Pezrealian

The world and it's overflowing injustice has arrived at my doorstep, literally. In updating this blog I supress the urge to rant, complain or to be an aggressive writer. However, in quoting The Godfather I'll say this, they pull me back in. Everytime. They being the people next door. The people driving in front of me, on my arse behind me and the people cutting in front of me dying to get to the red light faster than anyone else. The people who look on at what I have and take from me during the butt crack of early morning. I swear one of my neighbors is selling drugs and brings in all kinds of garbage into the neighborhood. The other day I get a ring at the door bell at 12am. I nearly opened the door instinctively but then remembered that it was bloody 12am so who is this at my door...it was a guy in a wife beater on his cell phone named Doo. I learned this from behind the door.

During my time off there were many many things I could have done instead of slumbering through the mornings and job hunting during the night like a nocturnal member of the order of chiroptera. Because lets face it, if a person finds oneself home because of layoff being in the oil industry in Houston expect to be home for the rest of this year. The end of the year is always slow in this business, even during the good times.

Now in retrospect I figure I could have done a few things to bide my time better. I could have stained & glossed our bed which is made from a naked Ikea birch wood, ditto a full length mirror. I could have taken daily bike excursions through the scenic farm lands way west of Houston and run a daily chronicle through this blog a la Jill Homer. I could have taken to drawing more. What I did do besides taking it completely easy was finish reading The Stand, watch an ungodly amount of anime and learn the tricky art of resume writing.

One evening Lily and I are watching TV or rather channel surfing through our 71 basic cable channels when I get this idea of ordering premium channels to end our endless indecision. I speed dial Comcast and in less then ten minutes we have about eight different Showtime channels all playing an array of good to corny SyFy'esk movies at one time. So much for our indecision. It gets better during the weekend. Just this week I've come to appreciate the five dollar adder for the next six months even more. We've discovered Nurse Jackie, Dexter & Weeds. All shows with pretty good writing. Writing you won't see on regular cable stations. Acting and a cast rare for series television. We laugh, we cry, we feel the drama unfolding each week as Nurse Jackie hammers her ring finger flat to escape her engagement. For now this luxury of dialing into channels 474 thru 482 works well for us since we're opting to stay in more these days. We live a simple life now, now that we're close to being totally commitment free (id est debt free).

Stay tuned for more drama next week though. A finished project may find itself gaining more life through this blog or a trek across flat southeast Texas farm land may be featured. Whatever's clever on my endeavor.

My first day back to work after a week and a half haitus was a familar one. I got the call to come back from my second best boss ever on a Wednesday morning. He wanted me to come in the next morning but being sick from an upper respiratory infection I was as good as a dead dog. I was going nowhere for the next four days.

I walk into the front corridor and greet the very familar receptionist and ask her to phone the best boss. She knows why I'm standing in front of her. She knows what happened a week and a half ago but says nothing of it to be polite. She calls the best boss. I wait in the reception area for a while then decide to have a seat like all the other first time visitors do when they walk through those doors. After ten minutes the best boss comes through door number three with the best news I've heard since the previous weeks' Wednesday.

Sitting there feeling like the new kid in class I remember feeling the same way years ago in Bissonet Plaza Elementary School. I'd had an accident trying to get to the bathroom and pissed my pants from the groin all the way to my shoes and had to call home to ask for help. I sat in the principle's office waiting for somebody to come help me. I sat for a long time. Finally my uncle Richie comes walking through the main door with the biggest straight teeth smile and says to me, "Damn boy! How'd that happen!" He chuckles a bit more while I tell him what happened and finally he hands me a fresh, dry, clean smelling pair of jeans to put on. Help came from somewhere outside just in time when I needed the help it seems. I'll remember that story for the rest of my life.

My best boss stands over me looking down and says with an ear-to-ear smile, "You ready to get back to work there Christopher?" Yes. Yes indeed, I reply.

We walk upstairs, go right back to my old desk in a corner somewhere and I stand there looking at the empty desk, the barren shelves, bare walls and remember that just three months ago I was in West Africa on assignment oblivious to the coming misfortune. What a web we weave I thought.

After gathering my thoughts and realizing I'm probably the luckiest former unemployed person in America right now I make my way to Rose my dear friend Rose to say hello. Then to Ying, Nesia and Sonam. I go up another flight of stairs and say hello to Bee who already knew I was coming back even before I knew I was coming back. Then to the south side of the building to Kelly. I call around to the guys I work with and together we agree I was back by the grace of God because nobody I mean nobody gets a call back after a week and a half. Then I start working away with my face to the LCD screens and my right hand clicking away at the real-deal, chargable productivity.

I'm still here. Alive and better these days. I just can't find the time or material to post these days.