Archive for June, 2009

Mike Needs a Life Blog Reposts – Part 23

June 29, 2009
Another Friday, let’s see… what happened this week.

Monday I called the dude back from Workforce. I think he remembered me, but I’m not entirely certain. Anyways, I set up another meeting for tuesday..

I spent the remainder of the day putzing around the apartment, and surfing job sites on the web. There are a LOT of service industry and healthcare jobs down here, and very few others. Of course I knew this going in so I’m not surprised. There are also quite a few IT positions, I get the impression they have a hard time keeping competent (and sober) professionals in Key West. I’ve seriously considered getting certified in IT and chasing those jobs, but I’m afraid that while I’m certain I could do the work easily, I’d really start to feel like I sold out to the man again. I mean, part of the dream was to go LIVE the dream, not work for the man, and live a stress and bullshit-free life. Of course, all jobs come with bullshit.. so…. quandary. I continue to coast..

Tuesday I went to see the guy at Workforce, and lo and behold, he was there this time! We chit chatted about my experience and such, blah blah blah.. in the end what he told me in his professional opinion was that I should start my own business. Sigh. Thanks buddy.

Wednesday I dropped Christina off at work and took the car to Sears to have a nail removed from the tire and the hole patched. I got there at 8:01, the doors had just opened and there were no cars in the bays, and only two people in front of me in line. This should be quick! I thought to myself. Hmph.

Two and a half hours later I wander out of the waiting room thinking that if they havent even moved the car into the service bays yet I was gonna just leave, but the car was in a different spot.. WTF. I had to hunt down someone to ask if the car was ready or not.. I assumed that since they had moved it, it was finished. Yes in fact it was finished the guy told me with a smile.. I paid and walked out wondering how goddamned long it had been done while I sat there killing my brain with Regis and Kathy Lee. Customer service with a smile.

Wednesday night Christina drove to Miami for two more days of training. I watched movies and went to bed early.

Thursday it rained all day, I spent a couple hours fighting with our bubblejet printer to try to get it working again. The black printer cartridge had gone tits up. I rode my bike down to CVS to see if they had some, nope, walgreens on duval, nope.. ok, small town living has its disadvantages. There is an Office Max, but it’s up on Stock Island and I wasnt about to ride my bike up there in the rain for a freakin printer cartridge.. so back home. Was it time to start drinking yet? 12:30… sure why not.

Drink in hand, I cruised the job postings for the day.. I found an interesting opening at the City of Key West for a helpdesk person.. now, I’m pretty competent with computers, and as I said, am willing to go into IT if I have to to get a decent job, but helpdesk… yikes. Dealing with people, and on top of that, government people.. I just don’t know if I’m willing to sacrifice every bit of my happiness for a job.. I’m still considering this one.

So here it is Friday, Christina will be back this evening. I think I’m going to hop on my bike and cruise around, I cant stand to spend another day cooped up in this apartment. It’s hard to truly enjoy yourself out and about when you feel like you should be glued to the computer waiting for someone to post a job, but I think I’ve come to the point where it’s either force myself to go out and enjoy, or spiral into self loathing and depression.. and that’s just not acceptible in the Keys!

Mike Needs a Life Blog Reposts – Part 22

June 22, 2009
My lovely Government Employee Friday.

Last Friday I walked a couple blocks to the courthouse to apply for a new social security card so I could go into the Workforce offices to meet up with a career counselor. I hit the front step and saw the sign “no cellphones in the building”. Sigh. Walked back to the apartment, dropped off my phone, and walked back. I ask the security guard which office I go to, he points down the hall. Cool.

I walk into the little office, and there’s no one in there, so I sit down in the chair opposite the little window, which behind sits the social security card lady. She looks at me, and frostily asks if I’d taken a number. I looked around to make sure that I’d not missed a few people waiting in front of me.. of course the room was still empty. I now noticed the little kiosk by the door, and told her that I’d not yet taken a number, but I could remedy that! I got up, took two steps, hit a couple buttons, and out popped a slip of paper with my number on it. The moment the paper spit out of the slot, she says “I can help you right here sir!” now happy, and all smiles that I had observed the proper etiquette.. you gotta love government employees.

During the course of our interchange, she noticed my address, and informed me that she had lived in that very apartment between 1987 and 1980, and had I seen the ghost yet? I told her I hadn’t yet seen any ghost, but I’d keep my eyes open. Apparently the original owner of the home was Dr Plummer, the local physician at the Flemming St Hospital right behind the house. He’d shot himself in the head upon learning that he had cancer. Crazy. I’ll be sire and relate any spectral sightings if perchance the find Dr decides to show himself.

