Sunday, December 29, 2013

Bank Roberry

One afternoon, while minding my own business, I got a call from The head of nursing. The one who had texted me before about the sexual harassment claims. I was about to go to bed, just got home from visiting Ted in the hospital. She wanted me to go to the office, she needed to talk to me. I was tired, I needed whatever little bit of sleep I could get before going back to work that night. I went to sleep. If it were that important, she would call. I still don't get this thing of professionals using text messaging! I couldn't help but wonder what she wanted to talk to me about. Nothing happened that night at work.

The following afternoon, I got a call  from the supervisor. He told me management wanted to talk to me, he was going to pick me up if I needed a ride. CRAP! Why won't these people leave me alone! He wouldn't tell me what it was about. He told me he wasn't allowed to tell. Uhm, excuse you! Youŕe going to disturb my peace and then tell me youŕe not at liberty to tell me what it's about! Really? He came by to pick me up and hinted that it was about the resident who had an issue with me, I talked about it here. I thought to myself, awesome, I am going to get fired again! Just what I need. I'm gonna be homeless and jobless.

When I arrived at the office, head of nursing was in there, the company social worker and my supervisor. IT was serious! I just wanted to wrap it up and go to bed. There was nothing I could do to change anybody's mind, might as well get some rest. They wanted to hear my side. I don't have high opinions of those people, I won't lie to you. After they let me go, I didn't care anymore, I will say, though that, I felt like they really listened to me when I gave them my side of the story. They told me they would forward the paperwork to the Department of Health and let me know the following week their findings. In the meantime, I wasn't allowed in that room. That was one more room I wasn't allowed in. Inasmuch as I was relieved not to have to see that woman's face, It wasn't a good look for me to have more and more people not wanting me to work on them. Maybe I should move to LA and start afresh!

One afternoon, on the bus home from Ted's, I saw the Jamaican lady who started just before I was let go from work? She looked rather miserable. I asked her what was going on? She told me that she got hurt at work. Not my story to tell but she couldn't find another job because of the injury and she wasn't getting paid workmen's compensation. I told her that I did hear about it when I returned to work. She told me that she was o longer talking to my friend from work. The lady they were the biggest fans of when they started out. I was like, really no? Why on earth is that? (in an accent haha). She told me the lady is two faced, she will sell you out in a flash. WWwaaahhhhhahahahahahahah #EvilLaugh Now you tell me! They were all acting cute, following her like loyal puppies, telling her all their secrets. Throwing me under the bus in front of the supervisor thinking that they were the world's best CNA, it was all a facade! Waahahahahaha! Serves you right! Enjoy your never ending sick leave biiiaaatttcchhh! I got off two stops after she got on the bus, lucky! I didn't have to listen to the rest of her depressing story. See ya! Wouldn't want to be ya!

I was glad that they didn't fire or suspend me for that lady's report. I was looking for a job in LA, just in case I ended up moving. I had an over the phone interview with an agency who deals with Home health care for the elderly. The interview lasted about a month. I Was on my way to view an apartment when they called. Try trying to impress someone while trying to find a place you have never been to and trying not to doze off cos youŕe so tired too. As my niece said this morning, I'm taking the phrase juggling things to the next level. I didn't get the place. It was too depressing, I think the guy was disappointed to see me, and vice versa, so c ya!

I started looking up hotels and other temporary accommodation in Los Angeles as my plan C. The guy who interviewed me asked to do a Skype interview the following morning with his business partner and I. I waited for their call the following morning. Partner was a no show! I ended up being interviewed by the same guy all over again. Same amount of time. Talk about redundancy! He told me that he liked me and wanted me to work for his agency, he was going to email me the contract which I was to email back to him and to call him when I arrived in LA. I was excited! Things were going the right direction! I got a call from an assisted living (old age home), they asked for my Resume (CV), I sent it to them, lady called me back, I missed her call, I called her back, she missed mine, #PhoneTag. Not cute, aint nobody gut time for dat!

While busy with all the drama of work and Ted and moving and and and, I got an email from my bank confirming the change of email address I had requested. I never requested any changes! I called to find out what the kcuf was going on. They assured me it was nothing, I had a feeling it wasn't nothing, I asked them to double check my balance and tell me what they say. The money hadn't been touched, thank goodness! That very night, I got an email from the bank again, telling me that someone tried to make a transaction on my account, they wanted me to call the bank asap. I did, I kept getting disconnected. I was torn because the lady from the bank had previously told me that that wasn't the bank contacting me, to disregard those emails. I went ahead and forwarded the emails to their Scam email address, just in case.

The following morning, I tried to access my account online and couldn't! I freaked out! I went outside work and called the bank, the guy was like, mam, I'm so glad you called, we've been looking for you! What? Why is the bank looking for me? He told me that someone did in fact try to wire money from my account, he wouldn't tell me how much. I was dying! IT was freezing outside and I was feeling hot. This is like 5 oclock in the morning! He put me through to his supervisor who in turn put me through to the fraud department. What the heyl! The cool took what seemed like forever, they still wouldn't tell me anything. They just told me that the account was blocked, I wasn't going to access it at all until I went to the branch with my ID. Lordy! I asked if my money was still there, it was like pulling teeth, those people wouldn't tell me anything. Eventually, I found out that my money hadn't been touched, praise the Lord!

I had to put that in my already tight schedule! One more thing to do. I needed my bank account to do everything I was going to be doing the next few days. Those fools picked the perfect time to mess things up for me!  On my off days, I went to the bank to apply for a new card, that took forever because it was totally an application for a new account altogether. Fools had changed my contact details, they even had a new email address with my full name @yahoo, cute s holes, very cute! They also changed my mobile number and put a South African number on there, claiming that I had gone back home in South Africa and was going to need all my money. Apparently they tried to transfer all the money to their account! All of it! Who does that? Never mind, I've already had that happen before, I know who does that! The people who took all my money when I was a struggling actress in South Africa, I had an equivalent of $2 000, they cleaned me up! I didn't need that happening to me again, I really didn't, once was way more than enough. I don't even wanna go there, can't think about that and what it did to me. But I survived it! Here I ARE!

The new card was going to take 5 business day to get delivered to my branch. Until then, I couldn't do anything! I could use an online account, but I wasn't about to activate an online account, sorry! Not again!

I emailed the guy, sent him a message on skype and texted him, nothing! Oh well! I booked a room in a hostel/hotel on Hollywood boulevard. Go big or go home, right? If I'm gonna be in LA, might as well be in Hollywood and if I'm going to be in Hollywood, might as well be on the boulevard, right by the walk of fame! IT doesn't get any more inspirational than that! I only booked one night, I didn't know if I was going to end up going to LA, in case I didn't, I didn't lose a lot of money in deposit. Time drew closer, the closer it drew, the more it looked like it was all systems go to LA. I was getting more and more excited about the change too.

I remember I had been telling my friend at work that I was due for a vacation, I felt like going somewhere far away, Vegas Maybe? I even brought it up while talking to Cindy. She was like, OMG, I was thinking the same thing too! Let's do it! Let's go to Vegas together, WHAATTTT??????? Why would you think I wanna go anywhere with you? That's not gonna happen, snap out of it! That was before she asked me for a loan. I guess I would have had to pay for the trip to Vegas too smdh.

My friend was like, you can't stay in one place for a long time, huh? You get bored easily. I was like, gurl, I've been in Utah for six months! That's the longest I've stayed in the same place in four years! Just saying! I decided to take the bus to LA, instead of flying. I wanted to make a road trip of it and see the states in between Utah and California. I knew that the route went via Vegas, that was going to be my chance to set foot in Vegas, even for a minute!

I booked a Greyhound bus the night before, I was packed - almost, because I had to move either way, so my stuff was already in bags. I had to give a ton of my stuff away though when I decided to move to LA because I wasn't going to take all that with me across three different states. That sucked. I had accumulated so much in the time I lived in that condo because I was under the impression I was going to be there for a while. Alas, I had to give most of it away. Some of the stuff, I never used. There was no time to get sentimental, I was running out of time.

I quit my job on the way to the bus station. My landlords (the roommate's parents) are so precious, they offered to drop my stuff off to charity. I didn't care which charity, so they took it to one of their choice. They then took me to the station. First to work, to resign, then to the station. It was rush rush, but we made it. Just about! I got my deposit back, yay! I still never got my deposit back from Laura! Remember her? Lady in the closet?







Teddy, What Have You Done?

I was still looking for a place to stay. Nothing was coming up! I viewed one apartment which belonged to a bunch of very friendly Mormons. They had advertised it for one amount but when I got over there the amount changed. Drastically. I would rather they not be friendly and just be honest. They told me they would contact me in future I had a feeling they were not going to and I knew I wasn't going to contact them either. I talked to a few other people who had rooms to let. Nothing came out of that either. I was running out of time.

