Back To Work

I got a phone call yesterday from the owner of my "former" place of employment. It seems they are on the verge of re-opening, at least in a limited capacity, and want me to come in and manage that for them. Of course, I am so horribly broke that I will do just that. I don't have all the details yet, beyond the fact that they have an event for MTV booked for the second week of November. No idea what else they have coming up, nor how many hours they want me to put in etc. All of that will impact how much I will need them to compensate me. Also, I plan on making sure that I am paid for any new work that I do immediately. I have a formal meeting with the owner on Tuesday morning and I'm assuming we'll hash all this out to everyone's satisfaction.

I also got an email response from a job listing on Craigslist wanting me to haul my ass out to Stamford, Ct. for a job interview. That is so not going to happen. It's over an hour away, so whatever job they are offering, unless it's a blow job, I don't want it.

I have no plans for Halloween this year. As I was scrubbing the living room this morning I found a Rock and Roll thermal shirt I had cut that I made Jet wear on a couple of cold days last year. I put it on Riley to see if it would fit and he really seemed aggravated by it. I swear, he looked at me like "WTF?" Then he put it in his mouth to try and get it off. When that didn't work he sat on the couch with the collar in his mouth just staring at me until I came and removed it. Then he tried to rip it up. Big surprise.

The Whole Tooth

I did in fact get my ambitious list of "Things To Do" yesterday all completed. You can also add in a trip to the pharmacy and a visit to the Petco in a desperate attempt to find things, besides everything I own, for Riley to chew on. I bought him two large compressed (long-lasting) rawhide bones and he finished the first one in one sitting. Took over an hour though.

I'm thrilled to report that I finally got the entire root canal procedure finished. Finally! In a relatively quick visit, he took off the temporary crown and popped in the permanent replacement. It looks just like all the other teeth in my mouth, but I have to say it feels funny. That tooth was broken and sheared off many many years ago and it feels odd to have a whole tooth there. (Remind me to tell you about the night I broke that tooth off.) I'm also surprised how big and smooth it is when I run my tongue behind it. We also talked about filing down a couple of my front teeth, as I've been obsessing that they are uneven, but my dentist pointed out that I was making something out of nothing and besides, filing down my teeth would leave them sensitive (according to my dentist) to heat and cold for a long time and I hate that. So I will learn to live with my "slightly" uneven teeth. It turns out the root canal procedure took so long that I had to make an appointment for next month to have my 2X a year check-up and cleaning. But then I should be good to go. Had you told me two years ago that I would make/keep my dental appointments as casually as I buy shoes I would have laughed in your face.

Today's schedule is decidedly less ambitious, and there's a much bigger domestic agenda. I have a yoga class to take at 1:15, and the laundry will need to get done. Besides that I've been wanting to empty out the living room and scrub the floors. And Riley is about due for his first bath. That should be an experience.

Busy Day

I went to my first meeting of the Community Advisory Board at the Health Center last night. It was everything I hoped it would be. Frustrating, as people tend to have trouble staying on topic and/or expressing themselves understandably, but I already learned a ton about how things will work and more than I ever thought I could fathom about Medicaid and health insurance and medical administrative terminology. I loved it.

Now I best get showered and changed. As you can see, I'm a real gal about town today.

Broke And Living With A Demon

Yesterday Riley climbed up on a living room chair and upended the glass table sitting off in the corner by the window. Thankfully the glass table top didn't fall but the glass table lamp on top of it most certainly did. All of my sorted mail and papers went flying and broken glass crashed to the floor scattering across the whole room. Riley scampered and dove for cover away landing squarely in my lap as I sat on the couch finishing dinner. I guess I should be happy he views me as protection, despite my urge to beat him senseless. I won't be replacing the lamp anytime soon as I'm almost completely broke.

Last week I inadvertently left for the evening, not noticing I had left several vitamin bottles on the coffee table. By the time I returned he had bitten through a bottle of Fish Oil supplements and finished the two pills at the bottom. He had completely chewed the top off a bottle of iron pills. Those he didn't eat, I'm assuming they tasted bad, but he scattered the pills all over the couch. He had started on a bottle of baby aspirin but I guess I got home before he could do more than chew the label. He has ripped up another futon cover and bitten a hole in another bed sheet.

Oh, and last night when I got home, before the glass table disaster, I found that he had picked up a pouch of Crystal Light lemonade that had fallen on the floor and chewed it open. He scattered the contents all over the sofa.

I had a job interview yesterday morning first thing, and when I arrived across town I felt as if I was spiking a fever. This morning when I woke up, my nose was completely stuffed and I sneezed every 1/2 hour. Something horrible went on in my digestive tract overnight and well ... I needn't elaborate. On the plus side, the man I interviewed with was really nice and obviously pretty sharp and I think I did a great job on the interview. I doubt from what we discussed it will lead to an immediate job offer, but it was good practice and a nice confidence boost.

