Standing Firm

Well, well, well, so those dofuses at the DPSS office finally got their crap together and got my public assistance approved. That’s a good thing because the fridge was getting incredibly bare but now, after one trip to Costco (who now thankfully accept EBT cards), the thing is full to bursting. Granted, there were some things that weren’t covered like paper towels and toilet paper, but a good portion was.

A few days later I got my unemployment check, so that also helped. I’m making just about the same almost on unemployment as I was working full time at that lousy job I had last. So as the job market continues to suck like some kind or turbocharged, 500-hp vacuum cleaner, I’ll take advantage of the state money coming my way and hope things get better by the time my claim runs dry in March.

I’m thankful for all of this, but I still stand firm on my opinion of who should and should not be getting assistance. At least I’m a citizen who’s paid his taxes into the system for years–or in general.

Bitterness aside, I was feeling rather creative the other day while Anthony was at school and finally did something I promised myself I’d do: write a kid’s book.

No, it’s not a novel like the Goosebumps series or anything like that. It’s aimed at the younger, kindergarten crowd and is just simple poetry about about a kid with a funny name and how he comes to accept it. Those are the only details I’ll give out since, well, it’s still hush-hush. My Facebook friends, however, have already gotten a taste of it when I posted one verse a few days ago.

So you see, I have been somewhat productive during my vacation of sorts. I do, however, have a job interview next week and it goes along the lines of the career change I had mentioned a few posts ago. I’ll let you know how it goes.

And I never mentioned it here, but the past few weeks have been rather hectic and stressful for other reasons. A few weekends ago, my father-in-law suffered a mild heart-attack and was hospitalized immediately afterwards. After an examination, it was determined that he needed a double bypass, which was then changed to triple and then quadruple. Scary stuff.

But he’s now resting comfortably at home and slowly getting back to his old self. The doctor said that he’s lucky he got a warning since most just have a full heart-attack and, as was the case with Ann’s grandfather, pass away shortly thereafter.

He also told us he’d be better than he was before the surgery and if you knew him the way we do, you’d find that hard to believe. He may be 72 but he could run circles around people half his age…like me.

Here’s to his speedy recovery. We’d better rest up in the meantime.

Composed on my iPod touch with the WordPress app