My roommate and her boyfriend started moving back in. She had told me that they would move in two days prior to my moving out. That didn't happen. They disconnected the TV and the Internet. I was getting confused as to what was going on. They literally moved back in the way before the time they said they would. All of a sudden I was leaving with two other people and her parents were there all the time. I don't mind the parents, they are very nice people. I'm just saying that the house suddenly became very crowded. Good thing I was always in my room sleeping or working at Ted's in the daytime.

I decided to take Ted up on his offer. He was half excited and I don't know what happened to the other half. He told me I could use his room and sleep on his bed. I told him I didn't think that was a good idea I would never do that to someone like him; move in and take over his house, I mean really now!Plus this is someone who is incontinent. That bed and the entire house, for that matter had gone through a lot. To say the least. He was desperate to save money. He wanted to shop some more!

 I started cleaning up the other room and shifting things around. There was a lot to move around. The room was literally a storeroom. I finally cleared the bed up. I was ready to move in some of my things bit by bit. Ted came up with this brilliant idea, he told me that because I was going to be living with him, he wasn't going to pay me. I told him that was not part of the deal. If I was going to be at his house 24 /7 I was actually going to help him out 24 /7. We had to have a serious talk about that. He wasn't too pleased but we agreed on the original deal of him paying me for the three days out of the week that I was working for him before moving in.

Ted is such a Shopaholic, you have no idea! Every single time I went to work for him, there would always be these boxes outside the condo! He would always be ordering something new; something he already has; something he already has two or three of OR 6, of oh my gosh! I think when he saw the space that I'd made in the spare room, he thought that was for him to stock up some more. Anyway, I had a strange feeling about moving my stuff in. You know when that feeling comes along you listen! One Saturday morning, I was scheduled to work. I showed up and I knocked and knocked and knocked on the door, no answer. I just had this strange feeling. I hoped he wasn't in the hospital or worse!  I knocked and knocked and knocked on the door, no answer! I was yelling Ted Ted Ted! Finally, I wrote a little note for him saying that I was there that day and the time, the date and shoved it under the door with the hope that when he did open up the door, the wind wouldn't blow it out hahahaha.

I went back to work on Tuesday and asked Ted about Saturday. He told me that he was resting, he hadn't been sleeping well. That was one day that I was not going to get paid for that I had shown up for work for. But what can you do?

Ted was getting paid in two days, a Thursday. He didn't have money to pay me that Tuesday. Which to me kinda explains why he was resting and tired' that day. That was so that he doesn't have to pay me for the day because he didn't have enough money, he spent all his money shopaholicing!  I had the day off, the following day, from both my jobs. It was a good day. I got to do whatever I wanted to do, which included either shopping or lots of rest.

Thursday, Ted got paid, the moment I walked into the condo, he handed me a long list of things to do. Or should I say to buy. I was so happy for him! He was in such a great mood, finally having money. This is a man who eats out three times a day and still buy tv dinners (boxed meals, that you microwave), he seldom gets to eat some of the food in the fridge, because he's busy eating take outs. I wish he would cut down on his take outs but thing is when you get to that age and have nobody, you find joy in whatever you can. I wasn't going to take away the only thing that brought him joy and comfort. Well, that and porn, but who's counting?

He asked me that Thursday not to going in the following Saturday. He and I know that he needed me everyday, but I was going to do as he pleased. That's what it is! I went back to work the following Tuesday, that's five days later. My heart sank when I saw that the door was closed. He usually gets up around 7am, has breakfast and sits by the tv in the living room. By then the front door would be open. I started anywhere between nine and ten in the morning. I got in that morning to find the door closed, freaked out, as I got closer, I realised that the door was slightly open. I saw Ted on the floor. He was crying for help. He had lost his voice by then. I couldn't get in quickly enough! Literally! There was stuff jamming the door, looks like he fell, knocked a few things on his way down, they ended up blocking the doorway. Some stuff, it looks like he tried to hold on to it while trying to get up, man it was a mess! I eventually squeezed into the door. He was completely pale. I asked him a few questions to check his level of consciousness, it was hardly there! I quickly called 911. He has one of those emergency necklaces, the ones with a button you push that automatically calls 911, only thing is, when he fell, the button went behind his neck, he's too big and the arms are too short for him to reach that far and he had fallen on his back.

We won't go into detail, all I can say is, he lost a lot of blood. He didn't know how long he had been lying there for, it looked like it may have been three or four days. He could have died! If only he hadn't stopped me from going in that Saturday! I am suspecting he fell Friday or Saturday. Anyway, Emergency services picked him up, he was then hospitalised for a while. There go my moving plans! That explained why  I was stalling moving my stuff in.

I had less than two weeks before it was time for me to move out of the condo, I had nowhere to go! I started looking for a place to stay both in Los Angeles and in Salt Lake City. Oh and I had started talking to someone else online! Paul! He lives in California, three hours from Los Angeles. We exchanged numbers. He was all over the place, but I still talked to him, simply because why not? I was talking to another man from Lake Elsinore as well. This is where I worked for that Chinese woman who never wanted to pay me. When they found out I was thinking of moving back to California, both men offered to have me move in with them. I thanked them but politely refused. That was the last thing I needed. I did that with Perry and with Elvis, done! Not going to do that again. At least not at this point in my life.

Paul is 35, never been married, has 8-10 cats, depending on the day, 40 bicycles and counting. The other man lives by the lake in a trailer but he calls it an RV. I saw the pictures, it sure looks like a trailer to me. Either way, I be damned if I'm gonna move in with a man who lives in a moving home. One night youŕe here, Lord knows where you'll wake up! Plus, dude looked scary, nuff said! Apparently, he was involved in a car crash two years ago. He was with his girlfriend, she died in the scene, he is still recovering from that, both physically and emotionally. He is all about himself, he did mention on his profile that he had times when he would be so depressed. He wanted someone who would understand, thing is, he was depressed all the time! One minute, he had a nightmare, the next, his blood sugar dropped, he always wanted to know from me what to do, blah blah blah, I was just like, I can't even deal with this guy and his problems anymore!

Paul and I talked everyday, He was nice distraction. He told me to move in with him and his cats and his bicycles and get a job over there as a CNA. Thing is, I was considering quitting a job I liked to move back to LA to pursue my dream of being an actress. I wasn't about to move three hours away from LA, live with a guy who's lifelong dream was to chill out and watch tv. That dream actually came true for him, now, he kinda regrets always wishing he could grow up to be an adult sitting on the couch watching tv. I don't want to be with someone who doesn't have the same drive I have, or at least a drive, any amount, period. Otherwise, they don't get it! I can't be with someone who is going to expect me to be home everyday, cooking dinner, packing him lunch for the following day and bringing him breakfast in bed. He needs to understand the type of business I am into. That it's unpredictable.

Two weeks before the end of October, I still hadn't found a place to stay, neither in Utah, nor in LA. People in LA wanted to meet up in person first, which I totally get. I couldn't do that from three states away. I had to have a plan C. A being to find a place in Salt Lake City (Utah), B moving to LA, C, well... I decided to find Temporary accommodation. I bounced that idea on Paul. He was like, yeah, why don't you stay in a hotel in Utah? Because, Paul, I am not going to spend that amount of money to stay in a place I am over! If I am going to do that, it better be in Los Angeles, that way, I know, I am looking for permanent accommodation. All his ideas were kinda out there. In that they didn't make any sense. By the way, he has a learning disability, which he is getting paid Grant for (SSI). I guess, he is a LOT bit slow. I say that with all due respect.

I went to see Ted in the hospital, EMT (911 folks) wouldn't tell me where they were going. I am not going to say it's one of those racial issues, I'm just gonna say, they just didn't want to tell me. They left me hanging in the veranda, wondering where they were taking him, after I called them myself. I had to make a ton of calls to all kinds of hospitals looking for him. Not cute, Utahans, even you can do better than that! I finally got hold of him and scheduled a day to go see him. He was still very confused when I got there but he recognised me, which was good.He had tubes all over him. It was crazy, but he was still alive!



















Tuesday, December 24, 2013

High Speed Chase

I was in the middle of giving Ted a shower when my phone rang on full blast. I ignored it, knowing I would just call whomever it was back. They kept calling, Ted was like, aren't you gonna answer that? It was Cindy. She wanted to know where I wanted to meet up.

