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Book Of Lon!Where the World comes to read a non-published autobiography in the making! August 15 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 8- VERSE 15MSN HAS LOST ITS BID TO HOST THE BOOK OF LON! BOOK OF LON CAN NOW BE FOUND AT: TWITTER.COM/LONNIEHARRIS FOLLOW ME THERE! June 09 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 6- VERSE 9(Tapping Mic) Is this thing still on?! Hey it works!
How ya'll doin? My bad on not keepin this thing fully up and current, Ive had my head down steamrollin through school and stayin focused as my #1 goal. And now i can stop and type this chapter because im done! Yesterday i comp'd the 2nd half of my att course after finishing FC-a and im 100% done wit a-school!! It was a long time in the works. 1st half of ATT i was +5 days ahead, FC-a i finished +14 days ahead, and 2nd half of att i finished +10 days ahead! for a grand total of +29 days ahead or basically 1 month ahead of schedule! Im tellin ya'll i was on the grind HARD everyday goin to open learning and gettin further ahead in content and testing and im just so happy it all paid off.
Alot has happened in that time as well. I got orders ... yes not chose, they were GIVEN to me by the Navy since im married. As the Navy is currently "broke" all married personnel have to go to Damneck, VA for c-school. Totally floored and derailed my plans because my hopes were to make it to San Diego for a c-school that wasy im still on the I5 corridor from home. But nooooo... Navy had other plans for me. I was given orders to train on the Sea Sparrow Weapons System thats 6-7months long. That puts me at not comin back to WA till 2010. So as of now my family is plannin to pack up and meet me in VA and likely rent out our South Hill home. Stay tuned on that.
Due to completion of my a-school and time and rate as of next tuesday (16Jun) ill be FC3 Harris! Been lookin fwd to that as well, already gettin all my rating badges sown on and ish. Graduation is this Friday, hopin to get a couple of my friends to snap some pics for me. Thereafter its just doin my Yeoman Duty and countin the days till i board the plane hopefully never to return here!
Thats about it ya'll! I got a bunch of new pics though posted on myspace so check those out ya'll. peace April 10 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 4, VERSE 10Greetings Greetings from the freezing cold Great Lakes, IL! Checkin in, its been about a month. Last i checked in i think i was still in ATT (apprentice technical training) school bout to wrap that up... or i did and 1.5days later i was in FC-A school! BOMBED the 1st test out the gate cause the cirriculum wasnt nothin like in ATT but the next day passed it. Every since then been passing all my tests so im so happy about that. This course is nooooooooooo joke. Real hard ish. Lotta studyin involved. On top of that im a Yeoman in the Barracks workin under the SDC's. A yeoman is basically an administrative assistant. So it plugs right back into the white collar stuff ive been doin before gettin in the military.
Lotta drama here an there goin on, last week we had a Heroin bust on my deck in the barracks! k9 search and all. Navy is zero tolerance so he's bein discharged and probably bought up on felony charges. Thankfully theyve let up on the barracks punishment ish.
Went to the Mall on a mission a couple weekends ago and got a custom Navy fitted made ($18) has my name shown on the back! pimpin!
Today we're on 3day liberty because of Easter but we had to clean prior to bein released. Well we cleaned for 2hrs and as we were outside the room our LCPO, a Senior Chief came up on our deck and made a B line STRAIGHT into our room. We were horrified! He stopped in the middle of the common area and said "you have got to be kiddin me." we were silent. He asked "who did these decks?!" I told'em "we did it last weekend" He scoffed and said "this room has got to be one of the cleanest room ive seen in a long time! We exhaled and smiled at each other. He asked if we'd open our closests but gave us a disclaimer that we didnt have to at all. We had nothin to hide so unlocked and opened our doors. he was baffled. "these closets are just as clean as the room is!" he then asked, "whens the next time you have duty?" we told'em not for another 2wks, but then i added, "well, im a yeoman so i have duty tonight" He told us to remind'em next dog duty weekend cause we're gettin a duty free weekend! we hi-fived each other in excitement and they started bear-huggin me it was crazy lol other people came and looked at our room in jealousy and astonishment. a few minutes later i saw someone gettin another buffer to do their floors hahahaha
now why is that significiant? The weekend before i got absolutely bored on a saturday night. I was in the room alone all roommates were gone. So bout 9 at night i went down to the gear locker, got the floor stripper, wax, buffer, mop and cadillac as we call it and got to work..... by myself... strippin all the floors, puttin down 2 coats of wax. was up till 3am sunday. got up that morning put another coat down. went to breakfast and came back and put 2 coats of mop n glo down. A woman could do her make-up from the reflections on the deck! when my roommates came back they saw what i did and paid me $10 each for the labor i put in, and what did it do? got us all a duty free weekend! what made them respect me even more was i didnt take the credit, i shared that it was a group effort when i said WE instead of I when Senior asked when did we do the floors.
Got our taxes done as well couple weeks ago so settled alot of debts. made a phonecall to a Septic company back in WA regarding our sewer pump. Apparently alot of houses have a pump that grinds up waste before pumping it into the city sewer. Well the light came on alerting there was a problem wit it back in Dec when i was home. We didnt do anything about it and the electric bill literally went up 100%. We been payin up the (expletive) since then. Well they came out and a total blessing in disguise the company came out dug up the cover, fixed the problem, and closed it all back up free of charge!!!! the payment? "thank you for your service in the military" i was floored and endlessly thanked them for the kind deed.
so my plug for them. if you have any septic/sewer type issues:
H & K Underground Inc
4521 Freeman Rd E Puyallup, WA 98371 (253) 922-8444
March 14 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 3- VERSE 14Well its been a craaaaaaaaaaaaazy couple weeks ya'll.
I was in class a couple weeks ago and the itching just became absolutely intolerable. Even during musters id be standing as if doin the pee dance it was absurd. So i went to the doctor the following day and was given some pills and cream. Doc said it was jock itch and im gonna kill it from inside out and outside in. I was ecstatic cause even the doc after i unzipped and had my manhood fall out nearly to the floor (lol) and he saw the peeling and inflammation. Well it was a week's worth supply of pills so i had to try to braze it out till it kicked in. Well that didnt last long at all. EARLY that sunday morning I woke up dick on FIRE. for the last few nights at the stroke of midnight no joke id wake up dick on fire itchin. Couldnt take it anymore. i got dressed and quietly so as not to wake up my roommate (it was 2am cst) i went downstairs and asked the petty officer in charge bein i was a duty driver if i could so as not to wake up anyone else take myself to the hospital. He said due to liability reasons i couldnt so another duty driver had to take me to the VA. I check in and they draw blood for tests and give me a shot of benadryl to stop the itchin. Yeah well dick still on fire that didnt work but gave me a huge buzz. Told the doc how the only way i was able to get to sleep was to dab alcohol all over my dick It burned slightly but at the same time felt sooooooo good cause it was actually doin somethin, like icy hot lol. Got pills of benadryl incase the itchin becomes intolerable again (uh yeah i was still itchin THEN!) and told to check in wit medical back on base the following day. Although not wantin to due to missing school i went ahead and went to medical the next day (monday) where although they didnt have the blood results back they diagnosed me not only with Jock Itch, but also with Eczema. So my dick was havin a double dose of problems with the eczema all over my body. Got cream for that as well as thick greasy type lotions and told to apply those as well. By the time weds came around and the jock itch cream and pills had run out the itching had subsided! I was sooooooooooo relieved then i started to work on the eczema wit the other cream and that took care of all that.
I continued on wit school and bein tortured by the various petty officers wit egos, marchin the school's cole students around the base for not cadancing loud enough or marching in step. I still had my LLD (light limited duty) chit recovering from my dick situation so i was exempt from havin too since it was still very raw. I was set to graduate 3/11 but on 3/9 a chief comes in the room midday and calls out my name. I turn around from my monitor... Harris. he tells me "you need to wrap it up" (referring to completing the course) i am floored. I tell'em ok.... well im ahead in day status by 5 days, i go to open learning EVERY DAY including weekends and even on fridays where those ahead in day status can go back to the barracks after lunch, i always came back and continued to work. He says "so? theres students who comp'd 30 days ahead." i turn around like whatever dude and say "oooook". Im PISSED the rest of the day cause of those BEHIND in their course studies and none of them got called out, yet me, one of the hardest workers and he's tellin ME i need to hurry up and finish. So i do what i didnt want to and started just clickin my way through the remaining 2 courses and takin the tests to "wrap it up".
Doin so i comp'd the course tuesday at 8:15am. To graduate that day you had to do so before 9am. I go downstairs and waaaaaaait and waaaaaait till round 10am a petty officer comes down and starts dividin us up into work groups. I raise my hand and ask him, what about the LLD's? (according to my chit im not permitted on working parties.) he tells me, it doesnt matter you WILL sweep and swab. This was totally a violation and i wasnt gonna risk re-injuring myself in ANY way cause these clowns aint gonna pay to help me if i get discharged on a b.s. injury. they gonna continue about their business cause all we are is just another number to them. completely disposable. So i gather my things and go seek out the chaplin to get advice on what i should do. The chaplin wasnt in but they send me to another room to talk to the facility operator. That person wasnt in but another was so i showed him my LLD chit and he tells me i cant do the work. So i call a duty driver and go sit in the office for over an hour. no one arrived so me and another guy decided to walk back to the barracks. I decide though to check in wit my a-school since it was on the way and as i get there i see the others who were on the working parties wit their graduation ish. They tell me they just got'em so i end up goin BACK to the schoolhouse where i have to seek out the p.o. who split us into the working parties. I knock and sound off. He leans back in his chair. "why do you guys make me do this to you?" do what petty officer? "what did i ask you to do?" join a working party petty officer. "and why didnt you?" because i am LLD and my chit tells me NO working parties so i sought advice out from the chaplin and the facilities operator who told me NO so ive been sittin in the office. he leans forward and tells me to step out his office. I already know whats comin next. like a prick who loves drama hes gonna slam the door for dramatic purposes like im gonna feel soooooooooooo demoralized and sad. So i smile and walk out the door a safe distance away f/the door so he can make himself feel big by slammin it. He does so and i stand by waitin for'em to come riiiiiiiight on back a few minutes later. He does, and asks to see my chit. I give it to'em and he politely closes the door as he reviews it. He reeeopens and asks me to come back in. I go in, he asks "do you feel comfortable discussing with me what your medical condition is?" i tell'em i certainly do NOT. im feelin that its a total violation of privacy. He thinkin im bein defiant says "ok, well lets go talk to the chief!" i dunno what kinda people this dude deals with that i guess he thinks im gonna just collapse and plead for mercy and beg to not have this go any further. So we waaaaaaaaaalk on down to their office and i standby outside while he goes in there like a lil tattle-tale and tells the chief his side of the story. He calls me in and of course theres gotta be not 1 but 3 chiefs in there at their desks. Im like heeeeeeeeeeeere we go. Firing range. All 3 around about to a** rape me and he's gonna standby wit a smile and get thrown his doggy biscuit and petted. I stand at attention and let them fire off at me and make threats of bein UA (unexplained absence) or a DRB (duty review board). They ask how old i am. 28. "28? and you wanna play these stupid games?! youre 10yrs older than the avg student id expect you to be a leader!" i let'em go oooooooon and onnnnnnnnnnnn like i was in the wrong, the whole time theyre holding my LLD chit in hand knowing it was still legit and thereby they couldnt touch me. They finally ask. "whats wrong wit you? is it your feet?" no chief. "your legs??" no chief. "your groin?? your back??" yes chief. "well? are you still broke?" yes chief. "this chit is set to expire have you even made an appt to go back to the doctor yet?" no chief. "why not?? see you wanna play games huh?!" no chief, i was visited by the chief 2 days ago (it was one of the chiefs sittin right there in the office) and he told me i needed to wrap it up so my focus was to comp the course and move on and follow up wit the doctor thereafter. Them knowing all air was now out their sails ask what should they do wit me. "did he disrespect you?" the p.o. says "no, he just didnt respect me he just went over my head." Im careful not to give expression and stay at attention but im thinkin in my head how full of ish that was for the fact i RAISED my hand and asked him what about LLD's and he TOLD me "it doesnt matter you WILL sweep and swab". yeah thats right leave out your violation error there bud. The chief then tells him to give me my file and let me go. In parting words after rippin me a new hole the chief tells me to go back to the doc and get my chit updated and take it easy! what the heck???? I walk out so pissed and angry i go back to my a-school and give'em my file and go for a walk tears in eyes so upset over what happened and havin to just sit there and take the ish only because someone was there longer than i have their word goes over mine. Im just a pee on student.
I go back to the doc the following day for the check up and they tell me the blood results were negative and that all looked to be clearing up well (eczema is just treated not cured though) I check back in wit the a-school cause im not tryin to be on hold any more than i have to be. The next day i go back to duty driving which was nice to keep my mind at ease and get me out of hold's pergatory. in one of my runs i ended up ridin wit a petty officer in my barracks who is in charge of those classin up, so i ask'em did he know how long the wait was for my school. He tells me he'd call for me and ask i was elated, we go back and he gets me classed up for the next day! i was like heeeeeeeeecks ya! the clock keeps runnin it dont stop!
Friday comes and i go to the schoolhouse and go through the indoc but they dont have a classrm ready for us so tell us to report back on Monday am. We go back to the barracks and i try to sleep off a migraine i had gained in the schoolhouse. It didnt go away till 1am the next morning which sucked. which leads me to now i dont have my class yet so so schoolwork till monday so watchin shows online! went to the nex and got some items for school and hopin to get the taxes done this weekend.
Family is ok. Son is doin so much better wit the tubes in his ears that the ear infections are gone finally and the pneumonia as well. Daughter still havin asthma bouts and had a slight ear infection recently but that went away. The scariest part was last week wifey went to the ER 2x with seizures shes NEVER had before ever. Doc told her a few days ago it was due to an enlarged blood vessel in her head caused by stress. I feel so bad for her and worried because it was sudden onset and unexpected. Keep her in your prayers. Ill check in wit you again soon and let you know how my a-school is finally comin along! February 21 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 2-VERSE 21Been lazy and not feelin like typin but got a wild hair to do it since im bored so heeeeeeeeeeeeeeere we go!
Lots of chaos around here lately and it stays pissin me off. I did get classed up on 1/28 so been goin to school m-f 7-4. they also have whats called "open learning" where you can stay after class from 4-6 nightly to continue on in your studies or come on sat and sun from 9-3. Im so motivated to get up outta here i go EVERY day that i possibly can, including on the weekends. Lately this barracks has been deteoriating more and more. new people comin aboard others leavin, just a whole lot of drama. A couple wks ago the whole barracks, 700+ people got locked down over the valentines day weekend because the weekend before there were 4 ARI's (alcohol related incidents), 2 physical fights in the barracks, and 1 UA that was less than 24hrs away from being considered a deserter. In the end for that weekend we got liberty after 1600 on that saturday, till 2100 monday, but thurs to 1559 saturday we were on duty. I had planned to go to open learning that friday but they freakin cancelled it that day i was pissed. Saturday and Sunday i got to go though, Monday did nothin but laundry and dinked around on my ps3. even got so bored i did my own "seabag inspection" (where you pull out all uniforms and try'em on assuring all properly worn and fitted) all those pics have been posted up on my myspace page.
later that week mooooooooooooore drama. We ended up gettin locked down not just to the barracks....to our ROOMS. Still never got the full 411 on that one but i wasnt surprised at all, just shrugged it off, im normally in my room anyway if im not in school.
Son finally had surgery on his poor lil ears last week. I feel so down that i cant be there to help out. The doc said when he opened up his eardrum there was a bunch of discharge, puss, and a lil blood from the infections that had been there since Sept. I was more upset at the fact that my kids original doctor has been puttin this off and puttin this off and now the doc thinks he could have minor hearing loss from the infections. I told wifey to drop him IMMEDIATELY and start seein the military doc i set up under my benefits cause this is ridiculous that both kids are suddenly very sickly and nothings bein cured. He's doin much better from what wifey has been tellin me but upon his exam they advised he has borderline pneumonia. ugh.
This weekend started out wit even more BS. Friday they re-initiated an incentive of if you are 3 days ahead in class studies or more, come fridays you can leave after lunch and have the rest of the day off from school. Well, again bein my sole motivation is to get up outta here i go back after lunch to class to continue on in my studies. We leave and march back to the barracks (which is more b.s that they march us in ranks from barracks to school and from school to lunch. they taunt, yell, and harrass us like were in bootcamp still tellin us to sound off louder, pick up our feet, all this other b.s.) the fleet returnees have egos out of this world like their some hot ish just because they joined a few yrs before the rest of us so they can treat us like nobodys. This base is like bootcamp 2.0, just with a couple freedoms we didnt get before. and the sad thing is, its this base specifically, other bases with schools dont get treated like this at all. We get back to the barracks and get coralled into the lounge area and told to stand at attention. SDC comes in and tells us that the fleet returnees came cryin and dry snitchin that some students were disrespecting them. So instead of dealin wit those specific people aaaaaaaagain they decide to take it out on all of us. we are ordered BACK outside and they march us cadencing and all to the other side of the base and back. The fleet returnees had to go too which was the only small justice of it all, you wanna cry about some ish well you go wit'em and make'em do right. So they wanna dry snitch again they can join us in the cold while thinkin we the only ones freezin. We get back and told we have 10 min to change from utilities to dress blues for inspection. Im pissed cause before leavin they tell us "open learning is a privilege not a right" so unless we had a direct order f/out proctor to mandatory attend open learning we couldnt leave till they were done torturing us. After they were done (as usual i pass all my inspections) that left 42 min of open learning left so i decided just not to go. Today (saturday) i woke up to a freakin blizzard of snow on the ground. 4" at the least overnight it was ridiculous. I started not to go out at all but said hey im goin to get food so mine as well go see if schoolhouse open. Although most tried to tell me it wasnt open i soon found out it was. Studied a lil that i didnt get to do last night and took my computer test and lab test and scored a 96% and a 100%! yes! on to another mod and that mod was the 1/2 way point so now im on the downslope runnin to the finish line of graduatin early. Came back into room , watchin some shows online and relaxin. Expect to do the same thing tmrw then back to school monday.
Finally got rid of my actual room-roommate. Thank GOD! Ugh he was just disgusting and unsanitary. Got another roommate now and he's a cool dude. city boy from Kentucky, white boy but he listens to same music as me so we get along great.
Startin to liquidate some assets in possible preparations of a move. Pool Table is up on the chopping block and some other things may be soon to follow. I dont want to but theres a 70% chance that even if i did come back to WA we likely wont stay in the house. Bein bases are in Bremerton , Everett, and NAS Whidbey Island those are just too far of commutes. Bremerton, the closest is 30miles one-way and requires crossin over the Tacoma Narrows which of course is currently tolled EB Direction. We are currently seeking to eliminate wifey havin to work or at the least go part-time so she can be the housewife and mom that she has always wanted to be. It would make things easier come time to relocate as well. I already plan to give her my GI Bill to further educate herself beyond high school and myself use the Tuition Repayment (which makes all my schoolin free still as if i was usin GI Bill to go on further in my college and get a BA and beyond on the Navy's dime.
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd just when i thought there wasnt more to be had before the weekend was over i am now reopening this chapter and addin more. We get woke up early Sunday am (330hrs) wit a broadcast over the 1mc (intercom) for all hands to muster in the main deck lounge immediately. Now 30min before that we were woke to a bunch of laughter on the 1mc that sounded like once again someone was hackin into the system and pullin pranks so we questioned whether it was real or not (no broadcasts go out over the 1mc after taps... 2155hrs) But we all get up and head down in our sweats or whatever we were wearing and muster down in the lounge. Our Duty section mentor, a 1st class petty officer, was on duty that night and he comes in PISSED. We already know it aint good in the 1st place to be called down in the middle of the night, but for it to be my specific duty section leader is double not good. He comes in and advises us he's dealing wit 3... 3 new ARI's that night, and on top of that someone calling the main phone line to the quarterdeck and pranking it. not only pranks but he advised the stuff that was bein said if it was a real ship would have it immediately set to the highest level of security and on terrorist watch. He advised whoever was doin it to fess up now and at best you'd get captains mast. but if you dont, court-marshalled immediately. He walks out givin the person the chance to fess up. he returns and with no one fess'n up adviced an incident report had been turned in and forwarded to NCIS. and we were dismissed. Back to our room and pissed ourselves we turn back into our racks, me toss'n and turnin not able to go back to sleep now, chafin still kickin my a** and itchin uncontrollably.
Up around 0930 after finally bein able to sleep, go get chow and back to schoolhouse to study. Back here, clean the dorm a lil and back here to type the updated installment. These people here are just unreal. actin like kids non-stop and gettin the rest of us in trouble because of their childish antics. I sooooo want out at this point, this base and this barracks has totally ruined the military experience for me and to know that im here till summer makes it all the more worse.
Special RIP goes out to my Aunt Yvonne from Louisanna that passed away a couple weeks ago from a Heart Attack. Rest in Peace January 31 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 1, VERSE 31GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MOANIN! How's erbody doin? well, for me life is stillllll full of up's and downs.
I was still duty drivin since i last wrote, but that all changed last wednesday. I had checked in with the school house PLR (basically a counselor) to see when i was gonna class up. She told me if not Mon or Tues, then to show up on Weds 7am. So i went about my business drivin for 12hrs a day, hustlin people back and forth to appts. But mon and tues passed and my name wasnt called. So weds i said f it, im goin over to the school like she told me to. Got there and sat near the front, eventually he started roll call, then asked, "is there...." and i raised my hand lol. I already knew what he was gonna ask. "is there anyone whos name i didnt call" and i wanted to be the 1st acknowledged as i knew it was 1st come 1st serve. So he stopped and asked if i had a question. I told'em nope but i knew what he was gonna ask, and i had comp'd (completed) scc (surface common core) the week of holiday standdown (the week i flew home for christmas leave is called holiday standdown) and have been on hold every since and on orders of the PLR i was told to report here. So he asked my name, i told'em and like that i was the 1st on the new roster to class up that very day! It wasnt till days later (friday) that a couple of guys i used to be classed up with were called but that still wasnt no guarantee my name wouldve been called then but thats neither here nor there thats still 2 days even more behind i wouldve been compared to where i am now. In my mind im 3wks behind schedule since i was on hold 3wks so everyday ive been goin to "open learning" which is them opening up the schoolhouse for those who wanna continue to do their homework (the whole course is 100% computer based at your own pace, so you can get ahead or get behind, its a matter of your learning skills and motivation. So i go everynight for bout 2-3 hrs and already the initial projected grad date had been 3/18, its now cut back to 3/13! GPA (as of this chapter lol) is 89.33 which im not too enthused about so ill be strivin to bring that up.
I have dog duty this weekend (a weekend a month that my duty section covers ALL watches 24hrs.) Didnt have a watch on fri and not scheduled for one on sat but they came knockin on my door this am fresh outta a sleep (so much so i had morning wood so i had to cover up wit a blanket before i put someones eye out hahahah) and told me they needed me dressed in 5min to take people down to bldg 1 to do morning colors (the ceremonious raising of the ensign, or civilian talk, the national flag) I get dressed and get down there, and they cancel on me and say nevermind!! I had shaved and got into uniform and everything!!!! So came allll the way back upstairs and took of jacket, gloves, and dixie cup hat, allllll the way out my dress blue uniform and superman changed into my utilities. And since i was up i thought i'd write ya'll another chapter of the book of Lon! Well... that and i was asked when there would be another chapter so gotta please the fans hahahaahha (sup Trace!)
On another note i kept quiet for the longest time and didnt broadcast it to the world but im goin through a lot right now more than just bein gone. My dad was diagnosed with incurable but treatable Multiple Myloma... aka CANCER. I found out the week i was leaving to come back here to Great Lakes and was DEVISTATED. Those who know me know my dad IS my hero, you shouldnt idolize man but he's the #1 ive always looked up to and the one you feel you always want around and immortalized. I didnt know how to act or what to say after i found out. i honestly couldnt even talk to'em cause of that "pity" mentality that comes in and i didnt wanna seem pessimistic around'em. I wrote'em a lil note on his calendar in his office though tellin'em how much i loved'em and that he was my hero that i looked up to. He was told that it was caught early in the early stages so he has a high high chance of it goin into remission with chemo. So hopefully thats started already, i dont inquire cause again im just so in shock and wit so much im dwellin on as is i dont want to breakdown.
My son also has been sick since Sept when i left wit mulitple ear infections. They just seem to not want to go away and now he has an appt to have tubes put in his ears to drain the fluid that has been settlin in his ears and not draining. The concern about it that has me stressed out and ive been in denial about? They think he may have minor hearing loss because of it. That just crushes me and i dont want to deal with it for the fact that had i not lost my job he wouldve not had to go to daycare and wouldnt have gotten so sick. Silver lining is i was told by wifey that they think that since he's so young (2) that his ears are still developing and the loss may be reversible. So im prayin that is the case, its so hard bein away from everyone and the burden bein carried by wifey only.
Lastly on that category of events is i was told via text message that my Aunt had passed out and never regained conciousness. My dad's 1/2 sister, kinda estranged, i havent talked to her in literally probably a decade or so. She never tried to contact me, and she kinda separated from the fam after the death of my grandparents and stop talkin to people. She sent my dad a letter cussin him out and others about the liquidation of grandparents assets amongst the siblings that wasnt too nice so he stopped talkin to her for awhile, so my hope is that was repaired before her passing.
And whats got me the most heated? My f'n roommates and their flat out laziness and disrespect. I had 2 breakfast sandwiches stolen from me a couple weeks ago out the fridge that someone decided to help himself to. All 3 denied doin it so obviously ONE was lyin. Well a couple days ago im sure i had 2 in there but ill only beef about 1 cause im not sure what happened to the 2nd and when it disappeared. Well that a.m. i had looked in there and SAW it was there. Come afternoon when all roommates came back (one is now on holds so he was here the whole time), another roommate inquired on what happened to his Mountain Dew that was in the fridge that he had bought. I couldnt wait to hear who it was (now). Well i go look in the fridge to do a re-inventory and sho nuff my breakfast sandwich was gone too! I was trippin i swiveled around and said WHO THE F**K ATE MY BREAKFAST SANDWICH THAT WAS HERE THIS MORNING?? already knowing who it was and lettin him know his a** was CAUGHT. He had no choice but to admit it cause all 3 of the rest of us were gone to school, he was the only one here. He admitted that he ate it, no excuse/justification. I walked right past'em and sound loudly so the others could hear too THATS F**KED UP MAN, THATS FUUUUUUUUUUU**ED UP. He said he was gonna give me his breakfast sandwich the next day. Went to the room and continued about my business closin the door. Since then ive had nothin to say to'em cause im gonna blow up. It sucks the most that he's my room roommate not a dormmate that sleeps in the other room. Silver lining is his dumb, 1/2 showering, stank a** is leavin on the 5th for Florida so i wont have to deal wit'em anymore. He tried to approach me later that night sayin "how bout i give you my breakfast sandwich tomorrow, i told'em just replace what you took, and continued to look past him lettin him know i didnt want to be bothered wit'em at all. I honestly dont know when this dude even showers and if the stench from him is bad halitosis or what but theres times i come in the room and its just LIT up. its 5 degrees outside lately or so but i cant help it this place needs to be aired out so ill crack open the window to air out the dorm. Last week as well i had turned on the heat cause it was cold in here but i had the thermostat right in them middle btwn hot and cold. I wake up later that night freezing i get up and look, some a**hole had turned the setting to cool and hit the thermostat all the way down to COLD. Oh i almost went through the ROOF. I was pissed. This 3 move in here and think they gonna turn disrespectful we bout to have a huge fallin out. I again blurted it out later that day while cleaning (which ill hit THAT subject in a second) Who turned the thermostat all the way down to cold?? that just is NOT cool. I get a "its too hot in here at night especially on the top racks" i said i know ive been up there before but the thermostat was turned in the middle so it wasnt even hot that s**t aint cool DONT do it again. (it hasnt happened since) What i have had was the thermostat completely turned off i had to get up last night and turn it back on, my suspect again is the same food thievin prick since he sits out in the common area watchin tv on his laptop all day there is a vent right out there that blows the most warm air since its closest to the furnace. So his rank stankin a** probably overheats sittin there and throttles down the thermostat. I attached pics of his closet this is just how dirty this dude is. Coughs and hocks up ish all day (he's doin it as i type now). He came in here offerin me some hot wings i just shook my head no and continued about my business like thats some reparations from stealin from me. Im sorry but thats just somethin you dont do to me. Specially bein a dad, my food is my kids food in theory that if they are hungry i sacrifice my meal so they eat. Well how am i to do that if some prick is STEALIN my food so now i cant supply for my family?? (again i know theyre not here but apply the principle of what im sayin). After the 1st time it happened i told them ASK me dont just take my ish. So unfortunately as a precaution and its pretty sad but i have my perishables now locked up in my closet! aint that sad??? Least till he leaves in 6 days then ill put it back out in the cabinet and if it disappears i know i have more than one person thats a problem.
Lastly, the cleaning. when i was on hold i had this place so clean you could comfortably eat off any surface w/out fear of bein sick, yes the 5 second rule and more was very comfortable applicable. Even the roommates before these 3 were clean people, but these 3? ugh. Just trash. They harp on us constantly bout the dorm bein inspectable at any time and they have been checkin rooms M-F for a coupole weeks now. Well we finally got inspected a few days back and what happened? I got a HIT. MY room got a f'n hit. and it wasnt specifically me it was a room hit for DUST. i was in shock like what the heck??? i bust my a** daily keepin this place on spot and the ONLY hit we get was for dust and in my room??? i was heated and finally was like forget it. This place has officially turned me OCD and not really in a good way at all. I still keep my areas on point and clean but i just cant get these other 3 to get in the proper mood to clean up after they use somethin or just keepin their areas clean.
