Aleina

Oh I almost forgot about this. My sister Aleina stopped in at the house over the weekend. What a mess. She walked in the front door with a kid. My old lady got all wide-eyed and freaky and went into the kitchen. Aleina said she just wanted to talk but my dad stopped her from going into the kitchen. And said it would be best if she left so Aleina starts crying and says aren’t you going to look at my baby and my dad says not now, maybe some other time. So I leave with Aleina and we go down to McDonalds to get something for the kid. The kid is about two and looks a lot like Aleina and her name is Ashley and she is a pretty cool kid. She can talk and she can say lots of words. Aleina called my dad on her cell phone and talked for awhile and started crying again but it seems my dad says too much damage has been done and he has to deal with the old lady all of the time. I think he is pissed because it put such a cramp in his life. He doesn’t go bowling or anything anymore. Aleina told me she is so sorry for the past stuff and she wants to make up some how. She admitted to me that her loser boyfriend stole the money because he told her they could run away and get married and that she did it because she loved him. Well he ran away, without her. She got kicked out of the house and got dumped by the loser and had to move into her girlfriend’s basement until she got kicked out of there. She said she met somebody and moved to Brooklyn and from there moved to Connecticut where she went to school and got an associate degree in Mechanical Drafting. She works at some Helicopter place and says she makes decent money but is afraid of being laid off since they are real slow. Her kid’s dad worked at the same place she did but got laid off and started drinking and doing drugs so she dumped him and is living by herself. She then started crying again and said she missed my mom and wants to visit with the kid then the kid started crying and Aleina lit a cigarette and the manager came over and told her to put it out. Aleina got real mad and called the manager “dickless” and he threw us out. It is really humiliating to get kicked out of McDonalds.

Insurgents

I’m back in work today. I was out most of last week after passing out on Monday at work. I still have these bad headaches. I spent Labor Day at home watching TV. I feel much better today. I think I needed the time off and the rest. I haven’t had a headache in two days and my thinking is clearer. In fact I was thinking about how we don’t give a shit about Iraq. I know you’re thinking where does this come from but I was listening to the news and stuff and I don’t hear anything about the Iraq people. I heard a lot of reports about how many Americans have been killed and I think that is a real shame since it is such a waste. Over 900 have been killed and over 3000 wounded. Over 3000 wounded and those republican mofos made fun of purple hearts with those band-aids at the convention. Bastards! I hate that the US is in Iraq. I support the troops there because it is not a soldier’s job to question the policy. It is a soldier’s job to be in the air when someone says jump. So I support them fully and I think we should be paying soldiers a lot more money and we do. But being in Iraq doesn’t make sense. Is it because of Saddam torturing people? He didn’t torture people. People under his command did the torture. If he was wrong then why aren’t Cheney and Rumsfeld in jail? (Notice you don’t hear much about Rumsfeld during the campaign. What a dick head.) Anyway you don’t hear how many Iraqis have been killed. How many innocent civilians have been bombed? I haven’t heard any figures. Know why? WE DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THE IRAQIS! We don’t give a shit about the country, the culture, their religion, nothing but their oil. We don’t respect that there are people there who loved their country and are proud of being Iraqi and we come storming in and bomb the shit out of them. Then we complain about insurgents. If the US was occupied by some country I would be an insurgent. At least I hope I had the balls to be an insurgent. So we arrest a bunch of them and humiliate them and take pictures to show our friends. What kind of shit is that? I feel bad because we have some Muslim type people in our neighborhood and I used to call them rugheads. When 911 happened I got pissed off and I would give them the finger and stuff but I was just stupid. After this Iraqi shit started I was thinking like it wasn’t their fault that Saddam was an asshole. We got Bush and the rest of the world thinks we are assholes so I can kind of feel what these Muslim type people would feel. So I stopped being mean to them. It’s like Viet Nam. Some of the old guys in my neighborhood were in Viet Nam and they say it is the same way now as then. We never gave a shit about Viet Nam. All these old guys said they called the people gooks. Not the enemy but all of the people of the country. They hated them and hated being there. I think half don’t know where there was. I feel bad for them because most were drafted and forced to go to Viet Nam and they did it and then they came home and got shit from everybody. It’s like we blame them for the bad government policy. But we were going to set up a democracy in the country, whether they wanted one or not. It is the same way in Iraq. We are trying to force our life onto them. It seems we are trying to change Iraq into an Iowa. It ain’t going to work. We should get the hell out of there and leave them alone. This is what happens when I get time to sit around and think. I got to get back to work.