Didn't I tell this woman that I was going to call her back after work? Please respect my wishes and my job! I told her I was almost done and I would call her back after work as I had said before! She was like, please do, it's urgent! B*tch! I don't care if it's urgent or not! I'm not Dr Phil! 'If it matters to you, it matters to me! If it matters to you, that's what I wanna talk about!' Well, on the contrary! 

After work, I rushed for the bus, went to the supermarket, bought some groceries, then went home, had dinner, put my feet up and watched my tv recordings. Cindy who?


She called me that night, I picked up. She told me that her husband flipped when he found out that she was cleaning the house (yup, never stopped cleaning), instead of making something to eat for his mom. Apparently husband told little one to ask Cindy to stop what she was doing and make breakfast, she told the kid to tell husband she was on it, kid told husband that that's what she said, even though that wasn't what she was doing. Husband got mad, more drama ensued. He tried to kill her. His mom didn't intervene, according to Cindy. Blah blah blah (Bears really cares about you. Why not call them? - {South African Inside Joke}). Husband then kicked her out of his the house. Ironic huh? The kicker outer became the kickee outer. Can you see the worry in my eye? Don't get your eyes checked yet, no worry over here!

She was staying at her friends, she was homeless and car less. He had taken the car keys and told her she would get them back after returning his mom's money she had saved for his mom. She told me that she was going to go to the house the following day to give him the money in exchange for the car keys. She said she was going to take the police with her. At that point, I really couldn't care less! My feet were up, I was enjoying my afternoon, didn't have a care in the world! She asked to meet up after all that. I was like, sure, let's! Like I was going to be seen with her by that husband and get killed!

The following day, I didn't hear from her. Thank Goodness! I called her that evening while I was out and about. I had a feeling, he must have disconnected the phone or something, everything is under his name and he is the kind of person to use that to his advantage. I couldn't get through to her number. No word from her at all that day!

Apparently, husband had promised to leave the keys in the car for Cindy, she was supposed to get in the house, drop the money and then leave. I know her husband, he's very smart. He would never come up with such a ridiculously dumb plan. That's something she would come up with! Because, if that were the case, all she had to do was get in the car and drive away without dropping the money off. Done! Which is what she had planned to do. Yup, she told me that!

That evening, she went to pick up their little one at school with her friend's car (Cindy's friend, not the little one's friend's car, she's only three, her friends don't have cars! Come on now, keep up! haha Just kidding). Husband and his mom were waiting by the school for Cindy. His mom wanted her money, Cindy told me she was ignoring their calls. I was like, why? Why won't you just give her her money and forget about them? That may have been a rhetorical question, I am so done trying to figure out her thought process, you don't even know! She told me she doesn't have the money, SHE USED IT! Like really now! She used a senior citizen's money, she had been saving to take with her to Africa in a few months when she goes back to Africa for good. Cindy took it upon herself to use that money! I asked her why she did that. She told me she needed money, her husband suggested she used it. Whatever!

It was time to pay up and she didn't have the money, that got her into more trouble because husband was determined to make her pay. She told me that They tried talking to her, but she just locked the car doors and drove off, they followed her. Here she is in her friend's 10-15 year old Toyota Corolla, husband is right behind her in his 2012-2013 Toyota Truck, Good luck! She called me in the midst of that High speed chase! I was like, dude, you can't do this with a kid in the car, you are going to get into big trouble. Stop somewhere and tell these people you don't have their car! She told me she wasn't going to, she was hoping to lose them. You're not gonna lose these people in your tiny car, they are driving  a Brand new truck, that thing is huge too, they see beyond other cars. I told her I couldn't continue talking to her while she was driving, the last thing I needed was for him to catch up with her and find out she was talking to me on the phone.

I never heard from her again that night. The following morning, I saw a missed call from a number I didn't recognise, I had a feeling it may have been Cindy calling from her friend's number or from jail, the hospital or something. Heck, she may have even been calling from the morgue (mortuary). I called the number back while I was at Target doing some shopping for Ted. It was Cindy! Her husband had indeed disconnected her number! She went and bought her a new phone at Wal-Mart. I had told her while I still lived with them that she needed an emergency bag with all the stuff she would need should the fit hit the shan (get it?). She was like, oh yeah, what a great idea! She never did it. I had told her that she had to have another phone, copy all the contacts onto there, blah blah blah. She does have another smart phone, but she was busy cleaning the house, she never came around to prepping the bag.

He plan was to pay the woman back once she got paid, payday was around the corner. Payday came and went, I got a call from her. She was like, call me back, it's urgent! I was on my way home from Ted's. I was getting so tired of all these urgent calls. I am not the person she should call unto in time of needs. I shouldn't even feature in her list of people to call. She had told me that her husband had once mentioned that wherever I was, I must hate her. Cindy told me she told him, Baba has no problem with me, you are the one she hates. I thought to myself, this B*tch has no clue! She has no concept of anything! If she was so innocent (even though she is the one who sent me the text to get the f*ck out of their home), how come she never stayed in touch?

I called her back on my way home. She asked me to meet her at her kid's school and lend her $1 000. ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MARBLES? I SHOULD LEND YOU MONEY? I SHOULD DO THAT? Really? You must have been hit too much in the head! That's more than 10 000 bucks where I come from. You're really retarded if you think I am going to meet you at all, let alone lend you any amount of money. How are you going to give it back to me? You never have money! If you hadn't kicked out of your spotless house, I may have even given you a thousand bucks, but you fcked up, bro! That's your bad! I told her I didn't have the money. I was like, 'Remember I have been unemployed for a while and I was also homeless for a bit (never happened, God forbid), I spent a lot of money during that time. Right now, I am making just about enough to pay rent and that's it.' I was lying through my teeth. I hope she knew that I was. I like it when someone I don't care about knows I'm lying cos even so, there's nothing they can do about it. #InYouFaceBeeeeeoooootch! She was so desperate. She told me her husband was at the school with the police and his mom and they wanted the mom's money there and then. Can you imagine me rushing to save the day, these are all people who don't give a darn about me and my well being, they all don't! They all teamed up against me at some point. How dumb would I have to be to go interfere with their dysfunctional family crap? B*tch Please!

I told her to ask for an advance payment at work. She was like, yeah, they won't give me that, well then go to the bank, or whatever, I don't care! I took the train and headed home, put my phone on silent and enjoyed the evening in peace.

Next time I talked to Cindy, she told me her husband had gone to her work place to demand she pay back his mom's money. She said, he made such a scene there, they had to call the police. He made a bigger scene in front of the police that they threatened to lock him up if he didn't leave. According to Cindy, police told her that they would help her with a safe place to live and provide her with lawyers if she needed them etc. She took them up on the offer. They moved her to a shelter, just like she wanted me to live in a shelter before. She ended up moving there herself. Isn't that ironic? She had the kid with her. She started divorce proceedings.

She went to court, got a restraining order against her husband. The court ordered him to move out of his prized possession the house, Cindy and the kid were to take over the house. She told me all this with such a smile on her face, I could hear it over the phone. I asked if she wasn't afraid kicking the man out of his own house, he had made no secret of the fact that that was his house, he was paying for it. Don't get me wrong, all you who live with men, married or not, I get the whole, oh but I contribute too etc but this man would die for that house. I would never be the one to get between him and that house and still be proud. That could end so badly. I brought that up, but Cindy was like, I have a restraining order. I said ok, I'm sure that will prevent him from shooting you, the kid and then himself.

I got over finding myself unintentionally giving her advice. I guess I can't help myself cos I had no intention of being of any help to her but because she is so bright, you find yourself intervening and offering some advice. I had to stop talking to her. I did so more than I had planned to anyway. She told me that she needed a character witness for him. Apparently, I was the only person 'still in her life' who could help in that regard. I begged her not to give my number to anybody, I don't want to go to court for any reason whatsoever. She told me that they were only going to talk to me off the record. I was like, either way, I don't want to get involved. What does the court normally do when there is no character witness? Please!

A few days later, I was back at my old job, I got home and was asleep. Got a call around 9 in the morning from social services. They got my number from Cindy! They wanted to talk to me about her husband. I never picked up the call because since talking to Cindy, I had gotten to paranoid. They left me a voice message. I thought to myself what kind of a person am I dealing with here? She didn't care, she was going to do whatever it took to ensure that things went her way! She called me after two days or so. I asked her about giving social services my number against my wishes. She told me she didn't do that. She had given my number when they moved her to the shelter, they asked for someone to call in case of emergency, she gave them my number. SHE GAVE THEM MY NUMBER! MY NUMBER! AS AN EMERGENCY CONTACT! REALLY? The hell was she smoking? Who am I to her? Where are her real friends? What the heck!