Well its been a couple hours since the last paragraph. They called us down to muster and asked for a volunteer to do lrc (learning resource center) watch so i volunteered to do it. Well that doubled as complex rover as well (patrolling the perimeter of the bldg outside in 30min incrimates). So while i was out there i took it upon myself to be trashman as well pickin up litter i saw as well as umteen cigarette butts. absolutely disgusting. Came back in and was gettin my ironing done since my laundry was done gettin new uniform squared away as well as utilites when they called me down to do a duty driver run, so I went ahead and knocked that out real quick no biggie, came back in and finished my ironing so now im back to finish this chapter! im gonna run though i havent gotten to eat since 7am so ill holla at ya'll in a week (or so) lol
One last thing i remembered just as i was about to post and was addin pics, that when i was duty drivin this week i had to go back to the RTC (recruit training command, aka bootcamp) side of the base. Once again i was just dyin laughin just watchin them all scared and timid and marchin in formation and gettin barked at and facin movements. I actually had to go into the medical bldg (Red Rover) as i was pickin up someone that had to get checked out and seein all the new guys gettin exams to be processed into the military officially for training in what we call "smurf suits" which is the military pt gear (sweats and yellow shirt w/new balance shoes). All of'em eatin "bag nasties" (pre-packaged brown bag lunches/breakfasts that has a hard bagel bun w/slices of ham that chews like its been in a fridge for bout a week, milk, apple slices, nutrigrain bar... im laughin now that i remember what the heck was actually in those things!!) gettin barked at to make a hole! Shuddup and stop talkin! Line up now! Move recruit!! hahahahahha i just wanted to grab a bag nasty sit and just watch it all cause i remember all that bulls**t and glad its over even though where i am now (across the street) is like bootcamp 2.0 basically. Even though we have freedoms of drinkin, music, tvs, cell's liberty to go out, when we're here we still get barked at about bein in ranks and talkin etc, which is always the immature ones or ones that dont care so we all "go down wit the ship" so to speak. Thats why i try to go to class every minute possible so i can graduate earlier and get into a-school so i can get outta here by summer, everyone else is sayin no other base is like this, they're more laxed and those out in the fleet already report this all that im goin through and they went through is bull that the fleet is nothin like this. So heres to hopin i survive the rigors of this base and get to my c-school and fleet to freedom cause right now this base is truly ruining my thoughts and perceptions of the Navy. Only good thing? By the time i leave this base i should be a Petty Officer 3rd class! up to E4 rank! Earnin my Chevrons!    January 23 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 1 VERSE 23Wow, 1st chapter of the year, guess im gettin behind here huh?!
Well obviously im back on base now in Great Lakes, back from holiday standdown and away from my family again for what will be possibly even longer than a typical deployment. :( Im here till at least probably July now instead of June because of time in hold status which doesnt count toward the estimated time till you move on and get to the fleet. I have 2 classes im waitin to take now, ATT and my actual FC a-school. from completion of those i should be goin to either VA or CA for FC c-school which upon completion of that should be Oct and goin to the fleet then. We'll see though wit any more hold status and all. i went and talked to my liason person again on weds and she told me that i should be classin up next Weds (jan 28th) and if they dont call my name before then to just show up 7am that day. i told her ok and ill definitely be doin it cause the sooner i class up the sooner i can graduate get into a-school, c-school and out to the fleet and my family!
The temperatures have been CRAZY over here. Since i last wrote the temps plummeted down to times of -14 degrees no joke. and with windchills even lower. Im still on hold at present and have been so as a result all we do still is play professional janitor everyday cleanin the same hallways over and over till they finally post us to our rooms and from there liberty. But a few days ago they finally got my chit pushed through and processed so now im a duty driver! its like a continuation of my dealertrade gigs i used to do as a civilian. All i do is from 0530 am shuttle people around the base droppin them off at appts or pickin them up and takin'em to another bldg and gettin txts all day to go here/there. its so busy i work from 0530 to 1700 nightly and miss lunch completely and honestly forget to even DRINK somethin throughout the day to stay hydrated! But it keeps my mind off the fact that im here alone w/out my family.
A couple days ago the day of the Obama inauguration I came back in my room and i was havin a rough time at lunch battling depression. Turned my tv on to watch the swearing in and speech and im just BAWLING crying, but not from joy that Obama is our 44th president but cause i was just so depressed. it was horrible i couldnt stop crying, pizza in one hand, tissue in the other.
Theyre reeally houndin us bout keepin our rooms clean its ridiculous. and pisses me off more that the 3 roommates i have really dont care. They had us muster downstairs to talk to us about the recent failures and afterwards we all came upstairs and 2 outta the 4 went straight to their computers and started watchin tv vs help clean!! i was PISSED. In the end they all came around and the room as of this chapter is very clean. a couple of them will be leavin in the next 2-3wks goin to Florida for their a-school so im gettin ready to host 2 more people which will be #10 and #11 roommates lol
   December 27 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 12- VERSE 27Another week down another week of crazy events!
I got up early last friday (3am cst) after goin to bed a lil after midnight to start processin out for holiday standdown leave. Was actually awoken by a knock on the door to find out the other dude in the room was already dressed and was havin room inspected so he could leave. I was like niiiiice thanx for lettin me know that dude. So i joined in the room inspection, got dressed, assured i had everything (which was still alot!) and headed into the crazy winding line that is the mass exodus. I was processed out way early as my shuttle ticket wasnt even until 0930 but i asked if i could catch an earlier bus to which they okay'd so i hopped a 0440 bus off the base to the airport. From there gettin to the airport in about 1hr due to the snowy conditions i immediately went to the kiosk to check-in and see if there was an earlier flight out since my flight didnt even leave till 1500. To my surprise i found a 0930 flight leavin out so i immediately went into standby for it. I ended up gettin a box for the 2 grocery bags worth of clothes i ended up with as the night before i was told id be on snow watch (out shovin snow on the sidewalks for others until my "later" bus arrived) So since i left early i never got the chance to put it in my seabag so had to carry it wit me. Well now at the airport i threw it into a cardboard box that they sealed up for me and checked. Went on down the concourse to the gate where soon after several other Washington bound sailors arrived. Watched a couple episodes online of shows before findin out they moved our gate w/out advising us. So w hustled down there, got my seat confirmed and within 30min I was in the air flyin home hours ahead of schedule! Landed round 1330 and was picked up by wifey who shuttled me back to her job since she wanted to go back to work (yeah i know, nice.) So i headed on up to the corrections center to say a final farewell those there who really were friends to me and kept in touch after my bein let go. It was nice to see some of'em, others never got acknowledged the same as they treated me these monhs. leavin there went and got wifey and kids, home to pack, then up to Seattle for the "Breakfast w/santa" at the Sheraton Hotel for the weekend.
the next day we went down to Southcenter on a search for a new wedding ring or me which i found the biggest bang for buck pricing in at $650. 1/2ct diamonds, 14k whie gold and just blinged out! Were gonna hit a couple other stores but the snow started back so aborted further missions and headed on back to the hotel. Tried to hit the Gucci store and Louis Vuitton but both had closed early due to the weather (wusses, like it never snows or somethin). Sunday checked out and came back home to do a full assessment on what needed to be done before i left and it was a LOT. Stopped by McChord AFB to go to th BX and the commissary. Started wit the laundry and gettin the house reheated as it was FREEZING cold, down to 52 degrees when on avg it was 72. (she had been turnin the furnace off to save $$) explained to her that actually costs more that the furnance now has to run extra long to get all reheated and could contribute to why the kids were sick cause it was too cold.
During the week it was filled with plenty of runnin around. Before the week was over i was back at McChord AFB gettin all medical benefits in order and explained indepthly to me to relay to wife since she hadnt had the chance to go do it, but that wasnt before goin up to NAVSTA Everett to talk to them come to find the base had shutdown due to weather! What the heck?! Ended up talkin to a Master Chief there who explained what i needed to do (which is how i ended up at McChord). Good thing i had shaved before goin up there! Stopped by the big NEX that they have up in Marysville and its niiiiice! Purchased a few things then headed back south. Had prior arranged to meet with Lucy to pickup the pair of PC Speakers i had loaned her before our fallout that led to the termination of our friendship (which sparked the special edition letter a few chapters back) We ended up discussing the finer points of the argument and after apology and hug the friendship was re-established. Was an awesome feeling to have her back as a friend and the animosity dissolved.
The following days took me over to NAVSTA Bremerton to get my SUV registered wit base tags and do a lil shoppin at the NEX there as well. Got the Christmas tree up and lights strung wit my daughter. Got a lil shoppin done for Christmas dinner that i was hostin since normally i do thanksgiving and my parents Christmas, since i was gone and they did Thanksgiving i did the other. Had Fried turkey, collard greens, mac & cheese, banana pudding, and peaches n cream pie. It was booooomb! Threw back some beers, and hynotiq, played a full 18 holes of Tiger Woods Golf wit my dad on the wii (i lost by 3 strokes), then we watched Transformers on Blu-Ray and stopped it to compare it to the standard dvd (HUGE difference) But it looked hot on my 61" widescreen hdtv (not lcd/plasma though it has 2 hd connections in the back) All disbanded and i went to cleanin as i do eeeevery year after cookin. Got all laundry washed and folded, storm door fixed, 2 fence boards replaced, all light bulbs changed that were out, shower knob and floor grate changed out, yeah ive been busy! Downloaded pics and softwares on my laptop in preps to be taken back to IL wit me, bought several cd's of peeps i was discoverin released new ones got all those uploaded to my ipod. Even got ahold of the new TI and Leona Lewis fro my girl Lil Momma for a upload project she wanted me to do for her for her son's Christmas gift. Was nice seein her again too. Even got to see my homegirl Cake and hangout wit her for a minute! Got the 2nd aircard returned and refunded that was too slow for my liking so just went ahead and set up an appt for comcast install the day after i return. Cheaper anyway. And with that I bought a 19" Lcd tv for my dorm rm as i decided to bring back my ps3 as well
Still much more to be done and clock is runnin out so ill write another chapter soon
     December 18 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 12- VERSE 18Well its another week down! And this one is one of the best to be conquered cause in a few hours at this very timeframe ill be in the air hundreds of feet above the US headed Westbound back to WA! This whole week has been chompin at the bit just waaaaaaaaaaaitin and countin down the hours. In the meantime still goin about my daily bitness of goin to school. That ended last night with a final test score of 92%! So i scored a 94%, 96%, and 92% on the 3 tests for an overall AVG of an A! Yea!! I wanna keep that momentum goin into the other classes, stayin focused and doin good cause word has it the top 10% of the class after A-school gets to pick their orders and as i said before my 3 on my dream list will be Everett, Bremerton, and NAS Whidbey. Whatever gets me back home to WA. Wanna hear somethin crazy? they were tellin us that preparations to dock comin into the San Juan inlet and down Puget Sound takes about 14 freakin hours! 14 hours!!!! I was like oh heeeeeeeeeeeeell naw, ill jump ship near forks, swim to shore and hail a taxi! hahahhaha.
I lost 2 more of my roommates a couple days ago. They graduated their class before me and bein their undesignated as a rate they go off to their ships now in the fleet and im now left behind of the original 4. Sucks pretty bad. Got one guy that came in replacin Gonzo a week or so ago that i dont really talk to at all. Today was actually the 1st time i had a convo wit the dude. He's leavin Jan 8th to his ship so its like, theres no point in buildin a relationship wit the dude. We move out our rooms early tmrw morning anywho as we leave to the shuttle buses that'll take us to the airport and apparently we wont be able to come back to the same rooms which absolutely sucks.
Went to get my clothes from the dry cleaners wednesday and was told they werent yet prepared which pissed me off cause i turned'em in on Sunday so that gave'em plenty of time but noooooo they were waitin till last minute to do it. Whatever people. Had'em sow on a patch to another shirt as well so total came to $11.25 for 3 pieces. Word has it that come Jan they'll be sellin our new Camouflauge uniforms that'll replace the typical (out of fashion) utilities. Cant wait either! Ya'll know i like to dress fly and in fashionable clothes and these utilities got me lookin crazy!
Been cold here. Pretty bad nights drop down to single digits (9 degrees lowest posted), wind chill into the negative. And daily M-F id have to walk to school in it. Ice on the road and sidewalk had people fallin like crazy, some actually really becoming injured. I was fortunate to break my fall streak as i didnt fall this week like the last 2 weeks lol. Lost traction a couple times but held it together! Seein bundled up you almost couldnt see what race i was! i wasnt playin out there! anything i could possibly covered indeed was.
Did some more catchin up on shows. All done with New York goes to Hollywood, Luke's Parental Advisory, Heroes (2 more episodes aired i thought i had already saw season finale now i really have!) Forgot i had started watchin True Blood before comin to Boot Camp so got several episodes watched but not fully done (9 out of 12). Decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and return this At&t card as well and go ahead and have Comcast Cable Internet installed in the dorm room when i return. This card is about $50/month for 5gb download. Has 3g network but still not as fast as it could be. I have to hang the card out the window attached to a 10ft usb ext cord. But i can get cable internet for bout the same if not cheaper (military disc as well as 2nd line bein we have it at home as well), and unlimited d/l and way faster speeds and no more havin to walk to the USO to use their wi-fi since id have the speeds in room capable of watchin my shows. Its gettin to cold to walk all the way across base unnecessarily so im gonna have to roll wit it. Card was $107 w/$100 mail in rebate (that i never filled out), for Comcast just need to buy a Cable Modem w/built in wi-fi.
Well its chowtime and this has taken almost an hour as is cause im drawing a blank on things to say so next entry will be back in WA! Take care ya'll! December 11 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 12- VERSE 10My bad, ive been completely lazy the last couple weeks and havent come on at all to write what the happenings is. I started school over a week ago and its a night class so its pretty hectic of a schedule. Started out last Tuesday i believe. They called us all downstairs to muster as usual but told us who was "class'n up" that day. my name along with others were called to start THAT day. But we had to clean as usual before we mustered again to leave for class following lunch. The class starts for real though at 4pm and goes till midnight M-F.
(20 min elapsed)
Had to go downstairs to muster aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagain like we do freakin 5x a day. For school we get off at midnight and we're supposed to be up by 9am then roll call muster at 1145am. march off to school by 3ish. Its mostly computer based so theres a looooota people fallin asleep in class; i still make ghetto mochas so it helps to keep me awake. For the most part though it goes pretty fast for me. Get back to the dorm round 0030, shower, then go to sleep. I sometimes get up at 0500 which is the normal reveille for those not in a class, go get a bag breakfast (sausage mcmuffin, banana, nutrigrain bar, yogurt...) then put it in our fridge and go riiiight back to sleep. Havent worked out in forever, my homeboy that i was roomin wit, Gonzo, got moved out to another bldg last week and it SUCKS. Within hours they had another dude up in here which yesterday HE moved out and theres ANOTHER one in here! So now im pretty low-key posted up in my room studyin, watchin shows online or listening to music. Not much in common wit the other roommates and they leavin in like 5 days so i tend not to invest time in a friendship thats gonna go no where at all.
I bought a Verizon aircard when i got here on 11/16 and was hopin id get good internet speeds and access but i was sorely wrong. One of my old division buddies told me about his at&t card and how he got faster speeds and was able to watch streaming tv shows online so i went to go return it and get the at&t card over this last weekend but not without headaches. First of all Saturday wasnt even our duty day but i guess as punishment for the last failed duty day or duty section mentor put us on a shadowed watch wit the real section on duty, and muster every 2 hrs to assure all was on time. It was ridiculous. All morning was wasted up till 1500 when he finally cut us loose. Was on the next thing smokin to go make the return. Hopped a taxi which cost me $20 freakin dollars to get 8 miles, but had to be done. Got dropped off at at&t store and made purchase then walked what seemed like a mile to the mall to circuit city to return their aircard and that was no easy trip bein that its been snowin over the last 2wks and its freakin cold so the snow plows have thrown all the snow on the sidewalks! Yeah forgot to mention i had bought some new civilian clothing here at the NEX and new adidas kicks which i had chose to wear out that day, so needless to say i wasnt too happy to be walkin through huge piles of snow at all in new shoes.. Got all done and back to base, watched a few shows online (finished up Prison Break, Heroes, and Making the Band 4, as well as I want to work for Diddy; all shows i used to watch at home before i left for camp) Came back to the room and chilled rest of the night.
Next day after fiddlin wit the new card discovered to get the 3g speeds im gonna need a usb extention cord! So set BACK out on a quest to make it to a store that had'em, callin ahead and googlin'em on my phone so i knew exactly where i needed to go before the taxi got there. ended up goin to radio shack, in and out, and right back to base lickety split! Stopped at the USO again to finish watchin more shows (at the uso they have free wi-fi so dont have to use my aircard, the wise go there to download for free, others have aircards, or they flat out just have a modem in their rooms.) but some found out this week and last week thats just not a feasible option, as just like my boy Gonzo they moved to another ship. Now you payin for somethin in one bldg that you cant use while you in the other bldg, and its not worth transferrin over cause they only gonna be in that bldg no more than another week before movin back or to a different ship, and on top of that we leave on the 19th on holiday stand down! So i feel wise in my decision for an aircard, i can take it anywhere, upstairs or downstairs, mobile or stationary, the only thing thats effected is the speed of connection. pretty much spent the whole day there watchin shows (all those listed above) then headed back to the dorm.
Which leads us to this week (thats right this is a 2 week rewind since i was lazy and didnt keep up) All this week as last week has been all school but not without the interruptions of sleep again from mustering downstairs as more and more of my old division buddies have been moved to the other bldg. I pray eeeeverytime my name's not called as just like in civilian life i hated movin. Once i get somewhere i like to stay put! 4x they've initiated moves and 4x ive been blessed and not had my name called. Ive had to go be the bearer of bad news though to a couple shipmates which i didnt take joy in but, better them than me. Tuesday the school shutdown cause the snow outside got too bad, upwards of 6-7" on the ground. That night i ended up on a firewatch position on my flr cause a few days prior we had people fail the fire drill by not gettin out in time. So 00-02 i was up on our deck slowly walkin back and forth, studyin for the test we didnt get to take that night at school. Got off duty and went to bed only to wake up for the next round of move-outs (the 4th), go back to bed only for the fire alm to go off at 1000! UGH! Take my phone put my sweats on (last fire alm i ran all the way downstairs in my hoodie top, boxer, and shower shoes, not gettin my sweatpants on till i was actually in the rec rm downstairs lol good thing i dont wear tighty whities!) and just posted up text'n while they checked the flrs to assure all got out (which they did so no more fire watches.... for now). Last night we went back to school and played catchup on all we missed f/the night before and took the test to which i scored a 96%! Test 1 i scored a 94%! So i gotta keep that vibe goin definitely and be successful in hopes ill be able to choose my orders when its time to head out to a duty section. today (thursday) I was just so worn out i slept straight up till 1030 after goin to bed round 0100. Solid block of sleep, no rounds of moveouts to attend so that was a blessing, hopefully none tmrw and we can go into the weekend in peace, since we graduate that class next week hopefully that was the end of the moveouts. One things for sure, NO ONE is safe. November 29 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 11- VERSE 29Yet another week down! All days are still kinda a blur cause i dont jump on here daily to debrief as to what happened just try to remember the highlights of it all. Sunday I was chose along with a few others in our duty section to go shop at Walmart on behalf of the US Navy for Toys for Tots fundraiser to which my floor alone raised a lil over $2,000! So we hit up 2 different Walmarts locally shoppin with carts full of toys. We spent all but $2.56 cents! It really made me miss my kids alot though pickin out toys for other kids other than my own.
The rest of the 1st part of the week was just cleaning cleaning cleaning for the most part. I went to Navy Legal to get a paper notarized cashin out my retirement from the Corrections Center. Gonna settle the remaining debt, buy the wife somethin extra special for holdin it down in my absence without a hiccup and some presents. Not ballin like we were last year this time so will be a big time budget unfortunately :( While i was there i went ahead and got a Power of Attorney drawn up for her to be able to function fully in decision making w/out me bein present. i was gonna get a will drawn up as well as a precaution but decided to wait till i fly back home so she can be there and know what exactly it will be sayin before its drawn out and signed. Made me think cause as i was there another guy came in advisin he had just got orders that he'll be deployed to Afghanistan. Dunno how long he's been in the service etc but confirmed its very real and even the Navy can and will be deployed into danger.
Also went to the Navy Federal Credit Union and opened up yet another checkin/savings acct. Absolutely no use for'em but thought id put another CU on tap in case we ever needed'em. Took a test to qualify for Phase 2 Liberty and passed! Phase 2 liberty gives you freedom to wear civilian clothing when we're on liberty, permission to drink alcohol (if youre of age of course), and overnight liberty long as you call in at 2100 and check in, and permission to drive your personal vehicle on base. I dont plan to use it at all really but its good to have on tap in case me and the boys hop a train to Chicago and decide to stay the night or somethin. Got that slip filled out wit a quickness and submitted it so it could be in effect this holiday weekend in case i wanted to put on some civilian clothes!
Went to the USO on base since they have a free wi-fi connection there which is way faster and better connection than the aircard i have with Verizon. Posted up there for a few hours and got 3 episodes of Prison Break that ive missed since ive been here in Great Lakes watched. Got a few more to watch before im current then its on to Heroes, Bones, and several other shows ive fallen behind or missed the Season Finale's to.
Thanksgiving was pretty sucky. We got up at 6am and mustered downstairs at 7am. Came back upstairs and sat around the room doin nothin, went to breakfast round 10 which by that time had become lunch. Watched CNN on the galley tv about the Mumbai terrorist attacks. So tragic. Came back up to the room and dinked around online and flipped through some mags. Video conference called wit my parents and kids which was nice to be able to see'em. Rest of the night was mostly just chillin till it was time to go to watch at midnight till 4am and that suuuuuucked. It was so slow and quiet, nothin much goin on and of course i get the dude that dont show up on time for his watch. When i finally did get off work i was soooo tired. Came upstairs and crashed only for a couple hours till i had to get back up at 6am and get dressed to muster at 7am. When that was over straight back upstairs to sleep for a few hours before gettin up. Found a wi-fi connection in our room mysteriously that was unlocked so used that to download a few shows from itunes as well as caught up on a lot of prison break episodes! Went to the USO for awhile and hit McDonalds (on base) on the way back to our dorm where we watched 2 of the Matrix movies before crashin
Today (saturday), got up, showered, and watched the final episode of Prison Break to get me back current. Was disappointed when i went to go watch Heroes, NBC.com is missin the 1st few episodes so i dont even know how the season starts! So i abandoned that mission and we got dressed for the Dinner we had in Highwood, IL. It was soooo much fun! We decorated some of the city sidewalk trees with lights, and the locals showered us wit tons of free foods! We walked the small town and hung out then went to the dinner where they fed us more. Walked back to the town center where the mayor, congressman, state rep and others were all in attendance. Took some pics wit santa and the mayor and we all headed back to the base! Yet another week down! November 22 TO A SPECIAL FRIEND LOSTThis is a special exclusive segment cause it has to be done and right a wrong ive done.
Before i left for bootcamp i f**ked over a friend pretty bad to which likely cost me a friendship that i took advantage of. In my darkest times i'd lash out at her when she was only tryin to help me and id become overly sarcastic and hurtful in my words to which there was no excuse and justification for.
I fed off her energy along with other friend's of mine to which even with them i'd lash out feeling discouraged and depressed at my job situation. Again no excuse nor justification. It was wrong. Ive apologized to them to which theyve forgave and moved on but this one friend the wounds may have scarred, and even the reconstructive surgery isnt hiding the scarred wound.
I tried to (sincerely) apologize prior to leavin for bootcamp to which it was not accepted and was basically told to f**k off which i had comin to me and i obliged and deleted their info. But throughout bootcamp i couldnt stop thinkin about the situation cause it was just wrong and never shouldve went down like it did. And the horrible part about it was it never had to go down like that. But in my ignorance i allowed it and at that time didnt care.
You never realize what you have till its gone right? Yeah, true story. You were a good friend, and im sorry i acted and said the things i did. It was hurtful, wrong, and even though i have mad love for you i walked over you and other friends and it was just sh**ty. I wouldnt want to be treated like i treated you and i wish i could take it back. Most would probably just let it go and let you just fade into the past as a memory but you dont let the good friends just fade away and disappear. You try with everything you have to hold onto'em regardless of the bad past or bitter feelings. Forgiveness is whats bein asked even though things never be the same again or what friendship we had was unhealthy.
You had an energy about you exclusively to the point i thought you needed ritalin to calm down! And i latched onto you because of it cause in my darkest hour you didnt come wit drama, you came to help. The arguments and fightin to be friends and lean on each other i meant what i said at home depot. I lied to you 1x and admitted and apologized for it. But i got mad love for you cause you were a true friend in my darkest hour as one by one those i thought were my friends fell off week by week in the end i truly could count on my hands how many truly kept in touch cause they wanted to and were my friends and i knew that even if i became a multiple finger amputee i'd still be able to count you on the remaining fingers.
This is not a letter to the masses, this is a letter of apology to only one specific exclusive person. And even if this apology is never accepted, this letter will forever remain a public record on the Book of Lon. Im only sorry i didnt write this soon. And you know exactly who you are cause i told you it was here.
Im sorry, from the bottom of the soul you probably think i dont have, Im sorry. Im back on my feet, Im mentally back together, and want to pick up the crumbs and piece back a friendship. Not askin anything else of you so i hope im not askin too much. When i come home on leave next month i hope you are one i can see and have lunch together and mend the wounds. If not, as i said, this letter is open ended and will always be posted long as this autobiography continues to be typed.
Thank you for takin the time to even read this, just know, i AM sorry and bein way over here in Great Lakes i dont know any other method of showin "sincerity" other than posting it right here for ALL to see.
IM SINCERELY SORRY BOOK OF LON- CHAPTER 11: VERSE 22.. SEASON PREMIERE!IM BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!! Whaddup ya'll?! How you been doin? UGH! 8 weeks of bootcamp and bein cut off from civilization i was havin anxiety attacks without my Blackbery! it sucked!! Lemme tell you Navy bootcamp aint no joke! Now i cant compare it to the likes of the marine and army bootcamp cause they're the more rough and tumble types (and for those of you not military savvy, the Marines ARE an extention of the Navy!) I didnt even know that ish! When i got there from the minute i stepped off the plane i was in trouble. They aint playin. Got scolded IN the airport for talkin in ranks to another i had flew in from SeaTac wit. As well as i had bought in the giftshop at O'Hare some shotglasses, an Obama Presidential Button and a deck of cards containing all political figures in a cartoon drawing type pic. Well the petty officer was NOT amused wit the button and i got reamed for havin my own freedom of choice in voting. And my deck of cards? unopened? STRAIGHT into the trash. I was PISSED. They even threw away the new Godfather Returns book i had just bought from Amazon.com a few weeks prior! And once we got to bootcamp via bus, it was on. They hustled us in and gave us the chance to make a phonecall home to say we got there safe so i tried to call home but got the VM so that sucked, called my best friend Cake too but no answer so my adverture began without any verbal voice of goodbyes. They sent us through to get our "ditty bags" with are our sweats, shoes, hygiene stuff, NEX card and stamps. Maybe some other things too. Put us in a room after we changed INTO the sweats and boxed up any personal unauthorized belongings and clothing. (my ipod, clothes, backpack, etc). That 1st night was soooo rough. They processed us through the night and into the next day. We got NO sleep until the next night (got there weds didnt sleep till thurs night, but keep in mind the day started at 0500pst wednesday) First week was gettin acclaimated to the new surroundings, orders, and what we'd be doin the next 8 weeks. Come sunday is called "holiday routine" where you can write letters home, take an extended shower and hangout and talk. Those were the best times cause everyday EXCEPT sunday you were on military showers where you had 12-15min to get in get showered get dressed and back out in front of your rack. The 1st shower, hell, the 1st week was the funniest thing ill remember. All us guys, all strangers, and uncertain bout everything and everyone were hesitant to get naked! All shieldin our dicks and SILENT as we filed in the mass shower hahahahahhahaha. That changed later on though. That sunday though it really hit home how long i'd be away from my family and friends and as i tried to write a letter home i shed a tear. A tear became a few and i quietly without bein seen went into the head (bathroom) and closed the shower curtain that was the toilet stall door and quiet wept in silence. Tryin to get my bearings back i went on to Sunday church service which did help. Came back and finished my letter home as well as a couple more letters before holiday routine was over at 1300.
The next few weeks are a blur cause other than my letters home and to others i didnt write notes on what happened nor highlights but come week 2 i became the AROC (assistant recruit officer in charge) so i was #2 overall of my division! I'd cadence various songs over the next 7 weeks, and if any problems alot was brought directly to me as they knew id do somethin to handle and resolve it. We did firefighting training, firearms training to which i earned a Marksmen ribbon! Thats right! your boy, an NRA Life member is dangerously accurate wit the 9mm! lol I passed all 3 of my PFA's (physical fitness assessments) without incident to include 69 situps and 72 pushups in 2min (each) and the 1.5mi run in 12:45 my best time so needless to say i lost another 7 lbs and gained muscle! Another memory is what i call "Pastrygate" which was a scandal in our division regarding someone sneakin freakin cookies out the galley and into our compartment. Thats a big no-no in bootcamp but some clown was doin it and left a bag in the head with'em still in there! No one fessed up to the crime so we ALL got IT'd for it (intensive training) which was HORRIBLE. They worked us over for a good hour + wit no sign of lettin up. It wasnt the last time. It happened a few times after that some gettin caught, some gettin snitched on by others not wantin to be put through that ish again.
