The Worst Headache of My Life

Today my mom suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm. She is lucky that the initial rupture did not kill her immediately. The next while is going to be difficult.

The Week Before Christmas

The week before Christmas is basically the same every year; stressful, hectic, and cold. This year the former two have remained constant.

Last Sunday began with me finding out while at work that my brother Scott had a heart attack earlier that day. After a few hours of uncertainty my nerves were calmed when I spoke with my dad after he saw Scott. He assured me that Scott was ok and that the prognosis looked good. I was able to visit him when he got home on Wednesday. His angiogram indicated that there was little to no damage to his heart. He is expected to have a full recovery.

All everyone seems to be more on edge with each other than usual. But, I don't want to go into details about work. I spend enough time outside of working talking about it and thinking about it.

But speaking about work, tonight on the way home from it, I encountered the strangest 10 minutes of the week. I had only walked about 10 meters on the subway platform at Spadina station when I heard a woman start screeming. She was a middle age woman wearing clothes typical of someone who worked an office job for a living. I suppuse it could be referred to as 'business casual'. She immediately started some young man who was wearing headphones and had a camera in his hand. The camera was a moderately high tech model with a strap holding it onto the young man's hand. She went right for the camera screeming "how dare you take a picture in the TTC! Give it to me!" She ripped the lense off and it hit the ground.

The reflex to save a valuable accessory before it hits the ground was stolen by the woman's hysterical screeming. At this point she was full out attacking the young man. Dispite the intensity of the scene there was no real threat of danger felt. The young man had about 40 lbs on the woman, her fighting technique was utterly foolish (she had obviously had no idea how to really punch someone or anything like that that), and the young man had a passive disposition. Rather than become angry with this woman he tried to defend and stay out of her way.

She continued to screem about the camera and about how he had taken a picture. I'm unsure what she was really getting at because her hysteria was completely unorganized and blinded by rage. But, perhaps she was upset because he took a picture of her. Whether he did or not is unknown.

But the strangest moment came as the train was pulling into the station. The woman was still hitting the young man, screeming about the camera, and struggling with him. Everytime it seemed like she was finished she would turn around after a couple of steps and attack him again! When the lights of the train broke the darkness of the tunnel revealing its hidden detail the woman became completely transparent: she was thinking about pushing him in front of the train. Her back was to the tracks. She grabbed him and made a move toward the wall.

My whole body became tense. I could feel the anxiety take over my muscles. I moved all of my weight to the front of my feet. My mind was on one thing only: intercept the woman if she gains a beat on him. My lanky body can cover a short distance surprisingly quickly and I was withing striking range.

But as I said, he was quite a bit bigger than her and she didn't seem like she really knew what the hell she was doing. She never gained a beat on him. He quickly stepped backwards away from her. It was obvious right away that she never really had her heart set on murdering this young man.

The train came to a stop. The woman walked away from the young man and entered the train. They entered different doors of the same car but, strangely enough (and thankfully enough) she no longer pursued him. It was as if nothing had ever happened as far as the other passengers were concerned.

One stop later, these two fuckin hammered white girls come onto the train. Everything about them was sloppy. They were obviously very intoxicated, the one girl was coughing and sputtering loudly and in a terribly uncivilized manner, and they were both under-dressed for the weather, wet (it was raining outside).

They immediately made a scene. While hanging from the ceiling bars in the train they both started screeming rude slurrs in Jamaican patois. Every time they'd say "Bumbaclott! Fuckin bumbaclott!" and then follow it up with "what I bet you didn't know a white girl knew how to say things like that." Whenever anyone looked at them they'd become aggressive in an adolescent kind of way saying things like "I'd box that chick out if she hadn't just got off the train."

Needless to say I was relieved when the train got to my stop.

So, as you can see there's definitely Christmas spirit in the air.

I'm terrible at blogging! (part 2)

Ok, so I've had this blog for about a year now and how many posts do you think that I've written? Well, the answer is 18. What a shitty record!

That averages out to one every 20 days or so. However, if my readers are attentive enough, they'd realize that I have in no way written once every 20 days or so. I seem to post in spirts. I think my last post before yesterday was done in March (or something equally ridiculous). Anyhow, if anyone is still reading, please be patient with me.

Also, as I'm sure many of you have noticed already (or maybe not... I'm not too sure how many people have actually read my blog) it is full of fuckin grammatical errors. See, I have this bad habit of hardly ever reading over what I've written. So, if you come across any of these embarrassing little errors, please don't laugh too hard at me.

I'm terrible at blogging!

Ok, one only needs to look at the date of my last post to see that I'm terrible at blogging. My first indication should have been that I never kept any sort of diary when I was younger (or now for that matter). It's not that I have any negative feelings towards such activites, I just don't seem to participate in them.