She tried calling me a few days after that, I wasn't in the mood, so I didn't pick up. She sent me a text saying that my phone she was going through to my voicemail every time she called me recently. Well that was because I was back at my old job and she always called when I was asleep. I didn't tell her that.though. A few days after that,  She sent me this text , 'Are you ok?' that's the text that sealed it all for me! For her to ask me, four/five months after kicking me out of her house if I was ok, just because she wasn't able to get hold of me for me to help her with her messy divorce was juuuuust! It was the most annoying message she could ever sent me. She should have never done that. That was the last time I talked to her. 

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Phone Calls From The Dead

Not too long after taking my exams, I got a call from the girl from Sudan, she wanted to know what to expect from the exam. Uhm, why are you calling me? We're not friends! I gave her the most ambiguous answer, we talked for a bit, she wanted to know if they were hiring at my job, I told her they were always hiring because they always fire people, I myself was no longer working there. She didn't want to work there without me. I am not sure why. It's not like we were friends! She told me she had scheduled for her exams and would call to update me. She never did. 

I didn't realise how much I missed everybody, especially the residents (patients) until I saw them again. 

CNA's had designated wings this time around. I worked the East side. They hired two new people just after me. We were short staffed for a while, having to work non stop, with no breaks, running around like headless chickens. I wondered why it took them so long to get me back to work if they were short staffed, oh well, one of those mysteries of life. The scheduling was still the same as before. That girl still got more days than other people. I was done stressing the second time around. I went in at 10pm on the dot, did my job, left in the morning, that's it! Nothing more. Well, except for the times they would ask me to fill in for others and work overtime, the supervisor would even pick me up and drop me off whenever he needed me to work overtime. It was a five minute drive. 

There is a bunch of ladies at the facilities who are friends, they smoke together, go out to the movies together and all that. They are not roommates. I was cool with them, one of them had been there forever, the other one only for three months and the other one for about a month. The Newbie, was in my wing. She would always ask to be woken up to use the bathroom about three times a night. I didn't mind. I did do rounds three times a night, I could have woken her up when I was in her room for my rounds but she wanted to be woken up at specific times. God forbid you should be a minute late! She would walk past the linen room, come all the way to me, tell me she needs fresh linen and walk back to her room, passing the linen room again. I had a weird vibe about this woman! 

One night, one of my residents had fallen, when they fall, you have to check their vital signs every 15 minutes for an hour, every 30 mins for 2 hours, every hour for blah blah blah. The first three hours are the worst because you can't get anything done, just after you're done checking them, you need to check them again. Within minutes of the resident falling, I got called outside by another resident. Another one had fallen. Also from my wing. That's 15 minutes for an hour, etc etc simultaneously! While doing my rounds, I realised that one of the residents wasn't in a good condition, I informed the nurse, she did what she could, but had to call Emergency services (911). So now, I had two people who had fallen and one who was in a critical condition. Newbie hunted me down, until she found me to confront me about not waking her up in time. She wanted fresh linen. My colleague was in her room helping her roommate! I asked Newbie if she could wait a minute for my colleague to help her as I was busy with an emergency. She knew! She could see! She found me in that room with emergency people! And she knew my colleague was in her room. On my way out, I decided to just get her the linen and get it over and done with, so I did. I got her three of everything.

She came back, nudged me on the shoulder and called me out of that room to tell me that one of those night gowns was way too big. I grabbed it, threw it in the hamper (washing basket) and asked her to use another one from the ones I had given her. 

The night ended on a good note, nobody died, nobody else fell, happiness all the way.


I got  a call from Spotty, he wanted to go to the park together that weekend. I accepted not thinking it was going to happen. As a result, the day of, I was spring cleaning the condor, I didn't even think about him. He texted me two days later asking if I had fun at the park. I replied '?'. He told me he thought he saw someone who looked like me over there. He even said hi. I ignored him. He was wasting my time. He called and was like, weren't you at the park this weekend. Yes, s hole, I was, with you! What a jerk! I was like, first you call me out of the blue, ask to take me to the park, call a few days later to confirm, disappear and then rock up with a random text like how was it? What is this? Are you going to act like you didn't stand me up? I told him, I didn't sit by the phone waiting for his call, but he doesn't know that, therefore, he should acknowledge the fact. He was like, yeah, I thought we could be friends but this just got weird. I was like, bye! The f*ck!

My roommate, who was never there. She spent all her time at her boyfriends, sent me a text that she wanted to talk. I called and asked what it was about. Her boyfriend's lease had expired, they decided to move back to the condo, they wanted me out. Great! I started looking for another place to stay. She gave me ample notice, more than a month. This was the month I got my job back, I was losing my apartment. Winter was around the corner. It was getting dark early, I had to find a place closer to work, that wasn't going to be easy. I wasn't psyched about the news at all. When I moved in, they told me they don't really use the apartment, three months later they wanted me out. I wasn't about to challenge someone about their own home. Time to hit the road, Jack! When will I stop moving?

While I was at work one afternoon, at Ted's, I got a call from my supervisor. He wanted to tell me that Cindy had been looking for me. Four Month's later! You know I blocked bother hers and her husband's numbers. She decided to call my job. I wasn't back there yet, but we were in talks with my supervisor. I called her back out of curiosity and the need to feel that justice had been served. I had always felt that she would need me one day when that husband of hers tries to kill her again. She was like, 'stranger, I haven't heard from you in a while?' Is this b*tch kidding me right now? B*tch, you kicked me out of your house! 
Cindy - How are you doing?
Me - Ok, thanks, you?
C - Ok thanks, where do you live now?
M - Murray?
C - Where?
M - Murray
C - Nice! Where about in Murray? What's the address?
Me - Uhm, what's up, what's new with you? I heard you were looking for me?
C - It's a long story, I will tell you in person, what's your address?
M - Why don't we meet halfway between my place and yours?
The f*ck's she talking about, what's your address? YOU ARE NOT WELCOME IN MY HOME! I don't want your negative energy there and your yelling husband and your screaming child! That is my precious place, I am happy there! Happiest I have ever been in this country, you will no mess that up for me! Why are you so eager to come to my place all of a sudden? When you kicked me out at four oclock in the morning, what did you think my address was going to be? F*ck you!
C- I've to pick up little one from school, then I can come to you afterwards, what's the address?
M - I'm at work right now, why don't I call you after, we can arrange then? Are you ok though?
C- Ok
M- Cheers



























Got License?

I had ample time between my two exams and the testing locations were near each other albeit I'd never been to either.

I took the bus to the next location. A very big college building, with theatre halls and all kinds of stuff! I had more than an hour to kill, so I made my way to Mc Donald's and had me something to eat from the dollar menu. Don't judge me, I make my dollar stretch! Far! After that, I headed back to the school, I met a cool chick from my school, we hung out for a bit amongst homeless people who were lying on the lawn in the shade. Her exam time was before mine. The invigilator asked if I wanted to get in with her. I appreciated her offering but needed more time to go over everything, so I politely declined.

We had 150 questions, pass mark was 75%. Problem is, it was only multiple choice questions. You know how they are! All answers look like possible answers. I took my time, checked what I thought was right. They hardly asked anything we had studies, a lot of it was general knowledge. I left there feeling less confident than I did walking in. They were going to send the papers to the department for grading, we would find out in two weeks whether or not we had passed by receiving a certificate in the mail or a voucher to reschedule exam. Question is, would I receive any of those at all in my mailbox, what with my history! I didn't hold my breath.

I still had my job with Ted. It was still challenging. He fell two or so more times, averaging once a week. No fun! He watched a lot of Porn, you know, the playboy channel; couples swapping partners, licking, sucking, you name it, all on camera! He invited me to sit and watch with him a few times. I refused a few times. He once told me it feels nice when I touch him there! OK Ted! Let's keep some things to ourselves! He asked me over and over to move in with him and use the spare bedroom. He wasn't going to charge me rent. Thing is, I really enjoy my independence, something I hadn't had in a while. I was enjoying to pay for my own things, plus his condo still needed some work. I told him all that.

I had an interview at a nursing home right next door to Ted's. It went very well, they promised to call. They never did! I called them a few times to which they promised to call me back which they still never did! After three or so days, I started checking the Nursing  Registry of Utah's website to see if my name was listed there. As soon as you get licensed, they list  you over there. I wasn't going to keep checking the mail because of my history with that. I wasn't in the mood to get depressed. I literally had their website open all the time on my internet browser, I would just keep refreshing and refreshing, morning, noon and night. Daily. On the fifth day, I punched my name in and IT SHOWED UP! I was so happy, I was shaking! The first person I called was my supervisor. He had told me my job was mine as long as I had my license. He told me to meet him at work the following day. I called my sisters (By the way, I have brothers too, fyi but my sisters are my best friends. How are you doing bros?), they were just as happy for me as I was for myself. It had only been about two weeks or so since I was let go from work.