Last night I had a speaking engagement at a detox ward in a local hospital. My Gay-A home group does an outgoing speaker program at various locations and one of them is in a hospital down the street from me. I met up with the meeting chair and his buddy outside the hospital. We had to sign in at the elevator and then get buzzed in to a locked ward. Detox doesn't necessarily mean only alcohol, so we were speaking to addicts in the general sense, but they were a captive audience. They weren't forced to attend the meeting so some of the patients came and went, but they were all in hospital gowns and most of them looked pretty down and out. The meeting chair was pretty hardcore, with prison stints and heroin use and at least one suicide attempt under his belt, I almost felt like an addiction poser in this crowd, but I guess my story of pissing the bed, mystery injuries and an unrelenting decade of panic attacks and anxiety phobias won them over. Plus I always play the HIV card to add to my world experience cred.

An hour later we got buzzed out and I was heading home to start dinner and whatever fresh hell Riley had in store for me, but at least I wasn't in an open backed hospital gown locked inside a detox ward down the street. I'll live.

Comic Shop Open

I've decided that I really must get rid of my comic book collection. I need the space for some up-coming events (hint), and I'm finding that I curiously feel absolutely no attachement to these comics anymore. I get nothing out of owning them. I never re-read them or go through them except when I'm making yet another attempt to catalogue them. Plus, I desperately need whatever money I can realize from selling them off. So I plan on making a concerted effort to sell them all off in the coming months. I plan on pricing them at what I hope will be a fair and attractive price. Originally, I wanted to try and maximize the profit. Now I just want to make some money and get them out of my house. Whatever I don't sell in the next few months, I guess I will pack up and donate to some kid's charity.

So here's the links to the first bunch of comics up for sale on EBay. There will be many more soon.

Hawk & Dove #1-5 1988 complete series.

Robin III Cry of the Huntress #1-6 1993 complete.

Silver Surfer/Warlock: RESURRECTION #1-4 complete.

War of The Gods #1-4 1991 complete.

Saturday In Review

I had planned on attending/photographing the Halloween Dog Parade at Tompkins Square Park during the afternoon, but with threatening skies and pressed for time I had to 86 that from the agenda. I had/have no plans to dress up Riley for Halloween. I can pretty much guarantee he would bite off and chew up anything I tried to attach to him.

I did manage to hit the gym for a cardio workout. My feet and left ankle are still really bothering me but I'm trying to stay active despite the pain. Besides, I rarely feel the soreness during the actual workout. I'm assuming it's endorphins or some such. It's only first thing in the morning and after really long walks that the pain is really extreme. I've read a posting on The Body.com that fish oil supplements can be very beneficial in alleviating inflammation, particularly in joints and tendons, so I started taking a big dose of supplements twice a day. No improvement so far.

Saturday afternoon I walked over to Washington Square Park to a church on the south side. The 12th St. Workshop, which is my Gay-A home group was having an anniversary meeting/dinner/dance and I had volunteered to help with the set-up as well as the food service if needed. It was really familiar to me as it was pretty much like getting ready for the hundreds of events I've set up and run over the years. Once I got a sense of what the agenda for the event was going to be I just got busy arranging 100+ meeting chairs and then the buffet service tables and then tables and seating for dinner. It only took about an hour and a half. After that I helped hang a few last minute decorations and then sat down in a chair and nodded off for about 10 minutes. (Riley woke me up a bit early in the morning.)

We had a Gay-A meeting to start. Instead of the usual beginning they had everyone stand as they called out varying lengths of sobriety. You had to sit when your sober time was called, until the long-term sober vets were all that was left. They stopped at 25 years when only one man was standing. He had 38 years sober, and I still see him at meetings at least twice a week. Needless to say, at under two years I sat early. But not first! Three people spoke at the meeting, and I got a lot out of it, as I do when I'm receptive to things. I'm not always so generous of spirit. Last week I almost called everyone at a meeting I went to self-centered assholes. But I've been learning when I'm that annoyed at everyone, it's probably me who needs to be checked.

After the meeting, they opened up the buffet and I helped clear all the chairs from the meeting floor so they would have a dance floor for later. The food line was pretty long and I abhor standing in a long line waiting for food. It just feels really Oliver Twist/Government Cheese to me and I get very uncomfortable. So I skipped dinner and helped clean up the kitchen and re-stock the bottled water and canned sodas. I played to my strengths. Once it seemed that dinner was under control I grabbed my bag and left. I had no desire to attend the dance, I knew Riley was waiting, and I was in fact hungry. Just not hungry enough to stand in line.

So I headed home and got caught in a torrential rainstorm. I finally got back to my apartment soaked from the knees down and changed in to some comfy dry sweats. I heated up some leftover pork chops and mashed potatoes, and shortly after I ate, the rain stopped and Riley got a nice walk in a light drizzle.

