TKO

I'm currently "work challenged" and looking for a job has been just that...challenging. I've had my fair share of technical knockouts but refuse to let this economy keep me down.  At this point, a job is a job and I'm open for anything legal.  


The latest attempt... 


1st Round...

Me:              "Hello! I see that you're hiring. I'd like an application please."
Manager:    "Hi. We have the hiring sign out front, but our store isn't hiring; but other stores are hiring." 
Me:              "Ah, ok. So, is the one in (my area) hiring?"
Manger:       "Yes!  Just take it up there." 
She handed me the application.  I filled it out, turned it into my local Cato's and hoped for the best.


2nd Round... (three days later)
Me:                "Hi! My name is Cheryl Williams. I'm here to check on my application". 
Clerk:            "Ok, well let me get the manager for you."
Manager:      "Hi." 
Me:                "Hi, I'm here to check on my application." 
Manger:         "Oh, the Store Manger is the one who does the hiring and she's on vacation right now.  She should be back in about a week."
Me:                "Ok, well what is here name so I know who to ask for?"
Manager:       "Oh, her name is Doris. 
Me:                 "Alright, thank you!"


3rd Round... (ten days later)
Me:               "Hi!  Is the Store Manager, Doris available. I'm here to check on my application."
Clerk:            "Yes, let me go back and get her."

A fair-haired, middle-aged, white woman hurriedly came out to the front counter from the back-stockroom; flattened cardboard boxes in tow.  It was Doris.

Doris:            "How may I help you?"
Me:                "Yes, I'm here to check on my application. I turned it in about two weeks ago. I was told to wait for you to come back and speak with you once you came back from vacation."
Doris:            [sigh] "I don't know why they told you that [folding the boxes underneath her right arm] Well, did they tell you that right now I'm only looking for a 1st Tier Manager?"
Me:                "Um, no I'm sorry they didn't."
Doris:            "Do you have managment experience?"
Me:               "No... WELL, somewhat!"

Doris looks me up and down and pauses...

Me:               "I have some supervisory experience in the military."
Doris:           "Hmm, that's nice but honey I'm looking for someone with at least one year of retail management experience to take over while I'm away."
Me:               "I understand."
Doris:           ''I'm sorry...well, what is your name so I can pull your information if something comes up."
Me:                "Cheryl Williams"

She quickly pulled a pen out of a bushy, blond bun and began to scribble my government across the back of a flattened cardboard box.  

Doris:          "Cheryl Williams...OK, I'll keep you in my mind."

At the last pen stroke she looked up from the box, shot me a pitiful smile and winked at me. Suddenly, I felt an inch of my pride sink down my throat.  I suppose she meant well but I couldn't help but feel as thought it only added insult to injury.

Me:             "Alright, thank you."


TKO...
I smiled, turned around and walked out.  "Back to the drawing board", I said to myself. After awhile situations like this begin to work on your pride and patience.  Being unemployed is definitely a trying time but you must stay positive and keep at it.  Yes, I too am convincing myself.

FOR THE LOVE OF ITALY

Like love in birth

It's heaven on earth

Like a lover’s impromptu kiss and butterflies in the belly

Likewise I flutter underneath tye-dye skies and thru rustic corridors

I saw no sacrifice

Yet, my quickering lips prayed to feed my eyes a slice of paradise

The fire of the sun touching my skin

The spice of life at my fingertips

To hear the wind & rain in a shell

Go! Spellbound, I am yet another statue standing along the shore

Glaring & salty

The heartbeat of the city beckons

With him I walked the fertile parts of mother

T'was endless rolling pastures goin' on into tomorra’

Amid rivers of bright colours

Flowing thru the city like the blood of Gomorrah

Sienna, gold, crimson and deep green bleed thru its chambers

Squat, red clay pots to tall, indigo vases sat along thistled windowsills

Fragrant cigar smoke twills up as fine spirits spill down over crystal clear conversations

And a red door

As red as the wine of Florence

As red as my heart!

There we left our mark for the eyes of men

Winds swooshing over a teal ocean with doves looping

T'was dark chocolate and light laughter as curious tots prance

Snickering at our romantic gestures at sundown

The moon is full... hanging fat and lazy over the horizon

Odes of romance saturate nocturnal peak and mariachi ballads serenade the streets

We dance in the lush to violin strings and loud drum busts

Soft whispers in the ear

Gentle kisses by the pier

Let's never leave here...

INERTIA

So, I closed my eyes and saw a crossroad  

I felt paralyzed: don’t want to make the wrong decision. Death by indecision.

I hope to look back and smile

Seems miles away

I hear my father’s truck come roaring around the house like a lion

Like a rumbling, I hear wisdom when he speaks

Sometimes it’s hard to look him in the eyes

He has learned and earned

Yet, I cannot seem to stand on my own two feet

God bless the child who has his own…

On his land I took a seat

There is a promise every child must keep

With my head in my hand I weep

Father is strong yet I feel weak

Mother endures

They say 2012 is curtains

Either way I am certain someone will have regrets

I pray not I

I toil this earth with hope still

Though disappointments haunt me

…mind, body, and soul

I seek myself, wants, and needs

Courage, truth, and honor

I seek strength for my convictions

I seek to move mountains

Almighty where did I go wrong?

Hell, where did we go wrong?  You know... the propriety in society.

I yell HIS name from inside this temple

I am hurting it is just that simple

How long? Where do I belong? Can I be strong?

They say, you say…

In you is where we find peace

Well…

Maybe misery is my comfort

Maybe my heart is suicidal & rather pities me than face the challenge of being free

Maybe it’d rather suffer in silence than laugh out loud

Maybe it’d rather care than love

Maybe it’d rather live in idle motion than miraculously moving

Maybe it’d rather be damned

Human nature is a funny thing

Living and surviving on the cusp of time

From beginning to end our hearts know no bounds

As life takes us thru every up & down

“A smile is simply an upside down frown”

-surely the quote of a realist

Yet is it not true?

Our joys are simply the opposite end of sorrows

Still…

Hopefully tomorrow’s face will be right side up

Tired of feeling blue without so much as a clue of what to do…

This is a crossroad

In this vast field of ambiguity the devil is a scarecrow

My compass needs energy

GOD uplift me

I dream what now seems like the impossible…

To fly free like the Eagle

Enjoy grace like the Swan

Shadow the darkness like the Crow

Love like the Dove

And know no fear for the sake of clarity like the Owl

Lawd have mercy on my soul!

…With GOD’s mercy I shall someday rise like the Phoenix

My heart will find my guts

Nor will my eyes lie to my mind

One fine day I’ll be able to put my pride aside

Put my sins behind and live with no sense of time

Only a sense of purpose...

YOU'VE GOT MAIL!

MONGST THE JUNK YOU MAY FIND TREASURE... especially when it comes to email.  I recently had this incredible email forwarded to me from my sister yesterday....

Dr. Andrew M. Manis is  Associate Professor Of History at Macon State College in Georgia.  He Wrote This For An Editorial In The Macon Telegraph:

When Are WE Going to Get Over It?

For much of the last forty years, ever since America "fixed" its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African Americans finally going to get over it? Now I want to ask: "When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color? Recent reports that "Election Spurs Hundreds' of Race Threats, Crimes" should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in "Bombingham," Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than "talk the talk."