I went to meet up with the sup the following day. He told me to bring him the license as soon as I got it. I told him to look me up because that's what they do anyway to verify. He told me that one of the new girls had gotten her nursing license and had put in her notice, she was going to leave as soon as they found replacement for her. I asked him to tell her to leave, I was available to start that very night. He promised to call me. He didn't.

I called him almost everyday ever since, he told me he and the girl had agreed, she was going to serve a week's notice instead of two. I could start early. YESSSSSS! A week came and went, I called him, he told me he didn't have any position for me. I asked about the girl who was going to quit early for me. He told me he had filled that position. I was devastated! He had just given my job away, again! Why? Why? Why? I lost all faith in him. I got to the point where I didn't know if I was going to get the job back.

He called me after a week or so and told me a position had opened up. He wanted me to go to the office to sign a contract. After my three month probationary period, I qualified for benefits, they let me go, so I no longer did. He told me I wasn't fired, I assumed I would pick up where I left off, instead they made me sign a new contract with a new start date. I stopped liking them completely. I was on probation, again! What in the hell!

From then, I stopped having that thing that I had for that place, you know doing whatever it takes because I felt like they deserved it. They were a nice company to work for. I didn't care anymore, they had screwed me over one too many times! I signed the contract, peed in a cup, and all that. Then, he told me to be back the following night. I didn't call to confirm, I just showed up at 10pm that night. I wasn't going to risk hearing another story.

It was so good to be back! My friends were working that night, my fave nurse, remember the one who once offered to let me use her car to drive home instead of sleeping in the office? It was a nice first night. Good to back!













































Thursday, December 19, 2013

The Aftermath

Weeks prior this is the same man who said, 'what? No, I'm not breaking up with you! Do you think I would take you out and then break up with you? That's mean! I would never do that!' Good thing I don't believe anything anybody says until they actually do it or else I would have been crushed that he went ahead and did exactly that which he had vowed he would never do. I rushed in to work and clocked in. I wanted to be on time for my last few days there. That's all I had at that point. My new best friend had just dumped me. We spent all our time together, laughing and joking and just being and he just dumped me. Just like that! As if all that meant nothing to him. Clearly, it didn't!

All I asked is if he were sure that's what he wanted. When he said he was, I said ok, bye, I gotta go. I'm late for work! That was it! I had nothing else to say. I have nothing to say to someone who doesn't want to be with me. What else is there to say? Please, please don't leave me! You love me, I know you do! I can make you happy? N word, please! That's when you start regretting and feeling sorry for yourself, wishing you could take back what you said. I deleted his number so I wouldn't find myself calling him and all communication with him. NEXT!

I remember I was working with the two new girls that night. The one who was going to be a nurse, she was like, hey, how are you doing? I told her, I just got dumped. Her response, 'interesting!' I found that interesting, who says that? These new girls were little b^tches! That was my last night before my two off days and officially my last night at work as the off days fell on the last two days of the month. Thanks Spotty, for picking such a fine time to dump me!

Walking home that morning, I felt it! Having just been dumped and losing my job the same day, surely there is no God! If he were there, why would he put someone like me through all that? What was left for me to do? I was more depressed for having lost my job and the way that it happened than the break up but that just added fuel to the fire. I was mad at God for letting it all happen. That shook my belief in Him. What was I going to do in Salt Lake City? I had just moved into this new, expensive apartment. I sucked it up and took it even though it was expensive because it was close to work. I only lived there for a month and I lost my job! What was the point? There I was stuck with my new, nice place which was around the corner from a job I no longer had. What was I going to do with myself? I had been looking for another job, everybody told me they were hiring, I filled out applications but no body actually hired me!

I arrived home feeling like sh#t, I called my two sisters. They were right there with me, just as sad and depressed for me but they tried to make me feel better. They all told me to pray, I was like, yeah, that's not gonna happen, f&ck god and all that. If he's out there, he can come and find me. I'm going it alone from here on out! Clearly, I was all alone all along. I stopped praying, I stopped believing, I stopped all that. I had work at Ted's that morning. When it was time, I got ready, and headed off to his place. That job was all I had. I didn't have any friends in Utah, Cindy, the reason I was there to begin with had kicked me out of her house, MB my friend from work had accused me of sexual harassment and tried to get me fired, my new friend from school (Sudan), was acting weird) and I just got dumped, I had no social life at all. I was like, finally, I get to watch my tv recordings! #BrightSide! I got more rest, none of that one hour of sleep here, one hour there, running around from my place to Spotty's, spreading myself thin. I had time to take my multivitamins, and to watch what I ate. I bought a scale and started recording my weight weekly.

I called the department of health to enquire about my voucher, they had it! I asked if I could pick it up myself, they agreed. Hope! The following day, my second day off or out of a job, I took the two hour bus to the dept to pick up my voucher. I tell you, I had such mixed emotions when I finally had it in my hands. I rushed home, had to find a testing place. They have about a dozen in the entire state. I called a few and left messages. I found a spot the following week! It was time for me to take out them books and study, HARD! I wasn't going to fail that text for my life depended on it! I studied, and studies and youtubed videos of some of the practical stuff.

It was hard for me to look through my bedroom window for the view from my room was the main road and the on ramp into Spotty's street. I didn't wanna see it, I didn't want to think about it. I couldn't!

I worked three times a week, five hours per day, Ted bout lunch, and breakfast sometimes, everyday. He bought me lunch too. I didn't care about that, I asked him to let me buy myself whatever I wanted for myself with an equivalent of what I would have spent on lunch. He agreed, so everyday, I would buy some groceries, a few yoghurts here, some fruit here, veggies, etc. It felt nice to go home with shopping bags everyday! I didn't have to worry much about groceries in my budget, which was already so limited. I had some money in my savings to cover rent but I didn't want to go there, you never wanna go there. I was still going to get paid mid August for the last two weeks of July, so I was going to be ok in that sphere.

In a flash, the following week arrived, it was time to go take the exam. We had two, one written and a practical one. Everybody was talking about the practical exam, apparently, the examiners don't play! You can only miss so many marks and that's it, they fail you if you lose more marks! I was going to take my exams at two different places, I wanted to take them the same day. I started with the practical. I hardly slept the night before. I was on youtube all night long, looking at videos and stuff. I got ready, took the bus and headed to Salt Lake Community college. I had never been there before, thanks to the GPS, I made it, easy breezy! Plus it was right by the train station.

They took in two people at a time. You take each other's vital signs, i.e. blood pressure, temperature, pulse and all that. The girl I was going to go in with was young, she was ever so prepared, she was ever so chilled. I was still on youtube on my phone, still going through the book. I was asking her questions, she had all the answers off the top of her head. I was envious! Our turn came, the examiner seemed serious, she looked kinda like a librarian. She asked where I was from. I told her,her face lit up. She had been to South Africa in the eighties. In the apartheid (segregation). Inasmuch as I wanted us to talk about it, I was too nervous to even think, let alone speak. I have gotten nervous at auditions and thought that was the most nervous I had ever been, it wasn't! That day! That was the most nervous I had ever been! EVER!

We went through a few questions, that girl and I, we got those, easily. Then it was time for vital signs, she offered to go first again, because she saw how nervous I was. My Blood Pressure had shot through the roof! The examiner thought she did it wrong, she asked me if I suffer from BP, I told her I don't! I may be fat, but I'm good! She took my BP herself, it was UP! They told me to take a minute while that girl took the examiner's for exam purposes, they told me to take deep breaths. I tried, the nerves were killing me! Literally! I had to pass that thing! They came back to me, took my BP again, it was higher than before! They told me I could go home and reschedule. WHAT! Are you bleeping me? I lost my job for this sht, I need my License! ASAP! I told her I wasn't going to go through all that only to go home. What was I going to do at home? The hell with that!

The chilled girl wasn't getting the correct readings, she tried taking the pulse so many times, she just wasn't getting it right, they had to fail her and tell her to reschedule. What do you think that did to my BP? this was the girl who was so prepared! If SHE was gong to fail, who am I? Well, I'm the girl who NAILED IT! After she was let go, we took a minute and talked about South Africa. I think that lowered my BP a bit. She had some interesting stories to tell. They wouldn't let her go to the blacks only toilets (she's White, we're in Utah, remember? Everybody's white). She was so pressed, they just wouldn't let her! They also would let her onto the blacks only bus and she was in such a hurry, haha. Their black friends had to sneak into their house and not be caught by police.