The weather was nice here for the most part but now its gotten soooo cold. probably round 25degrees outside right now mostly blue skies and a slight wind. I had a watch duty i had to stand this am from 0400-0800 but really was 0330ish to 0820ish almost 5hrs! I had to walk around outside the perimeter of the bldg making sure all was "secure" it suuuuuucked. When i was finally off they were mustering down in the rec room area so i fell into ranks as they were doin uniform inspection. And to my surprise i actually PASSED even though i had just got off doin an outside watch bundled in 2 scarfs, raincoat w/ful liner, watchcap (beanie), and thick gloves on top of my uniform lol. So as a reward I and a few others were allowed to skip out on doin further work the rest of the day! Hex yeah! So im up here on my laptop I got last weekend when my family was here typin ya'll tryin to get back into the loop of whats goin down. They (my parents and wifey) were only here for the weekend to see me graduate bootcamp which is very pomp and circumstance. They got some good pics but the most thrilling point was just SEEING them again after so many weeks. Bein able to hug someone and take pics and see the smile of pride on my parents faces made it ALL worth it. We stayed posted up in the hotel for the weekend only steppin out to get my A-school dorm supplies. Had wifey bring my cellphone to me so i could get back in communication with all you and that was a delight! Bein plugged back in! The reception is horrible in my dorm room same as internet ( i purchased a verizon aircard that is currently TAPED to the barracks window to obtain a steady constant signal to get internet lol Got an Ipod clock radio so im bumpin tunes all day we up in our room to the point its become the hub for several others to come over and post up lol. Got a coffee maker for the return of that infamous Cafe Lonay coffee as well. I didnt buy food cause i wanted to stay in the same habit im in now which is NO snackin, only eatin durin chow times. I wanna continue to lose more weight and stay in shape for the PFA's we have to do every 6 months.
This week was like 1st week of bootcamp, processing us in and all week was a personal finance class we had to take but the good thing about it is the class gave us 1 college credit! hex yeah! I do wanna earn a degree while im in the Navy and some investments too hopefully, we'll see how it all plays out. As of now they sayin I now go on "hold" with over a hundred others waitin to get into the next class which could take upwards of a MONTH. That worries me cause that means i wont be leavin here june 2009 but july 2009 if i cant get into the class sooner. So im gonna see if i can check-in everyday and if theres an extra seat available lemme occupy it. Till then ill basically become a handyman with everyone else cleaning mopping painting and maintaining the base. Ugh. NOT what i signed up to do.
Family is doin ok. My son has pneumonia and has been hospitalized a few times since i left for bootcamp. Worry bout him daily. Not admitted but on some strong antibiotic and other ish. Keep him in your prayers. He was always at home wit me and his mom so never had his immune system built up to withstand such an abundance of sickly kids round him. So his immune system just crashed.
To the 3 of you that wrote, thank you sooooo much, you'll never know how important those letters were from ya'll. Mail call is your only connection to the outside world. No tv's, no internet, no freedom to phones. Only time you got to call was on "scheduled" times on the instructors agenda which was like 3x. We had no intel as to the presidential race, NOTHIN. and outta my whole division i was the ONLY person that voted!!!! wooooow! Election night they wouldnt even tell us what was goin on or who was ahead. I found out from a cafeteria staff member the following morning on how it all played out and it was an overwhelming feeling! incredible and i supported him since day 1! YES WE CAN!
thats all i got for now if i think of more ill post up next chance i get! feel free to holla back! tty soon! September 16 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 9- SEASON FINALEWell the moment has finally come. The mental unemployment clock officially stops the count, and the weekly book of lon segments go on hiatus. And its a looooong time comin.
Sunday- I still had my niece and nephew overnight so we got up and showered and headed off to.....CHURRRRRCH! Was such an excellent sermon and service. The day was "Miracle Sunday" so the whole congregation got up and made a HUGE circle around the auditorium. Some came out and shared blessings in their lives or simple prayer requests. i started to come forward and tell my tale of unemployment and bein on the verge of financial bankrupcy several times only to have that blessing save me at the 11th hour. But bein humble i declined to speak and let the service continue on. I did tell the Rev as i was walkin out that id be leavin for boot camp and gone for a few months. He said they'll definitely be prayin for me, i thought thanx i need as many as i can get lol. My mom and siter were absent from service but my mom met us at Famous Dave's on S. Hill for one last luncheon together for awhile. Was a great time. Came home and me and my niece decided we were gonna install the screen door I had bought. Well that was mistake #1. The door i had bought was 32x81 and i needed a 36x81! So we packaged it back up and went back to Lowes to exchange. Back home we start puttin it all together and endup before the night was over goin back to the store 2 more times! need a wood shim, need a hacksaw cause my jigsaw stopped workin on me. By that time wifey took the kids home cause day turned into night and they had to get back home for school so i was on my own tryin to get the screen screwed to the door and lemme tell ya it was quite a task. night turned into midnight and soon it was 3am. No lie. The storm/screen door installed after some minor alterations, and new rubber door bottoms to main front door and garage entry door i went to bed feelin certain no bugs and spiders will be invadin through the front entryway door anymore!
Monday- Started out early. The day before the trustee president had called me and said he forgot to snag me after church cause i had escaped so quickly. He wanted me to move the computers in the computer room of the church into the library. I agreed no problem so after droppin Tamia off at school Marcus and I headed up to the church and got that task knocked out lickity split. From there did a lil banking and called in to recruiter to assure i had all i was gonna need and the time to report in. He advised 1300 Tuesday which caught me off guard, i was expecting it to be 1600ish. He told me i had to take another piss test and there were some others goin up there too so we'd be goin up wit them. Told'em aight and went home to do a final load of laundry and chores so nothin's really left that wifey need worry bout. Watched some MSNBC and cleaned off some shows that id no longer be able to watch. Eventually it came time to get Tamia one last time so walked over and picked her up and as we walked home assured she understood that tmrw would be the last day id pick her up and drop her off at school for awhile and that i'd be gone for a couple months and not at home at all. It seemed to understand what i was tellin her so i felt a lil better about the talk. Played a last game of Civilization and also sat around the dining room table for the last supper. Played Civilization a lil more then headed up to Kent to return Lil Momma's treadmill i had borrowed to get in shape for bootcamp. Said my goodbyes to her, my good friend Teeeeeeeeee (lol) and Cake and came back home. Shaved all my facial hair for the 1st time in over a decade. Least amount id ever had was a mustache when i worked for safeway as a p/t job in 2000/2001. since ive always had a goatee and before safeway i did as well. Now ive lost major years off my appearance.
Tuesday- The season finale is finally here. Was exhausted bein up again till 3am and was just goin to bed right as wifey's alarm was goin off. Dont even remember her leavin i was OUT. Got Tamia ready for school one last time and drove her to school (too tired to walk) Kissed her goodbye and tears started to well up but fought'em back successfully. Its been my duty since she STARTED school to take her to school every morning and pick her up. Now i have to relinquish the role of bein full-time dad. Came back home and slowly started piecin the few things i will get to bring together and all documentation necessary. Paid off the balance of my NRA life membership so now im an NRA-4-Lifer! Fielded txts and calls all day makin sure i have addresses and emails written. Likely wont be makin calls cause i have a 650min phonecard that needs to last 8wks so will be savin that to call home . Now that its 1243 im headin to the recruiters office.
(Hours Later @ Seatac Airport waiting for flight on Wednesday but updating on rest of Tuesday) So I went up to the recruiters office and with 3 other shippers we went up to the MEPS facility in Seattle to get more paperwork done. They said it'd only take 30-45min... yeah well 2hrs later! I ended up wit a killer headache. Took us back to the Clarion Hotel in Seatac to check us in. I opted to ride back home with the recruiter as i wasnt bout to stay in the hotel at 6pm when i could easily be home with my family for another few hours. Wifey got me from the recruiters office and i went home and tried to eat somethin to get ride of headache. Popped a few pills and catnapped on the couch wit wifey. Come 8ish got up and took a final shower and changed clothes to what i was gonna ship in and she took me back to the Hotel. Watched a lil tv wit my roommate before off to sleep round midnight.
Wednesday- Up at 0430 to get dressed have coffee and eat breakfast. Took the bus back to MEPS for more processing and lectures and TV. Come 0900 we swore in with my wifey and parents present. Took alot of pics lol Bein official we got the boarding passes and rules of conduct lecture. They made me TEAM LEADER!!! YES!!! Brownie points already bein in charge of 6 others total from then to time we are at boot camp. So right now i type you from the USO lounge of Seatac airport as we wait for our flight to Chicago/O'Hare where i will be officially offline. Thought id update one last time as to the happenings! Ill ttyl Boot Camp is over Dec 10th. Weekend off maybe ill get to come home then. Gotta let another use the computer now! Bye all and thanx for your support!
September 14 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 9- WEEK 32Only one more chapter left before the season finale!
Sunday- In an effort to start a last minute streak....Churrrrch! It was Grandparents day so the Rev asked all the Grandparents to stand. My mom wasnt there but my dad was up topside where the Rev sits so he was the last to go introducin his brood of Grandchidlin lol My sister wasnt there nor my mom so im sittin next to my 2 kids as well as my sisters 2 outta 3 (my youngest nephew is still in Florida) So i was concerned the church would think they were all mine ha ha ha. After church they had a luncheon so we all went back to the dining hall for a nice lunch with my dad. Talked to him a lil about my deployment date and he told me somethin that i sure hope is true. He advised that before A-school they let you come home for a week before goin off that that means i "could" if the dates line up be home for the week of thanksgiving before comin back. Then if i have the leave, come back for Christmas. That'd be a nice relief of anxiety and be able to see everybody. That second wind to get your mind back refocused. Came home and worked on the PC a lil, watchin tv wit wifey. Decided to take it easy runnin since body got a pretty good workout on tha Cane for 11hrs the day before. So i ran a mile but focused more on 7mph and if needin a wind down to 6mph, no walkin. Clocked it round 9:30 before i felt it in my lower back so called it off so as not to injure anything. Showered and dinner wit family after watchin my new favorite show that im fashionably late wit jumpin into: Daily Show w/Jon Stewart. Watched some tivo'd shows w/wifey before in-laws showed up droppin her off. Finished watchin UFC fight, upstairs to watch Big Brother, then True Blood, a new HBO drama (pretty steamy sex scenes!!) Off to bed.
Monday- Up after a good night's sleep. 1st things first got on the phone to get wifey's blackberry ordered so it would be here in timely manner and ready for her to take over all bills. Im gettin her the Blackberry Curve, like i have, but gettin her the Crimson Red one. Got Tamia up and ready for school then walked her over w/Marcus then back home. Spent the better part of the day tryin to hammer down a daycare facility for my kids since in 9 days ill no longer be able to watch'em fulltime :(. I struck out for the most part, only finding 2 local facilities that could take'em both. Went back and got Tamia and watched a lil tv till wifey came home. Had a trustee mtg to attend so headed up there only to find we didnt have enough body's to HOLD the mtg. So i ended up helpin to move the food bank to a new room. Took off and headed up north to get the Cane all secured from the outing on Saturday. Hung out with Cake a lil bit continuing on the farewell tour since the ones obviously wantin to hang wit me before i leave seem to be the only ones contactin me and comin to the forefront to make it happen. Came home watched a lil tv and off to bed, without my nosering as its officially been taken out.... for good.
Tuesday- Got Tamia off to school and back to the PC typin up more instructions for wifey in my absence of billpay passwords, etc. Watched Obama's news conference while playin wit Marcus for a bit. Started to fall asleep and heard a short knock on the door. Twas wifey's cellphone onscene just that quick. So plugged it in to charge so she could play wit it upon her arrival home. Feelin a brief sense of motivation i jumped up and did a mile on he treadmil at 7mph in bout 9min. Runnin outta time i ran upstairs to shower and grabbed my son and race walked to the school to get Tamia. Back home we watched a lil tv and i got a surprise phonecall from my gurl who i aint talked to in ages, Karen-ness! We talked for a good while catchin up since she hadnt caught word i enlisted. Gettin off the phone wit her and upon wifeys arrival, we went on up to a local daycare facilty that i had found the day before to get a feel of what its about and if its the place for our kids. We felt comfortable there and liked the fact that it is a Christian based facility so we put a deposit down to start them the day of my deployment. Went to t-mobile store to get a cover for wifey's blackberry and home to watch tivo'd shows while helpin her officially move in to her new phone. Ended up stayin up till 3am gettin all pics and videos onto my blackberry and battlin her 8gb card which was throwin me problems just as mine previously did.
Wednesday- Up and got Tamia to school no prob. Was gonna be a lil different of a day since it was fair day so she got out at 1130. Filled out their childcare paperwork and walked back to get her from school and home to feed'em lunch. Watched a lot of tv and a lil web surf'n then checked the mail to find the next unemployment "own up or pay up" letter. Smiled at it like noooo need, im outta here in 7 days so you can keep your mtg. Ill call'em friday and advise im shippin out next week when the mtg is to take place so lets not bother. Chilled round the house gettin all my pics finally loaded and video clips on my phone then lounged watchin msnbc till wifey came home. Showered up and headed up to Olive Garden to celebrate my dad's 52nd birthday. Was a lot of fun socializin wit'em. Its rare you get us all together anymore and even still my sister's youngest wasnt there so we still werent the complete Harris clan. After an hour of socializin and singin happy birthday to my dad wit the lil cupcake thing they gave'em lol we went our separate ways and headed up to Family Christian store as i had seen before they actually had a Sailor's Bible for $19.97 that i called to confirm they had in stock. They had a hard time locatin it to which i ended up findin on my own. They have a police officer, fireman, sailors, as well as other military variations. I had a 25% of coupon so i snagged a couple other figurines that i collect from time to time (these two a black Moses and a darker skinned Jesus carryin the cross.) Sorry no blonde haired blue-eyed white Jesus in this house! We know by historic accounts that bulls**t aint true! Came back home and settled in watchin a lil tv wit wifey before turnin in for the night exhausted.
Thursday- Felt very tired when i woke up so had a lil of a cold start but got Tamia off to school on time. As i turned from the front door my neighbor i usually see in passing but never talked to was comin out the door with her lil kid so i waited for her and we walked home together stroller and stroller lol Geez ill be glad when this Mr. Mom phase is over next week. It was really nice talkin to her cause it started wit Marcus and how she seen he's growin so quick then she said she noticed the Obama sign in our bay window. I told'em yezzur i been down wit'em since day 1 and read both his books and watch MSNBC alll day everyday. She chuckled and said she did too as well as CNN and she was an Obama supporter too. She told me she was very concerned about women and Palin and they'd fall for McCains trick to which i smiled cause it was nice to finally hear an informed woman say exactly what ive been tryin to say to others. McCain is usin Palin to distract the nation as if its Obama vs Palin in this election to keep the eyes off his record an how anti-woman (even anti-veteran) his record shows. But ridin off the energy that Palin injected into their party women have yet to research and realize you put McCain in office you settin women BACK. Palin would be VP she has no policy power she's just sittin there in case McCain croaks! In the mean time the economy dont change cause McCain voted w/Bush 90% of the time! Partin ways after a good talk came back in and caught up on the 9/11 coverage on the networks and fielded some calls. Feelin a slight burst of ambition jumped on the treadmil up'n it to 8mph this time and runnin a mile before jumpin off right as wifey was walkin in the door. Showered and had dinner w/fam then watched tv with wifey before off to bed.
Friday- Day got off to a start early. Got Tamia dropped off, this time drivin vs walkin. Went to Lowe's to get some new weather strips for the doors then went to meet the recruiter for a final sit down before i leave. From there went up to Federal Way to get my kids medical records for their daycare. Back to S. Hill to Costco to get the house stocked up on food and items wifey would be needin in my absence. Took off and continued the farewell tour droppin in on one of my longtime friends Manda Panda at her job and sittin and talkin wit her and her mom for awhile. Got home just as the garbage truck was in the neighborhood so ran around sprintin dumpin garbage to get it curbside. Mowed the lawn after puttin away the food and my son down for a nap and spray treated it to kill the dandelion field as the HOA president sent me an email the day before sayin it needed to be done. I replied basically I aint got time to be concerned with your concern over dandelions so just sent it in the mail. But today after doin it i sent another email wit the basic attitude of "f" off its done and im bein deployed till next May and my wifey need not be worried wit your concerns over weeds so dont bother with a letter. Called unemp about their own up or pay up letter to advise them im leavin on weds so wont be makin their lil interview. Off to get Tamia then back to watch some shows and play a round of Civilization for the 1st time in a couple weeks before goin to sign the papers to get all debt consolidated before i leave. Watched tv wit wifey and before goin go bed moved my new figurines into new positions around the house. The figurine of Moses i actually put on the entryway ledge that can be seen as you climb the stairs so lookin up it gives you the feel of standin beneath Moses as he called out the the people the 10 commandments.
Saturday- Wifey had a hair appt so i loitered wit the the kids for awhile before it was time for choir practice. Gettin there i talked to my dad a lil and we all had pizza. From there we took my niece and nephew back home wit us (wifey showed up after her hair was done) after stoppin by T-mobile and Target. Funny moment was when me and my dad told my nephew to get us a cart and meet us back at the location where we stood. Didnt take but a few minutes and heard a page over the intercom. "Attention Target customers, would Lonnie pleasure come to customer service, Lonnie, please come to customer service" We already knew who it was. Wifey was just walkin in as we were approachin the desk so she retrieved my nephew who was in tears. We got a good chuckle outta it but he was noooot happy lol. Ended up goin to Famous Footwear to get my kids some new shoes then split and went home. Time for lets make a deal! Nephew wanted to play the Wii so negotiated 1hr of exclusive play time if he mowed my backyard to which he agreed. My niece finding there was a deal made then negotiated pullin the thornbushes up that always grow next to the patio for baskin robbins ice cream. I helped her out a lil and as we worked we found a garter snake sliterin around! Probably the same one i had spotted before. This time i snatched it up and put it in a bucket for our viewing pleasure. Even my huntin dogs Twinkie and Taylor got a curious up close viewin! (no was not fed to the animals). We then we moved the party to the front yard as she wanted to wash the cars. Came back in to shower and eat then left to go to my parents to get their church clothes for the following day. Stopped at Home Depot to look at their screen doors, not likin what i saw i went to tha Cane to check on her. Hung out wit my girl lil momma for a bit, she always cracks me up! Lowes where i bought the screen door i had seen friday then back home. Feelin motivatied i jumped on the treadmill to which at 8mph i successfully for the 1st time completed the 1.5mi in 13min flat! 30sec to spare for the deadline! I was elated! now i feel i can truly do it! drenched in sweat, up to shower and finish gettin all daycare paperwork filled out.
Tune in Tuesdsay 9/16 for the Season Finale of the Book of Lon, as i leave Weds 9/17 and will be away from the internet so unable to post updates for 8wks.
September 07 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 9- WEEK 31Sunday- Well you aint seen this in the last few chapters but.... CHURRRRCH lol. Ive been slippin on the pimpin and havent gone since our miscarriage, but finally picked myself up from my bootstraps even if i dont have any, cause im on my own! (excerpt from Obama's speech last thursday) It was preeeeetty quiet there since it was 5th sunday thats the week most are notorious for skippin church but it happens to be the day i return, go figure huh? Pretty good sermon, from there we wet to the fruit store to stock up on our produce. Home from there to relax a lil since we were only with 1 child. Ended up all takin a nap after our arby's lunch Woke up and feelin a lil refreshed and motivated i jumped up and got my run on. Like yesterday i did the full 13min timelimit i have all runnin at 6mph and clocked a distance of 1.3miles straight runnin. When i weighed in the night before i was estatic to find ive lost ALL the weight i gained in the now 31 weeks ive been unemployed and am back to 160! Now that im runnin daily surely the rest of the weight will continue to drop off and im sure the rest will fall off while im away in job training. The BMI says i have to be no more than 148lbs for my height (5'6") to be deemed normal weight so im lookin to get the weight down even further. Jumped up into the shower and got ready to head up to my parents since my mom asked to keep my son as well as Tamia. We convoy up north via Best Buy where i purchased an 8gb MicroSD card for my Blackberry as ive officially decided to vacate my PDA since i havent even been usin it since i got this Blackberry Curve, so to move all files and pictures i have stored over i up'd the storage size from 1gb to 8gb on my phone (the sd card in my PDA was a 4gb) Go by tha Cane 1st to check on her the south to my parents. Talked with them for a bit about me leavin for job training and laughed about the new hot sauce i bought for my dad from the fruit store off River Rd. They make special hot sauces, jams, salad dressings, even BBQ sauce. Headed back home from there and watched a ew Tivo'd shows befre workin on the PC a lil bit before off to bed.
Monday- Start out very...VERY disorganized. Woke up to a quiet household as wifey was at work and kids were at my grandparents. Spent most of the mornin tryin to coordinate wit lil momma a time that would could hang out but that didnt come to fruition. Did some stuff on the PC got some discs copied and watched some of the hurricane coverage and the lack thereof of RNC coverage (oh sooooooo tragic lol) Text'd Locks to see if she had to work so we could have lunch and patch up the arguing from last week, she was off but had family plans so did the prelim apology over txt msg and left it at that. Eventually i showered and headed north a lil after 3 to get errands done. Stopped at Schucks to return the battery charger/air compressor i bought last week for $69 as i saw one in Sunday paper ads @ Joes for $39. But they ended up price matchin it even though it wasnt the same model nor style so i was coo wit that! Headed to Best Buy from there to return the 8gb Microsd card i bought since i found one @ Fry's for $39. Bought the new Game and Lloyd cd's that i had no idea came out and popped that Game cd in as i headed north to frys. That was craaaaaaaaaaaaazy! I get 2 microsd cards as ill be gettin wifey a blackberry next week in preps of turnin the finances over to her while im outta town and 1 for me of course. Got another label maker cartridge and headed toward the line when i realized the line was backed up all the way 3/4 toward teh back of the store! it was a madhouse in there! As i waited in line i ended up seein the Iron Gym system i just bought off an infomerical for $29! (I paid $57 after s/h and rush shipment on the 28th of Aug) So i snatched that up and made a note to call and cancel my order asap when they open tmrw. I was in that line so long they know they wrong for havin food snaked through out the line. I was hungry and they had items id never seen before so outta curiosity had to buy lol. Chocolate flavored Skittles, Flamin hot Fritos and Lays chips. Finally got all paid for and headed to the truck STILL tryin to coordinate hangin wit lil momma but it just wasnt gonna happen the gurl is just too much a busy body. Headed to tha Cane to properly inflate all the tires on the trailer with the air compressor machine and met up wit my mom to sign back over a check she had gotten for me to keep me afloat if i had needed it which since i got the emer unemployment extention that keeps me afloat another 11wks. Headed on south from there stoppin by office depot to do a lil price comparison shoppin then home finally. Ate like a dang cow i was so hungry, and scanned all my shows only watchin the political portions and scannin through the hurricane footage since it was outdated by the time i got home. Worked on vacatin my PDA, but that was givin me problems for a minute cause when formattin the microsd card it went from 7.4gb of avail space down to just 3.4! i was like oh heck no if thats all the space i was gonna get i mine as well just had gotten the 4gb card! But it was a minor flaw, i reformatted and got it back up to 7.4 but not all my pics transferred over. Put together the Iron Gym and gave it a shot and sho nuff that thing WORKS! I was hella impressed! Even wifey gave it a shot before fearing she'd fall lol. For all of you out there potentially interested in it, it holds up to 300lbs so your weight wont be an issue. Got my run on this time only doin a mile alternatin btwn 6 and 7 mph, clocked in at 9:30. That was enough for me since i was really pushin myself. Watched a lil tv and called it a night.
Tuesday- What a whirlwind of a day. Started out early wit my job lead callin and sayin they wanted me to get up there ASAP and sign paperwork. Cake had stopped by for a second so said hey to her for a minute then got my kids ready and headed up to my sisters house to drop off my kids. Met my contact dude up north at Kmart and carpooled up to Seattle. Got there and started processing the final paperwork. Some of the Chief guys in there were pretty funny so chopped it up with him while he was doin my paperwork. Chose my trade which will officially be "Advanced Electronics/Computer Field". Advised me it comes with a $10k enlistment bonus as well as a $5k bonus for havin an AA degree. So comin out of bootcamp and trade school ill bank a total of $15k in incentive pay. (thats more than i made in OT at the corrections center all 2007!) Got all signed and official, took my DEP picture (im startin to talk in more detail now cause its official and done so no one can run interference) and was debriefed on the penalty of goin AWOL and desertion in time of war (death penalty). Did a brief crash course of stances and was immediately sworn in as a U.S. Navy E3 Sailor. Took off wit my recruiter after gettin yet another backpack of goodies and headed back to Kent to get my truck. Up the hill to get my kids then on to the freeway home. Gave wifey the news while drivin that its t-minus 2wks till im sent off to camp and that all affairs must be squared away then before i leave since i wont be back till possibly christmas if i have enough leave to come back. Immediately got on the treadmill and ran the 13:30min only gettin 1.37miles, .13mi short of goal. Showered up, watched some political shows when phone rang. It was recruiter askin if i could meet'em at a local park the following day to do my military prelim assessment test. Test? 42 pushups and 50 situps, 2min each, and 1.5mi in 13:30? (base time is 13min but the older you are a lil more time is alloted and i dont know the official time still) I agree to it and get ready for bed.
Wednesday- Tossed and turned for the latter park of the night with the anxiety of the test loomin in my mind. Woke up officially 0600 and got dressed. "property of us navy" t-shirt, tommy shorts, and firgrove elementary pullover. I get there round 0630 but no navy guys so im like what the heck? Txt'd Cake askin if there was another entrance since i had never been to the park since id never been there before. There was a cop sittin across the street on patrol and im thinkin in my head all i need for him to think is sussub in the park where dumbass women were joggin ALONE. (there were several) yeah lades, how quick are you to forget we had the South Hill Rapist that struck last year and was never caught that im aware of! They eventually arrive and we start doin stretches and ish. I was hopin to do the run 1st to get it knocked out but noooooo we had to do the pushups first (no prob) then the situps (struggled but got'em) now my freakin mid-section is hurtin and its run time! I sit on the ground stretchin all out and gettin back in the run mode while they were shootin the breeze. When it was time to start there were 3 of us recruits. We all started out pacing together, the girl took the lead, i used her to pace, then the guy paced wit me. Not too far into the job she started to fall back so i took the lead and the guy pacing wit me. Probably the equiv of 1/2 way around he fell off but i kept my pace cause i aint in this for team morale or friends. This is my LIFE. So i kept it movin and made it a full lap around at 6:30min. Finally needin a break (the trail so many turns/twists uneven pavement and hills, not like runnin the treadmill for 13:30) I speed walked keepin the momentum and i heard the guy now behind me takin the lead. Never saw the girl again till it was over. He stopped a stone throw away from me so i smirked and thought "yeah thats what i thought" I pick it back up and he hears me comin up on'em so he tries to again pace with me as i was breakin even wit'em that didnt last long though he soon gave up keepin my speed. i got 1/2 way again and took another breather as i was spent bein on those hills. But i agreed wit myself after i got over that one hill in the back wooded area i pick it up and not stop till i was at the finish line and thats just what i did, never seein that guy again nor the girl. I finished around 14min and was SPENT. one of the recruiters congratulated me and said i passed so i was thankful to hear that specially after he told me at camp its in indoor track so no hills and excessive curves and no wind drag. So i do have an excellent chance of successfully completing the run w/out issue. Dizzily drove home (lol) and crashed on the couch while wifey was gettin Tamia ready for her 1st day of school. The plan was OUT to walk her to school most definitely. We drove her to school and i let wifey drop her off to class while i sat in the truck w/Marcus. Came back home and crashed on the couch again wit Marcus and watched some shows. Ended up talkin wit lil momma for 2hrs before my in-law showed up dumpin off my mother in-laws ish. He sat for a few and talked a lil before he took off and i went back to doin stuff on laptop gettin stuff handled. Closed down my long used Biznotpleasure address as it was used for co-workers (now former) and wasnt bein used. Got it all blown out my Blackberry and FINALLY ate a meal before it was time to get Tamia from school. Went and picked her up which she was very excited and i was happy for her definitely. Later that evening when wifey came home that marked the return of the in-law no doubt. (dun dun duuuuun) Watched the RNC coverage of Palin's speech and to my disgust thereafter went to bed.
Thursday- Had a horrible time sleepin, the anxiety of me leavin so soon preyin on my slumber. Got up and got the kids ready to walk Tamia to school, decided to test her to see how responsible she is so had her lead me to her classroom, which she did without incident. Walked back home and chilled doin lil odds and ends responsiblities in preps of turning everything over to wifey in my absence. Come time to pick up Tamia we walked back over and picked her up then returned home till it was time for wifey to get there as i had a DEPS mtg to attend at the recruiters office. 4pm came and i arrive and their goin through some refresher courses of stuff. I hop on board as its obvious these people have been doin this for weeks and weeks on in and here i am just now hoppin on board. I find out i have that mtg and one more before i leave, these other recruits arent leavin till october, even december, and january! i appeared to be the only one literally fast tracked on through. No qualms wit that at all long as i succeed and not fail. We practice some steps then march over to the local park. half march then jog (double time). Get there, do some stretches then of all things.... they play football. Im like what the hell?? i have 13 days to go before i leave and ya'll wanna play football? I need to be doin somethin PRODUCTIVE. Studyin... somethin! Not knowin what to do i go ahead and act like i care to play the whole time not givin a f**k. at the line of scrimmage ALWAYS standin out far left side, only defendin when i had to (touch football) and unfortunately bein passed to 3x to which had 1 completion. 1 ball he over threw another flat out failed to recieve (i WATCH football occasionally but i do NOT play it.) As the game went on and i cared less and less i flat out stopped even runnin just walked it whether offense or defense. I was absolutely DISGUSTED at the stench of some of those guys to the point i could care less if it was my job to defend you got a pass if you lined up wit me cause i aint touchin your stank a**. If i EVER smelled like that 1) id avoid whatever it was that caused me to stink so bad or 2) would immediately cut out and shower. Now call me a ladies man, call me a metrosexual but there is NOTHIN sexy about sweatin and STINKIN as a result. Now hot and sweaty sex im in! but sweaty and stankin? (dry heavin). I was so glad when they finally called it a game (i hadnt even broke a sweat lol) we double timed it all the way back to which every jog i apply myself too to keep in shape. Stayed up wit the lead pack as a pace and was among the top 5 back to the office. Sat around loitering with their stinch soooo ready to leave till the recruiter had a chance to talk to me. Cut out and went home to debrief wifey on the day's waste of time events. Watched some tivo'd shows wit her, showered, studied a bit then off to bed.