After receiving my temporary card, I headed out to the Local Drivers License office over on the south end of the island. I walked in, went thru the empty waiting room right into a little room with a counter and three old women behind it. One portly old lass looked up at me and asked if I’d taken a number.. Again with the fucking numbers! There’s not a damned soul in this place. I walked back out to the waiting room took my number, then went back to the counter. I looked up at the digital readout number-clicker thingy hanging on the wall, the wire hanging from it wasn’t connected to anything, and the face was dark. I had to laugh, I handed the old woman my number and she asked if she could help me.. I told her I needed a drivers license, and she said of course! Fantastic. She pulled me up in the computer. I was surprised she wasn’t using a typewriter or something considering the state of the digital readout on the wall. She then informed me I needed a power bill for proof of residence. I told her that I’d only been there for a week, and I had yet to receive a power bill. She told me that a copy of the lease would suffice, and when I came back with that she’d be happy to help me, and that I wouldn’t have to wait in line or take a number again. Well thank god for small favors.

I went back to the apartment, got the lease, went back to the place, and of course there were now like 5 people waiting in the waiting room. I walked through the waiting room lease in hand, and wouldn’t you know it, my old woman was gone and some other old biddy had taken her seat. This old gal wasn’t havin’ any of my story about not having to take a number, so I had to go out once more and retrieve myself yet another god damned number. Eventually, about 20 minutes later I had myself a gen-u-ine Key West Drivers Licence. Now off to the South Florida Workforce offices to meet up with my Job Developer.

I show up 10 minutes early as directed and give the odd old woman at the counter my name, and tell her that I’m there to see Jeremy, we had a meeting at 2:00. She seemed bewildered that I had come in of my own accord without having gotten a letter telling me to report to them. I assure her that I did indeed have an appointment, and that I’d talked to Jeremy on the phone just the day before. She smiles and tells me that Jeremy is not yet back from lunch, and that he should be back in no time. I thanked her and had a seat. Wow, the people in and out of that place are definitely an interesting bunch, I sat and read my kindle and waited. About 2:15 I hear her call Jeremy on his cell phone.. apparently from what I could hear, he was at the dr’s office. Of course. In about 15 more minutes she came out and sat next to me, and asked if I’d scheduled an appointment with anyone, I told her once again that I’d talked to Jeremy on the phone the day before and he’d told me to come in at 2:00. She looked pretty flustered. She told me that no one back there knew anything about it, and that Jeremy was at a professional conference.. hahaha, nice. I told her that was fine, I’d call back and make another appointment. She still didn’t seem to believe that I’d actually made an appointment, she then whispered to me that he was at the dr’s office. No Kidding. Too funny.

All in all it was a very interesting day.

Mike Needs a Life Blog Reposts – Part 21

June 18, 2009
Thursday Night

Well today marks one week in Key West for me. Still no job.. lol.

I’m going into the south florida workforce offices tomorrow to have a meeting with a “career advisor”. Maybe he can tell me what I want to be when I grow up, and then find me an appropriate job. He’d better or I’ll have Christina fire his ass.

Tonight we went to the laundromat a couple blocks away. I sat there with my vodka tonic and my kindle iphone app reading ‘dead until dark’ and chilled for an hour and a half. Some drunk tourists wandered in and wanted to know where Duvall st was, we told them it was 3 blocks away. They then proceeded to call a cab to take them there. Are you fucking kidding me?

Another couple of girls, one of them seriously overweight, the other skinny and tattooed, both of them drunker than shit, stood by the door and argued about who had the business card for the cab service in their purse. Unable to solve their quandary of their own accord, they asked me what the number was, and I had to admit that I bike everywhere and have no use for cabs. They proceeded to jibber jabber in drunkan-ese to one another, and the skinny one dumped the better part of the contents of her purse on the sidewalk to show the fat one that she didn’t have the card. Of course, she did. They called a cab, it showed up mercifully fast, and took them away. They probably were only going a block or two. I’ve been here only one week and I’ve come to the conclusion that tourists are dumb.

iPhone OS 3 came out today, and I loaded that shit on my phone so fast it made my computer beg for mercy. Of course the one big feature I’d waited for all these years.. MMS texting, apparently only works on the newer model of iPhone. Fuck you apple! I mean, I love you..