You. Go. Miss. Girrrrrrrrrrrl!

Seriously fabulous.

Long Winded

The court appearance turned out to be a non-event. I arrived on time at the courtroom and within a minute or two they called my name and I met up with the corporate lawyer. We both waited for the owner to show, and once he did we had a meeting in the hallway with the attorney representing the city. After a few questions back and forth between the owner and "our" lawyer and the city's, they agreed to have the appearance re-scheduled for mid-December. The thinking being that they would have their permits and repairs in order by then and some, if not all the infractions would be mitigated and/or dismissed. I believe the only one potentially inconvenienced by this plan was me. File this under unresolved.

I did learn, surprisingly, that the owner and his partners still plan on re-opening the venue. He claims they are still awaiting more inspections and permits and that it would be a matter of weeks. Of course, that's exactly what he said a matter of weeks past. And in the interim I found out that my immediate boss, the Operations Manager, stopped coming in to work because he hadn't been paid in almost two months. So I was surprised when the owner said they would be calling me "soon" to gather up whatever staff is still available and hire new employees to open as a private event space (for now). It kind of puts me in the middle as far as loyalties go, and I admit I'm baffled as to the course of action, considering they supposedly have events booked in November, and it's almost the end of October. Either way, before I accept a returning position we will have to come to some agreement (possibly in writing) as to when and how I get paid. The minute that does not come to pass I am out the door.

I do have some other news. Some of it potentially off the chain but unfortunately I feel it's too soon to do more than tease you with it. But I am kind of pleased to report I've been accepted on to the Community Advisory Board at the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center. It sounds impressive (doesn't it?) but the reality is they meet up to 9 times a year, basically one Tuesday a month with the summer off, and discuss ... well, I assume, community health issues for LGBT and HIV+ people. Plus, I hear there's pizza. So maybe not so earth shattering (as some of my other news *snicker*), but still, I'm kind of excited to be doing a little bit to affect my people's well-being and pay it forward a little bit, considering how well taken care of I've been the last few years.

And to make a long post longer, I did indeed beg off the Boot Camp sessions. Not that I had agreed to anything beyond the first week. I just cried poor and said I would be in touch, should that change dramatically. Which was true. Although to tell the whole truth, while I was sore as shit from that first session, part of the reason for that was that the class had no warm-up or stretching before the session nor any post work-out cool down. Well, beyond a perfunctory (big word!) stretch in the beginning that was more like, why bother? Granted, the class was only an hour, but in my opinion, the sign of a trainer that really knows and cares about a client, particularly one that's not in top shape, as we all weren't, lies in how much attention he pays to minimizing soreness and potential injury. This trainer went immediately in to a routine. Besides, some of it involved jumping on little colored circles and rolling under rope and nonsense with those teeny orange traffic cones and I hate that shit. So true to my earlier post I took a yoga class at my gym on Tuesday night, and while I am pathetically horrid at yoga poses, I took my place off in the corner with several other "yoga retards" and worked up a helluva sweat. And by the end of it most of the soreness in my lower back and legs had evaporated. Plus I was all dreamy and centered and feeling all kinds of peace, love and granola afterward. But there was no pizza.

This N' That (2)

Still looking for a job.

But I have extended my search to include bartending and I'm prepared to get more than one job to make ends meet if I have to. Why the change? The economy being in the shitter for one. Also, the influences in my life from Gay-A as well. The "old" me would have never even considered "going back" to bartending. And believe me, it's not something I want to do into my 50's. But I need work, I need money, and I really need to get my credit balance paid down. Bartending is a quick route to that. Particularly since this time (higher power willing) I won't be spending my money back across some other bar after every shift.

And between the current state of the job market and my new found sense of humility, I no longer consider myself too good for any job. It's more important to me that I get the bills paid, as long as it's an honest living. What I do isn't so important, at least for now.

I've also unfortunately had to re-think my decision to take that "Boot Camp" course I started last week. I've had a chance to budget money and bills for the next two weeks and I'll be living on about $100 per. Spending 1/4 of that on an unnecessary luxury I already can find as part of my current gym membership is just stupid. There's a yoga class tomorrow at 8:00 pm at my gym. And while yoga is no boot camp, it does make me feel great afterward and it won't cost me 25 bucks. Boot camp is officially off the agenda.

What's on the agenda for now is an early morning trip to court first thing tomorrow. I'm meeting the restaurant/nightclub owner and his lawyer at 9:30am so we can all cool our heels waiting to answer the first round of summonses from that awful inspection in August. I'll be bringing a pile of newspapers and some crossword puzzles. Sometimes they make you sit for hours.

Plus, I have to get up at 7:30 in order to get cleaned up and get the dog walked before I go. Best get to bed.

Um, I Don't Think So