Friday- Got Tamia to school this time fully activatin the test i initiated the day before. I walked her to the front door and told her to go straight to class. (to which she did) Me and Marcus returned home to gather up a few items then took off to head up to tha Cane to get'er ready for a possible final launch the next day. Picked her up and took her to Chevron and filled up the tank (bout $160) then towed to my parents house and plugged her in to charge the batteries all day. Returned home and took care of all the bills needed payin. Ended up hearin from my homegurl Ellen who i hadnt talked to in AGES!! She caught wind that i was shippin out so chimed in to say whaddup and give me her support as shes got a lot of military in her family as well. Watched some tv and catnapped till it was time to get Tamia. Came home and palled around a lil and did my workout run that yielded me 1.4mi in 13:30, the closest to goal ive been. Kelitha came home so went up and picked up tha Cane and towed her back to her place of moorage. Ended up runnin into my girl lil momma so sat and talked wit her for a couple hours. Part of that farewell tour thats started. Im gonna miss her, amongst some of you others thats been there for me through these hard 8 months. Ran into my sister while we were fraternizin but eventually parted ways and returned home to slumber.
Saturday- Woke up round 9ish still lackin good sleep from the anxiety. We gathered up all the items and lunch etc we'd need and headed on up to tha Cane. Loaded her up wit all our goodies and all and towed her on up to Lake Washington's Atlantic City launch. No traffic there just as i like it, so got her put in the water w/out incident. No sooner do i move the truck and trailer and get all launching prepared i get approached by some broad wantin to launch from the same side of the pier as me. Now keep in mind, theres 2 piers. you launch from the left and right of either side. So that gives you 4 launch pads and that i recall 2 of 4 were taken, 1 rt side and 1 lt side (i was on lt side) I look at her like, you better get the hell on as when i was pullin up WITH my trailered boat they were off to the side bullsh**in when they couldve already had their gear set and launchin. So i told her ill be leavin in a few minutes so she'd have to wait. Slightly irritated but not lettin her spoil my day i continue on wit the launch proceedings. My transom was bein stubborn and didnt want to lower into the water (has done it before) but eventually did and the engine whirred to life w/out incident. All prepped we pushed off and reversed from the dock as they were lowerin their boat into the water. Get out into the water and pull up the bumpers so as not to lose one this trip and initially headed south to Gene Coulon before turnin and headin northward toward I-90 and 520 floating bridges. This was the 1st time i was able to use tha Cane since i had installed the hydrofoil over her propellor so was gettin a good feel of her handling with this new enhancement and lemme tell you that was a worthy $50. She turned so sharp i thought i'd capsize at times! and opening up that throttle everywhere we went was between 25-30mph and planed so smooth like cuttin butter wit a knife! We got up under 520 and headed westbound passin Husky stadium as the game was goin. Passed by the Seattle Yacht Club and who of course was lyin there waiting... Seattle PD. Im doin the speed limit in that area as its posted at the bridge 7mph but that dont stop'em at all just like last time, YOU NEED TO SLOWDOWN YOURE GOIN TO FAST! I tell'em im doin the 7 like im supposed to! (to which i was even pacing behind 2 other boats in front of me to which if i was speeding they obviously were too) But that didnt stop them from harassing the black man. He tells me well youre makin too much of a wake you'd be responsible for any damage as a result. Im like what the HELL do you think a big 23' Bayliner is gonna do? Make lil bubbles like a kid fartin in the tub?! Im sorry the 5.0L engine has too much power for your lil slip mr. one-time but im within the speed limit and surely within my rights (as he didnt try to detain me or pull me over just basically yelled in passing, literally) We continue through gettin into elliot bay but continuing westward toward ballard locks. Upon arrival we pulled off to the side and tied the lines down until it was our turn to enter. When it was time it was neeeeeeeerve wrecking! I lost all sense of port/starboard and everything! lol Ended up tyin up next to another huge yacht right up front! Another tied up next to us and they closed the gates and without even realizin it they lowered us as the salmon jumped around our boat and out the to Puget Sound we went! Got out to the no wake zone and open'er up again and headed southbound from Seattle all the way down to South tip of Vashon Island and the inlet into the Port of Tacoma. Feeling successful in our long journey we turned around and headed back northbound. Kelitha finally decided to step up to the plate and drive which she hadnt done before. Drove for a few miles before relinquishing her role feeling successful in her skills lol. I opened'er up again (as wifey had drove but only bout 18mph vs my 27-30mph) attempting to catch up with a couple cruise ships that just came out of port of seattle but was unsuccessful as wifey needed to pee and couldnt handle my choppy speeding ( minor porpoising as i passed over the waves of the faunteleroy ferry to vashon. ) We eventually got back into the inlet leadin to Ballard Locks but jusssst missed the closing of the locks so had to pull to the side and wait like 30-40min till they reopened for us. Got in finally and tied down and soon were lifted back into the fresh waters and as the sun was settin even more turned on the nav lights at the bow and crept through from locks to u-dub at 7mph not gettin through till a cloak of darkness was around use. Tryin to dump the sewage i opened'er up tryin to cross over lk wa asap to kirkland to the only dump site i was familiar wit. But it was so dark i couldnt find it! I checked another spot but wasnt there either! i thoguth for sure i had put it in my gps but apparently not. Erbody was asleep so im doin allll this by myself and the tank meter startin to dance around E. (was a fully tank when we started) By the time i got to I-90 it wasnt dancin round E anymore it was ON E and stayin there lol. Oh i started praaaaayin then hopin the engine wouldnt cut off, the whole time floorin it still only slowin down to go under the bridges. Rounded seward park into the homestrech (keep in mind it was full on dark outside since comin out of u-dub. I pull up and slide right on into the dock, go get the truck and slide tha Cane on'er and crankin her up on there w/out incident wit the powerwinch and was out the water within minutes. We were out the water round 930pm. Got everything secured and headed on down Rainier to the freeway. Decidin not to go up Lea Hill anymore wastin gas i got off at Central and up Canyon straight on to the moorage site savin gas and time. Decidin to clean'er and get everything off at another time we parked her, secured her and headed home via Burger King as we had missed dinner only packin enough for lunch on the boat and a snack. Crashed after watchin some tv and that was the week at a glance!
August 30 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 8- WEEK 30Sunday- Off to a slow non productive start for the most part. Continued on wit the Star Wars marathon as the rain settled back in. Been tryin to troubleshoot the pc upstairs thats now gotten messed up thanx to a microsoft "bad patch" that it had installed. Now i cant even get into windows at all and bein system restore had been turned off i cant set it back to a version that wasnt corrupted. So tryin to figure out a plan to save all the data and emails and applications filled out or i could be in a world of hurt. Went through the rest of the day tryin to get somethin to work but it didnt take. We got up to episode 6 of star wars before we called it a day, watched some political shows and took a hot shower before retiring to bed outta sheer boredome cause everyone had went to bed. Started readin the 2nd book in the Godfather trilogy (The Godfather Returns) and enjoyed the peach and quiet of a house somewhat restored for a day since my in-law never showed up. Wifey was a lil unnerved but i was quite content even though i know it aint gonna stick probably
Monday- Started out slow. Was in bed when phone rang. Was the bank updatin me sayin the debt consolidation loan was approved but is contingent on me gettin this job (ooooof course) So i called up the job lead who i caught off guard bein it was so early in the am and let the bank and him hammer out some facts on what each other needs to make this deal on both sides work since its a "hypothetical" standoff on both sides. They exchange fax #'s and ish and we disconnect. Watch some of the DNC coverage on MSNBC then came downstairs and watched a couple tivo'd shows. Later my job lead calls me again with some off the wall ish i had to shut down in its tracks. He asks me have i considered refinancing my HOUSE and consolidating my debt into my mortgage. I was immediately turned off but let him say his peace and state his case. He stated as such because at this job they dont consider your mortgage as debt so basically id be "hiding" my credit card debt on paper. I told'em 1st of all i concede the point that 4-5 cards with x amount of debt does look bad yes. but 4-5 cards = x, 1 loan = x or a mortgage + x = y either way with loan or refinancing house id still have same amt of $$ comin out of my pocket per month just one is hiding it the other is consolidating it. second, you STILL not guaranteeing me a job if i DO refinance so why would i go and finance my debt into the term of my mortgage and i still potentially end up with nothing. He conceded the point. I asked him had he even pressed it through with the p/t that he brought to the table last week. Again answered in the negative. So i was done with the convo, i told'em you press it through AS IS with the loan consolidation, and/or the p/t. If they decline well i gotta go cause im wastin time jumpin through all these hurdles and not getting any guarantees. He acknowledged and we got off the phone.
Wifey came home a couple hrs later and i relayed the info to her then me and Tamia walked around the corner to her school for the 1st grade reading assessment test she had to take to place her in the proper class. I ended up meetin up wit my gurl D who was bringin her daughter that was Tamia's classmate to the assessment as well. We talked and laughed and caught up a bit since i hadnt seen her in a couple months. They went in and did their thing while we talked and her daughter came out before mine so they took off 5 min before we did. She eventually came back out and the teacher said she did GREAT and obviously had been practicing! I was very proud of her! Grabbed up some free books they had sittin in a bin in the hallway and walked home. When i got there after racing Tamia home in a sprint (that lil gurl is pretty fast!) i found the inlaws car in the driveway... greeeat. I go inside through the garage and turned on the water and upstairs to grab a shower. Come back downstairs as mother in law was leavin wit the last of her stuff. She says bye and i wave (with a smile) and keep about doin what i was doin. Fired up the trailblazer and headed up the street to have a Sangria wit Cake and socialize since i havent sat down and convo'd wit her in forever! Headed north from there to my parents house to grab up software i was gonna need to redo my crashed pc then stopped by the cane again for awhile. Headed home from there and held yet another intense convo wit wifey about her mother. She spoke her peace then i spoke all of mine from beginning to end makin her concede fact after fact that the way she approached me in the 1st place TELLIN me her mom was gon wasnt right and the 2 major points that when her mom was askedkin her if she could stay here 1) i shouldve been involved in the INITIAL convo and that they were bein shady with channeling it through her cause they knew she'd cave and id stand our ground when she wont and 2) as her husband SHE then shouldve shut it down and said im married, i have kids and i dont live alone so we need to talk as a collective and come to an understanding. I made her concede the points that it started as an open ended offer wit no close, a blank check and i knew that in the 1st place and wasnt cool with it. In the end i told her she can stay for the month and a half that she (her mom) said she'd need. but come oct 1st i want her GONE. point blank period. Its not our problem it was their boneheaded decision and the stress on this household has only intensified with her presence. I went and reshowered since in all my runnin around i got a lil sweaty and came back and watched tv wit wifey ended up crashin on the loveseat in front of the bed till 3am where i got up and got in bed.
Tuesday- Woke up and finished watchin tivo'd DNC footage and worked on the pc a lil. Windows loaded on an aux drive i have (60gb, 300 gb, and 400gb drives in my pc) so i was able to recover my documents and pics on the 300 and move it to the 400 drive. Talked to lil momma throughout the day as she was runnin around like a chicken without a head lookin for a rand mcnally mapbook w/disc. Always funny and entertainin talkin to that girl lol. Wifey txt'd me asked if i wanted to sitdown and talk with the inlaws about her stayin here to "do it right" i replied what for? damage has already been done no point in tryin to backtrack it now. I told her nope long as she knows oct 1 is the deadline and she respects this household, our rules, and cleans up after HERSELF (shes left messes in Tamia's room that she's had to clean up, as well as in the kitchen). Frankly shes NEVER helped cook a meal in the house and that ive seen only put $40 into this house yet our water, electricity, sewage, and food consumption goes up..up..UP. Wifey eventually called when she was off work and i was unstairs gettin the last of the files transferred over on the pc so hopefully nothin'll be lost when i officially crash and reinstall it. Job lead called and said all was bein sent up for approval and we'd know the following day if i can get the job or not. I applied for a couple other jobs online still pressin forward in the journey of gettin re-employed. Got an email from my old boss checkin in and pretty much called me out about the title "warden" lol i chuckled but didnt reply cause i want to have some news to report when i do. Was amused on how he knew about it though cause the only way that would be known is if there was a snitch that reads my book of lon and reported it back to him as if it was somethin to tell. Well now im callin YOU out. Everyone here is not mentioned by name but code talk so my codename for you is SNITCH. You see me in the street dont even acknowledge my presence cause i want nothin to do wit you and your gossip ways. Wifey came home wit Fatburger so we sat around the table and partook of the fruits to our disappointment. Watched some tivo'd shows together then upstairs to watch DNC coverage and the Hillary speech. Was fairly impressed myself. Showered and off to bed.
Wednesday- Lazy slow morning. Stayed in bed watchin Q13 news then moved it over to... (drum roll) MSNBC! They werent sayin much just buzzin over Clinton's speech then some republican idiots (Guliani) tryin to split hairs and parse words of "but she didnt say this! so dah dah dah!" If you listened to the whole speech you ol bastards you'd know you dont have to use exact words for it to have the same meaning and conclusion you accusin her of not reachin. Had to turn away before i threw somethin at my own tv. Watched some tivo'd shows then went downstairs to check the mail. Of course cant hide the fact i have a dandilion field again so pulled out the lawnmower to make it look green like the other yards lol. Came in and we all had lunch and watched more MSNBC. Let the kids go play in the backyard while i watched some shows and did some online surf'n and lettin the day rot away. Eventually the ol' lady came home so i was off duty wit the kids lol Made for nothin productive though just more DNC coverage allllll day into the evening. Watchin Bill Clinton talk, Joe Biden.... feelin the energy wishin i could be there to see it live! Eventually went upstairs to grab a shower then back down to watch some tivo'd shows and off to bed by 0100.
Thursday- Started out slow watchin the news then of course MSNBC. Heard the recycle man in the neighborhood earlier than usual so gathered up the recycle and took the bin to the corner. Eventually came downstairs to feed the brood lunch and check the mail. Got my daughter's lil postcard announcing who her teacher will be and stuff. how exciting!. Got the phonecall FINALLY from my job lead sayin they gonna go ahead and take me on for the p/t position and in a year go fulltime if i so desire. Hey whatever it takes to get me in the door. Will likely go to training next month we'll see when i go on tuesday to sign the official paperwork. Well took a lil catnap since not much was goin on on MSNBC and woke up to the cluck who'd been outside the lve talkshows of Hardball w/Chris Matthews, and Race for the white house w/David Gregory. Over and over wit his bullhorn for 2hrs he'd yell "9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB!!! 9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB!!" He actually was so loud specfically today that both shows actually had to stop for a second and apologize for his ignorance lol I actually was able to finally see'em myself as he must've hoisted himself on his partners shoulders. While watchin'em my phone rang again and it was the job lead sayin disregard his last, they decided to go fulltime not parttime wit my hiring and should be signin papers to get training on tuesday. Hung up the phone feelin a sense of relief that this unemployment drought will finally be over soon after 7 long months. That absolutely incredible to me. 7 long months. When wifey came home we all sat around the tv for what would be a night we'd never forget in our lifetime. We watched Barack Obama make his nomination speech for the presidency of the United States of America. It was so powerful and important to watch as a family because in our lifetime they'll probably never be another legitiment African American candidate for the presidency. So whether people open their eyes to the message of hope that he truly brings to the U.S. vs the 4 more years of bushonomics this moment is truly a moment in history. After it was over watchin the commentators stumblin over each other was somethin for the comics lol. Even Pat Buchanan an avid republican was fawning over the speech and that caught even more people off guard. I watched'em for awhile then got up full of energy and went and ran on the treadmill doin 1.1miles in 10:30. Still not where i need to be but good start for takin the last 1.5wks off. Jumped off dripping wit sweat as if i just went into double overtime in the bedroom layin that d**k down hahahahaha Jumped in the shower then back out to watch Big Brother wit wifey then back downstairs to record the Obama speech onto DVD to be put into storage to years from now sit down wit my kids and recall this special moment in history. If any of you need a copy to watch and keep in safe storage lemme know ill be more than happy to burn it onto disc for you free of charge.
Friday- Well started out with my jaw on the floor. Turned on the tv to see who the Republican VP was and was sucked like all the rest of america. Never even heard of the lady before but i sure hope america isnt fooled that it dont matter that theres a woman on the ballot, its what the top of the ticket (mccain) stands for and is about and if she was smart she'd even see how anti woman he truly is. Interesting they only met 2x before he knew she was the one to be his vp and only been a governor for 18months. Was pretty stunned all day watchin it and workin on the pc upstairs. Later in the day finally went through all the mags ive been lettin build up downstairs tryin to get my mind off the shock. Came downstairs and ran 1.1 miles to burn the rest of the energy off then into the shower. Watched a lil sesame street with my son since wifey had came and got Tamia and took to my parents house for the weekend. Watched some tivo'd shows recorded and studied a lil bit for this career and off to bed.
Saturday- Slept in a lil bit since wifey had the boy downstairs, got up and turned on the tv to watch the day's events wit politics and Gustav. Worked on the computer a lil gettin it back up on internet etc when i get a txt from a friend who had asked me last nyte what i thought about Palin bein on the ticket. I wrote'em an email last night givin my opinion based off what ive learned about both tickets. Well this am she comes at me sayin she knew she shouldnt have said anything to me cause im so opinionated and hostile. Im like WHAT?? are you kiddin me?! you ASK my opinion then act like you got buyers remorse cause i spit educated fact at you not just off the cuff opinion and you wanna attack me? So i called her ignorant which then leads to argument as she comes at me sayin one can only call you ignorant so many times before it becomes offensive. I told her YOU attack me callin me "opinionated" when 1st of all you came to me askin my opinion and what i gave was factual based not just talkin ish, and "hostile" when all i did was told you the truth! Yeah on HERE it is now hostile cause now im f**kin PISSED. She then counters wit the ultimate low. "no wonder you lose a lot of friends" Now that right there is when i always did become hostile as Lucy had pressed the same button and i took the bait. I was ready to light FIRE to that a** for talkin to me like that but i chose a different road. Not the higher road but a different road cause i had already started to type F**K YOU but i deleted and just left it at, "no i lose friends cause they DRUNK DIAL me and dont like what they hear as a result" Which was the truth as according to her admission the previous night she had been drinking wit her dude. Well, you dont wanna hear the truth, take your drunk a** on then and dont talk to me about somethin you dont wanna hear the truth on. How the hell do you NOT claim ignorance where for months (if not still now) you openly admit you refuse to educate yourself about obama and his policy plans for the future? You just gonna vote party lines or off only religious beliefs. that IS ignorance by definition and i dont know of anyone that wouldnt back me up wit tellin someone that cause if they dont they lyin to your FACE. I take pride in givin my insight/opinion to anyone that asks me cause i make sure i know what the hell im talkin about before i say anything otherwise id TELL you dont quote me on it and that im not sure. But when it comes to politics i sit here ALL day watchin the news and readin newsweek and their website so i take great pride in knowin how anti-woman mccain is and the fool he's tryin to make of women to hide his record by puttin a woman on the ticket! prove it? Check his votin record on equal pay for women (voted against), check his record on assistance to single family women (voted against), hell he wears it out on his sleeve about a womans right to choose (against it). Now i back him on that one as im against abortion* and that "*" is i am ok with it in cases of rape, incest, and threat to ones life. But Palin? She's against it even in THOSE scenarios too. Now to me thats just too extreme. What did my email say? The EXACT email will be attached at the very bottom of this chapter for your viewing. NOTHING has been altered or changed its intregity preserved. Went about my day working on the PC and called up to T-Mobile inquiring about gettin my wife a blackberry as when im away on business she'll be left to pay the bills and 90% of our bills are e-bill. Did some laundry and watched the final installment of star wars wit wifey and thats the week!
since you were drinkin and wouldnt call me another friend of mine wanted to discuss it as well so ill just send you what i typed them: yeah i been sittin here in the house stunned for most of the day. It was a move even i didnt see comin and i study MSNBC all freakin day. Totally just took the wind out of the democrats sails by dominating the newscycle ALL day. Studyin what they say about her i just dont get it and he's got alot of republicans upset about it. He passed up a lot of qualified female republicans and he only met palin 2x per the news and he suddenly feels she's what he needs to win? Is this man senile? she's got ZERO foriegn experience so i cant imagine what the hell he's thinkin that if he croaks she's able to talk iran down from goin nuclear? I dont wanna be male shovenist but i seriously dont see ANY of those presidents/dictators takin a woman seriously with "stern talk" they'd probably laugh and say b**ch go bake me cookies! Now dont get me wrong, if Clinton was the top of the demo ticket i'd vote for her cause shes' got experience and a backbone that guys wouldnt walk over her but this palin to me is just a hockey mom like she said she is thats working her way up. mayor of a 9k town for awhile then only governor for 18months? Now i know they argue yeah well obama has no experience but at least he's ON the floor in the senate with knowledge of how washington works and foreign affairs and has BEEN to those countries. this woman knows nothin bout washington and even by her own interviews before bein notified of her bein chosen was like "i dont even take this seriously!" But what worries me is women are gonna vote blindly just cause its a woman and they want a woman in the highest office but not realizin you votin for MCCAIN not Palin and bein mccain voted WITH bush over 90% of the time (factually checked) they're votin for a 3rd term bush just cause they want a woman in office! Is it worth makin the nation suffer another 4yrs of economic hardships just cause you want to have a woman in office? That scares me cause WE gotta live here too if people go and make a boneheaded decision cause they still pissed about Hillary losing. McCain is so anti-woman its not funny and like a wiseman he goes and gets a woman to try to cover that fact up that he voted against equal pay for women, voted against single parent assistance rather sayin they need to be further educated, when some guy on the campaign trail called hillary a BITCH he just laughed and didnt correct it, just a horrible man. I dont wanna take a 10% chance of change with him. If he was gonna change the nation why hasnt he done that the 26yrs hes been in the senate? why should we believe him NOW? That by default makes one believe obama more cause even though we dont have a "track record" of his accomplishments he wants to change it as he did southside chicago when he started his political career, so who would you believe the guy who says gimme that chance to change the nation like i did in chicago, congress, and senate or the guy who hasnt changed anything in 26yrs in the senate and even in the 8yrs since his last presidential campaign but NOW that he got the nomination says ill do it! ill do it! He ran off the rhetoric of having experience and judgement to lead then gets a VP with NEITHER! Now im very much pro-gun myself. I have that ak that obama referred to just not the gang affliation ;) and i am anti-abortion/pro-life but even i type that with an asterick cause rape/incest/threat to life i feel its ok. shes against it even in those cases and to me thats just too extremist. and once women and the rest of this nation really start searchin their backgrounds in those instances that palin by default is grouped into mccain's anti-woman voting record, its as if she was set up for failure (if it dont work) the senile 72yo man gambled and lost. And to see Palin and Biden debate in october? OMG i fear for her he'd tongue-twist the woman on suni/shite factions and other foriegn affairs that she has no knowledge of but will be forced to "study up" in the next 67 days to SEEM knowledgeable of issues she admits knows nothin of. You put the future of our nation in the hands of that? That immediately made me reconsider joining the military. But id be HONORED to say i served in Obama's navy cause i know his intentions are to keep me OUT of harms way and military action LAST not first. If mccain wins expect me to be writing you from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and/or Russia. Dont rule out N. Korea if they restart their nuke program. i will be watchin the RNC all next week as im very open minded of learning about both sides of the election and the knowledge i can bring to you and other friends that threaten to vote strictly along party lines or religious beliefs. Black and White. but this world is a prism. If you happy wit the way life is, the economy, and the future for your kids and specifically your daughters, i guess mccain truly is your candidate. But if not, you better do sincere homework on obama and you'll learn who's truly for you as a woman and your daughters and for changin this economy, the rhetoric of "more of the same" pertaining to mccain really is a gimic. If he voted with bush more than 90% of the time, you really wanna gamble on 10% of change? Watch this link thats his acceptance speech and details EVERYTHING he will try to do for you and me in his presidency. If you never do anything else for me ever in your life please watch this for me. I had even my kids sit with me and kelitha and watch it because this was very important to us as African-Americans. Not as democrats but as African-Americans because chances are NEVER in our lives will we have another African American presidential candidate with a viable shot of really becoming president. So to hear him speak and accept the nomination was a moment in history that i'll never forget and recorded it onto DVD to one day again show my kids when they're older to understand that this really was something in our modern day the equivalent of Martin Luther King's speech at Washington Capital. So please do watch it all the way through if not for the political knowledge, for the historical. (and no no need to donate just press play on the clip) https://donate.barackobama.com/page/content/acceptancespeechnd?source=feature_nom August 24 BOOK OF LON- CHAPTER 8, WEEK 29Sunday- Oh the drama was still ongoing. She just took it way too far wit me last week. So all communication was at a minimum all day and i much preferred it that way. We went to the fruit market to stock up and comin back up on the hill stopped at Toys R Us real quick to get training wheels for my daughters bike we got for her birthday back in April. She never learned how to ride a bike growin up so she has no concept of balancin her weight, steering and pedaling all at once. Then to Costco where we spent an extraordinary amt of $$ for our household. ($300). Came home and watched tv as usual for a bit and ate then took Tamia over to the school to crash course learn how to ride. I made sure the training wheels were loose so she wouldnt get comfortable usin'em but get the sense of balance usin'em as a weak guide. She struggled for awhile afraid she was gonna fall off (the bike is kinda big for her) We gradually moved from the parking lot to other parts of the playground. It was quite frustrating as i dont have much patience lately with all the stress goin on. I needed to run since i hadnt all day and even though i was wearin my crocs i did 2 laps around a square walking path they have draggin my daughter behind me by grabbin her handle bars and makin her peddle so she'd get the concept. Finally we stopped at the basketball course and i made her trace the yellow boundary line to practice her steering. She finally got it so we moved back to the parking lot and told her you wanna go home you gonna have to peddle home cause we aint walkin the bike back (we had walked it to the school) So protested in tears but she knew i was serious and sho nuff she got the concept and she peddled home. I showered and crashed on the couch with a minor sinus headache watchin tv and more intellectual convos wit lil momma
Monday- Was hopin for a good productive day on the employment front but that soon proved false and only got worse. Bummin round the house for the most part enjoyin the cooled down weather. Decided to move the sub box in my trailblazer to the 3rd row since its not bein used fulltime and its been a nuisance not bein able to utilize the trunk space. So got that re-wired and got a special guest appearance from my gurl Cake who i havent seen in probably a month. Caught me off guard and unshowered but hey consequences of poppin up like that! Went back inside and started a round of civilization when i get a knock on the door. Whaaaat the heck. pause and answer the door and its one of my job contacts droppin by to deliver news. Ugh. Invite'em in and we talk at the bar (no drinkin though lol) He tells me that the top dogs are now recyclin all past problems AGAIN. Finances, not believin wifey will find another job and re-locate, WHY am i watchin my kids full-time. I look at him and sit on top of my bar like are you serious?! Why do i watch my kids full-time?! CAUSE IM NOT DOIN ANYTHING ELSE WHY WOULDNT I?! Even when i was workin i still kept my kids full-time because im very active in my kids lives, not cause we cant afford to we chose not to. What you want? A sworn statement from my wife sayin she prooomises them that she'll find a job wherever we land? Its THEM draggin their feet thats preventin me from securin the loan i need to consolidate debt to levels they deem appropriate! So he tells me then that they i guess didnt feel the personal references were good enough and wanted the contact info for my last 3 jobs! Its as if they testin me to see how many buttons they can push before i say ENOUGH. Keep pressin though cause i aint cavin in. I give'em the names and numbers of everyone they need and bid him ado and go back to my game. Wifey eventually arrives wit her mom and im really not in the mood so i retire to the bedroom to take a long shower. She interrupts it wit her attitude about whats wrong wit me i tell her im pissed off and frustrated and debrief her about the job status. She avoids the point i had made that i was pissed off at her and closes the door. I eventually emerge and start watchin my political shows. She emerges again askin if i wanted to talk some more so i oblige. We end up gettin into it pretty loudly about the finer points from her mom to her blatant disrespect on saturday night. After she responds wit sayin she meant what she had said last week about Tamia bad behavior bein partially my fault for not takin her out i told her we have nothin further to say to each other. We get into it again and i tell her to get out and dont talk to me. Period. Get out. She leaves the room w/out protest and we spent most of the night in separate rooms (till she came back in the room to go to bed)
Tuesday- Spent some of the morning in bed not wantin to get up but had to cause Marcus was actin a damn fool. Get them fed and let them play while i lounge awatin more info on the job front. Eventually phone does ring and he tells me he got meetings get for the following day with the corrections center for starters and workin it out wit the rest. Coca-cola was running minor interference with not verifying my employment so i told him id see what i could do. I end up callin up to Bellevue and gettin an employment verification line and forward it back to my contact dude. Opted to play yet a daily installment of Civilization then wife came home. Didnt take her long to get started either. "So what do you wanna do? Get separated or divorced?" I was instantly livid. I told her "if thats where your mind is then do what you gotta do and show me where to sign cause i think its truly pathetic that you'd go to such an extreme vs apologize." We go back and forth gettin loud yet again and me cuttin her off cause i already told her before if you aint gonna apologize i have nothin to say to you. So dont sit here and think im gonna let you argue a point to me about how you dont feel you were wrong when im the one thats offended! Im gonna love watchin her reaction when the kids grow up and get into trouble (hopefully not too much) and other parents, officers, or teachers question her as a parent that they acted in such a manner just like we do to people on tv shows. She'd be floored that anyone questioned her parenting yet she makes statement to me that i take as questioning mine and she dont thinks she's outta line? f**kin hypocrite, whatever dont talk to me. I finish my game up after a couple hours (lol was pretty intense conquering the world!) I watch the shows downstairs that we normally watch in common but now separately, go upstairs to shower, watch my political shows and bed.