After that, I had to  pick a random card with random things I was going to get tested on. Nailed it! She went, Congratulations! I was like, errrrr?!?!?!?!? She told me, we're done! You passed! Ohhhhh myyy goddd! Don't get it twisted, I still didn't believe in god! It was just an expression! I was so happy, I forgot my floppy hat there, and the sun was killing outside! I didn't care! Good thing, I bought it at the 99cents store. Off to the written exam!























































































































Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Feelings, Schmeelings!

I took a quick shower, had dinner, Client, we'll call him Ted, had bought me lunch, chicken salad from his favorite Mexican restaurant. That's what I had for dinner. It was delish. Must be all the poop in it hahahaha! #Nutrients

I dozed off after dinner, I didn't know if I was still up to going over to Spotty's. I had been up for 24 hours and working hard the entire time! I saw a lot of poop in that space of time! Spotty sent me a text telling me he had an uninvited guest, he would call me when she had left. I was like, ok. He kept texting me promising me that nothing was going to happen, he was loyal to me, blah blah blah. How was I to prove that?  I wasn't going to question him because that wasn't going to change anything but at the same time, that didn't mean I believed him. I hardly knew the men! Even if I did know him, that wouldn't change anything, people will still do whatever they want, no matter your opinion of them. 

He called to tell me she had just left, it was late, he understood that I was tired, he thought to let me rest that night, we would meet up the following day. He appreciated how maturely I handled the whole situation. Apparently the guest was his ex girlfriend, she had taken her bike for a ride and ended up in his neighbourhood, it started raining, so she just drove over to his place. That was his story, true, false, whatever! We talked over the phone for an hour or more, then went to sleep.

At one point, Spotty asked me for naked pictures of me. I refused. He asked why I was so uptight, he wasn't going to show the pictures to anyone, all his exes had given him their naked pics, he still had them. I was like, talk to me again about it when you no longer had pictures of your exes.  I don't get it, but oh well. I don't know why someone who introduced me as a friend to people, who had himself told me he didn't have the kind of feelings he should for me, would want naked pictures of me! 

Back to work in a few days. At the end of the shift, my friend wanted to talk to the supervisor about her roster for the following month. I asked the supervisor for specific days of, his answer was, 'If I were you, I would worry more about getting my license than off days cos you might not even have a job here next month.' In his broken English with Mexican accent. How you doing Mexicans! This he said in front of the entire night shift crew. He was very show off, that guy. I was dumbfounded that that's how he wanted to talk to me about me losing my job. A few days before I did, in public! What if I hadn't asked for those off days? I told him that I didn't know what the delay was but I still hadn't received the voicher. The new girl, from Jamaica was like, that's strange! Sup was like, you know you didn't do the course, why would you expect a voucher when you didn't even do the course! He was on the roll that morning! My friend was like, yes, she did the course, she was sleeping on the couch at work, going to work and classes at the same time! He insisted I didn't do it. Jamaican was like, if you had done the course, you would have gotten your license by now. I wanted to kick her through her stomach, and pull that ugly thing she had on her head off! B*Tch, who's talking to you? STFU!

I left, in disbelief that I was really going to lose my job and there was nothing I could do about it. It was the last week of July, even if I did get the voucher in the mail, I didn't have enough time. I had a lot to think about that morning. Spotty had work early that morning, he called me on his way back,  I told him what had happened at work, he was so pissed off that they would treat me like that. That's one thing about him, he doesn't just say, oh ok, I'm sorry to hear that, do you wanna make out? He feels you pain, and gets more pissed than you. Love it! That's how I get :) #Passion

Last Sunday of July, Spotty took me out. We went to the park again. This time, he didn't pack us a nice lunch or anything. He picked me up from my place, walked in and was like, 'what?'. I went, 'what what?' He told me I looked like I wasn't in a good mood or something. I was fine, he looked like he wasn't in a good mood. I felt like with him, I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

We sat at the park, he smoked pot the entire time, he even stocked up on more weed right there in front of me. I consider myself pretty open minded but there are things that you, as a gentleman, shouldn't do in front of a lady, like dealing in weed. Couldn't he go somewhere, do the deal and then come back to me? He was not nice the whole day. I didn't get why he picked me up at all. I had work that night, I could have just hung out at my place and watched TV recordings. Later on, I was like, I think it's time to go now! He took me to The Olive Garden (Restaurant), bought us dinner. It was divine, I had stuffed mushrooms, and seafood.

He flirted with the hostess on our way in, and introduced me as his friend. We sat and had dinner, he took offense in everything I said. Thank goodness dinner was delicious, otherwise the whole thing would have been a complete mess. He packed some of his dinner for me for lunch at work that night. Which was nice, I guess.

It was raining outside by the time we left. I assumed, as a person who has a limo driving, aka in being a gentleman, he would bring the car around and pick me up. He was like, come on, let's go. I was like, Aren't you gonna bring the car around? He told me no, unless I wanted him to leave me behind. I put my handbag over my head and ran to the car. When we got in the car, he said something along the lines of I'm lucky he didn't leave me there. I was like, then I'd call a cab! I know a guy! He took offense to that too because I'm not supposed to have a cab driver's phone number when he himself is sort of in the business. Well, clearly I will need this guy, if you're threatening to desert me in the rain at night on my way to work!

This was three days before my last day at work. Everything had been confirmed. I was going to have to be removed from the system because I didn't have my license.

We arrived at my place, he waited while I got ready for work. We got to work just in time. Just before I got off the car, he broke up with me.
























, what? I'm like  what what?

Sunday, December 15, 2013

The Client

I was still waiting for my voucher from the health department. I only had so much time to book my exam, take it and wait for the license in the mail. If all that didn't happen in time, I was going to lose my job. I kept checking the mail, like a lunatic, every time I thought of it, I was downstairs checking the mail. Deep down inside, I had a feeling it wasn't going to happen. I wasn't going to receive the voucher. I don't know why, but I didn't see it  happening.

Every month at my job, the supervisor would change our roster. There was this girl, who joined the company two weeks after me; she got my schedule in the beginning. I went on to temp while she got the permanent schedule that I was promised. Whatever happened to first come, first served? When I confronted the supervisor about it, he told me he forgot about me, or something lame like that. Noted! The girl turned out to be nice, she went on to be my best friend. Every month, when the sup drew a new schedule, he scheduled that girl to work from the first day of the month thereby giving her a leg up on all of us, I always got left overs after he had scheduled everybody. For example, that girl would work 25 days in a month, I would end up with 18 or 19. We got paid per hours worked. Every now and  again, they would ask me to fill in for people but that wasn't the same. It was as if they were doing me a favor by giving me more hours. I was working full time, I deserved the same number of days as others.  With overtime, I would sometimes make more than them though, because they paid time and a half for overtime.

Almost everybody else had a second and even third job. It's difficult when you don't have a car. Especially in Utah where public transport is non-existent. My colleagues always said I was lazy for only working one job. I'm sorry if where I come from, one job is supposed to be enough for you to have a decent lifestyle. I'm so sorry that I don't have 8 kids to support. Sorry I am not from Mexico or anywhere in Latin America, my bad! They would say these things to each other in Spanish, with me right there. I knew they were talking about me because duh! Plus, my friend wouldn't be able to make eye contact with me. And she would sometimes refuse to tell me what they said. It still didn't change anything about my life though. Whatever they said about me. Plus when you work a lot of overtime for the same company, that's kinda like a second job, but I wasn't about to explain myself to them.

They always hired and fired CNA's at work. They hired two new aides (CNA's) towards the end of July. One was about to take her nursing exam, soon as she did, she would leave and go work as a nurse. They started while I was on my off days. My friend texted and told me about them, she thought they were nice people. I went to work after my off days and met them. They were supposed to be floats that night, meaning help around whenever help was needed, especially where I was working because there are a lot of special needs people in that wing. Instead, they were attached to my friend's hip, they followed her around like two loyal CNA puppiess. Small wonder she thought they were amazing. They were huge fans!

Because it was taking too long for me to get the voucher, I had to have a plan B, so I started looking for another job. I got a private client; an elderly man who lived by himself.  He hired me as a housekeeper. I took the job. I started the last week of July. I will never forget my first day at work. I had never seen so much faeces in my life! He had nursing aides who helped him with daily activities like showering etc, and a nurse. They all worked for agencies and came in a few times a week. When I got in there, the house smelled like faeces and mould and and and. I couldn't believe the state the house was in. The nurse came in that day and told him that their agency was done with him. The house wasn't in a healthy condition for anyone to work in, they put in a few day's notice. He was f*cked! I had plastic bags over my shoes, and gloves on my hands the entire time. Even in the kitchen, there were flakes of faexes. It was unbelievable. I didn't know if I was going to keep that job at all. Man is huge too, and has very little use of his legs. He asked me to go grocery shopping for him. He was literally glued to his chair, eating the whole entire time.