Mike Needs a Life Blog Reposts – Part 20

June 10, 2009
Home at last!

Thursday I got out of bed and everything hurt.. it’s like my body was pleading with me.. no more! Make it stop! For the love of god! Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite over yet. Josh and I went out and grabbed a bite at ihop, then headed back to the apartment. I spent most of the day unpacking, Josh worked on some of his school work sitting on the front porch watching the hot chicks walk by. Christina got home right after 5 from work, and we hit Schooner Wharf for some dinner. We must have all been pretty tired because there wasn’t a whole lot of energy goin around that night. The next day Josh hit a fishing excursion, and brought some fish home, which we fried up and ate.. yum..

Josh stayed through the weekend, hit one more fishing charter, then hit the road Sunday Morning.

Christina and I did a little window shopping for futons, since we sold our couches back in o-town.. found a few nice ones.. I think we’ll procure one sometime before the end of this coming weekend. We also bought an old Raleigh Sports bicycle from a friend of our neighbors for 50 bucks to get Christina through the next month or so until she can afford to buy her Electra. It’s old as hell, and the tires are all cracked, but it pedals fine, and the brakes work.

I went out yesterday to the local ACE hardware, man, oh man.. what a cool place.. it’s almost as big as a home depot, but cooler.. I can tell I’m going to spend alot of time in there. I then rode to the Jamaican bicycle shop up on Truman where they sell the Electeras that Christina wants, and picked up a couple of handlebar baskets for the bikes, as well as a cup holder for mine.. Cant live in key west without a cup holder on your bike.

That pretty much brings us up to speed, it’s Tuesday, Christina is about to be home, and I’ve been writing this damned blog all day. I think we’re going out tonight to celebrate her first paycheck by doing a bit of bar-hopping down Duvall.. probably start out at Conch Republic for a bite of some fried shrimp and a Mohito, then work our way back to the old homestead.

I’ll try to keep up with the postings in a more timely fashion, I hate to think of my two fans out there not having anything to read…

Mike Needs a Life Blog Reposts – Part 19

JUNE 8, 2009
She’s left me behind with the mess!

Phew. Christina got out, and I was there alone… with the mess. Holy crap, how was this all going to finish getting packed and cleaned in just two days.. I decided to just start with one room, finish it, close the door and move on. It worked pretty well, I got the entire back of the house cleaned and all the remaining crap in them moved into the living room by 6:00 or so. Jeff Blossey came over and we proceeded to get blind stinking drunk… good times, I definitely needed that. What I didn’t need was the humongous hangover I had the next day, I had so much to do, and all I wanted to do was crawl in a hole and die.. I guess some people never learn. I persevered though, got the shed cleaned out, sorted the tools, left a few for the renters just in case, and the shed was done.

Monday night I went out to dinner at PR’s with Casey, Dave, and Sean. We had alot of beers, and some good mexi food. Of course Casey drug me across the street to Fiddler’s Green after that for more beer, and a long island iced tea.. damn him.. he’s a bad influence.

By Tuesday afternoon, I had gotten just about everything packed and cleaned.. we went to pick up the truck, and loaded just about everything but the mattress so I could sleep on it. Had a few friends over that last night, that was nice, we stood around in the kitchen drinking firefly vodka and lemonade.. good stuff..

Wednesday morning we loaded the mattress and did a final cleaning, and we were off! I stopped at the Walgreens by my house to pick up a prescription, and noticed I had a flat on the rear outside tire… GODDAMNIT! I guess I had taken that first curve out of my neighborhood too sharp and ripped a hole in the sidewall. Of all the luck. So a half an hour on the phone with roadside assistance, and they had me driving the truck to goodyear on 50 to get a new tire.. 2 hours later we were back on the road!

The drive went surprisingly well, traffic in the middle of the week is pretty light so it took us only 7 hours to make it to the new apartment. Driving a 16 foot moving van through old town in key west is a pretty hairy experience, especially when the headlights don’t work.. I wondered why it was so dark. Of course I didn’t know they didn’t work until we went to return the truck that night to the local Budget rental place.. which it turned out was no longer right up the road on Key West, but in the next friggin key up.. Luckily Josh and Christina handled taking the truck back.. haha. Someone should tell Budget that their web page is wrong…

It took us about an hour to unload, Josh and Christina took the truck back, and I put the bed together. By the time they got back, I was done.. in more ways than one.. we passed out quite quickly that night, no time for merriment. At least all the worst parts were done.