Wednesday- Not much at all goin down. straightened up a lil, went downstairs to the trailblazer to get my planner to pay a bill and heard this weird chirping, realized it was my radar detector makin sounds as it was losin power. The battery in the truck goin dead AAAAAGAIN cause i hadnt disconnected it. Whatever i didnt even worry about it let it die. Pay the bill, then since its been on my mind to write another letter to this job im tryin to get i wrote a 1 page letter discussing yet again the finer points of why i wanna work wit'em and that finances nor relocation is not an issue. Shoot it off in an email and press on wit my day doin a load of dishes, takin out the garbage then makin some boooooomb salmon i got from Costco that was one of those "take and bake" dinners. Ugh it was sooooooo good. Even got props from the in-law when they ate some for dinner (no i dont participate in the dinnertable dinners either im truly disgusted by her behavior) Talked to my gurl Cake finally who'd been M.I.A all day due to a dead cell battery and phone service provider flubbin up txt feature on her sk4. Went about doin another installment of Civilization (the game is addictive!), showered and watched my political shows then bed.
Thursday- Got the kids all showered up while watchin a lil of the news. Cleaned the rooms a lil and loadin another load in the dishwasher (which for the record, in-law as assumed NO responsibilites in the house, no contributing to the light/water/sewer bill, rent, NOTHIN yet eats the food, and watches tv) when my cell rang. Called back and it was my job lead sayin he was gonna stop by. OOOOkie dokie not like im doin anything. He gets here and we hammer out my email'd letter and what could be fine tuned and changed to make it better which i had been expecting. He then tells me about what happened when he went to the corrections center the day before. Tells me he sat down wit Warden Steve who had a bunch of nice positive things to say but then after leavin he faxed over his letter of recommendation that contained the key phase that tanked the WHOLE letter. "... has an issue with procedural compliance..." Just like that, his whole letter was null and void. I was PISSED. Can you not hold your tongue just for ONE sentence?! So i gave him 2 other jobs i worked for in the past to use them if necessary cause this all has gone on way too long. I re-write my letter for'em and he takes off after giving me another option of startin parttime with possibility of full time hours and after a year goin full time. After feedin the kids i check the mail to assure no letters of rejection, got an opt out letter from our mortgage lender to not sell our info to other mortgage companies so that should diminish mail clutter. Then i decide to send an email to warden steve askin him if he could reconsider his wording in the letter as that one day phase voided the letter. He asked me what did i tell'em happened that led to my release. I told'em "i was let go for violation of SOP handling a 911 call" which was much softer than "issue with procedural compliance" which is MUCH broader and damaging. we exchanged emails a couple times before he told'em me finally to call'em. So i call immediately and discuss the full situation and he tells me his side of what happened and why he said it that way. He tells me of their sitdown and that he praised me and tried to word it as best as he could to do damage control (the letter had to explain why i was fired). He then revealed to me what he me crackin up inside. Apparently Warden Steve had signed a "no disclosure" form that what was discussed wouldnt get back to me. Well by my job lead tellin me earlier what was said (procedural compliance) that was a violation of that no disclosure! So now he was in an "oh s**t" mode sandwiched between Warden Steve and myself tired of the run around. Warden Steve tells me he's gonna get back in touch with the job lead and ask'em what does he need to do to get me this job cause he wants me to have it. Get back to him tmrw with the answer or he'll go ABOVE him to get the answer. Im sure that had'em shook at that point lol noooo more shadow games. So i then txt my job lead advisin him that warden steve'll be back in touch wit'em about touchin up the reference letter (me not knowin that warden had already been in touch wit'em prior to me and him talkin on the phone). guess that explains why i havent heard back from my lead at the point of this bein typed lol. Probably still shook that he got caught up. Shouldve told me that info was privileged and i never wouldve said anything! Got up later on and baked some teriyaki chicken and hot wing drumstickes...thats right, real fullsize drumsticks with hotwing sauce lol. I talked to my gurl Cake as she was drivin home wit a migraine about the days events until Kelitha and her mom (dun dun duuuuun) got home so i retired to the bedroom w/out a word to her to watch my political shows. Was kinda bummed to see one of'em "Verdict w/ Dan Abrams" was bein cancelled so today was the last episode.
From there uploaded some of those movies i'd been uploadin to my computer onto my ipod. Watched the credits to the Disneyworld dvd and finally just burst into tears. All the stresses over the last 7 months and the last couple weeks finally got to me. 2007 I was on top of the world. The height of my life, blowin money like it was goin outta style (some of you may remember from the showering of gifts for christmas) and now im in the fight of my life just to stay afloat and only one friedn who actually talks to me daily. Just one. I reached out again in another attempt to my old friend Lucy and out the gate it turned ugly on her half. Cant say i blame her but i wish she'd be more forgiving. In the end she concluded with "...too lil too late, now leave me alone." and just like that a friendship was over i guess. Cant force anyone to forgive you for bein a complete a**hole and make it right but ill surely take that lesson ive learned from that mistake and make sure i dont do it to the rest of you. So if you do read this Lucy, Im very sorry.
Friday- And 1 week to the day that the war of the roses....er.....harris's started, in the early hours of the morning it ended. I went to bed round midnightish after talkin to Cake for awhile but woke up to my son fussin round 0300 so went to check on him and he felt soaked so changed his shirt, diaper, crib sheet, the works. Went back to bed but couldnt sleep at all so tossed and turned and let my mind wonder from my life and problems, to Cake, to Marie, to my friendship ending wit Lucy, to how much i wanted to push the body out the bed that was layin next to me. I finally just turned on the tv and watched the news that started at 0500 since from 0400 on her alarm would go off and she'd just hit snooze on it constantly. When she realized i was up and zoned out watchin tv she asked if i wanted a hug. (dont think she knew i had burst into tears the night before minutes after she went to bed) I said sure so she reached over to embrace me and FINALLY whispered "IM SORRY". With that said the war was finally dissolved. I didnt question the "what for?" i just let it be enough and entered to sequence codes to diffuse the nuclear warhead pointed at her side of the bed. She eventually left for work and i went about my day of sittin here catnappin watchin sesame street wit the kids. Phone rang from my job lead several times updatin me on the status of things. The letter from the the corrections center was re-written so now its GOLD per the lead. So thats back in play, got the other from my PTA boss so thats 2 outta 3. He called a 3rd and they didnt even remember me! niiiice. but he had the 4th so i called ahead to assure all would be kosher but my main boss wasnt in so i talked to the owner who did remember me and was very supportive in doin whatever needed to be done so thats bein worked on as i type this installment for the day and havin that complete by the end of today makes it so we dont have to wait on the 5th who dont get back till monday (was initally the 3rd but im tryin to get this done NOW vs waitin) Wifey also txt to advise (yeah since the im sorry the communication has steam rolled) that she was gettin a raise in her wages so i let my job lead know that as well. Watched my political shows live sine there was nothin better to do. Ate at the dining room table as a family again finally since the inlaw went back home for the weekend (as every weekend). Then got down to a good long game of Civilization that lasted till 5am! lol oh it was alooong and good! conquered the world and ended up nukin one country into submission! Went to be thereafter smilin wit the news that Obama/Biden was the ticket!
Saturday- Woke up round 10am, wifey was wantn to go to her annual company picnic. I thought it was too early for me since i dont really know'em and frankly bein unemployed i have nooooot much to report other than sittin on my arse and tryin to find one. I tell her ill meet her there so they take off and i stay behind to watch Obama and Biden do their 1st speech together in Illinois. Was an awesome speech and man Biden is gonna be Obama's pitbull i can see it already. Shaved my head and trimmed up and showered and got ready to go a lil after noon time. Headed up Meridian and stopped at Schucks to get a JumpStart box since the truck's battery was still dead when i got ready to leave and frankly im tired of jumpin it off my pickup. Went to cartoys to get an amp wire as i had moved the box in my trunk but they didnt sell on a spool anymore so went across the street to Cartunz and bought it there and re-wired in their parking lot. From there headed up to Edgewood where they were havin the picnic and when i got there ti was juuuust wrappin up lol oops! fashionably late. Hung out for a few minutes to make my presence known then got back in the truck to leave. Wifey headed home and i headed north to Seattle as i wanted to surprise her wit some philly cheesesteaks from the joint in seattle we get'em from (23rd/union). I had looked up the night before on Barackobama.com where the Washington headquarters was (1610 Mercer St, Seattle) so punched that up on my blackberry using mapquest.com (cant use gps in trailblazer while still in movement) and headed there. I was a lil stunned at the location chosen, its in a building set to be demolished in some obscure part of town if you ask me. Headquarters for all demo's as they had stuff for obama, gregoire, and the guy for land commissioner. i went seeking the new obama/biden rally signs but they didnt have any new stuff yet buttones of shirts, buttons and the likes of regular obama stuff. I grabbed their business card and a Gregoire sign. Was gonna get a Darcy Burner sign but they only had a yard sign for sale and i was there for free stuff unless it was obama stuff i grab some stuff here and there for the souvenir value later on in life. Left there and went on up to 23rd/union only to find the cheesesteak joint closed up abandoned, graffiti tagged and possible drug deal in progress on the side of the building. I was disappointed. snapped a pic of what once was and headed back to the freeway. Stopped on by tha Cane to check on her and hopped aboard to remove some memorabilia given to me by Lucy as well as the water and gatoraide. Tore apart the cushions topside and in the galley seein if i could find my ring (still M.I.A.) even went down below into the engine compartment where i found even a screwdriver underneath the engine itself thats how hard i was lookin (screwdriver was there before i bought the boat so Lord knows how long its been there) Left there wit a smile of the memories aboard her and desiring to take her out and went to my parents to check up on the house and drop off some hot sauce i bought for my dad to try since he's a spice fan. From there headed back to Federal Way area lookin for the other Cheesesteak joint Mapquest said existed but of course that place was closed for the day and to top it off it was an teriyaki joint as well so that tells you it aint authentic. Abandoned the cause and went to 312th/pac to get my teriyaki from our main joint and headed on home. Me and wifey started a Star Wars marathon (her request to my surprise) and enjoyed the rest of the evening. Watching episode 1, 2 then upstairs to watch special edition political shows about the days events.
August 16 BOOK OF LON- CHAPTER 8: WEEK 28Sunday- Sunday was a pretty quiet low key day. Wife was still crampin as a result of miscarriage but bleeding has stopped so we just stayed home. Freakin in-law was comin back anyway so not like we could do much (alone as a family). Watched some tv wit wife and chopped it up wit my girl lil momma bantering back and forth. Got on the topic of exercise and discussin gettin in shape and she was gettin rid of a treadmill so i asked to put it on loan till i leave for work. She agreed so i showered up and folded down the seats in the trailbazer and headed up north to pick it up. Checked on tha Cane first and realized i left my hand truck at home in a rush to get there and back. So stopped by my parents to borrow theirs then over to lil momma's come to find out i didnt even freakin need it at all! Got it down the stairs and loaded and back home to watch some tv and finished Obama's first book (VERY good).
Monday- So i expected to hear back f/my job lead to get papers signed and get this thing solidified but you know my life. That'd be too easy right? Time is goin by and im talkin to my sister about her situation too and her followin up on her job leads. I call mine and sure as the sun shines somethin was goin wrong. The job was tryin to FINANCIALLY disqualify me sayin they're concerned about financial hardship if i was hired. Im thinkin in my head aint this some ish?! Im tryin to GET job to pay OFF debt but they wanna clown and prevent me from bein able to pay?! I make less than what they'd pay on unemp and i get by so why wouldnt i be able to if hired?! He told me he was still in contact with the grumpy admin lady who had waved me off in week 27's friday segment tryin to play wit the numbers and make somethin happen. So i told'em to keep me in the loop. Time passed and i played a few rounds of Civilization while uploadin my DVD movies to my ipod (got a software that allows me to upload DVD's i own onto my ipod). Wifey came home so i got ready to leave for my church trustee mtg. While i was out i thought hey im gonna do a face to face wit this job and see what the deal is cause of all things i cant let debt be my downfall not after all we've been through. So i get there and they doin a bunch of nothin but familiar wit me bein in/out all the time so went in and chopped it up for a few minutes. He took me in a back room and said bottom line basically is doin a debt consolidation or payin off a couple balances to knockout the outgoing monthly expenses. Told'em i'd work on it 1st thing tmrw. Went up to the church for the mtg then back home to watch my msnbc shows shower and shave and bed for an interview i thought i had the following day.
Tuesday- Up a lil early since went to bed early the night before. Watched a lil news, processed another movie and got the kids fed dressed and out the door in a timely manner. Didnt have the address where the interview was and had been tryin to contact the guy to get the address but kept gettin the voicemail. Tried other contacts and got their voicemails. Tried their HR number i googled while on the freeway and even their vm! Must've been a sign. I get off 277th from sr 167 and right at Auburn Way intersection he finally picks up and tells me the interview is not friday not today! NICCCCCE! So i double back on Auburn Way to 15th then onto the freeway stoppin by wifey's job for a few minutes to say hey. Stop to get some $3.87/gallon gas on south hill then home. Got online and applied for a home eq loan and watched some tv while i waited. Time passed and my job contact called to discuss the amt i had wrote down for my wife's income that started this whole me. He asked if that was per month? Then it clicked on me, i wrote down one of checks as per month vs every other week! lol So he immediately called up to his boss and they told'em had they known that this wouldve never been an issue so he immediately came down to my house to have me refill out a financial statement. Offered'em a coke and he went back up to process the rest of the paperwork and hopefully get officially signed on. Consulted back and forth with the bank tryin to get this loan approved. Played a lil Civilization and got my A** handed to me lol succcked. When wifey came home we ate at the dining room table. We had McDonalds and were laughin and socializin and she was wearin a low-cut spaghetti string tanktop. Now wit her DDD's (swole bigger when she was prego so i tease her about obtaining 1 D per child lol) you know there was serious cleavage showin. So what i do? from across the dining room table i take perfect aim while she wasnt lookin and fired off a shot with a fry that landed directly perfectly into her cleavage lol. Her mom, even the kids were laughin it was hilarious! Watched some tv wit wifey uploadin more movies to my ipod then decided to start tacklin the running portion of my work out regiment. I ended up doin 1 full mile at 6mph in 10min. But my goal needs to be 1.5mi in 12min so at that pace i have to cut my mile run by 2min to be on pace. Thats gonna take me some time i aint ran a mile that quick since 9th grade and on top of that i nearly fell off the treadmill 2x runnin that fast hahaahah the only runnin i do is a quick sprint or joggin in place on wiifit (which ill admit that joggin in place for 10min really did help set me up for success runnin that mile) sweatin like they just oiled me up for a photo shoot ran up to take a shower, watched my politicat shows, read a lil and off to bed after 2am
Wednesday- Woke up round 8ish got the kids fed and bathed. Checked the progress of my movie uploads come to find out... it hadnt been recordin sound all this time! UGH! So started the process allll over again wit movies i had been doin the past couple days. Watched sesame street wit my kids since there were no tivo'd shows that needed to be watched. Talked to the bank i was tryin to get consolidation loan f/and they advised they were gonna try to push it through wit the assumption i get the 13wk emergency unemployment extention. So i call them to see whats up and he tells me he got my app on the 2nd but it hadnt been processed yet. ugh freakin great. Talked to one of my friends Chris who was tellin me how her sister defrauded her outta 6 c-notes. Felt bad for her since she needed that money for rent and nothin i could do to help. Switched to a round of Civilization for a bit and got a lil somewhere when the phone rang. Was my job lead askin if i could come down. I asked if it was a problem if my kids came with me since wifey wasnt home yet. Asked what was it pertaining to he said he wanted me to fill out a statement expressing there will be no financial struggles in my absence. So i go up there and write out a nice statement tellin'em my wife is fully supporting my move as is my family and there wont be a financial burden and yada yada. The whole time im thinkin in my head, "what the hell you think is gonna happen if i DONT join?!" Got it all spit shined and they faxed it off for approval AFTER it was read on the phone to 2 different superiors. Went home freakin hungry but knew i still had to run so jumped on the treadmill and up'd my spek to 7mph and nearly died lol did 4min runnin walked for 2min up to 6mph for 3 and up down like that till 13min was up and that got me 1.1miles. So .4miles need which means less walkin and at least a jog speed or very fast walk. Went up and showered got my food and ate. In-law showed up who had been out doin Lord knows what wit her husband that showed up from Vancouver. Finished watchin political shows and went downstairs to watch tv and who was downstairs but my inlaw SLEEP. I was like oh heck naw. Went back upstairs PISSED, finished readin my job manual of what to expect in the job did some pushups and crunches and off to bed.
Thursday- was soooooo tired wakin up. Got the kids fed and watched a lil tv processed a few movies. Heard the recycle truck so scrambled to get all the recycle in the bin and out to front of the street. Talked to my gurl lil momma for most of the day to the point that my phone died several times and had to go get another phone off the charger and recharge the other. Watched CNN and a lil MSNBC discussin politics, olympics, even did some history via wikipedia on prussia, persia, even zaire. Even learned a lil about World War 2 that i didnt know! Talked and talked and talked before finally gettin off the phone upwards of 4-5hrs later, called my job lead to see what i could find out. Got nothin as far as determination at the moment. Heard back from the bank as well they declined to approve the app cause they need proof of employment i cant use the unemp. Was bout to play another game of Civilization when the phone rang. Job lead up the street wanted me to come in aaaaagain. So i get the kids ready and head on up there. They wanna get further info on my 3 references so they could go have them fill out the reference sheet. I gave'em all they needed and made the calls to let'em know my job lead was comin to talk to'em. Head out and stop at Jack in the Box for a shake and get home for dinner wit the fam. play 2 games of pool wit wifey where i mopped the floor wit'er lol. Got to thinkin.. sheesh i havent even played a game of pool since Marcus was born! We go our separate ways and end up gettin into an argument wit her after she has the audacity to claim Tamia's bad behavior is "partially my fault because i dont take her out to play" I was PISSED and didnt talk to her the rest of the night. The nerve taking into question my parenting?! Do you see ME goin out and doin anything?! Im just as couped up, she wants to go out and play theres a backyard out there go for it. But dont call into question my parenting justifying her bad behavior. I take that energy and head to the treadmill to run it out, up to shower, down to watch some tv and get my game ov Civil on before upstairs to watch Big Brother and my political shows then bed for interview the next day.
Friday- Lil tossin and turnin all night cause of the heat, had 2 fans on cause our room was so hot out of all the other rooms in the house. Got the kids showered and fed then headed up to lil momma's house to drop off my kids. My parents and sister all flew out at 0600 to Mississippi so my babysitter options have all been exhausted. Even Cake was at work! In-law in Vancouver now, so got my back against a wall! Got there and dropped'em off and headed north to Seattle, got parked in a parking garage off 5th & Jefferson and man walkin on the hill westward the momentum carried me in a 1/2 jog lol. Called that job contact askin specifics on the job location cause btwn inital testing and today's interview thats 3 different buildings! I end up joggin in my suit & tie (and ya'll know how hot it was today!) from 5th av to 3rd av 1/2 due to momentum of the hill in dress shoes the other 1/2 tryin to assure im there on time lol Get there and as im waiting my job lead from down south calls and tells me i need to call the lady who was grumpy last friday she has questions. So I call her immediately (yes while im waitin in the lobby of the other job to interview lol) She asks me what ive been doin all this time i tell her i have been interviewing etc nothings panned out, she asks what happened at the corrections center i tell her it was violation of their SOP handlin calls but as unemployment determined there was zero misconduct in my actions. She asked how i knew my references and i told her and that was that. minutes after i was done they called me in to interview. That was in/out just answerin a few questions about basically why are you the one for this job, what experience do you have that will make you best, how would you handle this/that situation. Done, out, got fingerprinted while talkin to a guy waitin in the lobby for some reason. elderly black male was a pretty funny dude tellin me he just got back from vegas sit some of his friends w/out the wives. I asked'em did he catch any shows he told me saw Kool and the gang but was mostly a trip of exhibitionism not exhibits (referrin to seein girls shows and bein naughty) i cracked up laughin like you dirty ol man! i like your style! i told'em what happens in vegas stays in vegas! They called me in to get fingerprinted so i shook his hand and took off, got that done and headed UP the hill i had to jog down. Got back to kent finally and swooped up my kids (thank lil momma!) came on home to do some laundry and relax a lil. Checked the mail and got approved for the emergency 13wk extention of unemp. So ill be stackin that money up as savings and keepin things paid. Watched some tv and played a looooong game of Civilization where i beat the game so bad it actually TOLD me "the game will end in the next 5 turns" lol you've played looong enough buddy. Ended up wit a slight headache but still had to watch my political shows upstairs so turned on the fan and watched some shows while havin a very lengthy intense convo wit lil momma. Seems our convos always get pretty indepth and intense! Im always game for a good intelligent convo! Ended up goin to bed after 4 in the morning!
Saturday- Was crashed in the bed exhausted! But wifey had a hair appt so had to get up. Had a loooot of pin'd up sexual tension and energy i need to defuse so rolled outta bed and went straight to the treadmill since i didnt run the day before and went straight 6mph for 8min and 7mph for 2min for a full mile then backed it down to a walk the last couple minutes to end with 1.2miles in 13min. still .3miles short of goal but definite progress. And bein theres no gettin booty at work where im goin i guess thats a good thing to run wit built up sexual tension, gives you that burst of nitro needed lol. Went upstairs to shower as this runnin in this heat is unbearable felt as if i was gonna pass out. Laid down for a hot second then downstairs to watch the USA Basketball team spank Spain. Watched some tivo'd shows and movies, a lil laundry and cat napped a lil till 5pm when the MSNBC forum came on with Obama and McCain. Was pretty good hearin both of'em speak although i dont recall much of McCain speakin on his religious beliefs and it was a religious forum. Wife left to go to some party so hung wit the kids a lil more before off to the drive-in. She already in a jackass attitude mode for bein asked to be home early so we could go to the drive-in so as a result now im in a mood. We get to the drive-in and lookin over at screen 4 was shocked to see it was like somethin out of "I Am Legend" The grounds were overgrown wit tall grass and the screen in shambles, it was CRAZY. We watch Mirror which i thought was pretty lame. Battery in the truck died 5min prior to the movie bein over! Must be absolutely fried. So got jumped off by their jumpbox. In between movies a truck pulls up to the side of us with what i assume are husband and wife. They not even there 5min before theyre in a full on DV which i thought i heard a smack. Cussin wit the woman bein the Agressor complaining about Lord knows what. They end up pullin off WITH cord still attached to their antenna and drive out. Nice waste of $16. When the 2nd movie was startin apparently wifey in her scan readin ignorance thought it was The Dark Knight that was playing next. So when she sees that its Hancock and goes into a fullblown hissy fit. I tell her it aint my fault she ws 1/2 readin her messages, shes all like she dont wanna see this movie i told her i just suffered through her poor choice now shes gonna suffer through mine. And that was exactly what happened. I enjoyed hancock while she sighed and tossed and turned and Marcus awake crawled all over her and me in the front seats before finally goin to sleep. I cranked up the truck 1/2 way through the movie to assure it wouldnt die again. And when the movie was OVER (cause you know im gonna get my $$'s worth) We take off and go check on tha Cane then to my parents house then home. Soon as we get home (0130) wife changes her clothes and promptly leaves. I dont question it i jump in the shower cause i already know where shes headed. Back to the party, selfish a**. I go to sleep as the thunderstorms start and wake round 0330 when they were peaking. She still aint in the house as i did a full round to see if she was on the couch. I go back upstairs and call her cell to find she was in the garage for whatever reason. I just hang up on her and go back to bed. Within minutes the storm was over the house and with one big flash and loud crack the power cuts out and resets. NOW shes all on my jock askin "should i close the window?" actin all timid. I tell her no its juuuuuust fine thinkin in my head at this point you can go outside and stand at the school's flag pole for all i care. And back to sleep i went
August 09 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 8, WEEK 27Sunday- Well wifey had taken Tamia's hair down so she was runnin around the house for days lookin like Buckwheat so couldnt take her no where including church so we just stayed home. Did a lil cleanin around the house and watchin some tv. Watered the garden a bit and got back to studyin as i do daily now. Reached out to a friend of mine and apologized for some of my hostilities from last week in the midst of goin throughthe miscarriage but got no reply so guess that friendship is over. Too bad cause i was really fond of'em and had voiced such over time. Eventually the in-laws showed up. ugh. it is said the Lord dont give you more than you can bear right? yeah well enough of the dogpilin on please! I kept my head down past the formalities and kept studyin. Eventually retreated upstairs to shower only to find my mother in law in our room talkin to Kelitha like its the 2nd family room or some ish. Yeah we gonna have problems. I fire up the shower for the "get the hint, GET OUT" insinuation which she did get. Shower up and pray to the Lord that he help me through this "x" amount of time shes gonna be in our house. Step out dryin off goin to get my boxers and t-shirt on and she comes back in while im still in my towel!!!!!!! sonofa....!!! I started to just drop towel right there full exposure, but im sure itd backfire. Bein the only dick in the house could have unwarranted consequences. ewwwwwwwwwwwww. Watched Big Brother wit wifey and a youtube video on the career path im currently studyin to be. Did 50 situps timed to assure i could do'em as required. Downstairs to finish more laundry and watch some tv ended up fallin asleep.
Monday- Woke up to the excessive rustling of wifey gettin ready to head back to work after bein off all last week. Stomach was botherin me a bit but eventually got back to sleep. got up to feed the kids to find english muffin crumbs on the counter. grumblin to myself as i already know who did the s**t i text Kelitha for confirmation only to be confirmed yeeeees it was the in-law. Clean it up and go back upstairs to watch some shows recorded last night. Blackberry went off to get an email of a rejection notice from a job in olympia i was chose over for "others more qualified". Got a call a lil later from a guy i had talked to last week askin if i was gonna come down and holla at'em. Told'em no can do wifey wasnt havin it movin to Cali no exceptions before he could counter with another sentence i said "but thanks for the phone call!" we disconnected. Was gonna do another 50 situps but that ish after 10 felt like i had pulled somethin lol so i said ixney on the situpey and did the 42 pushups required. Came downstairs after noon to feed the kids and watch some shows downstairs. Emailed the guy i had went and talked to last thursday to see what was up wit the processing so i can go test. Dont want all this studyin to go to waste the longer its postponed. Talkin to a friend of mine about weight loss and them mentioning losin their by goin for walks i got motivated to go for a walk to pay for my water bill around the corner! So shut er thang down got the kids appropriately clothed and attached my pedometer and went for a lil power walk. Clockin it from my house roundtrip was 1mile exactly, 2200 steps, 85 calories burned and about 20min roundtrip. What i liked most about it is theres a Walgreens btwn the water company and my house so if i ever need a pitstop i can walk right in! Gettin myself fit though im gonna clock it so i get 1.5 miles in less than 13min as gonna be required. Later on in the nyte (literally) i get a call from a close friend of mine Jus Blaze whos in absolute distraught tears. I ask her whats wrong and she tells me shes been in a DV wit her husband. She was cryin so hard 1st thing im thinkin is am i gonna need my gun to hurt this (expletive). im already feelin down cause i tried to reach out to my friend Lucy again but shes truly ignorin me for good i guess which really stings so in a mental applyin that love to another friendship to make up for the lack of another i reach out to her and get further info on whats goin on. I agree to meet her 1/2 way in kent to talk so head out and while waitin on her i checked on tha cane then stopped at winco to pick up some coke and dr pepper. Stopped at Kent Station and soon as i got there and got out and burst into tears. I felt so bad for her. She cried and talked about the situation which has been a long time comin. Talk and talk and she cries some more and all i could do was hug her and let her cry. Eventually parking lot secure came and advised the lot was closed and as he was there kent pd came on their patrol. We parted ways and told her to call me the following day.