Tin Box

I’ve been out of work again with these bad headaches. They are like migraines or something. It hurts my eyes and it gets so bad sometimes I throw up but then it’s better. The doctor says it’s from the concussion and that I should take it easy and not drink any alcohol. Yeah right. So I was out Friday and stayed in bed all day. During that time I got to thinking about my family and about how screwed up it is and stuff. Like my old lady and the tin box.. That’s what see calls it, the Tin Box. It isn’t tin but she has all these weird sayings and words for things. See she lived with my great grandmother for most of her unmarried life. Her dad worked for the Railroad and got killed in an accident and her mom couldn’t cope so they moved in with my great grandmother. My mom’s mom went crazy soon afterwards and was put in a home and died after a couple of years. So my mom lived with this reclusive old lady for a long time and took care of her and this big old house she had. The house had like 5 bedrooms and a huge dark basement. The basement had like one old clear bulb and you couldn’t see the far walls. I remember going down there with a flashlight before they sold the house and looking around. Man it was spooky. Anyways my great grandmother was like from Russia or something and she couldn’t speak English all that great. She thought the secret police were going to get her so she kept the shades all drawn and all of the doors bolted. She didn’t leave the house for almost 50 years and they had to come get her and strap her to a stretcher to take her to the hospital when she got sick. She refused to eat any food in the hospital and had to be restrained and sedated. She died of some head injury in the hospital and I think she probably went berserk and they wacked her to get her to stop. She was like 97 or something. My dad used to deliver all the groceries to the house since no one ever went out. That’s how he met my mom and they got married soon after the old granny died. They sold that big old house and didn’t get much for it since it was such a dump. They tore it down and put in a parking lot. Anyway that’s why my mom is so weird about stuff. She was better before but then my sister Aleina stole some money from the tin box. Well it wasn’t proven she stole it. When she was like 18 she was really wild and she had these loser boyfriends who used to come over the house and hang around. One day somebody had gone down to the basement and found the tin box and took all of the money that was in it. My mom said that Aleina lured her out of the kitchen and one of the boyfriends snuck down and stole the money. There was a big fight with Aleina and my mom and dad and Aleina got kicked out of the house. I haven’t seen her in maybe 10 years and I think she lives in Connecticut. She tried to make up with my mom but my mom is too far gone now. My dad is all pissed because of what Aleina did to her and won’t talk to her. I think Aleina is really sorry now but it is a bad situation. I talked to Aleina maybe 2 years ago and she was getting divorced. I didn’t know she was even married. She said she would let me know where she was moving but I haven’t heard anything. My mom doesn’t go out much and if any company comes over she slowly makes her way into the kitchen by the cellar door and sits at the table. She just sits there and if you try to talk to her she just stares at you with these big eyes behind her glasses. Not many people visit anymore. My dad doesn’t go out too much because he is afraid of leaving her too long. She starts getting weird if left alone too long and she shuts all of the doors and windows and just sits at the kitchen table. When my dad is home she’ll come out and watch TV. I’m a little pissed at Aleina since she should have not blabbed about the tin box and she should have known what it would do to my mom. I try to not hang around in the house much since it is so depressing and they get on me to go to school and get a better job but I just want to get my own place now and get out of there. Life is really screwed up sometimes.

