Below is the text of an e-mail that I sent a friend I've known since we watched MTV in 1983 while drinking Lowenbrau's (remember those?) when it had no commercials, played only videos and was actually cool and new.
Now I'm all grown up and my eyes are very much wide open and I owe a lot of it to you people.
Thanks a lot...assholes. Kidding, of course...I think.
I just felt like publishing this and getting it out of my system. I'm sure you understand.
As Always...Peace.
See ya below the fold, maybe.
Hey man...good to hear from you again. I hope this e-mail finds you happy, healthy and relatively pain/reality free. : )
Since we last spoke I have spent a very interesting 2009 getting kicked out of our 2-bed, 1-bath duplex in May...moving to Washington St. with my wife and daughter to live in a guy's converted garage/rec room who turned out to be a passive/aggressive controlling individual, fortunate enough to be retired from a gov. job at 54 but clueless about what it's like to find work nowadays (long story for another e-mail) and moving back to the Modesto/Stockton area in October to be around the family and friends my beautiful wife & daughter missed to go back on gov. cash aid/food stamps. (Like the good socialist/commie that I am)
This was all started in Oct. of 2008 (the month after the great economic collapse of 2008 in the midst of The Great Recession that the U.S. is just now pulling out of...thanks Wall St. dickheads) because the fourth time I called into work in almost sixteen months was determined to be too much by the ex-FBI, authoritarian human resources v.p. When I tried to claim unemployment I was denied for "violating co. policy"...but not the attendance thing. Any good centrist would realize that the co. was being extremely unfair but within their "rights" for letting me go for calling in 4 times in 16 months since that was the policy I signed like the credit card statement people sign, not understanding the fine print, right?(NOT) No, no, no...I was denied unemployment benefits specifically because on that fourth call-in I decided to call my new, apparently-cool supervisor to ask for a vacation day instead of a sick day instead of using the designated voice-mail/sick line. Yeah, I was denied unemployment for calling my supervisor in a timely manner twice instead of speaking into the machine. So...violation of that co. "policy" was the reason that the "judge"(Gawd bless his following-the-letter-of-the-law-but-not-the-intent soul) denied my appeal. Long story shortened a little bit...I got fucked. No vaseline, no dinner and wine beforehand and absolutely no justice...hence, no peace.
So...here we are, actually doing relatively better and a hell of a lot smarter and wiser for the experience.
You see, the reason is simple. I start a new job this friday...well, orientation is this friday, actually. I got this job because I am smart enough, experienced enough and have enough variety of skills. (specifically what I was trained to do in the Navy...electronics, combined with my most recent experience as a quality auditor) Believe it or not, for the last 15 months since I was wrongfully terminated I have been looking for work...everyday, everyway and everywhere. Ok, I paused here and there to breath, or play my drums, or play with my daughter (and wife when she let me :) or maybe even have a few beers to alleviate the extreme stress caused by the reality of being the provider in the family who is unable to provide through no fault of their own. I even picked up an extra 50 pounds that I get to take off now. The problem was that no one has been creating enough jobs to meet the demand created by people turning 16 everyday, or graduating high school, or college or moving in a different direction looking at retirement in twenty years...like me.
Anyways...only time will tell. The job involves "greening" former gas-guzzling vehicles and specifically using electrical schematics, trouble-shooting and quality control procedures to make sure the damn thing moves down the road. Anything that will help reduce the effects of global warming. I am all for it and can be proud to contribute in my small way.
I continue to have a very liberal, very progressive outlook but if I learned one lesson from my last job it is this: Don't talk politics or religion, especially when the place is full of wingnut, authoritarian, religiously-extreme people who will find ANY reason (explained in detail above) to fire a person and quite literally (hyperbole license) take food from their child's mouth.
As I stated in the beginning I sincerely hope that this e-mail finds you happy, healthy and relatively pain/reality free. If you need a drink after reading this, I don't blame you. I'm having one right now...as if you couldn't tell. ;-)> If it wasn't for the damn piss tests and illegality of a beneficial herb that has a whole host of medicinal qualities but is wrongfully stereotyped by a regressive establishment I would be on my tenth bong hit by now.
But that's an entirely different e-mail for another time. (Oh...if my pipe could talk ;-)>
Goodnight for now and take care of yourself.
As Always...Peace to you and yours.