Tuesday- Pretty mellow day actually. Stayed in house for the most part watchin tv looked at a couple newsweek mags. Had one of those lil wild hairs that inspired me to play a ps3 game i bought a month ago after discussin it wit Lucy at what would be our final Best Buy outing. The game was Civilization, i've been playin since it 1st came out in the 90's on 3.5" hard disks! Loved it, bought it again in 2003? on cd-rom for my laptop to play at the Corrections Center and now bought for ps3 but didnt wanna play it cause didnt want to sit here all day playin video games when i should be findin a job, and even then when not findin a job spendin time wit my kids or most recently studyin. But i need a break, just a quick one to have "me" time. So hooked that bad boy up and conquered the world i was so happy lol. Kids were asleep so i went upstairs and watched some of my political shows until wifey showed up. Talkin to her for a few the only lead i have called me and asked if i could come test the following day at 2pm. I agreed and told'em i'd be there at 1pm to hitch a ride with others up to Seattle to test. Finished my shows did a library run to take back some of Tamias books and tried to re-check out one of Kelitha's books but my library card didnt work! I hadnt used it in so long they deactivated it lol wish they'd do the same wit credit cards it'd make the temptation of usin'em less great. Came back home and got into a cram session till 1am, shaved my head trimmed the goatee and off to bed after some pushups. Situps i decided to opt out on till i truly needed to do'em cause the pain was still great in my abs that i didnt wanna be too sore to do'em when it really counted that wouldnt be good.
Wednesday- Of to a slow start stayed in bed till 10ish up watched some tv waitin till noon till wifey came home so i could leave to go meet the carpool to Seattle. did a lil crash course studyin again to assure i had all formulas and stuff down. Got there a couple minutes late thanx to that Meridian mess. Got some more paperwork done and had to REDO some of the papers just cause i wrote it in blue ink! BLUE! they need it done in black so as he was doin some other papers i resigned what i needed to and informed wifey to come up as she was goin to get her mom and sign off on her's again and leave wit the recruiters. We head out wit another dude and his possible recruit and mob on up to Seattle... more of South Seattle in the industrial area off of 1st av i believe just over the bridge. Me and the other dude were in the backseat sparkin up convo and what was on our minds and ish and crackin jokes (which unknown to us till a lil into it the recruiters had been listenin and chimin in at times wit their own input) lol so we had a mutual 4-way convo at times when we couldnt keep it btwn us 2. Anyways, we get there and go through screening and get back to the waiting area where we sit and wait to begin our test. He gets called in before me cause he was scheduled, my recruiter is fast trackin me so i was a walk-in tester. I go in probably 15min later after usin the bathroom to assure my nerves didnt get the best of me. I go in the room and say a short eyes closed prayer that the Lord would let me pass this test with flying colors and without incident. Then i get to it. Heavy on the grind blowing through the 10 sections applyin the skills i had learned over the last week. there were others in the room as its a central hub for all agencies to bring their recruits for testing. But its timed and at you own pace not a universal timer. When i was done I got the proctor who got me processed to be dismissed and printed out my scores. But before i could even ask to see'em she had put the sheet in an envelope, licked it shut, signed her name on the outer flap, then scotch taped it shut. A seal that if torn open would void the results. I had this ear to ear grin on my face and she looked at me puzzled cause i wanted to know so bad what i got but she had sealed it like a college transcript! I tell her thank you and walk out the door to find the recruiter.
Upon findin'em he tears it open and looks at me damn near in shock. I look at him and say What? He scoffs and i ask is that bad? he says naw, you OVER qualified! hahahaha I had scored a 79 on my ASVAB test! i only needed a 31 to pass (its not a percentage its a point system). theres 8 rankings possible. 1, 2, 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b, 4c, 5. 1 (outstanding) the best, 5 the worst (not trainable). i scored in category 2 (excellent)!!!!! (a 31 is cat 3b, average) I was floored and so filled with joy! I asked'em if i could have a copy of the test and he was mildly hesitant i guess for gov't property reasons but i didnt mind i was gonna get my official numbers one way or another. So when we got back in the car i strategically chose to sit in the backseat. once he was distracted in convo i asked to see my asvab results again and copied down my #'s in my "asvab for dummies" book that i had been studyin in (which obviously i will 100% vouch that book MORE than paid for itself) So i could later reference those numbers to divulge which jobs i can not apply for as a career knowing the point system formula. We b.s.'s the whole way back and the recruiter told us some of his stories of travelin abroad and seein the world. Got back finally and did MORE paperwork that he found was in blue ink. Asked me if i wanted to do the urinalysis now or tmrw i told'em now was fine.
I take the cup and the poor instructions he gave me and go piss in the cup. Come back he gives me a 3 strip indicatior that smaller than a prego test and has 3 strips that hang out the bottom yet have 3 indicators in the middle like a prego test where the lines appear. He tells me to tip the strips in the piss but dont let the indicator itself touch the piss. Poor instructions given i take it back to the bathroom and submerge the strips in the piss till it absorbed enough to soak in the indicator and reveal the result. I go back up front and hand the recruit the indicator (wit the cap back on the indicator no longer exposin the pee soaked strips) He then gives it to the Chief and he looks at me sternly and asks "When's the last time you used?" I glared at him and told him "I never used in my LIFE" (true story, never even smoked) He's still starin at me and im starin at'em back like, dude we can get into some gangsta s**t right now if you want but i aint gonna have a faulty test lyin on me bout to make me lose ANOTHER job. He tells the recruiter to get me another test and retake it. They reinstruct me this time properly tellin me dont submerge the whole strip just a minute porttion and dont like the indicatior touch the sides or the piss. I go back and redo it appropriately till it absorbed the piss up the indicator and return to their amusement the other test had reset his finally findings to show i had indeed been negative of drug use as the 2nd indicator had confirmed. Hey they allll gotta chuckle outta that one but i was NOT amused.
I finish up the final papers there cause i wasnt tryin to take it home and do it i got other ish i wanna do and it was 8pm before i finally left there. They were tryin to continue the fast track to get me the physical tomorrow but that didnt work out so they wanted to return at 4pm tmrw so they can take me up to Seattle and post me up in a hotel for the night so come 1st thing friday morning i can get my physical and talk to the career counselor bout what i wanna do (now that i know my options are endless!) :) The Chief (now bein nice to me lol) told me the rundown of what to expect, what to eat and what not to eat, what to do in the hotel, and what not to do cause they'd be lookin for any reason to medically disqualify you so basically be still, relax watch some tv and stay outta trouble! Came home and told wifey the rundown of my awesome blessings and where we go from here, that i could possible be outta town by the end of this month gettin trained.
Thursday- Started out pretty slow. Lounged as long as i could bein a slacker knowin i needed to pack and get ready to head up to my job contact. Decided to mow the lawn on an impulse and then give my dad a call as me and my sister were goin back and forth about the accuracies of the story behind my my parents endin up here in washington in the mid 70's and if they'd lived anywhere else prior. Was a very pleasant phone call that lasted 1hr 40min! He was very supportive of my move just long as wifey was ok with it. (which she is, shes already relishing in her new title and takes pride in the bragging lol) Well i eventually get on the good foot and get allll packed and leave up out the house to meet my job dude. We sit there and chop it up for a couple hours before even leaving which was aight but kinda sucked. Had to redo MORE paperwork which sucked sooooo bad. Talked to the Chief who gave me the heads up of what to expect goin up there on friday and what to expect that night at the hotel. I was "thinkin" i was gonna be by myself so im thinkin whatever yo just stick to my own get sleep and up early in the a.m. to get'er done. Yeah noooooot happenin. I get there after 7ish and get checked in at the Clarion Hotel in seatac across from the airport. Find my room 130 on the bottom floor and its a avg economy room 2 full size beds and i see stuff moved on one so i then know i have a roommate. DANG IT! My mom had wanted me to call her so i figured let me get this over wit. I call and get my dad again so i chop it up wit him and let'em know im posted up in the hotel to do my physical the following morning which i think truly sealed it in his mind that was was dead serious about what i was doin. He congratulated me and i know he was proud cause im followin in his footsteps. He handed over the phone to my mom who started on me aaaaaagain. I blow it off cause when the sun sets aint nobody keepin food on my table, clothes on my kids back and roof over our head. Im gonna do what i need to do to forward the advancement of life for my wife and kids. Eventually she changed tactic and moved from dont do it to, aim high and dont settle for anything to which i rejected and shot down again. I told her look, im not gonna walk up in there playin chicken wit the people "gimme what i want or i walk" what they are doin for me now is already more then they're even obligated to do and im good wit that. Im just a body to them thats easily replaced by the next so dont come in my ear wit the "demand what you want" i been outta work for 7 months i aint lettin the rhetoric ruin this one for me. She lecturing and lecturin so i ask her when has she ever known me to get in a situation which i got screwed or somethin pulled over on me. I told her you remember im the one that told you to come on lets spend $40 to drive to oregon (gas was cheaper then) to get her tv and save over $400. I told her also do you forget what happened in Vegas wit those monorail tickets? to which she got a huge chuckle and conceded that yes that was a good one there. I told her exactly i dont get hustled i HUSTLE!. I eventally tell her i gotta go cause it was now 830 and i hadnt eaten. I return to the room to find my roommate had went to bed so i didnt bother'em. But i was restless so i return back outside and call wifey and talk to her while doin a lap around the hotel bldg. Go back inside and shower and get ready for the following day takin out allll my piercings. :( lobes, cartilage, and nose all out. Layin down got a call from my frient Jus Blaze who was passin by and wanted to say hi so i was like fiiine got re-dressed and waited outside since i had a roommate. Waited for'em while they were lost all up inside the seatac airport ramps and ish thanx to a wrong turn. Finally showin up we sat and talked for awhile gettin updates on the current situation and also what the heck i was doin at a hotel. We part ways and i go back in and toss and turn cause my roommate is tossin too much makin noise and the a/c was too freakin loud.
Friday- Come 2am its like the stupid thing ran outta oil cause it let out the worse noise so we just shut it off. 440 finally came around and his alarm went off so i said f it im up. He manned the bathroom first so i just got dressed and took 2nd crack. formally introduced and gave a lil background. Chatted till we got to the continental breakfast where we broke our separate ways. I ate lite and focused on the career path sheet i had printed out. 540 eventually came and we loaded on the bus to head back north to south seattle off east marginal way. while ridin i was sittin towards the back and doin my own thang and listin to other convos when this dude piped up in their convo and proudly proclaimed "i aint even gonna lie i used to get manicures and pedicures." me and the dude in front of me looked at each other and fell out laughin i told'em i aint even gonna turn around cause i dont think i eeeeven wanna know who said that. which i already know who said it. mr. homothug. that aint even metrosexual lol. We file out the bus and get the formalies started inside the federal building. A LOT of paper signin and goin through is page by page word by word. They were explainin one of the stations us guys had to in our physical where we had to turn around, bend over and spread'em. Well i kinda joined a crew of 3 others as a sect of wildboys in the room. an employee had come in choppin it up wit the class as a whole overhead our convo where the jokes had turned into the doc gettin his jollies at our expense when we had to bend and spread'em. One piped up a lil too loud after referrin your prostate bein checked (which doesnt happen in the physical but the jokes turned perverted) and said "doc thats an awfully big thumb youre puttin up there!" hahhahahahaha the employee said oh now thats just sick and wrong! i was in tears dyin laughin cause even his own comment embarrassed him after the female employee was laughin now at his expense. The joke had morphed from the big thumb to more colorful detail of the docs hands bein on both the persons shoulders so certainly wasnt a thumb so the person askin " doc i hope you have an assistant back there!" hahahahahaha After the class we had to take a breathalizer and start at different sections in the room to do different qualifying things. the hearing test, visual, blood draw, blood pressure, physical checkin the knees and flexibility weight etc., physical wit the doc where you did behind closed doors get your nuts checked wit a cough, bend over and spread'em! no pokin though! hahahahah, do your urinalysis and in the end talk to another doc who says if youre qualified or not. From there turned in my file and went to have lunch where i interrupted an argument already in progress. A woman in there (who i found was later married w/kids) got offended when somebody made some comment about joinin the military cause he wanted the $$. she found offensive and said he needed to grow up. Somehow it gravitated to cookies to which the woman lost it and was soundin off verbally berating homothug who made the comment and some others then got up stormed out. We were all chucklin a lil about the whole thing cause the cookie thing had got blown outta proportion when another girl (there were only 2 in the room at the time) got all bent outta shape and startin soundin off talkin all shorts of s**t in ignorance. Tellin all of us we need to grow up and when she hears a guy talkin stupid she puts'em in his place and she aint for the b.s. and wah wah wah wah wah we all pounched on her b**ch a** for that one. I spun around and glared her straight in her dumb a** face and said how old are you? she said old enough. i said apparently not, how old are you? she said 18 i said that explains it. talkin in ignorance and dont know what you talkin about. You DONT know me so dont sit here and make generalized statements about how men are so immature and need to grow up wah wah wah wah wah. Im 27 got a wife and 2 kids and i aint gonna listen to s**t you gonna say on me. she went into submission then just as she shouldve cause dont get it twisted we in a maximum security facility but you will get worked into submission chick. Another dude talkin crazy in the head of the moment said "apparently she dont get beat enough" we all threw up our hands that we werent gonna laugh or touch that comment at ALL. Told'em we aint wit it nor gonna touch that one. I take that back there were 3 women in the room cause the female cook was there. After the 2nd female left she came over after most of us were gettin us after agreein women were from another planet wit their hostilities for no reason (at times) and another was makin blah blah blah sounds and i chimed in wit the wah wah wah wah wah that we tone women out majority of the time and go wit the "yes dear" and ignore'em lol. Clearout and go back to finish the 2nd half of my processing which took foreeeeeever. Goin in/out of the office and waiting. Makin phonecalls to my job lead contact, then him callin me sayin they needed stuff. My wifeys stepdad was a the house watchin the kids so i called him and had to walk him through gettin the paystub i needed, pluggin in the fax machine and gettin the stub faxed. well after 5 trys that wasnt happenin so the dude ended up just goin down the street to my house and pickin up the physical copy. Im waitin and waitin as others are processin through and leavin, others bein disqualified for bein overweight or eyes werent correctable to 20/20. Was pretty sad to watch. Eventually time dwindles down to 3ish and some office lead woman was in there tryin to rush through my stuff while im sittin there bein short and snippy wit EVERYONE. she asked another what i had wrote in a section regarding traffic tickets and the guy was tryin to explain but wasnt doin a good job so i volunteered the short answer of "theyre speeding and parking" the woman not even lookin in my direction shook her hand in a hostile aggressive "shoo dog get outta here!" motion oh i was PISSED. just who the hell are you?! I sit back like whaaaaaaaatever. time goes by again and i finally get to talk to a career counselor who tells me we have less than 15min to choose a career as they were still tryin to fast track me. I didnt sign anything they just put me somewhere to keep the paper goin but come monday im gonna change it cause i was not happy wit me excelled through in such a fast pace manner. My dude finally arrived and we headed out and chopped it up the whole way home, get home and unload all my stuff and go upstairs and spend another 20min just tryin to get my nosering back in! thats suuuuuuuuuuuucked! Debriefed wife on the likelihood of the future and played catch up on my political shows
Saturday- A day of loungin and it felt good. Went to bed late last night, nose actin up so took some nyquil which resulted in me sleepin till 1030am. Woke to hear the tragic news about Bernie Mac passin away f/pneumona. Pretty sad, saw him at the Kings of comedy concert @Key Arena in 2000. Watched a lot of tv and relaxed in/out of sleep all day.
August 02 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 7, WEEK 26Sunday- Started out immediately rough and only got worse. Sunday a.m. wifey advised me she was crampin pretty bad. I opted to stay home with her and not go to church to monitor how she was feeling. It only got worse as the day went on. She had been bleeding slightly since the day before but not bad that we felt a need to call anyone. Later in the day she calls me upstairs and advised she needed to go to the hospital. She was in the bathroom sitting down and showed me the pad.... the pad that very well right there contained our child. a HUGE amount of blood and what could have been clots or tissue. We got the kids together and I'm initally thinkin we just goin up the street to Good Sam. She advised me she wanted to go to Valley Medical, the place where we had our other 2 kids (and a D&C of our 1st miscarried child). I call up my parents and advised them i was gonna drop off the kids with them as I take her to the hospital. She asked me how i felt and i told her coldly that i felt nothing that i didnt want to deal with it. Im angry because i dont understand why this is happening and im already stressed as is and i just dont wanna deal with it. She bursts into tears. We get to my parents house and my mom is standing at the door waitin for us to pull up. I unload the kids and my mom approaches the car to give kelitha a hug as she was still sittin in the car and she falls into tears again. My mom takes the kids in the house and we continue on to the hospital gettin to the ER in the midst of all their construction. They have valet parking outside the door that i wasnt aware was free i thought we'd have to pay and tip so i asked the dude if i could leave the car over to the side while i unloaded my wife. He agreed so i go inside get a wheelchair and come out load her aboard and go back inside the ER to a ridiculously long line. Minutes pass and the line that is probably 7-8 deep with people fully standing looking inconvienced vs in need of urgent care im the only one with someone physically looking ill and in a wheelchair. Several more minutes pass and the valet dude comes in and surveys the room wit me standing right in front of his dumb a**. He goes over to the security guard sittin behind the surveilance desk. A minute later he announces, "Is there an owner of a silver subaru in here?" Me knowing whats goin on i ask silver or gold? He swivels the monitor around and i advise him its mine and its gold. I tell him the dude that just walked in bein a prick had notice that i was leavin the car there while bringin her into the ER and that i had personal effects still in there i needed to get out (my planner and Obama book). He tells me he can have the guy valet park it for me and that he'll have'em leave it there till i can come back out. I thank him cause if the other dude came back i'd f**k'em up on site. Kelitha is nearly passing out in the wheelchair im holdin her head up. line maybe only moved 3 people. Another bystander waiting sees us in line and sensing Kelitha is not in good shape asks if shes ok and i tell her the situation. She goes to the front and tells the lady that theres someone else in line in more critical need. The triage lady finally comes from f**kin around behind the desk and sees her condition and takes us immediately into the back to start the processing of paperwork, cause you know no money no help. They get us into an ER room finally and i help her change into the robe. Nurses come and start an IV drip and taking her stats. Havin her settled, i finally emerge from the room to go deal wit the car situation and see my mom, sister and 1 of my nephews in the waiting area. I debrief them that the doc hadnt been in yet but id tell'em what id know when i found out. I go out ready to get in that a** wit the valet as the car is not where i left it. I spot it a few car links away and TELL him to open it. I get my ish and walk away back in the ER. Time goes by, several RN's come in doin different things. We befriended a RN that was actually from Tupelo, MS and had family she was stayin with in Puyallup. Small world! I tell her my parents were both from MS and we lived in Puyallup. Doc comes in and starts doin a brief pelvic exam. He advises that it did seem her body was attempting to abort the pregnancy but that it may not have succeeded. He scheduled an ultrasound so they wheeled her into the room. They ask her to drain her bladder so we walk her across the hall where she had to give a sample. I went in with her and helped her and was saddened as the cup was 90% red. I held her IV bag and specimen while she tried to clean the blood that had flown to her thighs and dripped to the floor. Heartbreaking. I helped her clean the floor and we walked back to the room and saw the blood that had dropped on her ER bed. We started the ultrasound as the woman did a stomach ultrasound and then a vaginal probe ultrasound. After the woman was done and walked away to clean the probe i look over to Kelitha and make a silent joking crack about the probe and the length and girth of it and made sexual jab movements. she whispered "yeah i liked it!" we both chuckle then go stern face when the woman comes from around the curtain. We wheel her back into the room to await results. After awhile one RN emerges and says we're takin her to a CT scan now. We think thats pretty extreme and in my head all im thinkin is $$$$$$$$$$. ugh. We wheel her into the room and within a minute they're like, "uh... we dont have an order for a CT scan so we're takin her back" so they wheel her BACK into her room. Im gettin irritated now so i tell her to hit her nurse button. ANOTHER RN comes and i advise'em the situation that just occured and ask whats the deal cause i dont wanna sit here and we supposed to be doin somethin else. He says he was gonna investigate and would get back to us. We sit and wait and read our books till finally the doctor shows up and gives us results of the ultrasound. He tells us that the bloodwork hormone levels say that she is/was 4-5 weeks pregnant but they couldnt find the pregnancy in her uterus. So they suspect the miscarriage had already taken place or a possible ectopic pregnancy. They tell us to make an appt for monday to be seen by her doctor. I get her dressed as shes doped up on pain killers and we head to my parents to pickup the kids and then home.
Monday- In the a.m. she calls and gets the appt set up for 1pm, so we sit around the house watchin tv. Look at some jobs and apply for one online before it was time to go. We get there a few minutes late and go into the room finally. I bring the camcorder in case it was a good pregnancy still. The doc finally comes in after he was debriefing himself on her info from the ER. He does NO exam just asked some questions and told her to come back tuesday for followup bloodwork and results on wednesday. Nice. $$$$$$$$$. Only think we got out of that dr appt was a big question mark. No confirmation or affirmation of miscarriage or false alarm. We get the kids together and head on back home. Look at more jobs online tryin to get some kind of grip on which way to turn as no phonecalls came that day for job leads. End up on the computer till 3am lookin and lookin and more and more gettin pushed into a corner i didnt want to be in.
Tuesday- On the computer 1st thing then tv for a bit. Pretty quiet day around the house still tryin to deal with the underlyin current of the tragedy we're goin through. Checked the mail since no phone calls had come through and we already know, no phone ringin is a BAD thing. Nothin in the mail but 2 unemployment envelopes and some ads. I go back in and decide to call the one lead i had. Let's cut to the chase i need to know whats goin on. I call and the person i set my thank you letter to wasnt in, but the HR lady transferred me to the person in charge of the hiring process. She tells me that the candidates had been selected out of the interviews and i was not of of them. The letters would be goin out that day and the following day. I tell Renton thank you and hangup. Back once again to square one not one lead. Was very upset that Renton didnt pay off as i had direct knowledge of their system and officers and now post interview was eliminated. I advise wifey of the situation and that my back was officially to the wall. The unemp envelopes advised that i have $1030.00 of payout left which gets us through mid august. the 2nd envelope advised that under new regulations unemp can be extended to 13wks upon acceptance. I promptly filled it out to be put in mail tmrw and went back to the computer to start fillin out info for the 11th hour career choice to be activated by force. Took a few practice tests online and felt pretty stupid since i hadnt had to use algebra since 9th grade. Did better on the 2nd test vs the 1st. Sat down at the dinner table with the family and discussed this 11th hr option that we now had to consider. Im sure ill have no problem with the phone ringing now :(
Wednesday- Started out as a slow day but quickly went tragic. Was downstairs watchin tv and searchin for jobs on the laptop. The first call i got first thing was from a job lead i had applied for the nyte before. He called to get the size-up on me and what i wanted to know about'em and if i was interested in comin down and testing etc. I entertained until he told me their closest location was Cali. I was like noooope not uprootin family. Then a friend of mine txt me with a "you can still say hi you know" txt that quickly erupted into a full blown argument as tensions were already strained. The back and forth continues until i blow up and tell her to f**k off after comparin me to her new lil love interest on some "well at least he treats me nice and makes me feel good.." like mutha are you CRAZY?! you gonna compare me to some dude courting your like we on the same level of ranking?! I gives a s**t on what he's doin to "make you feel good" that aint my damn JOB. Exactly why you got ignored when expectin me to voice if you look nice constantly. My role is FRIEND you got the compliments when i felt like givin'em but constant just wasnt happenin, not even my wife gets'em on that ratio. So she makes a parting shot to which i reply "you'll soon find out" which was totally in a "mark my words we'll see in the future" context to which she replies with a "lol, oh Lonnie you think you can threaten me now?" To which i promptly just deleted all messages and put the ignorance on the root of that word, IGNORE. Got her nose so damn open bein infatuated the newness will wear off then we'll see what blemishes your new polished silver really has. I know full well who i am. Im an a**hole, im nice, im humble, im conceited, im giving, im greedy. im a liar, im honest. But you know what? Check my f**kin tag. I've been the same since 1981 aint nothing changed. You all happy wit Mr. Prince charming gooooood for you. But you know what im dealin wit while you walkin on your silver lined clouds nose wide open? I get called upstairs by Kelitha. She looks at me while sitting in the bathroom that we need to go back to the hospital. Blood on her legs, blood in the water, and blood flowing down the front of the toilet. As I help her get up we look down and see 100% without a doubt the 5wk old fetus at the bottom of the water.
I get the kids ready to leave and we all drive back up to Valley Medical Center's ER. Get her a wheelchair again and with kids in tow wheel her into the ER this time w/no line and her not about to faint from blood loss. They put in an exam room and we all wait with her. To keep Tamia at least occupied as she failed to bring any toys to play with I teach her how to tie her shoes (criss-cross apple sauce, under the bridge, tie it down, pinch the bowtie and loop it round, tuck it through, tie it down!) i know theres a more simpler way of instructing but when you have 2 lil kids in an ER room and a wife bleeding out you find your creative side to ease the own pain of your personal turmoil. They come in and tell her we're movin to another room so we all walk across the hall to another room that was next to the room we went in on sunday. I instruct Tamia to keep practicing, while lettin Marcus be distracted by pushin around the doctors rolling stool. They start her IV drip after takin 3 people just to find her veins. When came time to do her pelvic exam since i had the kids i left the room (sunday i stayed). I had already been in contact w/my mom who advised she was on her way so i arraigned for her to meet me to take the kids while i stayed. Her ETA had been 20min (that she gave) so that gave me time to get the kids food (it was now a lil past noon) since i was out i called borders and barnes and noble lookin for a book the guy recommended me to read in preps for the test. I found at both but barnes was closer so i shot down the freeway got off sr 181 and doubled over to andover and swiped up the last copy they had. Doubled back down 180th to Wendys and got food then back to the parking lot. Ate and waaaaited and waaaited, text'n my mom who i guess lost her signal or somethin cause she suddenly stopped responding. Gave up went back inside to find my mother in-law had shown up. Did my own thing for a few min and started readin my newly purchased book when my mom comes walkin in. Niiiiice. My in-law leaves, my mom socializes for a few minutes givin Kelitha a lot of motherly love that Kelitha was just loving i know. She then takes off wit the kids so just me and Kelitha. She debriefs me when everyone was finally gone as to the updates and shortly after they wheel her into the ultrasound room. Taking pics etc I chuckle to her that her "boyfriends" back (the ultrasound stick thats long and thick like a dildo) lol Take her back in the room give her more pain meds and wait. They finally end up tellin us that theyve ruled out ectopic pregnancy (duh we just saw our f**kin kid in the water a couple hours ago) and no need for a d&c, just let the body finish the miscarriage process but if the bleeding becomes severe again then come back. (yeah im thinkin $$$$$$$)
Ultimately we get discharged and stop to get some food (Jack in the Box i HIGHLY recommend tryin their new Kona Coffee shake mmmm!) Checked on tha Cane and went and got the kids. Got the 3rd degree from my mom as my sister had informed her of my 11th hour direction i was headed in since companies and cities were treatin me as if i was some freakin felon. I shrug it off cause the rhetoric i get is because of fears of the current state of the economy and world but gotta do what i gotta do. Repo man is comin soon. We head home and try to take it easy and relax. Kelitha's job i had applied to called and wanted to set up a phone pre-screen interview for the following day. Checked the mail and got Renton's official "kick rocks" letter. Its always easier knowin ahead of time, takes the sting out of when it really comes. I literally spent the rest of the night till like 3am readin the book for the test tryin to cram as much knowledge and refreshers in as i could as the guy said the next test was monday he believed. Yeah, crash course like a mutha! A lot of the stuff was stuff learned in high school so once i started readin and applyin it on scratch paper it all started comin back so the worry faded.