Crime

I’m back at work today. I was out the beginning of the week because the doctor said I had a mild concussion. Plus my eye was swollen shut. I got mugged. I’m not sure mugged is the actual term, maybe jumped is better though I did get hit with a beer mug. I got paid on Friday and cashed my check after work. So I went over to this bar, “Murry’s”, because this girl I knew from the HTML class was working there as a bartender and I knew she would give me some free drinks plus she is hot. Well I got there and I was drinking for a couple of hours and she gave me some free beers but we couldn’t talk much because she was real busy seeing that it was Friday and it was busy. So I started shooting darts with some of the guys hanging out in the bar. I’m pretty good at darts even if I am half wasted. So we were playing and I suspected they were trying to hustle me so I pretended to be drunker than I was like lighting cigarettes at the wrong end and missing the board and stuff. And they started saying we should play for some money so we bet 50 bucks a game and had Sharon, the bartender, hold the money. She like told me on the side not to get involved since a lot of these guys were like criminals but I said I could handle it. We played for awhile and I won 150 bucks and I started to get real wasted so I wanted to leave and the guys said let us win the money back but I says I’ll be back next week and they got all pissed and said stuff. I pretended to go to the bathroom and when I came out I just left the bar and went to get my truck. I had to park about 3 blocks away since parking down there is real bad and when I was walking something smacked me in the head and I went down. I tried to get up but somebody started kicking me in the ribs and back then somebody hit me in the head with the beer mug. I know it was a mug because I got cut and I found the broken mug later on the sidewalk. They took all of my money, the money I won plus my paycheck money. I don’t carry a wallet because I was always losing it anyways so they didn’t get my license. Somebody called the cops and they called an ambulance. The cops said it would have been worse but whoever hit me first with the pool cue hit me with the skinny end instead of the thick handle end. Dumb asses. I got a big cut on the back of my head from the mug and a cut over my ear and a black eye plus a bunch of bruises from being kicked. I got 51 stitches and a concussion. I felt real bad all weekend and couldn’t watch TV or nothing. I feel better now. Sharon called and she asked how I was and I said fine and I wanted to know who jumped me and she said to leave it alone since those guys are real bad and she agreed to go out with me when I get better. I think I know who the one guy is. I think his name is Cody and he is from like Scranton and he drives a yellow Camaro with white strips. I think my sister knew him when she was living here. I’m gonna try and figure out some way to get him. Maybe I can set the car on fire since he keeps it all shiny and has these expensive mags on it. I won’t go back to Murry’s since I am embarrassed and stuff. The cops said they are going to investigate but they won’t do nothing. I had to borrow money from my old lady and she got all weird and had to sneak down to the basement and get money out of the box she has down there. She thinks me and the old man don’t know about the box but it is so obvious and maybe pathetic that we don’t say anything. There is a whole thing going on with her and money and keeping it in a tin box hid in the basement. She says she don’t trust the banks because what if they go under and you lose all your money. I told her the banks are insured by the government but she says the government could fail. You can’t talk to her about it. She gets real weird since the time with my sister but that’s another story.

Outsourcing

Well my old man got laid off from his job. He’s a Machinist and he makes detailed parts for military aircraft using CNC machines. He’s been doing it for 16 years and he is good at it. They are closing his site because their work is moving to Singapore. My Dad’s company’s stock went up and the bosses got bonuses but he’s out of work. He has worked from the time he got out of high school and up to last week. He has a couple of prospects but has to take a cut in pay since he is older and the job market is so bad. That son of a bitch Bush is causing this. The real work jobs are being sent overseas so the executives can cut pay and get raises for screwing the worker again. I’m going to get registered and vote this time. I was registered when I was 18 and I voted for the Libertarians but nothing happened so I didn’t vote for awhile so I guess I got to reregister. Anyways, since my Dad is out of work they want me to start paying rent. I got this little room and they want 200 bucks a month. I’m going to look around for a place to rent and move out. They hassle me anyways because of my drinking and loud music. Last week I came home late and I guess I knocked down the fence in the back when I backed in and my old lady started yelling the next day saying I had to pay for a new fence. I propped it up and nailed it together but she says it looks like crap and wants a new fence. I’m not buying a whole new fence. It’s this old thing anyway that they put up when we had the dog but the dog keep digging under it and finally got out and got hit by the trolley. I might be able to get some place nearer to where I work but that is a rich area so I’ll have to look hard. I might skip out of work early today and drive around and look. I can usually skip out since Patty and Donna don’t work on Fridays and Glenn usually has some reason to leave around 11:00. I’m supposed to cover the department but nothing ever happens on a Friday afternoon. Usually it is busy in the morning when customers come in with their cars and try to get free work. Nothing gets past me. I make most of the decisions anyway. Patty and Donna do the paper work and Glenn hems and haws until somebody else makes the decision. He is a real wimp with his PDA and cell phone and the laptop he carries. What a dork. He talked me into taking this HTML class. I guess it was OK since I can do some internet stuff but they had too many rules and stuff and I finally got kicked out of the class because me and this girl went out to my truck at break and had some beers then came back to class and were loud. I thought this girl was hot but she had this boyfriend and wouldn’t go out with me. I still see her because she is a bartender sometimes at Rick’s where we go to play pool. She gives me a free beer sometimes and everybody who sees her in the bar tries to pick her up. I gotta go the district rep just came in.