I ran to the store to get him what he needed. When I got back, he was on the floor! He had fallen. F*^k! Where will I even begin? I wanted to call 911, he wouldn't let me. He told me to hold his hand and pull me up. Good idea! Only, his feet were not moving! And I would have broken my back, if they were. I tried all kinds of things. I eventually called Spotty. He hadn't really dumped me remember? He came over in no time. I was like, don't use the limo haha.  He tried, but that wasn't a job of two men, men being Spotty and I. We eventually called 911. Six fine men showed up, they already knew the client. Apparently they had been to the house so many times. They helped us get him up. It was already time for me to go home. I was bummed, I had worked all night and all day. I needed to go home and catch a nap. Good thing I was off that day. Client wanted me to work for him once or twice a week, I told him he needed more help than that, so we settled on four times. So, every other day.

Spotty waited for me outside. He couldn't spend a minute inside the house, he had to get the heck out for some air. Thank goodness for my poor sense of smell. I am good with nice smells, but I don't always catch the bad ones. Yay me!

We had agreed that he pay me on a daily basis. I could tell that he was either going to end up in hospital or somewhere, I didn't want to work in vain. I got paid and left with cash in pocket. Nice feeling! Spotty took me hope, we had plans to hang out that evening. I was going to shower and nap, he'd pick me up later.


Sunday, December 01, 2013

A Letter from The Ex

I was nice and tired at work, what with not getting enough rest cos I was busy being wooed by Spotty.

The following day, he picked me up from work,he dropped me off at mine and asked me to call him when I got up, to which I told him to call me after pm. I wasn't gonna be the girl who calls a guy she just met up. He called as I got up around . He came to pick me up just to go hang at his. He made us lunch, I had mentioned that I like pork so he made pork, green beans and macaroni. Tasty! He put cushions on the floor right by the coffee table. That's how we were seated for lunch. It was pretty cool. We could have sat in the kitchen at the counter on the high chairs, but  I liked his idea better.

He played more I'm gonna make you love me type music. I enjoyed his music, old, motown music. I took an hour's nap before work in his bed. He hung out in the living room while I slept. He woke me up when it was time to get ready and took me to mine to freshen up and dropped me off at work. Work was  minutes drive from my place. I used to walk there all the time, 25 minutes walk. I enjoyed it. By the time I got to work, I would feel nice and fresh.

We kept doing that, him picking me up from my place in the afternoon to hang out at his place. It got to the point where he told me to take my uniform with me when I went over to his and my toiletries so I could shower at his. I  did that. Sometimes he would have to work and leave me at his sleeping, to go drive someone around or something and then go back to his. He paid attention to the things I like, one afternoon, he took me to the stores to buy chicken. He was going to make us something to eat. He also bought me Red Velvet cake. That was very sweet of him cos if you know me, you know how much  I love red velvet cake.

He called me one afternoon, I was grocery shopping, he asked if I needed a ride. I told him I as ok, I had a bus pass. I didn't want to be a burden. He offered to pick me up when I was done. He showed up in the limo! Smooth, Spotty, very smooth!  I had flip flops on, sweat pants and a wife beater. I felt so under dressed.

We hung out at my place, he watched a little tv. I treated us to dinner. You know me, I don't cook. We went out for take out. We enjoyed dinner while watching TV. He always told me not to fall in love with him. He told him that the problem with some of the girls he dated in the past was that they fell in love. He is not ready for that. He likes to take his time. I told him to worry about himself, he may have already been in love with me. I'm amazing! I told him, jokingly.

One Saturday, he took me to the park. It gets really busy over there over the weekend. They have people playing drums, kinda like African drums, they show off their eclectic skills like juggling, playing with snakes etc. There's a lot of pot smoking too. Spot made us lunch, he had bought me grapes the previous day, he himself doesn't eat fruit and vege. He packed me some grapes, made us chicken nuggets, from scratch and some chips. It was a very neat picnic! He brought along towels, small blankets, water, camping chairs, the works. How do you not fall in love with someone like that, right? Well, you don't! Someone tells you not to fall in love with them, YOU DON'T FALL IN LOVE WITH THEM, simple as that.

Se spent the entire day there, he had picked me up around ten in the morning. We left around 5 to go chill some more at his place, I took a quick nap there before work, took a shower and he dropped me off at work. My phone battery died that night. I had it charging while switched off. Turns out he had taken the bike for a ride, came by my work to say hi, I missed the call because my phone was off. He didn't want to be that weird guy who knocks on the door of a nursing home at 2 o'clock in the morning. I wish he did, I could've used the distraction.

As you might recall, I didn't have a bed in my room. Well, I still didn't!Needless to say, Spotty wasn't allowed in my room. Living room and kitchen only. And bathroom if need be but that's it Mr! He always wondered why he wasn't allowed in my bedroom. I would just smile in return. No comment.

My Landlords, who are the best human beings I have ever met in America, Bless them, hooked me up! My roommate, who was never home, the daughter of the owners of the condo, told her parents that I was sleeping on the floor. I was looking for a bed but I had to have a truck to pick it up #AintNobodyGotTimeForThat! Roommate's mom offered me her late aunt's bedroom suit. I thought that was really special. They delivered it themselves and helped me set it up. Beautiful people, inside and out. They were like parents to me as well. I love them to bits!

I already had bedding, heck I even had Martha Stewart sheets. All that was missing was the bed. She bought me a dresser, chests of drawers, the whole shebang! She even put nice paintings and matching lamps in my room AND she gave me matching linen. Everything was matchy matchy. I was so happy. I made my bed up and when Spotty came over, I took him to my room. He was like, finally! The bedroom! He thought my room was kinda cute, of course it was! It was new! I wasn't gonna tell him that obviously!

He asked me out on a date one Sunday. I agreed. I had Sundays off. He picked me up that evening all dressed up. He had knee high cowboy boots, gotta love a man in heels. And boots, nice combo. Real men wear boots anyway ;) Real men also wear Calvin Klein underwear. Just saying! He told me the destination was a surprise. I had knew high boots as well, and a top which I used as a dress, shhhhh! We walked down the stairs hand in hand, he always held my hand. We used the old, dusty one. I had grown used to it by then. Every now and then he would bring out the Limo but that was our full time ride.

We went for a nice drive on the freeway, it was nice! He wasn't that talkative, I had to ask him a few times if he was ok. We stopped midway to watch the sun set. He drove up the hill, where he usually watches sunsets. It was very romantic. We sat there looking at nature. I enjoyed that. We proceeded for our surprise destination. It was a bar/restaurant, they had live music; a couple who sang very well. It was so packed, we had to stand for a while before a table cleared out for us. Even then, we joined other people at that table, there was no time to wait for our own table, we were both heels, we needed to sit haha.

We had Chicken and Waffles. He thought the combination was rather bizarre. I had heard of the combo but never had it, so I thought what better time than then to try it out. They brought it out with Syrup for the waffles. I had a piece, he had a piece. He promised me he will never eat that ever again. I promised him I will. Every now and again, I would jokingly tell him to sit closer to me, I wasn't going to bite him. I felt some tension here and there, I wasn't feeling his body language at all that night.

Eventually, we drove home. His place. He doesn't allow shoes inside his apartment, we both took off out boots outside and went and sat on the couch. We had THE talk. He wanted to tell me that for some reason, the relationship wasn't going the direction he had wished it would. He didn't have the kinds of feelings he thought he should have at that point in our relationship. GREAT! Just my f*cking luck! I'm getting dumped! He fed me, now he's breaking up with me. How mean! I don't know whats better, getting dumped on an empty stomach or full.

I was like, hang on a minute! Are you breaking up with me? He was like, nooooooo, not at all, I am giving you a heads up. I thought you might want to know how we're doing, that's why I am telling you. I am also concerned that you might be falling in love with me. I was like, uhm, what!!!!!!! First of all, don't flatter yourself! Secondly, how can I fall in love with someone who is clearly not emotionally available, who reminds me constantly not to fall in love with him. thirdly, why are you doing all this things for me? Are you trying to get me to fall in love with you so you can break up with me and break my heart? What is it that you are doing exactly? He told me, well, kinda. I am hoping you will fall in love with me, but in my own pace. I don't want you to fall in love with me to soon.

It was the weirdest conversation I have ever had and I have had some conversations! I asked him where he was hoping we would be in the relationship and if he was still hung up on someone else. I knew he was still holding a torch for his ex, even though he wouldn't admit to it. He told me that he didn't have the feelings he wants to have for me. I was like, ok, so you hate me and you wanna break up? No, I need time! Then what's gonna happen when you realise that it's not gonna happen; you're not gonna fall in love with me? Then you're gonna break up with me, and be like b#tch, don't say I didn't warn ya!