But, I intend to remain faithful to my promise to Jenocide, therefore this blog entry.

What have I been doing these day? Well, I've been writing for the union's magazine. In a nutshell, the magazine is fiarly shitty. The articles are not very interesting and the Local's membership is indifferent towards the publication on the whole. But, I have taken it upon myself (as I mentioned in an earlier entry) to take up the pen (in this case the keyboard) and do my part. I have many thoughts on this matter, however, I will save it for another day.

Other than that, I've been playing the guitar again! I've realized how much I missed it. 521 is a fuckin explosion of guitar shreds and rock n' roll genius between Jordi (my new roommate) and myself. Fuckin crazy man! He works at an awesome guitar shop as a guitar salesman, which means for me that the house is full of wicked fuckin Gibson SG's, Fender Telecasters, and even a Jazzmaster! There's lots of pedals and effects to tinker with. Man. I'm in heaven!

I think that 521 really ought to form a band. The band would be an exploration of post-modernity. To acheive this aim we would dismantel, piece by piece, the theoretically sound structure of rock music and attempt to put it all back together! Shit, maybe I should start growing my hair long now!

back y'all.

Ok, so how fuckin long has it been since I last updated this blog?! Ages, that's how long. Just now I was reading over my last post and so much has happened since.

First off, I have long ago made my move to leave Mayday Malone's. It has been about a month or so. Enough said on that matter.

Second, I'm working a hell of a lot more at The Beer Store. This has been both good and bad. It is good insofar as I no longer have to work in that shitty kitchen. It is also good in that I how get days off. Prior to that, working 7 days a week was regular. However, it is bad because... well, lets face it: though working at The Beer Store is a pretty good job, it has its definite draw backs. It has become just like every other job.

I'm just happy that the weather is getting nicer. Spending the holiday Monday at High Park with Michelle, though a little colder than I had hoped, was awesome all the same! If these days are any indication of how the rest of the summer is going to be, then i'm psyched. I'm also psyched because I purchased a used VHS of the 1992 classic Juice starring Tupac and Omar Epps. I Caaaaaan't wait to watch it.

Hmmmmmm

Ok, so there has been a slight snag. If you remember, I have been campaigning to get into an internship program offered by the UFCW, the United Food and Commercial Workers. Being an employee of The Beer Store implies that I am represented by this union. Say what you will of the unions fairweather approach to political strategy, working for them is great. This is my first unionized job and, I must say, so far it is the best job that I have ever had. But, I digress.

Recently I was notified that I was not accepted into the the program this year. The explanation that I have been given is that my local did not move fast enough to nominate me. Basically, the application process required a few writing samples, filling out some application forms, and most importantly a nomination from my local, Local 12R24. This, you must understand, is the formal process. But, what is required in order to get nominated by the local is a serious campaign to become known to them. Considering that I am a relatively new employee, I had my work cut out for me. I don't want to toot my own horn or anything but I did a fairly good job at this aspect. I managed to have several meetings with personale of various rank within the union hierarchy. But, when it came down to the wire (timing wise) I did not have enough done. The local didn't make a final decision on my behalf until it was too late. Consequently, nobody from my local will even be participating this round; which, if you ask me, is a huge disappointment.

So, I am faced with a new problem: where do I go from here? I think that I should maybe move into the arena of writing. The local has it's own magazine that is in both print and digital form. Another area that I have been considering is this program that the union runs to promote education of unionism and trade-union politics called Talk Union. In a nutshell I'll first get trained by the union. Second, I'll get to go to various high schools and run seminars. I think that I'd be pretty effective at doing this considering that dispite my 25 years of wisdom accumulation, I still look like I'm about 18 years old.

All in all, I'd like to get some experience organizing. So, what do you, O faithful Son of Dowellers think of my situation?

Time goes by quickly when you're working all the fuckin time!

Time goes by quickly when you're working all the fuckin time! Just now I looked at the date of the last post; it was weeks ago. Work has been hecktic. I feel that I cannot justify to myself not taking all of these hours that are being offered to me. Though, I must say it feels good. I really like to have a lot of things to do. It makes me really enjoy my time off.

Take for example this evening. It was great. I chilled with my buddy Stevan for a while and played chess. The games were great. Of the two, I won one. The ther game was a draw. We discussed moving in together. My current roommate has given me his two monthes notice. This comes as no surprise. But, Stevan living here would be fuckin awsome! I think that it will inject new life into the 521 massive. The house will be abuzz with chess, computers and talk of high tech. Philosophy meets the microchip. It'll be like a throw back to the Miller days.

I hope that he ends up moving in.

Oh, also, again, I will make a concerted effort to write more regularly.