The Shore

I went down the shore with my buds this weekend. We went to North Wildwood up past the end of the boardwalk. I thought we would get hassled less up there but the cops were all over us. First we got nailed for throwing a football around the beach and for no beach tags. We weren’t causing any problems but I guess some of the old people got pissed when the ball accidentally hit them. The cops came back later and busted us for drinking beer on the beach and made us leave. I got into a hassle with the one cop because I wanted my money back for the beach tag and they said we better just leave or they would arrest us. My buds convinced me that it wasn’t cool to get locked up cause you get fined a lot and it was better to just leave. We left and stopped at one of my other buds who has a house in the Villas. We had a barbeque there and finished the beer. I crashed in the back of my truck and damn if the cops didn’t come around and say we couldn’t sleep on the street. My buddy, Craig let us park on the lawn overnight so the cops wouldn’t hassle us but said we had to move in the morning since the neighbors are a bunch of old farts and they would call the cops. We left in the morning and went to a waffle place and chowed down. It must be the sea air but I could really put those waffles away. We went up on the boardwalk for awhile but it got too crowded with kids and crap so I came home. I got really burnt on my legs and shoulders and the tops of my feet are beet red. I had to wear flip-flops to work since I couldn’t get my shoes on. Donna the other lady at work called me “Mr. California” until I got pissed. The shore is really getting to be a bummer with all the cops and rules and stuff but we still rocked.

Work

I work at a car dealer in the Warranty department. I process warranty claims and I decide if a claim is valid or the customer pays. I have to make sure the claim is good or the manufacturer won’t pay us for the work. I don’t want to say who I work for but a lot of stuff is a real rip off. There are problems that we know about and will fix for free only if the customer makes a stink. I started work at this dealership after high school. I washed cars and did some prep on new cars. I wanted to be a car mechanic but I have a reaction to oil and my skin breaks out and flakes all up if I get motor oil on me. I tried being a service manager but I got into too many arguments with customers over warranty problems and pissed people off. The service manager, my uncle, got me into the warranty department since I was so tough on claims. It really isn’t a department but its just me, my supervisor, a real kissass, and two women. The two women aren’t bad but are old and married. I was pissed at the one woman, Patty, for awhile. She was at my desk and she left this nice Pentel pencil there. I meant to return it but I forgot and a week went by and I still forgot to give it to her. Well one day I had the pencil in my pocket and she saw it and accused me of stealing it. So she goes to Glenn, my supervisor, and complains and Glenn calls me in the office and says “Why did you steal Patty’s pencil?” and I says “I didn’t steal it she left it on my desk and I forgot to return it.” Then I guess I was pissed and I called Patty a fat, old bitch and Glenn gets pissed and says I was out of line and puts a letter in my folder about my bad attitude. I was really pissed at Patty but I couldn’t do nothing so I forgot it after awhile. I then found some flowers in a car somebody left and I took them and gave them to Patty and she is OK now. It’s a real pain sometimes trying to get along with people.