Small Victories, High Hopes!

My, my, my.... what a day, what a day.... a long one proceeded by a short night. Last night a good friend of mine whom I had not seen in a while dropped by and we shared some quality time together. It is not often I get to see him without his conjoined roomie, so the night was pretty special. He is young (18) and totally straight, but I serve as a mentor of sorts which I am in the habit of doing. I always find having their minds lasts longer than having their bodies, and by respecting their persons, I get a lot of love and companionship and they get my friendship and a lot of education that my years can provide which parents usually do not. For not being a a birth parent, I sure have raised a lot of kids! Anyway, we watched You Tube, talked and talked until about 3:30 when I could no longer keep my eyes open. I left him playing on the computer and got a few winks, getting up to see him off around 6am so that he could get home before his mom did. All in all a very satisfying visit.

Around 6:30, my best gal pal called to see if I was up even before she had her coffee. Of course I was and she offered to pick me up and take me to the food stamp office that is about 5 miles away so I would not have to walk. I don't drive much anymore as I don't own a car, my last one having died in Florida about 3 or4 years back. I had applied for food stamps earlier this month but had not got a response from the state, so I wanted to see if I could hurry things along. I arrived right at opening time and took my number (6) and sat down to wait. About 45 minutes later, my number was called and I got to talk to the rudest young woman I have met in a long long time. She told me I would have to wait for a response in the mail to get an appointment. I asked her if there was any way to expedite the process and she said "no, you have to wait". I asked if I could speak to the scheduler and she called him up, snarlingly telling him I already told him he had to wait but he wants to talk to you anyway. Out comes this nice Hispanic young man who ascertains my situation in about 2 minutes and said I could re-file the 10 pages of paper and request an emergency appointment for today. I asked if they could not look up the paperwork that I had already filed and make an addendum to it, but no, I had to re-file all of it.

Needless to say, I was quite "miffed" but I grabbed the paperwork and went down stairs to curse the state and cool off. I returned to the office and took another number (13) and proceeded to fill out the 10 page form and wait for my number to be called. I was glad that I brought a book to read for I had to wait another hour for my number to come up. I then had the privilege of speaking with a supercilious woman about 10 years my junior who asked all sorts of questions and finally decided to give me an appointment for 10:45. She had her choice of case workers and she said she would give me to Norma because she was the strictest one and I would have to have all my ducks in a row to have any luck with her. So I sat down to wait for my name to be called. Around 11:15, my name was finally called and I got to meet Norma. Now Norma turned out to be a sweet lady who none the less proceeded to line my ducks up. Thank God I am an organized person so that I had almost everything that she needed, but she approved my request conditional on my faxing a copy of my rental agreement and a copy of my last bank statement, which I had at the house and could do. She then sent me to get photographed and fingerprinted (can you believe?), I thought I was being booked into jail instead of getting a Lone Star Card for food stamps. This took another half hour, but I finally received my LSC along with the instructions on how to activate it. by this time it was 12:45, but I had won this battle as long as I complied with the request for more paper.

Unfortunately, my friend was not available to give me a ride home, so I started trucking on down the road towards home. The walk was pleasant as it was sunny and about 65 degrees. This only took me an hour and a half to walk the 5 miles an I was a little tuckered out when I did get home. I went to look for my lease and could not find it, so I had the apartment manager make me a copy. I was going to print my bank statement as I get them on line. However, my printer would not feed any paper no matter what I did. I un-installed it and re-installed it and it still would not feed, although the paper path was cleared. So I called my buddy at the local computer shop I frequent and asked Mikey if I could email him my statement for him to print and he said of course and so I did just that. I then walked the 3 blocks to Mikey's store and he printed my statement and then faxed all the paper to the state for me. God Bless Mikey!!

Then my gal pal called and said that our former employer who owns a promotions company had opened an office here in Irving, where I live just outside Dallas. It seems he had secured some new contracts and had work for us starting tomorrow, all I had to do was call and make contact and voila, employment! The employer told me all about the contracts and how glad he was that I had called because he had lost my number and could not get a hold of me to get me to come back to work for him. One of the contracts he got was with Nascar, so I will be working the races next season, among other promotions. So, my subsistence has been assured and I will be making more money than my last job, therefore I have some high hopes for the near future and can finally relax a little. The job entails some travel, but my gal pal has a laptop and I can upload all my pics to Web Albums and pick the ones I want and post on the road so you guys won't have to miss out on Nichevo. So keep reading and subscribing and commenting, as I will be right here in cyberspace doing my damnedest to keep bring you the best blog I can. I guess I will have to invest in a digital camera so that I can photo blog my travel adventures.

I then called to activate my LSC, and low and behold, dear Norma had already put money on the card and I could go shopping in time for Thanksgiving. I really have something to be thankful for now as well as high hopes for another Cowboy victory over the Buccaneers on Thursday. I will be spending the day with my gal pal and her family, eating and watching football. By the way the Giants lost on MNF, so we are currently tied for first in the NFC East and can move a half game ahead with a victory on Thanksgiving followed by 10 days before the 'Boys have to play again. So, all in all, there were several small victories today that will keep Uncle Gerry out of trouble and into some cash flow once again.

Thank you, dear readers, for listening and encouraging me along the way. I promise to keep you all informed and to feature the best photography I can lay my hands on. So until next time, as always, Enjoy!