the no show. so they finally have a , different than the one who blew us off, plumber call me and he says he is enroute. that was saturday morning. i haven't had any calls since then so i'm assuming everything is good. i refuse to call and check lol i'm not too worried cuz i'm sure the tenants would have called me if it wasn't fixed. whew. oh yeah, we didn't make the movie obviously on friday LOL

here's to week 2....

i'm sittin here at work. stressed. not over the job. i love it so far. but transportation is fast becoming an issue. i cant belive i'm in this situation. i know God has a plan for me , but MAN i wish i had a clue what it is!

new job

so i start the new job tomorrow. slightly anxious cuz its for an apartment community and involves leasing apartments (which i've never done), and i've been told its in a "rough" part of town, and that there have been "problem" tenants. i'm not "skeered" but i truly have enough drama in my life LOL i'm actually hoping it will just be entertaining. Plus its a JOB, so i'm not complaining. the pay isn't half bad either, but right now its only 30 hours a week. so hopefully that will increase soon once i get trained fully. wish me luck and pray! lol

my reason for life itself

i could not be prouder of my baby girl. she is beautiful, smart, talented! anything she puts her mind to she achieves. she got that trait from her daddy :) she recently received an award for scoring higher in math on her assessment tests than anyone in her grade level, in her school! math has always been her favorite and best subject. the total opposite of me lol i hate math.

thats it. i just wanted to brag on my baby girl :)

a series of unfortunate events

the title pretty much sums up how i arrived at the place in life i am now. let me start at the beginning...

Back in 2006 i was working for centennial wireless. was there for almost 2 years. that company had more turn over than any bakery (pun intended). it was ridiculous. during one period we went through 4 district managers in a 6 month period and about 8 store managers. now when the senior management is fleeing, then obviously the company is doing something wrong. anyway, in october of 2006 we got yet another district manager. this guy was a cocky know-it-all who claimed he was from the "mean streets of detroit". later it was found out he never lived in detroit, but in one of its affluent, ethnically challenged suburbs. of course we rubbed each other the wrong way from day one. instant dislike. the problem was, even though he wanted to, he couldn't get rid of me because not only did i perform my job above and beyond what was required, but my store manager found me invaluable to the store (they called me mr.customer service lol). so we existed with each other in a tense but professional atmosphere.

then came the first of the unfortunate events. on my way to work one day in december 2006, i was struck by another car in an icy intersection. my car was totaled. thank God my daughter and i werent injured (other than me having a busted lip. damn air bag lol). what i didn't know at the time was that my insurance had lapsed 2 days before. no more car. to get to the chase, it provided a perfect opportunity for my dm to fire me. because i was unable to come to work for 3 days (even though i talked to my store manager and okayed it), he fired me for 'job abandonment'. Then when i applied for unemployment, he tried to deny it. luckily when i told the agent exactly what happened, they canceled his claim and i got full benefits.

the next thing that happened was of course i lost my apartment of 3 years. which kinda sucked but then again it didn't because i had been thinking of moving anyway because i was paying way more than it was worth, just not under those circumstances LOL So anyway i moved in with a friend for a bit then my mother asked me to come to detroit. so i moved up there with her for awhile.

that proved to be a massive mistake. whi;e staying with her, i discovered my mother (who i hadn't lived with since i was 15) has classics symptoms of bipolar disease and is in total denial that anything is wrong with her. i'm not a doctor of course, but if i have ever seen a case its her. her mood swings are extreme and irrational. plus she is anti-social. compounded by the fact the we have never had what you would call a loving relationship. i though that maybe this was a chance for us to finally bond, since it was her idea i come there. man i could not have been more wrong. everything i did was wrong. nothing about me was good enough. everything was my fault. as if it wasn't humiliating enough to be in the situation in the first place, i was getting put down at every turn. after 3 months of this i bailed. thank God i had people in detroit that actually gave a damn about me. they took me in so i could continue my job search there. turned out to be a much better situation for me. i stayed there through the summer but couldn't find anything. so i came back to grand rapids (where i lived for the past 14-15 years) and stayed with one of my best friends. i worked through temp agencys but could find nothing permanent.

while i was in grand rapids, the next event happened. you sensing a pattern here? before going to detroit, i had placed my belongings in a storage facility. i neglected to purchase the insurance beacause frankly i couldn't afford it at the time. well, there was a storm, small fire, and of course my stuff was ruined. clothes, furniture, memories, computers, etc. all gone.

shortly after that my grandmother suggested i come back to battle creek (hometown) and regroup. so thats what i did. i moved back to bc, currently living with my grandparents helping them out a bit and also keeping an eye on my great aunts (2 of them) who live next door lol it's not perfect by any stretch but it'll do till i get back on my feet.

so thats where i am and how i got here. by rights i should near suicidal and on anti-depressants. but whats the point? whats gonna happen is gonna happen. i just put my faith in God and push on. keep me in your prayers....

helio...don't call it tech support!