Thursday- Well, was supposed to be the day I helped the in-laws pack up and get the heck up outta dodge but since wifey aint 100% i opted to stay home and take care of her and the kids. 10am came and got the call from Kelitha's job pre-screening so ran through that quick. Hung up with her finally and got a call from another career lead who wanted to sit down and talk to me round 2pm so i said aight id be there. Watched a lil tv and did a lil more readin in my book before it was time to go. Stop drop off wifey's prescription at Walgreens and get there a few minutes late. Sit down and get to talkin to the dude and im likin what he's havin to say and id already had some background knowledge about'em since my dad worked for'em many many years go. We start talkin about pay and incentive programs and the pay associated wit it. im seein $$$ signs but its comin INTO my pocket not out! Im likin the benefits, the incentive of goin back to college 100% tuition paid and even if wifey wanted to go back they got her covered too. They ask me about my past school'n and i tell'em bout my diploma and my AA degree to which they look it up and tell me the avg person hires in at an E1 and that i can start as an E3, 2 slots higher or start as an O1! Im like heeeeeeeeecks yeah son im all about seniority go head and send that email message seein if i can start as O1! Talk talk talk then asks me to take a pre-qual test to see who im eligible for hire (yeah im used to those by now) So i go back to the laptop and its timed with 4 sections. Word knowledge, Arithmetic (algebra), Paragraph knowledge (understanding the meaning of the paragraph...topic/subject), and Math knowledge (story problems). Im doin what i do and after 20min or so the test is over (time up) it gives the results on the screen to which i write'em all down: Word: 16, Arth: 7, Para: 8, Math: 5. I dont remember how many questions there were in each subject but those were how many right i got. It then gave an estimate of how many it thinks i would get right on the real test (that im studyin for) based off the ratio i got right outta the alotted amt on the test. Result? Standard tester: 59. My predicted score? 52!!! If i keep studyin and truly pull off the estimated score or better i can probably get any position i want! I walk back out and he asks how i did to which i replied "we soon about to find out." (like i didnt know the avg testers score vs the standard score vs MY score. for the record which he confirmed the avg tester walks in and scores btwn a 20-30 on the test! the different divisions in this gov't job require you to score btwn 31-40 i scored 52 which is in the "above average" catergory!") He goes and looks and comes out scoffin and says "oh yeah you passed with out a doubt! people dont come in and score that high normally its btwn 20-30 on their 1st try. I had a guy thats been comin in for weeks now testing and re testing and finally this week he scored a 58." I felt real good, that overnight cramming course and $18 investment totally paid off. We talked some more and I sign some prelim documents so they could get me set up for the REAL test. Grab up some papers and pamphlets to bring home and discuss more wit wifey. Stopped at Safeway to grab some chinese and gizzards and was delighted to see they went back to their old method of behind the counter not buffet "by the pound" charges. You can get the dinner trays at flat rate again. Watched 10,000BC and Meet the browns, read the last 2 sections of my book, and typed this leg of the book of lon! 3am again, maybe i should be the one takin those "3 am phone calls" at the white house lol
Friday- Stayed around the house doin a bunch of nothin for the most part. Watched some shows, kept an eye on wifey till it was time for her to go back to the dr then a hair appt so i stayed home. Studied a lil for the test and got a letter in the mail for another south end job who wants me to come in and test on the 22nd but ill probably not do it at all. Its a dead end i can feel it. We'll see i may go just for somethin to do. Later on in the evening I get to talkin to wifey about the 11th hr option and what to do. Talked about likelyhood of stayin here in town vs havin to relocate. We expressed that if thats what we had to do in the end so be it, that she was wifey and would go if we had to. I told her i had always wanted her to be INdependent not DEpendent and not have to rely on me for anything or in case of tragedy and i died that she wouldnt be straining to care for our kids. In the end we mutually found agreement that gettin a local "in the meantime" job just aint gonna cut it cause i'd end up quittin there too at some point and startin all over again doin 30yrs somewhere else. She wanted to go back to school and i wanted to learn a new trade where im not feelin inadequate. She then tells me that her mom will be here sunday. Not "in town" here but HERE here. So we end up gettin into it deep about her goin against my disagreement with her stayin here long term. She tries to argue that thats her mom and yada yada and i told her i'd have no problem wit her stayin here if it was a SHORT term few weeks request but it aint. Its a LONG term upwards of 3 months and even THEN it aint a guarantee she'd get out. The whole move down there is a gamble based off of the "hope" that her step dad can score a job down there. If he dont then what? Its a black hole and now we're in the middle of it. We go back and forth with no resolution so then i was like whatever. Dont get upset if things become hostile in the house cause shes forced upon me in an already high stress environment. I was so worried about findin a job that'll keep me close to home but now im like f it. whatever trade i wanna learn i aint worried about it im gonna be gone as long as it takes and come back when its over. Go back downstairs and watch some movies and look up the physical requirements its gonna ask of me. I try to see if right here right now im able to achieve it....noooooot so much lol. lackin a lil in the pushup, situp section and Lord only knows if ill be able to run the full 1.5 miles in 13minutes. Feelin a lil fatigued i got a cup of water and a slice of Boston Creme Pie lol.
Saturday- Got up and showered tryin to relax muscles from all stress tension. Checked the mail and got another packet from another job lead that could keep me around. Went up the street to see if they had a local office i could talk to but they didnt the closest was Tacoma so drove up there to see if i could get more info. But they were closed on weekends so id have to go back monday if i truly wanted to talk to'em. Grabbed some brochures they had and started to head back south. Got a thought in mind that i wanted some chicken so went to see if Ezell's (72nd/Pacific av) was open and they were! Got some food and headed further down Pacific seein the prices of gas get lower and lower! found an am/pm that had unleaded for $3.93/gallon! gettin to sr 512 i saw exxon and chevron till tryin to sell gas for $4.09 and $4.13/gallon i was like no wonder they just grossed $11.8 billion over the last 3 months cause people still buy from'em KNOWIN they gettin raped. There was a Cenex gas station that had the audacity to try to sell still $4.31/gallon! and that station sure nuff was empty too. serves'em right. Came back home watched some tv and studied a lil, miracle gro'd the garden.
July 26 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 7, WEEK 25Sunday- Well this was written immediately after i posted week 24 so i almost just added it TO week 24 but opted out too keep the intregity of the weeks (and hey it gives you somethin to look fwd to the followin week!) I got up in the AM to find yet another dvd burning had failed. I gave up. I dunno what it is but im just all outta ideas. Im gettin ready for church and talkin to wifey about the whole situation and tellin her that they the exact same discs as i had used in times past and er thang. and right as i was holdin it up to show her what i was referring to .. BAM it hit me what the problem was. The discs had i bought and were tryin to use were 8x write speed. the ones i had used in the past were 2.4x write speed. I was usin to fast of a disc for what my dvd writers could handle. I confirmed that by recording the movie trailer (posted on my myspace page in my video section) to a 4.7gb dvd then tryin to do it to the 8.5gb dl discs. worked for one not the other. So now what? I either go buy NEW discs and let the 8x sit here and not ever be used or try to find a home for'em or go buy a new drive that can handle'em. Pros and cons? to get a economy pack of the dvd+r discs is more than it is to buy a new drive! (at best buy a 50pk of discs is $80, a new drive was $63.99 after coupon and allows me to use the discs i already have).
So we packed up and went to church. Upon arrivin they were settin up for the church casual sunday picnic outside so I helped set up (no i wasnt dodgin the sermon its partially my responsibility on the trustee committee lol) I did go inside prior to the sermon, which was an excellent. Went out and dined wit my dad and my family. Southward to Best Buy where i acquired a new drive, home and installed within minutes, fired up the DVD producin software and TA-DOW! out came DVD after DVD of movies! Crisis FINALLY averted and we back on track!
Monday- Pretty low-key quiet day. In house all day wit the kids. Minor headache and blowing nose all day thanks to allergies. Wifey's "KA: Cirque du soleli" cd came in the mail so she was quite excited about that. Made cd covers and labels for the dvd movies created. Checked on the plants outside and i spotted 2 ripe and ready strawberries! yummy!!! one jalapeno i spotted is startin to grow too! So plucked the two strawberries (cant let good ripe ones go to waste!) washed, and me and wifey partook of the 1st fruits of my labor. Watched a lot of tv and vaccummed out the pc tower that had dust bunnies in it and makin the pentium 4 chip fan breath extra hard. (now you KNOW thats bored, vaccuming out the inside of a computer! lol). Emailed Fife basically sayin gimme my ish back lol. I voluntarily submitted my last 3 performance reviews to'em before they rejectd me and that ish cost me money to have copied off so emailed askin if i can have it back.
Tuesday- Pretty moderate day i suppose. Watchin tv and catchin up on some shows. Saw my girl Pattycake for the 1st time in weeks and gave her a big hug. Chopped off 10 inches of her hair which was a lil shockin as ive always loved her long hair but since it was donated to a good cause i suppose that supercedes my opinion lol surfed around online lookin for jobs and applied for a couple more still usin the "throw apps at the wall" strategy. Cleaned off the computer desk which had become overflowed wit papers and bills and ish i hadnt want to deal with. Slaved away tryin to perfect the software i use to make the movies by assurin all graphics were installed and it was givin me soooo many problems. After 4hrs of uninstallin and installin while readin my Obama book i showered and turned in.
Wednesday- HAPPY BIRTHDAY WIFEY! Lotttta tv. Was hopin for some job calls but phone never rang. Realized in my head that Fife never called me answerin if i could get my reviews back so i called'em back but the Lt i needed to talk to was in a mtg (goooo figure) left a voicemail for'em to call me back. Decided since i was already needin to reproduce the Mississippi DVD i might as well just make a "special edition" DVD with new featrues and stuff. When wifey got home she wanted Taco Time... yeah... prego cravings lol So i went up to best buy quick to do a price adjustment but left the ad i needed at home on accident so aborted and went on to T.Time then back home. Checked on my garden after waterin the planters to find the one cucumber pickle i had that i thought would pull through was laid over on its side. Although the leafs were green i could see the stem was rotting and it collapsed on its own weight. Carrots, onions, split/snap peas, okra, pumpkin plants (one looks to be doin the same as the pickle plant so many not survive but the other is strong and a definite), cabbage, collard greens, 1 mustard seed plant, cantelope and watermelon plants, and corn stalks.
Thursday- Biiiiiiig day. All the night before and all day today i was thinkin about this interview for the job up north. How much i wanted the job and how excited i was truly to interview with'em. I slaved away a lil on my DVD movie tryin to perfect it and get the small flaws out. Did the laundry through ou the day and watched a lil tv. Fed the chidlins and started to dose off a lil bit but realizing how the time was flyin and that i needed to get ready I turned off the tv and went on upstairs to suit up. Got the kids ready and headed out to wifey's job to do the ol school kids exchange like we used to back in the days of employment. Got back on the road praying and driving and headed northward. Arrived 30min early so sat and waited patiently goin through my mind what im gonna say to'em and how im gonna tie myself to them in a positve manner and establish myself as an ideal candidate for their position. Soon the time came that the lady came and got me. The panel consisted of 1 white fem, 1 black female, and 1 asian? female. They had 15 questions they asked to which i had good solid answers for all. I touted the knowledge and experience i already had with their employees and line of work, knowing what they need and desired and how i could plug right into their team. When they asked if there was anything i wanted to ask and/or share wit'em i attempted to share with them the letters of commendations and perfomrance reviews i had brought with me. She declined and said that they'd view all that in the bkgrnd phase of the hiring process. Which is where i immediately felt discouraged because that meant that likely, yet again, my personnel file would come into play as it had 5x prior making me 0-5 for employment post interview process. They asked me what had i learned from the process, to which i acknowledged how hard life has been over these last 6 months, especially knowing next month my unemp will run out and told them of our finding we will be expecting our 3rd child. This has truly been a learning experience and i regret those decisions made that got me here to where i am today.
Went and checked on tha Cane still collecting webs and feelin depressed for bein abandoned in the driveway (sorry Suga). Headed to best buy to finish the price adjustments i sought to do the day before then home to debrief wifey. Watched some shows and did more laundry.
Friday- Very slow quiet day. I stayed up till 3am hammering out a project for lil momma and JD at the corrections center. There had been a documentary on CNN called: "Black in America" that they werent able to watch so i recorded and burned onto dvd, editing out the commercials for'em. From there i had spent the better prt of yesterday evening replaying in my head the interview and what to say in my thank you letter to be emailed (waaaaay better than snail mail). Finally finished editing and re-editing that at 3am! Sent it as an attachment and went to bed. Woke up briefly a couple hours later as wifey was leaving for work then an hour later to Tamia tellin me there was someone at the door. I had txt'd Cake and told her i had those 2 dvd's that needed to hitch a ride to the corrections center but didnt expect that quick of service lol Didnt even have time to assure i hadnt been droolin in my sleep! Grabbed up the dvd's and slid'em through the door after a brief hug to assure no dragon breath escaped lol. Tried to re-edit the Disneyworld dvd into a special edition recut movie and went out to survey the garden and planters. Spotted more ripe strawberries, a couple more Jalapenos, and even some Tomatos!! yes!! when i walked over barefoot to the garden to survey the rows out the corner of my eye a few inches away i noticed a shift in the weedgrass and was just in time to see a gardner snake slither right past my foot into the tall grass that lines the garden! Havent seen one of those in years and especially shocking that it would be over where my 2 dogs usually are posted up gettin some shade.
Saturday- Another pretty quiet day. Finished the DisneyWorld DVD overnight so burned both that and the Mississippi special edition dvd's (as i call'em) to disc and call it good. They aint gonna be pristine perfect cause theres way too much footage im tryin to fit on one disc so theres gonna be flaws. Felt a lil inspiration after viewin some footage and thinkin of the pancakes i had in vegas so went to the kitchen and made homemade pancakes from SCRATCH! Ya'll dunno it but your boy is ridiculous in the kitchen! No pancake mix from the store, from SCRATCH! And they were boooomb! Watched a lil tv and called out a friend who's very close to me for removin me off their myspace top friends list. Excuse? "well its shouldnt matter where you are on the page long as youre on it!" Yeah well if that was a good reason then the same would apply for movin that person(s) up in rank to make the top 8 and take me off then right?! Yeah whatever we'll see if you really do just delete your page cause of the "hassle". ANYWAYS, went out to miraclegro the garden and im worried for all in there. A LOT of yellow leafs and stems even those i weed and miracle gro weekly and water daily. Im suspecting its gonna be the dirt AGAIN. Out there airiating (or however you spell it, punching holes in the dirt to stimulate growth and watering) and there were soooo many rocks below the surface under the roots of my plants that i think is making them sick and preventing growth. Did what i could though but im thinkin its gonna be another failure overall cause my corn stalks should be WAY bigger than what they are. I got WEEDS bigger and thicker than my corn right now. Never the less ill keep on pushin till the end of the season. 2 more strawberries needed picking so grabbed those and miracle gro'd the rest of the planters. Went out to check the mail and had a big manila envelope. I pull it out and its from Fife. I smirk as i know its what i had emailed and called them about which was my performance reviews i had voluntarily gave to them in hopes it would help my case for employment (before bein disqualified.) After they rejected me i was like well gimme my ish back! Its one of those post rejection that youre GLAD they didnt cause i find it extremely disrespectful and unprofessional to not return someone's email or phone calls when they're bein nothin but polite and professional to you. The Chief never answered my request to speak to him BEFORE the decision was handed down of rejection and post rejection the Chief nor Lt replied to an email or phonecall askin for my ish back. But i get this envelope in the mail today with my reviews. Fanned'em to assure all pages were in there and noticed....highlighting. I stopped to read what it was that had been highlighted and all were on the last review submitted which was the 06/07 year (the last one i have as i was fired before my 07/08 review was available) One section was just the 2 unacceptable ratings that i had got which was ONLY because of the written warning i had gotten in 2006 automatically gave you that rating in ONE section of the review. the rest of my ratings were Meets Standards and Exceeds Standards. 22 of those in all, yet Fife chose to highlight the TWO unexceptables. Last part they highlight was reading MY employee comments to my review. 4 sentences. "But of course Lonnie Lon, everybody's friend or local 'cafe lon-ay' coffee man...", "Like 'double jeopardy' if you understand what im trying to say", "The green mile", "...isn't just a job for Lonnie.." Seems like Fife wanted to split hairs then not even ASK me what i was referrin to. Nothin wrong with anything i was sayin at all and no reason to "watch my words and be careful of what you say" if people cant stop and ask for explaination into what im tryin to say before takin offense thats your own ignorance.
So im soooo over Fife, im lookin forward to the future. It sucks that you dont know what God has in store for a job and comin down to the wire not knowin has me paniced but i have faith that somethin'll come through. The Lord will provide as He always has so im not really sweatin it. Hope this one up north pans out. At the time of this chapter its the only lead i have no other interviews scheduled.
July 19 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 7, WEEK 24Well lets see what we got this week.
Sunday- Everybody say it it me! Churrrrrrch lol Was an excellent sermon by one of the ministers since the Rev is on vacation this week. Thereafter we went down to the Valley market and re-up'd on our fruits. Came home and watched a lil tv together and looked through the sunday paper ads. Found the dvd+r dl discs i had brought the day before 15pk for $12.99. Well i had just paid 50pk for $80! Yeah so you know that went back. Got 3 sets of the 15pk for $39 and got a price adjustment on a dvd i had purchased. Came home and worked the garden for awhile weedin and waterin. Finally hunkered down and got to workin on the Mississippi footage that i had recorded a year ago! There was so much to do to it i forgot and now i see why i delayed in doin it. But wit wantin to get the Vegas one done I felt obligated to do all outstanding movies as well (disneyworld, vegas, Mississippi) And that literally took me the rest of the night workin on just the Mississippi one alone. Didnt go to sleep will 3am
Monday- Was out COLD but was woken up my Lucy advised she had somethin she had to give me and it was 8 in the morning. I was like ugh it better be important, within minutes the sound of a knock on the door. I open it just to be told i was bein give a HUG. This is the point in your mind where you sock the person in the gut and they double over on the ground and you go back in and close the door. Or you flat out strangle the life outta'em then go back upstairs to bed. Both crossed my mind lol. I oblige the hug with gratitude cause its not like i see any of you anymore at all minus less than a handful (and i lost several fingers to frost bite in that analogy) go on about my day tendin to the kids. checked the Mississippi footage for flaws (none) so set it up to produce the Vegas footage. Did some job surfin online and applied for another one up north. Got a phonecall from a gig that closed on friday that im hopin for since im all but out the 911 industry. They asked me when i was available to test and offered me days and times on thurs or fri. I told her i was very excited to test and interview for this position so i wanted the earliest time avail. So i took the thurs 2pm test time. Asked her about how many they were looking to hire, she told me 3. Never had a problem testing at all even interviewing. Its only what comes after. Later that evening watched some shows on tv with wifey then checked the Vegas footage for flaws since it was now done. (flawless). Off to bed at 2am
Tuesday- Up early and laid in bed watchin msnbc. Set up the computer to produce disneyworld footage and bein it was the biggest of all the movies its likely to take upwards of 10hrs to finish. Watched some tv for a bit, wet online and chose which bills are gonna get paid cause im startin to be at that 11th hour of funds bein exhausted :( Looked around online for some jobs usin my desperate strategy of throwing everything at the wall and hopin somethin sticks. Once the disneyworld footage was done I took a breather before startin the final task of burning to DVD. During that breather I got what seems to now be a weekly migraine. So aborted any other plans i may have had and just went to bed.
Wednesday- Back to the grind i went at it tryin to burn those files to DVD but the thing started messin wit me sayin it couldn't burn the movies to dvd! i was PISSED. Its becomin much more of a hassle than it should be. Tried and tried but gettin nothin outta it. So shelved the project and got back to lookin for jobs. Watered the garden a bit and caught up on some shows on the DVR that me and wifey are into.
Thursday- GOOD day! in-law came over early to watch the kids for me so i stayed upstairs heavy on the grind throwing stuff at the wall. Came downstairs finally and tended to my garden for a bit trimming some dead leaves off my tomato plants and spottin the 1st signs of strawberries on those plants! Various pepper plants gettin taller no signs of anything yet, and the garden truly thriving im so excited! Came back in from my backyard sanctuary, go the recycle taken out and kids fed so he didnt have to worry bout'em and headed out early. Ran into my gurl JITT that i havent seen in awhile so pulled over to say hey to her for a few minutes and drop her her Vegas beads. There was a volunteer job in a nearby city thats been on my mind a lil over the last couple days i wanted to go get an app for. Throught this time of unemployment ive been increasing my volunteer work more than ive EVER done in my life and i feel real good about it. It may not be in areas i could be even more effective but im tryin and im DOIN so thats way more a plus than another just lookin at me and judgin yet sittin their fat a** back on the couch. Gettin the app, i head up north to my 1400 test i had to take. gettin there 5min to spare theres 4 others in the lobby waitin. This aint a game for me i aint here to made friends so i stand away in isolation (while the others chatted and convo'd). Come 1400 we start the testin 1st takin the spelling test which was 30 words some already spelled correctly the others needing correcting. needed a 70 to pass. Im a good speller so that was not a prob (and all 5 of us passed). next phase was the data entry, entering business cards like data accurately into the appropriately sections. needed... 95% accuracy? and 7500 keystrokes per minute in 10min timeframe. Finished that with 10200 keystrokes and 99% accuracy. the only other guy in there testing (was 2 guys and 3 girls) admitted he thought he scored 7200 as at that moment when we finished the printer ceased to work so couldnt printout the results. But she allowed all of us to go to the next and final phase which was the typing test. needed 58wpm to pass that. Sailed through that i believe doin.. 63wpm. At that time it was revealed in confirmation that that guy hadnt passed the 2nd phase but we'll see if they truly disqualify him or throw'em in the bunch anyway. From there i dropped down to the 2nd level and went and saw my Detective buddy actin like i was a C.I. lol Chopped it up for a few before i headed out droppin off their Vegas party beads to'em.
Got out to my truck and saw i missed a call. Callback inquiring if i missed a call and they advise theyre the Hepatits C study group. I said WHAT?! She repeats herself and i ask her why they called me. I asked if it was pertaining to any other job as i had seen somethin like that on a county website yet i hadnt applied for a Hepatitis survey study group so i dunno why they'd be callin! She took down my info and said she'd put the word out and call back. In the back of my mind im thinkin DONT BOTHER lol. As im headin to tha Cane i get their voicemail callback that it was a misdial (DUH). Checked on her and felt sad all the webs springin up all over her. She was cryin lets go out just a few more times in case its our last times together! I told'er DONT THINK LIKE THAT! Took off and headed southward home. Watched some tv and thats that!
Friday- Right back at it tried to process a movie and the thing was STILL actin up! tried uninstallin the software and re-installin still nothin. Read in the troubleshootin section online that if that happens try runnin in safe mode then burnin a copy. So later in the day got that processin. Watched some tv shows and time freakin flew. Had a spark of motivation so when i went out to check the mail and take out the garbage i decided to mow the dandelion field (front yard). Got one of my books in the mail i ordered f/amazon.com (The Godfather's Revenge). Since i had finished the 1st book i wanted to read the 2nd and 3rd books that spawned the movies. Must've been a motivatin day cause I ended up makin some fried cage, butter bean w/okra, grilled chicken, and later that night some homemade blueberry muffins! yezzur! chef homeboy-ardee! Had some pretty somber moments throughout the day. Although i was motivated there was somethin else in the air cause i ended up gettin into minor tiffs wit Cake and Lucy but then a huge fallout wit my girl Marie who I truly adore and love to death. :( Apparently last weeks chapter struck a nerve which i hadnt meant to. Finished the night watchin Fried Green Tomatos. (the pussification of man, yes im aware.)
Saturday- What a waste of a day and money. Spend alllll day tryin to get this stupid DVD to produce. It continued to throw error msg after error msg after wastin hours of time as if it was truly producing it. Finally i was like, well im gonna upgrade this software i guess to see if a minor driver glitch that needed fixin wit vista upgraded software. So i go and blow $129 on new software (and picked up the new NAS cd since i was there lol) and came back home. Upgraded and got all as i thought i needed to be and pressed the processin button.... after awhile... "burn failed" (EXPLETIVE). Tried reconfigurin this and that and eventually moved to another software to see if i could get it to record that way. Got up to 78% complete so i was like COO finally got over the hump. Yeah well just like my personnel file, no sooner do i turn my back thinkin all ok... turn back around "Cancel..." It was self abortin the burn for an unknown reason!!!! what the heck?! It givin me such a hassle and i dont understand why its never done this before. Took a break and went and miraclegro'd the garden and planters, ate and fed my chidlins, then watched edward scissorhands which i realized id never even watched it before. Got my final Godfather book i ordered to complete the trilogy (this one was the Godfather returns, the 2nd book). Readin my 1st Obama book now as im waitin for this dvd to process as i upgraded the other software that had got up to 78% to see if that repaired that glitch. Shot a few myspace msgs to my girl Ally McBeal who had fell off the radar for a minute but is now back. (sup homes) Gotta go, this 2nd round on the 2nd software is now currently up to 17% done at 1hr 16min of processing. We'll see what happens. If it dont work out ill just have to verbally tell my family tmrw about our 3rd child vs show in a movie trailer.
Later that night as i was slavin over the computer in frustration wifey came back home and wanted to have a lil "Talk". We end up gettin into a HUGE blowout cause earlier (a few weeks ago) she had made mention of her mom and step dad leavin town movin to Vancouver end of the month and inquired if her mom could stay wit us a couple weeks (for whatever reason, im assuming for commuting to work reasons). I see the writing on the wall wit this situation and say no im not ok wit it. Well last night the topic comes up again but now the couple weeks has became a few MONTHS. I lost it. Are you CRAZY?! We expectin our 3rd child, they are goin down there in a haste w/no jobs or nothin minus finding an apt down there and you wanna now inconvienience us cause you makin a bone headed decision? And to top it off Kelitha is now tryin to sell the ish to me "cause thats her mom and she feels we should help" uh NO i married YOU not your family. They wanna dig themselves graves and turn into black holes thast none of my concern and the kids as well. It pisses me off when she feels the need to run to mommys aid when her mom is the one f**kin up as shes done with her sister in times past before she got burned too many times and tiredof it. Its what broke us up back in 2001 when she was prego with Tamia cause of the battles and choosin sides with her family only to get burned back then too and opened her eyes to what i had been sayin now here we are again except this times the ball and chain is on my leg, assets, and kids involved. The crossroads. Do i bend over and take it in hopes that it wont last long and hold a grudge, or do i raise hell, make her moms life a living hell if she does override me and let her mom stay. I need a job i gotta get outta here. July 12 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 7, WEEK 23Back on the grind! Lets get it!
Monday- Just a day of reminiencing on the weekend and how much fun it was! Uploading all video and photo footage to the PC to prepare to create a movie out of it. Gettin things put away. Seein that i had gained 4 lbs in Vegas even though we walked 5 miles a day and i barely ate all that much i was NOT havin it. I worked too hard to get this weight down and i aint havin it go up in 4 days. So i popped a couple laxative pills in the morning and by evening purged 2 pounds worth of Vegas out of my system! Great start to gettin back on track if you ask me! After a brief controversy where emotions were flying from every which way, I borrowed a rented shampooer that i went half on with Lucy and opted to shampoo my carpets as she was doin her whole apt after an unfortunate incident. But the rug doctor machine didnt really have any effect on the kid stains upstairs at all. Didnt even really get the surface stains out. Had to attach the upholestry attachment and drop to the floor and scrub. Said ill be danged (to keep it clean lol) if i turn full on Cinderella up in my own house scrubbin floors. And if some prince charming comes to the door he'll have a gun in his mouth cause he's takin the Mr. Mom thing a liiiiil too far! I still got my manhood dont get it twisted! Finished as much as i could upstairs, showered up and loaded the shampooer in wifeys Subaru and took it over to Lucy's house so she could use and return.
Tuesday- Another day of bumming around the house. I was put into a mood because i thought the letter i got from Fife before leaving would be the end of it, but then i get a letter from their city hall dept sayin "yep we got the word from the Chief that youre no longer in contention for the position so... good luck!" Im like really right now? I get a thumb in one eye after such a positive right but that aint good enough you gotta thumb my other eye too?? I was NOT interested of just sittin in the house all day so come noon i went out to work the garden. Transplanting some seedlings i had grown in starter planters in my big patio planter, i added more corn, watermelon, cantelope, and onions to an already growing carrot, split/sweet pea, pickle cucumber, okra, collard green, cabbage, pumpkin crop! (peppers, strawberries, and tomatos are thriving too and all salmonella free!) Came back to do some things around the house and start workin on the movie a little but the damage was already done from bein outside in the garden. I ended up showering and retiring to bed extremely early with a pretty bad sinus headache from the pollen.
Wednesday- Had the in-law come over and watch my kids as I had a test to do for a temp job up North. (If you havent noticed over these last 23 weeks i never post the position location until its no longer in contention. Id rather avoid outside influence from 3rd partys seeking to do HARM with their meddlin and gossip ways. I have a hard enough time as you can tell overcoming the Correction's Centers 100% negative file on me and I truly dont need anymore negativity. Call it paranoia, I call it playin it safe. Haters stayin a step BEHIND my moves not me trippin over their ignorant movements. I grab my girl Lucy and head north but forgot I had left my planner in wifey's Subaru from Monday! So I stopped by her job as I headed north to swoop it up. Get up north a lil early (carpool privileges paid off!) so left Lulu the keys and went on in. Was one of the 1st to be done. The usual typing test, data entry, filing, math testing. The lady pulled me aside to advise my scores exceeded their requirements (all sections were in the 90 percentile) and that although they didnt have any full-time positions at the moment, but come August and/or November they'll definitely be giving me a call for their elections. (This position is temp for bein an election worker in King County.) That's right! You either complain about how Bush stole the election in 2000 and watch documentary's and movies like "Recount" on HBO or you get up and say, im GOING to count those ballots and assure another election aint stolen! Come fall it'll be another Governor showdown between Chris Gregoire and Dino Rossi and we know how close that was last round and i want a front row seat for this round!
I go back out and attempt to sneak up on Lucy doin God knows what in my SUV but she looks up by happenstance at the very last second thwarting my attempt to startle. Got a good laugh outta it and a sliver from bein in the beauty bark lol Go to jump in the truck and turn over the engine... DEAD BATTERY. What??!!! Lucy ran down my freakin battery foolin around in the truck. And it juuust so happened she had to go to the bathroom again at that very moment. Hoooow convienient. So as shes fleeing to the bathroom I flag down a elderly guy that just pulled up and he gave me a jump. (I carry jumper cables in my truck, another thing I was known for at the Corrections Center) From there (finally) head on over to the Corrections Center to make a drop in Marie's car of the 4th of July party beads I got for some of'em who have been there for me in one way or another over these last 5 months. Went on over to tha Cane, and checked up on'er droppin some items off ive had in my truck for weeks but never made it north to drop it off. Dropped down the hill into the valley to check up on a job i had applied for in May but the closing date got extended another month until 7/3. The lady told me all apps had been pulled and submitted for review and those chosen to interview would be contacted in the next week or two for interviewing. Prayin that im one of'em chosen so we'll see. Headed on south to Puyallup to get some food from Costco, dropped of Lucy and went home. Few minutes later she arrived cause that messy girl forgot her school backpack in my truck lol Said goodbye to my in-law who advised they were flyin out to L.A. for the week and checked the mail. Got an envelope from one of my south end job leads that advised my application dropped off was incomplete and needed a supplemental questionaire attached to make it valid for resubmission and must be returned before closing date to be deemed eligible. Worked on the movie a little bit and watched some DVR'd shows that needed to be caught up on.