He told me he likes everything about me, he wants to be with me for the longest time but he never wants to get married again. I want to get married, he doesn't know if that's one of the reasons he is holding back feelings-wise. I was like, hey! I wish I could say I don't want to get married, but I do. I have never been married and have always wondered what it would be like for me. I would like to experience it for myself. You have been married, don't you think it's unfair of you to want other people not to make the same mistake you did? Let me make this mistake, if it's not with you, I will make it with whoever wants to make it with me, but it's something I want to do. I wasn't trying to get the guy to marry me, but we were talking and it came up. I am not going to lie about my wishes to get a middle aged man who doesn't know what he wants out of life to like me. I'm sorry!

He asked me to read a letter that his ex who he was still hung up on wrote him. He had been asking me that for the longest time. I refused every time. I don't wanna hear it! I just don't. Don't ram in down my throat! That's what she said haha.

He was trying to prove to me how over it was between the two of them. I didn't care. I knew what I knew. Anyway, he practically begged me to read it, so I let him. What was the worst that could happen at that point, right? Was he gonna take me out and then come home and tell me he had no feelings for me? That had already happened. I sat there rolling my eyes while he went to get the letter. He sat on the floor in front of me and read it, then he read me his response which he never mailed to her. When he got to the part where he wrote her he will never find someone like her, he balled his eyes out! Middle aged me, crying like a girl!

I was sitting there thinking, the f#ck am I supposed to do now? I am the one who has just been dumped and he's the one who's crying, what a selfish s! I patted his shoulder, rolling my eyes. I really just wanted us to talk about us instead of him indulging in self pity over a love he lost TEN YEARS AGO! Get the Fck over it! ASAP! You're about to lose an amazing woman just cause you're so stuck in the past. Come on now!

He told me he wanted to see how things would go with us. He was willing to open himself up blah blah blah. He ruined it! He took what was supposed to me a nice, romantic date and fcked it up. He told me of all the relationships he had been in in the past ten years (after the break up), he had never been with someone who came close to the ex as he did with me. So much about me reminded him of her, he feels inspired to be that guy again, basically he was falling in love with me and for that reason, he was kicking me to the curb. How was that fair? How does that make sense to him? Or anybody for that matter. Does it make sense to you?
















First Date with Spotty

The school was nice enough to let me scan the documents they needed them. I took pictures of the docs and emailed them to the school, does anyone else do that nowadays instead of scanning? I stopped by a fast food restaurant for ice cream on my way home. On my way out, I caught a glimpse of My somalian friend. I turned to talk to her, she had disappeared. I know I wasn't imagining her because she was with her daughter and I saw them both. I bet you she went something like, oh crap, there goes that b*tch, hide! Quick! And pushed the kid's head down behind the garbage bin.

On the train back home from the school, I got a call from Spotty. I almost forgot that I had a date that night. Flip! I would have had to take a shower cos I was a hot mess. He only said who was calling and the phone died! I must say, I was glad it did. I knew that I would be home in 30 minutes, charge it and call him back but I was glad that he would have to wait that long not knowing whether I hung up on him or not. He called an hour or more later than we had agreed.

By the time the train got to my station, the buses had stopped running, thanks Utah! I had to walk for a good 25 minutes; as if I didn't walk enough that day. Whew! I finally got home, charged the phone, took a shower and relaxed in bed, or, if you want to be technical, on the floor in my sleeping bag. Yeah, I slept on the floow, Whatever, feel better now? Spotty called back much later. We ended up talking for four hours until around two in the morning. He proposed taking me out for breakfast the following morning. Sure, as long as you won't walk me back to my bedroom afterwards. Nobody is allowed in here! I accepted. I was glad that night was out because I was so tired. I went to bed soon after the phone call. I got up early and got ready for breakfast.

Spotty has a Limo business. He asked me during the call which car he should pick me up in, his private car, a Limo or a motorbike. I told him to surprise me. Surprise me, he did! I got all dolled up, wore my new dress and all. He called to tell me he was pulling up. I told him where to park and peeped through the window. He showed up in this old shack of a car! I was just like! i mean dud was dressed nice, he even checked himself out in the mirror fixed his hair as if he was driving a limo or something. The hell was that all about?

I was like, you know what, let me just go. I'm either gonna have fun on this date or a good story to tell. He got out of the car and was standing there, waiting for me. He stood tall, very yogi like! He's lean and 6ft tall (180/182cm), not as tall as Mike but then again, Mike who? Right? He walked towards me when he saw me, extended his arm and gave me a hug, walked me to the dusty car, opened the door for me and went around to get in. I have learnt not to show my reaction, so I said nothing...yet. The thing was so dusty, I had my new wool dress on. He told me he was going to take me to one of his favorite places. I didn't care, I'm a down girl. Down for whatever!

Just as he pulled up at the restaurant parking lot, the mouth ran, all by itself #Freewheel. I blurted out something like, with all due respect, are you kidding me with this car? Look at all the dust! Is this the kind of first impression you want to make? You couldn't even wash it or something? His response was, well you told me you didn't care about material stuff, you're contradicting yourself. I told him I cared about dust! I care about being shown some respect. I could have been doing other things but I chose to go out with him that morning, he didn't care enough to as much as clean the interior of the car. I wasn't asking the guy to buy a brand, spanking new car, all I was asking was for him to respect my new, wool dress, which was about to pick up all the dust from his car.  He told me that was his camping car, he never washed it. I felt so much lighter after saying that. I got it out of my system.

We went into the restaurant. He had something light, I had something meaty as usual. $XhosasAndMeat! He ordered us both orange juice. I was like, oh, is that what I'm drinking this morning? He seemed shocked at my forwardness. I was shocked that he took it upon himself to order me something to drink without asking me first on a first date. If he cared that much, you'd think, he would have at least dusted the car with a feather duster. I don't like orange juice, it gives me heartburn. We changed that to half Cranberry juice and half apple. Love that combo, very good for you!

We stayed there for quite a while. Spotty is a New York Native, he still has the accent, very refreshing in Utah. And he has nothing in common with the Utahans at all, which, trust me, is a good thing! He asked if I had any plans for the rest of the day. I didn't. He told me he would like to spend the rest of the morning together. I was down. We went to his house to change cars. He wanted to make it up to me. We dropped the Corolla and took the Limo, WHAT? YESSSS! Something about that car, is so an automatic panty dropper. Just saying. Don't mean to TMI you. He opened the door for me, I felt so VIP. He also does tours in his business. He took me to the park. I was overdressed for that, but who cares? We bird watched for a second, walked around in heels. There was a guy who was juggling three or four tennis balls. I asked him to let me try. I juggled a bit. Spot was like, oh please, you've done this before. I have haha, so many times :) I also played uNomlenzana, in heels. All in a day's work!

From the park, he took me to this cool place with really expensive furniture from like centuries before. Very expensive stuff, you couldn't believe it! i thought of my mom, she's into stuff like that, and she gets in for a fraction of the price from her corners. They know Spot there, he was showing off, walking ever so tall, with his arm wrapped around mine. He was an easy guy to get along with. We joked around, there were a lot of That's what she said jokes passed around.

He then took me to the tip of a hill where you can get a nice view of Salt Lake City. I could tell him Mike had already shown me SLC from the tip of the mountain but not only did I not want to be that girl, also, Michael who? Spot had a hat on, I put it on and took some pictures. We had a good time that morning. After the view, we went to a restaurant slash bakery place where we bought practically one of everything. We took them with us. He wanted us to go chill at the park near his place. We went to his place to collect camping chairs. He told me he would invite me inside if his place wasn't a mess. He left me in the Limo while he went to get the chairs. He came back and asked if I wanted to hang at his place instead. I was like sure, on condition he wasn't going to seduce me. He, like most men, used the world famous last lines, i won't make you do anything you don't wanna do. #ImaginarySlapAcrossTheFace for being a statistic #EnoughOfThatLineAlready.

We went in. He lives in a one bedroom apartment. Very spacious! He has a
 year old daughter who lives with her mom. We hung out on the couch, talked some more and listened to music. He offered to take me for a ride on his motorbike. There wasn't time for that though. He played such songs as I'm gonna make you love me etc. I swear he has a collection of songs he plays on first dates. I ended up napping at his place for an hour or so. He took me home, two streets away, and waited until I got ready for work and dropped me off in style #Limo

All in all, it was a nice date. He looks so much better in person too; blue eyes and good hair, you know how I like em. He asked to see me the following day. I agreed.