[the following is a re-post of a blog from my myspace page. i find it still relevant enough to share here also. enjoy.]

Have you heard of it? Helio is a new "piggy back" phone company. Sort of a boutique style thing. I call it a "piggy back" company because it dosent own its own net work. It leases it from Sprint. So if you get them, you basically are getting Sprints signal with Helios services. Just like if you go with Virgin Mobile. Or Net10, or Boost Mobile, etc. They all lease fromt he big boys - ATT, Sprint, Verizon, maybe even T-Mobile although I don't know who would be that desperate LOL

Anyway, after long consideration and research I decided on Helio. Why? Because for $65 I get 500 anytime minutes, free nights/weekends, UNLIMITED text messages, UNLIMITED picture messages, UNLIMITED internet, MOBILE MYSPACE (which rocks btw), IM (Yahoo/Aim/MSN), and more. Plus even the cheapest phone (The Heat) is HOT. Of course I got the Heat cuz it was FREE during the holidays LOL

As far as the phone goes - LOVE IT! As far as the services and features - LOVE IT! The signal is so-so. Thats not Helios fault. It's Sprints. Not that big of a deal.

What IS a big deal is the technical support AND the customer service. The customer service wouldn't be that bad but apparently Helio is yet another company that outsources its customer service to a foreign country where English is NOT the native language. How does that make sense? I am sooo tired of getting a "specialist" who I cant friggin understand because they cant speak proper english. Then they have the nerve to get frustrated with me because they have to repeat things over. But at least they try to be helpful.

Helios tech support is a whole nother story all together. They just plain suck. They dont know anything! You ask them the simplest of questions, that any "tech" should know, any they put you on hold for 5 minutes to "confer with their technicians". I thought I was talking to a technician?? I've had to call twice now and both times were 40+ minute calls with NO resolution for relatiely minor issues. The first one I figured out myself. The second issue (an overheating battery) their solution was to "find a battery at some store" and they would credit my account. Why should I have to do that? I'm paying them for insurance! They said "Because the phone wasn't dropped or damaged, insurance wont replace the battery...". That is insane. SO because I didn't break my phone, I'm being punished. I swear if I wasnt in love with the Helio services and the phone I break this contract and go elsewhere. I still may if they keep pissing me off LOL

Ranting aside... I do love my Helio. Especially MySpace Mobile. I can do almost anything in Myspace from my phone. I can check my email (Yahoo/Gmail), plus Helio gives me a free email (me@myhelio.com) which works just like Gmail for the most part. I can IM...and not using text msgs either LOL [edit: this is the phone that i mobile blog with :) ] I think later I may upgrade to the Ocean. All the stuff I mentioned is even better on that handset. Dont call it a phone! lol

If you're thinking of trying Helio.. hit me up with any questions. I'll give you the real deal....peace!!

old folks and cell phones part deux

well. my gran did what i suggested. she went and paid her bill, and then canceled her cell phone. good right? well, maybe. instead of coming home to get me, so WE could go shop for a new phone, she let the sales guy at centennial wireless talk her into keeping her old phone, but replacing her contract SIM with a pre-paid SIM. to his credit he did give her a $20 minute card for free. gran says that he said, when she comes back to get more minutes he's going to give her another $20 card for free. well if thats true, then i suppose this will be a good deal. my only caveat with the process is that i kinda wanted to get her into a bit of an upgrade to her phone. she says she never would use any of the 'fancy' features, but she always asks 'can my phone do that?' whenever someone is talking about what their new phone can do. oh well.. cie la vie. the good thing is centennial is a gsm company so can always get an unlocked gsm phone for her. now that i think of of it.. thats what i'll do...

old folks and cell phones

my gran has a cell phone. i have no idea why as she has given no one the phone number (i have it but i dont think anyone else does), she dosen't answer it when i call it, and she has no clue how to do anything more than answer it.

now you're probably think thats as a good grandson, i should take it upon myself to 'train' her in the proper usage of said device. well i have. over and over again. it just dosen't stick. i love my gran to death. i'm closer to her than my own mother (thats a whole nother blog trust me). but there are some things that she just dosen't get. technology is one of them.

she needs a cell phone due to the fact that my grandfather (gramps) is recovering from prostate cancer and is still very weak at times. plus he has complications from heart disease and other issues. she frequently has to take him to the hospital for various reasons. so its good that she has a way to call for help if needed, while traveling.

my issue is she has a contract phone. basically she is just giving centennial wireless $40 every month for nothing. she dosen't use the phone. so today i told her that at the end of her contract she should ditch them and get a pre-paid phone. that way she controls how much she spends each month. and the phone is gonna be at least the equal of what she has now, probably better! turns out, she's not on a contract (thank God), so when she pays her bill this month she's gonna cancel it. then we are going to walmart and pick out a new prepaid phone for her. any suggestions? i'm thinking something simple like trac phone or maybe cingular go phone. help a brother out LOL

the walk from home to the library...a pictorial

it is a beautiful day today so i thought i'd bring you with me...