Thursday- Posted up downstairs catchin up on more shows that needed to be watched and cleared up. Lookin at the closing date for that one south end job it closed monday so i thought eh, i'll get around to it and get it turned back in at some point. Lucy advised she was goin tanning then headed northward toward where that job was so i scurried to get the 5 questions answered so she could swoop up the application for me and get it re-submitted before the deadline. Spent a good portion of the day goin back and forth arguing with 2 other friends very close to me over a letter written to be submitted with the party beads I had dropped off the day before that held what they deemed (in their opinion) taboo working they "didnt wanna get in trouble over" (there are wolves among you). In the end i was so frustrated over the non-sense i demanded the letters destroyed and just give out the beads. Any joy I once held in obtaining'em for people was sucked absolutely dry. Although I had stayed silent the remainder of the day/night over it, scabs were pried open again by bein accused my mood was over an incident from several day prior when it had nothing to do wit my current mood nor another parties. So the nonsense disputing and poking completely overshadowed my news of blessing that me and wifey had recieved that afternoon that ill share at a later time once i am employed. I currently dont want to deal wit the secondary line of questioning that is associated with the news that once again will overshadow the joy of the good news so ill hold it in reserve until then. Worked on the movie some more which put me in a way better mood bein able to escape the nonsense bickering and goin back to a happy moment in life.
Friday- Posted up on the couch downstairs watchin shows and checkin up on bills. Sewer bill came wit some late fees when they had gotten their money the 1st of the month so got those fees reversed. Stayed in all day doin a bunch of nothin and toward the evening really set in to hammerin out this dvd movie im makin of all the vegas footage. I opted out on what i was gonna do a couple days ago about the "good news" i was gonna reserve and went ahead and told people of what was goin on bein that me and wifey are expecting child #3. I was excited because regardless of my current economical conditions a child is ALWAYS a blessing. Well I was pretty disappointed when it seemed to have fell flat on all those i had told minus a few. somber responses, 1 word "congrats" replies I was truly hurt. One person stooped to the ultimate low and tore me up inside when they said "youre a dumbass" I couldnt believe someone would have the audacity to say such a thing just because of my current state of unemployment. Who the hell says somethin like that to another person over their blessing? (this person is single no kids) I thought they was a friend but voicin such a derogatory opinion i now beg to differ. I couldve had a job months ago but I was tryin to stay in the same line of work which is what i enjoyed doin so excuse me for holdin out and not just settlin for any job with poor benefits and pay. So my day of joy tryin to express to many of you turned into a moot point which is pretty f'd up if you think about it that those close to you didnt share in the joy you had in your heart. So i really went underground after that the rest of the day and tellin that person that ill be sure to withhold any further good news i may have to share until my economic conditions are acceptable in their eyes. Saw a advertisement on tv about an exhibit comin to the Pacific Science Center this fall about some of the world oldest human bones thought would be interesting to see known as Lucy.
Saturday- Determined to bounce back with a fury I got up and spent a lot of time hangin wit my family since when the sunsets thats who i truly have rallied in my corner 24x7. We watched some shows and had breakfast together and lounged. In the late afternoon I decided to try to be productive so i hopped up and headed out to run some errands. Paired up wit my gurl Lucy who was bored at home wit a thumb up her.... lol so we went to mclendons and got some wire cages for my snap peas that are STILL sproutin up out the ground needed cages as they were fallin over, then to best buy to get some dvd+r dl discs for my movies which im currently 3 behind in doin. All that footage i shot in Mississippi in 2007 i never finalized into a movie and never produced a final copy of Disneyworld either. Now got Vegas im doin and need to finish that immediately as it contains the trailer for the prego announcement that we wanna tell them asap. While we were there we talked and laughed and picked up some movies and made our way to the games as i wanted to see what ive been missin out on over the months. Startin wit the wii stuff didnt see much of anything so went over to the ps3 aisle tellin her about the game "civilization" i used to play on my PC as a kid and laptop at work in 2003 (when laptops were still legal) Got to talkin so much about it and excited i was like you know what? give it here and it ended up in my pile lol. As we were still meandering we saw guitar hero 3 on xbox 360 and she hadnt played so i showed her how it worked but it was broke. We doubled back over to ps3 section and saw they had rockband set up! So we had to give it a try since neither of us played it before and was rocked that ish! hahahahah i sucked on drums and her guitar so we switched positions and i did guitar and her drums and that gurl was tearin it up! i was like go head Lulu!!! Made for a great laugh! Paid up and headed back to safeway to get some food for the fam for dinner and came home. Put out the cages and talked to the neighbors behind me watered up er thang went and watched a movie with wifey, back out to miraclegro er thang and now back in again hammerin out the movie and postin this weeks chapter! tty next week!
July 06 BOOK OF LON: CHAPTER 7, WEEK 22- VIVA LAS VEGAS!WEEEEEEEEEEE DOGGY! lol What a hot hot start to the week!
Sunday- Churrrch! Service was good and the day funny cause as the Rev put it, it was skipping sunday since it was the 5th one lol Even outta my family only me were there sermon pertaining to Matthew 6 and the Lord's Prayer. After church i enjoyed my final victory lap of lockin up the buildings before exiting out into the 90 degree heat. Returned home and posted up downstairs out the heat watchin tv shows and spending time with family anticipating what could happen tmrw with my south end job lead and gettin ready (mentally) for my Thursday flight out!
Monday- Ugh. Heart wrenching day. Stayed in bed till almost 10 just prayin the phone would ring but instead in get Lucy callin. Waaaaaaay to tie up the lines Lulu lol While waitin i went ahead and mowed the front yard, while doin so i thought about startin an lawmowin service that would succeed "No dandelion left behind" vs its play on words counterpart thats failing "No child left behind" lol My front yard was craazy lookin all the freakin dandelion TALL sprouts out there. No money to buy any weed be gone/lawn feed so neighbors just gonna have to make due with the Dandelion field of dreams lol. While talkin wit Cake i heard the mailman pull up so i went out there to check the mail PRAYING i wouldnt find a letter of rejection. I dodged the bullet another day as there were none thankfully. Coming back inside though noon come and gone i was paniced to the core not knowing what to do. I dont think anyone's that busy to not be able to return a call or email that i had left on thursday. So battling internal protest i called to my horror. Beat the file, round 3, had begun.
i just called the south end contact and spoke wit the det in charge of my file. he said he took notes on my file and documented 20 things...20. he cancelled the poly/psych exams to forward my file to the chief for final decision before pressing forward with the hiring process as "it costs money for the poly and the psych exams." So he told me to "sit tight and wait". i paniced and asked for the chief's # to start "beat the file round 3". He obliged and gave me the secretary's number. After finally navigating through their automated phonetree I got his secretary. I asked if i could schedule a sit down wit the chief to discuss my file. She went and checked and advised the file is on his desk and he wanted to review it and if any questions he'd call me back. 20 things?? There aint gonna be no call. So i told her there's gonna be questions and if i could leave my # for'em to call. She comments back "well its on your app packet right?" I answered, "yes...well can i leave a note that i'd like to talk to him?". She said she'd forward the request. I sat back once again distraught in my fact finding that the poly exam was postponed due to none other than, my personnel file. Immediately took to the defense mode. I gotta defend my name this aint a "sit back and wait" matter. I completed a 2 page letter to be hand delivered in person by me the following day after my "own up or pay up" meeting with unemployment in the a.m. My own prayer is that it works. Got an email from the Dreambox company my daughter did the control group for in Bellevue sendin the software she can now play the beta program on her computer.
Tuesday- And then my heart sank. Got up early got my kids fed waiting for the in-law to come over to watch the kids and was on my pc assuring I had all my papers in order for my unemployment meeting when I noticed an email in my inbox. Its from my south-end job lead 1st thing 730am and i know thats not good. I open it and see the attachment letter. ....we regret to inform you... tears came to my eyes. What hope i had left taken from me within hours. In absolute shock I gathered up my things and drove over to Tacoma to the unemployment office for my 9am appt. Getting there they wanted a copy of my unemployment log from the week of June 15th-21st and my last 3 jobs. Submittin that info to my unemployment counselor we talked a lil and she really put me at ease seeing how discouraged i was. A very nice black woman she saw i was wearing my crosses. She whispered to me so as not to be heard by others a lil story from the book of Daniel that really brought peace to my heart that in the midst of all this, the Lord will make a way somehow. When she left to go get the printouts of 3 jobs she wanted me to apply for i felt a conviction inside me that ive felt for the longest time but everytime like the devil/angel on the shoulder situation i kept flickin the angel off thinkin i could get away wit it. This time i listened and reached for my PDA and pressed "Delete" to a connection of my past i no longer wanted to hold on to. You gonna do right you either all in or all out. Im choosin to be all in.
As i was leaving I had already made up my mind prior that rejection or not i gotta go to Fife and plead my case. If they werent gonna hear me out well i still have their polygraph papers clearly marked confidential, etc and i didnt want to be in possession of it. So i went there and asked the secretary if the Chief was avail as i wanted to put it in his hands and have'em tell me face to face no. She advised me he was in a meeting. So i asked for the Det. Lt that i had been in contact with and she said he was in the meeting WITH the Chief. Freakin great. Well i dunno how long they gonna be in the meeting and dont want to sit there an unknown amount of time just to be humiliated so i left giving the secretary the papers and askin her to give to them. Went out to my SUV and typed them both an email on my blackberry advising that i came to drop off the polygraph as i considered it city property and wanted to do the right thing and askin them to reconsider. (No reply the rest of that day to it nor the letter to the chief i had emailed attempting to BEAT that email of rejection). I came home and talked to the in-law for awhile and once he left went upstairs and pounded away for hours online tryin to find more leads. Today i am no closer to havin a job than i was the day after being fired. Wifey found out i had sent an email to an army recruit about a couple positions and wigged out on me. I took an application over to a friends house to have transported up north and gave the other to Lucy to drop off since she was gonna be mobile sooner and I wasnt. Saw my girl Pattycake driving home from work which bought a smile to my face. (Sup Cake!) Went back home and played Uno, Mai Jong, and then some Trivia game which was sooooo funny watchin Lucy guess some ridiculous answers such as "marky marx" lol
Wednesday- a very lay low type of day. Feelin VERY crappy about my situation i spent most of the day on the computer in search of a job in hopes i'd find some solid leads. After bummin it online for awhile findin some pretty good prospects usin other websites i saw the unemployment lady usin i applied for those and went over to the couch in front of our bed and watched some of my political shows. Wifey came home so spent some time wit her before headin outside to tend to the garden and get it weeded. I was very excited by what i saw. Good healthy prospects in every row the only thing not grownin was lettuce and green bell peppers. But there were more corn sprouts (including the ones i started in a small transfer plastic pot), watermelon & cantelope (additional ones to be transfered from starter pots), greens, cabbage, pickle cucumbers, pumpkin plants, split/sweet peas, carrots, onions! and in the big planter pots my tomato stalks area gettin big and strong, my strawberry plants are bout to bust out, and my pepper plants? well... thery're there lol. I finally feel im gonna succeed with my crop :) add farmer Lon to the resume! Went back inside grabbed all the luggage outta storage and got me and wifey packed (a lil trade secret ya'll didnt know but not only do i buy her clothes but i pack them as well. literally i MAKE her image, and ya'll know me... i sell SEX. lol! Finished and went downstairs to work out and watch some shows, got the dishwasher loaded and did a laundry load then headed upstairs to shave my body hair (chest, face, head, and another trade secret... im not an armpit hair guy at all, and other hair that need not be mentioned on here lol) then off to bed.
Thursday- the biiiiiiiiiiiiiiig day! Hadnt been feelin it at all cause this unemp has gotten me to my very core. Woke up and had breakfast wit the fam, got that load of dishes ran and got all garbage and recycle curbside for the garbage man to get. No sooner had i did that i looked down..... HALF of a rat was layin there on the cement in front of my pick up truck. EWWWWWWWW. and you know how i do it! sho nuff did went and got the camera and snapped pics of that bad boy lmao! Half of it waist and down was there, one organ was layin next to it severed and no upper chest nor head was present. What caused that devistation is beyond me but i sure hope it brushed its teeth! Checked the mail and got Fife's official letter of rejection which didnt bother me. I was soooooo over the whole situation but glad i got it then so i could do away wit it and not find it in the mail when we returned makin me re-live it all over again. The in-law eventually arrived to swoop up our chidlins and we headed out to my parents gettin there just as they were ready to pull off. Stopped by tha Cane cause i forgot my swimming trunks aboard from the last time i got to take her out and some allergy meds cause my butt was sneezin like crazy! Forgot the sunblock aboard though and needed that! Got to Masterpark unloaded the luggage caught the shuttle to seatac checked our bags, declared my 9mm in my luggage had that checked (you know good and well my 9 is like an american express... you NEVER leave home without it!) and headed to the terminal. Got aboard after 30min and we took to the friendly skies! The gurls sat together and me and my dad sat together read some mags and chit-chatted abit along the 2.5hr flight. I offered up my ipod to'em since i wasnt usin it and he ended up watchin some of 'BLACK SNAKE MOAN' w/samuel l jackson. We landed and got our bags and after a brief wait cause my mom forgot some of our itinerary and boarding passes on the plane... we went over to the MGM check-in booth they had in the airport. Purchased tickets for the Cirque Du Soleil for the 4th of July and went outside to get a shuttle... or so i thought. Book of Lon readers... WE DID IT BIG. you hear me??? We rented a LIMO! hahhahaha Oh i was feelin like Peppermint Pimp'n for real! Wifey as she entered accidentally brushed against one of the glasses gettin in which shattered after it fell and caused superfiscial scratches on her leg. Felt bad for her. But we sho nuff did leave the airport came down Tropicana Av and pulled up to the MGM like superstars! Got our room 8-205 and came up here and the magic just didnt stop. IT WAS A SUITE!!! King size bed wit a window that is separated from the sitting area by an armoir that has double door openings on BOTH sides. So you can lay in bed and watch tv or swivel the tv and watch it from the couch or chairs in the sitting area!!! has a mini bar area w/a refrig and a HUGE bathroom wit double sinks, bathtub separate from the shower... it is NUTS!!!. perfect view of the stratosphere, and planet hollywood casino they buildin as well as other places. We left the room and went back down to the lobby where we all ate at Wolfgang Pucks restaurant where we all basically shared off each others plates to have a sampler platter of steak, spaghetti, italian sausage pizza, and my huge burger and fries! From there Kelitha was tired, and my parents were ready to gamble and i wasnt tryin to just have all this food on gut, so i took wifey back to the room where she was mopey and moody cause i wouldnt stay in the room wit'er. I was like gurl please i been caged up in the house for 5 months you think im gonna fly down to vegas and just stay in a room again?! hecks to tha naw! peace! Grabbed my tennis shoes, used the bathroom, grabbed the camcorder and that thang and i hit the strip you hear me?! Called up my gurl Cake, Lucy, and Locks to holla at'em while i wasnt recordin. Wanted to call my gurl Marie but i figured she'd long been in bed so thought i'd try the next day. I head uptown on foot resettin my pedometer at the room door and walked while recordin. I was on the phone with Lucy for a moment and had been recordin when i felt someone ticklin me. I thought my parents had caught up or someone i had known recognized me. I turn around.... its these 2 blonde bombshell gurls in short mini-dresses just a chucklin away at me. I smile back and whisper to Lucy what had just happened then turn the camcorder on'em to record the one who had just accosted me not even 10min after hittin the strip lol. She says to the camera "yeah im the one that just tickled you, and i dont regret it!" lol I end up walkin up the the Venetian, talk to Locks there for awhile then head back down toward walgreens where im freakin hot and thirsty so i buy a case of water and a liter of coke (cause my dad said he had bought some courvessier so i was like heeecks yeah! we can mix our dranks and order up the UFC fight on saturday!) lugged that by myself back to the resort up the elevator and back to the room total was 2.3miles and a total of 4900 steps! I felt VERY good about it and the burning off of at least 200 calories (all this info according to my pedometer). Split the case of water wit my parents and came in my room to upload the video footage to the laptop and type of this fabulous installment of the book of lon! tty tmrw! Friday- Forgive me if i say somethin a lil off the wall but my a** is DRUNK right now hahahahaha had 2 MGD's on the strip and only ate 1x today so im feelin it like a muh right now! Tryin to recap from today, I woke up round 7ish the sun was beamin bright by then. Jumped in the shower which was refreshin and hopped back out. Wifey was up soon after so she got all freshened up. Went into a brief stall pattern cause neither of us knew what to do. So we read our individual books for a while havin a lil quiet time. Finally we decided we were gonna walk up the block to Denny's for breakfast and txt my parents across the way that was our intentions. My mom then advised us to order room service in our room so we said hey! why not! Got a deluxe breakfast and it was HUGE. Now when i say huge i am NOT lyin to you when i said thats all i ate ALL day. Me and wifey both we were so full. now THATS a breakfast! Immediately after we finished we txt my parents again to advise that we out! So we crossed the street over to the Tropicana and went to the Bodies exhibit. It was INCREDIABLE. i recommend that exhibit to EVERYONE. It was in seattle last year and we had missed it so we opted to see it down here and it was totally worth it. The lowest point of the exhibit was the babies. They had a special section where it showed conjoined twins as well as a baby who's organs were developed on the exterior of the body. Then the one that hit hard was the fetus's at various stages of development. 3wks, 4wks, it literally had a real baby at each weekly stage. It was sad on 2 fronts. the 1st, was the tragedy of miscarriage and remembering that we had lost our 1st child to a miscarriage (1st and 3rd, Tamia and Marcus are ou 2nd and 4th children). The 2nd was actually what made me angry and its the people that sit there and justify it in their feeble minds that only at a "certain stage" its really a baby so they can justify in their minds havin an abortion cause they couldnt keep they legs closed. THOSE people really need to see the exhibit to face reality of their actions and stare down in the FACE what they just murdered. It was CRAZY seein the real body's so close you could smell'em i you wanted to. Seein a cancer infested lung, a brain that suffered stroke, you name it. You could even touch a real preserved brain, liver, and intestine! Kelitha didnt want to at 1st and was pretty grossed out but in forced her to before we left lol. One exhibit i was just so fascinated because it really showed the human penis and testicles (lil funny side note as im typin this im still drunk and didnt remember the real term for "nuts" had to ask wifey lol). And the anus too! who wouldve thought the muscle really looked like that! After leavin that touching exhibit we emerged briefly and was flagged down by an African American employee for the next exhibit the Titanic. He asked us if we were goin in and when. We told'em takin a break then dippin back in. We went up the stairs back to the Tropicana's casino level and waited a few minutes for my parents who arrived. They went down and saw the Bodies exhibit and we went the other direction into the Titanic exhibit. That was pretty interesting seein all the artifacts recovered from the doomed ship. They build recreations of certain parts of the boat like the staircase, what it was like bein outside on deck, they even had a real iceberg in the exhibit!!! Toward the end you approached a wall showing all the survivors and deceased aboard the titanic. The African American guy had given us 2 deck pass cards at the beginning so we were to look up who we had and he gave me the card of the ONLY African American family aboard the Titanic. My card's wife and 2 kids survived, and my guy died :( We emerged from the exhibit and gambled a lil on a video blackjack machine where i lost the full $20 my dad gave me to gamble wit lol. Stupid Vegas i aint gamblin anymore! Me and wife came back to the rooms to regroup momentarily and my parents stayed downstairs to grab a bite to eat. We went back downstairs and loitered around before comin back up AGAIN to the room. Waited a few then it was time for the Cirque Du Soleli show inside the MGM. It was AMAZING you hear me? FASCINATING. We were all glued to it. Afterward we emerged just BUZZIN about it my mom went over to Starbucks to get some more coffee and the 3 of us loitered on the outskirts of the store laughin and crackin jokes at my mom bein a coffee fiend. Crackin jokes on her soooo bad cause she had 2 cups! One a hot drink another cold. Kelitha says "Well looka there. Tryin to balance it out! One hot, one cold! Next thing you know my mom walks over to us and askin us what we laughin about cause she's got 2 drinks and she hands the cold one to Kelitha. Me and my dad are in TEARS laughin cause suddenly her whooooole mood changed and she was so thankful and me and my dad start crackin on her about how she was over wit us talkin all that smack clownin wit us now changin her tune! hahhahhahahahaha It was so funny! Afterward we crossed over the aisle and brought tickets for David Copperfield's show the following day. I was soooo excited! This Vegas trip is one for the books i just cant believe how exciting its been! We split up cause my parents were goin to check the time of the fireworks and I told Kelitha I wanted to walk back up the strip to get more Las Vegas 4th of July Mardi Gras style beads as souvenirs. We head uptown on foot and it is SLAMMED. people EVERYWHERE. We get up there and Kelitha is just tickled readin all the custom t-shirts. My contact dude spots me again and comes over to say whaddup and lemme know the beads today were 12 for $5.00. I said why didnt you tell me that yesterday?! (I had brought 5 for $5.00 the previous day) So i end up buyin 2 dozen beads and we stop by a grocery store and buy a 12pk of MGD. I crack one open at the store and Kelitha cracks one too and we start walkin back to the MGM. By the time we got there my 1st beer was GONE. We got back into the room and unloaded all the unncessary I grabbed a 2nd beer (as did Kelitha), went to my parents room and gave them some beers and grabbed my mom and headed back outside to drink and wait for the fireworks. My dad was in the shower so he stayed behind. I was already feelin the buzz cause we hadn't ate since breakfast and was still feelin full after all that walkin! I get my strap ID and all i need and we go sit outside in front of the MGM with the crowd and drink. Camcord, and drink waitin till 1030 when it was supposed to start 1040 comes and still nothin so i google on my blackberry Mandalay Bay where the fireworks were supposed to be at and ask'em what the deal?! They say they had already did'em at 1030! We were like WTF?! We'd been outside since 1000 and nothin in the skyline! So we broke out and walked over the the Blvd and crossed over to New York New York after briefly chucklin wit my mom about my sprint i had made across those very skybridges in 2004 bein drunk and needin to pee but not knowin where the bathrooms were in the MGM so was runnin back to the Luxor lol! We did a full round around NY NY peepin it out and there i finished my 2nd MGD. LIT! stumblin but keepin composure. We cross back over to the MGM and watch the bartenders at the bar "Centrifudge" do a Coyote Ugly style dance on top of the bar. Headed back up to the room at midnight where it was too late to be eatin and im still full of alcohol typin this out! 1240am now, need to shower i smell of booze and cigarettes. In the end, pedometer says walked a total of 5.5 miles and burned 447 calories... now how many calories did i DRINK with 2 MGD's? lol HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! Saturday- The last real day here in hot sunny viva las vegas! We got up and ordered breakfast in room. Quiet morning, we had the tv off and just conversated together and joked a lil bit. Afterward sat on the couch and watched some tv for awhile and i laid my head in her lap while she watched some dumb show on BET called Baldwin Hills. Its basically the black answer back to MTV's The hills. I ended up nappin a lil bit then awoke and.... well... thats grown folks bitness ;) Got all back together and met up wit my parents and went on downstairs where they ate but i wasnt feelin it. Still full off my big breakfast again. Wifey and I went to the Cirque du soleli store and brought our kids a couple stuffed animal characters of two of the animals one adaptation of the play. I took those back up to the room and made a few quick phonecalls before regroupin wit the fam. We boarded the monorail @ $11.00 per ticket (one day pass)and headed north up to the Hilton. Got off and went inside and dinked around the outskirts of the star trek experience which had my dad intrigued i know lol. We went outside cause the goal was to get to the Hilton's residential guest suites they have... like a timeshare deal. Apparently i didnt know but my parents bought into it and thats where they were when they had went to Hawaii recently. So they wanted to check the Vegas one out. Well we went from the Hilton, walked down the street to the Sahara and staged there briefly due to the 107 degree weather. We were sittin in the guest arrival turnabout when we hear this roar that grew louder and louder.. we didnt know what it was but it sounded literally like a fighter jet so i hit record on my camcorder cause if it was a terrorist attack ive got the EXCLUSIVE and was bout to shop that footage! We look up and its a rollercoaster directly above us that we hadnt noticed before lol! We sat there and watched it in amazement as it roared up to a vertical pole...stopped.. then reversed backwards. Heeeeck naw! We continued on finally reachin the resort and did a tour of a couple of the penthouse condos which was absolutely CRAZY! Pushed on f/there walkin past the Riveria back to the Hilton and catchin the monorail back to the MGM. After gettin off we were walkin past and ponderin whether to just give away our passes i said im SELLIN mine lol. $11 was the buy price i was gonna sell it for $6. Within 1 minute i had sold mine and my dad seein my success i took his and the gurls left holdin theirs i snagged'em all and had'em all sold within 4minutes lol $44 spend $24 recovered. Your boy's a HUSTLA and dont you forget it. Had my parents impressed on my savvy skills (and of course i returned all the money to them w/out even pondering because they've paid our way through this whole trip). It was time to eat (bout late 5ish now)so me and wifey grabbed some chinese, afterward we went back to our rooms to stage till the David Copperfield show started. Once it was time we emerged again f/our rooms and headed down gettin seated at a private table and i must admit, NOT a bad seat in the house really. We were all absolutely amazed at this guy's skill. Copperfield is the TRUTH. I saw some ish that i would suspect some voodoo blackmagic ish makin whole 1940's lincoln's appear and stuff you kiddin me?! Comin from an empty box and bein on stage inside that box on a motorcycle?! We were bedazzled and took some pictures at the show and collected'em after the show. Went back up to our rooms i was feelin a lil sleepy i think cause of the smoke and the drink i had inside the show. I googled and did anything i could to get the play by play of the UFC fight that we were forced to miss. I called down to the front desk earlier in the day and asked why we werent able to order the UFC 86 fight on PPV they advised that basically Mandalay Bay held a monopoly on the show that none other were authorized to broadcast. So you either purchased a ticket or Mandalay offered a closed circuit broadcast in their ballroom for $50/person. So i found a website that gave the play by play after each round and found it as round 5 was ongoing. Read aloud rounds 1-4 to Kelitha and waited for round five to read in disappointment Jackson, the guy i was bettin on lost his title to Griffin. So me and wifey laid in the bed and kicked back 2 millers we still had to try to knock'em out before Sunday when we get back on the plane. Got back up as she was sleepy to type up this installment of the Book of Lon and caught the news where they had some footage of the fight where f/what i saw (the highlights) im wonderin what im missin that he lost that fight. ah well. Back to bein a Washitonian in a few hours. See ya'll soon! And since this is the last installment till next week, Viva Las Vegas! I needed this trip sooooo bad. The depression was eatin away at me and not bein able to fully enjoy myself due to extreme budgeting, seein how my parents were so successful in their lives comin from NOTHIN in Mississippi it truly inspired me to step my game up and get on the good foot and make somethin outta myself bouncin back from this dark chapter in my life. I WILL be successful in Jesus name. I will be the ol' Lonnie Lon again with a smile on my face and a bounce in my step. Total walkin today? 5.4 miles, 440 calories burned. Sunday- Ahhhh.... woke up a lil somber cause it was the big day. Time to head on back to reality and conclude the weekend getaway. We ordered our breakfast via room service and decided to go downstairs to the MGM store while we waited or our food to get some authentic MGM retired gambling cards. We decided we were gonna collect cards f/actual casinos we stay in when we go down there, so we decided to head across the street and down the blvd to the Luxor to go collect those retired cards as well. Just as we were at the Tropicana walkin southbound my dad called advisin room service was knockin on our door tryin to deliver our food! lol ooops! So he took it in his room for us and we proceeded back to the Luxor. We saw Criss Angel's OCC motorcycle thats on display inside which was pretty cool. Grabbed those cards and headed back to MGM gettin there and ate our final breakfast. I had all my stuff packed up the night before so there was no scramblin to get packed just add the last minute touches that was used that a.m. We did a lil bag shufflin cause of the souvenirs that weighed down my bag a lot. (yeah ya'll aint gonna cost me another $50 in overweight fees!) We watched a lil tv and talked awhile before my parents gave the call that it was time to go. Grabbin all the bags and headin out the door, I last second decided to empty as much as the fridge as possible. We had 5 bottled waters left and 2 MGD's (out of 12. my parents had 4 we had 8 total. i consumed 3, Kelitha 3, and 2 left) couldnt leave the beer! so i packed the 2 MGD's and distributed 3 bottles of water out and left 2 bottles in the fridge. Said goodbye to the room and proceeded downstairs to check out. Hailed a Limo to take us back to the airport (pimpin aint easy!) Got the bags checked in and when through the scanners no prob and proceeded to the gate an hour early. Toward takeoff time they advised the were overbooked and offered an incentive of $200 and another ticket, but the catch was no other flights out that day you'd have to let them put you up in a hotel 1 night and flyout tmrw. We all were initially down if it was a delayed flight out later that day but not leavin tmrw! so we boarded the Southwest plane and took to the skies. No sooner did we get off the ground we ran into some HORRIBLE turbulence that shook the plane pretty violently and concerned everyone. Weird cause not a cloud in the sky nor wind. We headed southwest in direction and i traced the freeway headed that way and pointed out to Kelitha the city of Pahrump where all the brothels are and where i had went in 2004 (yes she knows I went to one lol) I read my Barack Obama book while my dad continued watchin "Black Snake Moan" and probably another movie lol Touched down after 2.5hrs and retrieved our bags and took the shuttle back to Masterpark. Headed on down to HD Hotspurs in Kent for some grub. Had an AWESOME 16oz medium rare prime rib. Headed to my parents and parted ways, went back to check on tha Cane then up to Renton to get our kids. Back to the freeway then home via Walgreens. Checked on my doggies who were sooooo happy to see me! Checked on all my plants which thrived even further in my absence. Watered'em and Miracle Gro'd em all and back inside to transfer all video footage to start makin a movie outta it and finish this Book of Lon entry! Kinda somber mood bein back but gotta get back to the real world. Total walkin? 4.5 miles! downside? just checked on WiiFit.. I gained 4lbs over that weekend. thats 1 pound per day. :( |
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