zzz....*koff*...*gasp*...(groan)....zzz....

i don't sleep well. i can't ever remember sleeping through the night. i sleep for a couple hours maybe, then i wake up. then i fall asleep after about half hour or so, then i sleep another hour, more or less, then i wake up again. rinse and repeat. all night.

someone suggested that i have a sleep study done, but i don't know about that yet. it seems kinda creepy to have someone watching me sleep. i have been known to have vivid dreams lol that could end up very embarrassing! I used to have sleep apnea very bad, so i know that has something to do with it, even though the symptoms aren't nearly as bad as they used to be (thats what i'm told). probably has to do with m weight loss. i'm down about 20 pounds since thanksgiving.

anyway, i'm debating on this sleep study. either way i have to wait until i have insurance so i suppose at this time the debate is moot. cie la vie....

i can always blog if i cant sleep lol

forgotten...

i had forgotten i had taken these pics. both of these houses were in the middle of decent looking, middle class neighborhoods in detroit. i was shocked at their condition. when i asked neighbors about them, i was more shocked to hear they had been vacant for years, yet they weren't torn down. upon further research i find that this is the 'norm'. there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of abandoned, dilapidated, wrecks of buildings all over metro detroit. now many are still standing for various legal reasons, but the over whelming reason for the majority of them is CASH. it frankly costs the city too much money to tear them down. at least according to city hall. they apparently don't thinks its worth the investment to remove these eyesores, crack houses, and crime nests from their city. i am ashamed for them. i think its worth the cost... don't you?

second time around

Hm. where do i start. i guess high school. in high school, i thought i was the man. i mean THE man. in tenth grade i had my own apartment, a job, and car. thats was pretty atypical back then, especially in small town battle creek. well battle creek wasn't mayberry but it definately had that small town feel back then.

i was decently popular in high school, which kinda puzzles me. i mean i only played football one year (because of an injury) and never ran for any class office, but it seemed like everyone knew me even if i didn't know them. i wasn't really that social either. i had my little circle of friends that i hung out with and wasn't all that interested in expanding it. And i had my best friend chris. we are still best friends to this day. guess i had good instincts for picking good friends eh? lol

i say all this as background to the reason for this post. back then i had a friend named karyn. well a couple of friends, karyn and her sister lynn. they hung out with me and chris alot and we got to be pretty close. i think karyn and i were closer than anyone else. that therein is the issue. i really liked karyn. but my lack of maturity and my desire to maintain my "player" status kept me in denial. it was obvious to others who knew us, but i wouldn't admit it. back then karyn was a sexy, funny, wild, extrovert who kept me guessing what crazy thing she was gonna do next. i really, really liked her.

i never told her, or expressed my feelings truly. we had a few quiet moments together here and there that hinted of what was underneath, but they passed without either of us acting on it. then as life frequently does, it moved on. I joined the army, and she moved out of state. that was the end of that...

years later i vaguely remember being back in battle creek, at a carnival, and running into karyn. instead of being happy to see her, i was preoccupied with looking for the girl i came to the carnival with. a romance that quickly fizzled into nothing. i was agitated and impatient with karyn, not even noticing her obvious happiness at see me again, until much later. whoever said hindsight is a mother never told a truer truth.

over the years i have often thought of her. wondering what she was doing. when i last talked to her, she was a mormon, so i assumed she was probably doing missionary work in some God forsaken backwater somewhere. i half heartedly looked for her a couple times or so. not really expecting to find her. not knowing what to expect if i DID find her. eventually i just stopped.

fast forward 20 or so years. i'm a full fledged netizen. i'm all over the net. had the same yahoo email address since yahoo was "born". got a myspace page and a facebook account. up until recently my myspace page has been the central means of communication for many people that know me. i'd always had a facebook page but never really got into until about a month ago. once i started playing with it, i liked it much better than myspace. facebook is much better for communication. [end techno-nerd transmission........now returning you to your regularly scheduled post]

so one day, i'm on facebook and i see a message. its from karyn! at first i didn't know what to do. should i respond? if i do, will she be mad at me? will she be disappointed? will i be disappointed? man i was stressed. finally i just went for broke and sent her a message back. she immediately responded. not only was she happy to hear from me, but all was forgiven! she understood the turbulent emotions and immaturity of the teen years and didn't hold it against me. now we talk every day. i am so blessed to have her back in my life, even if it is from afar. and who knows, maybe this time i wont screw it up ...

second time around...

changes

hey guys. i decided to create separate blogs for my poetry and other scribblings and just use this as my primary general blog and my mobile blog. check out the "brain trust" in the sidebar for the links to the new blogs.

kanye's performance was one of the best of the might. his tribute to his mother was touching. to bad the academy acted like asses and tried to drown out what he was saying. props to kanye for taking it like a pro.

you would think that in todays age of technology, libraries would be set up for laptop use. not this one. they have wifi but as you see i pretty much made my own station lol whatever works. at least i can work in peace here.

the laptop. center of my communication world. attached to me 24 hours a day lol