Our charachter today finds himself in the same location as we left him last time, yet this time he is ending his streak of a past that comes back to haunt him. As he is at his work location, the third of the ex g/f's shows up at his place of business. Yet this is the worst of the three, this is the, (DUM DUM DUM) GOLD DIGGER! She is vicious, malice, and only wants men's money and will do anything to get it. Some might call her a prostitute, but she doesn't work the corner, she just goes after men by seducing them instead of slutting all over the street blocks. As he sees this venomous creature of sin, he keeps his cool as he doesn't want to lose his job. So he goes about his business taking care of his customers, but the rest of his night, he kept saying to himself, "I knew it would eventually happen, but I was hoping it wasn't her." Yet now, our character can now rest, knowing the streak of bad luck on this topic is now at an end. Yet, will another streak start for another topic? Stay tuned.
Charles Remy was an orphan as a child. His birth parents gave him up at age 2, knowing they'd never be able to give him the life they wanted him to have. He was put in a foster home in Pittsburg, Pa. At age 4, he was adopted by the Harrisons. They were a good couple who couldn't have children themselves. After careful consideration, they opted to adopt. After filling out countless forms from the adoption agency, they finally got the child they wanted.
Charlie was told at age 5 that he didn't have to change his last name because his new parents wanted him to be the person he was born as, name and all. "We don't want you to forget who you are, ever. We're just gone be the people here to love and support you no matter what," Mitch Harrison, the man of the house stated to Charlie as he sat there at the dinner table eating his mashed potatoes. "We love you very much Charlie, and soon you'll be able to go to public school and make new friends and be loved by others almost as much as us," Debbie Harrison explained to Charlie.
Charlie didn't really seem to soak in much of what was being explained to him. He was more interested in playing with his action figures or reading his comic books. His favorite was always Uncanny X-Men so he could see what his favorite character, Gambit, was up to.
When Charlie started going to school, he was very quiet. He didn't try very hard to make friends or to have school crushes on any of the girls. He was always more focused on getting his school work done early so he could go to his room and read more his comic books.
After grade school was done with, Charlie attended junior high school where he met a guy named Will Carter. Will was a Pittsburg native and lived a few blocks away from Charlie. Will was always in Charlie's grade, but Charlie never paid attention to him because the two were in different classes.
On a walk home from school, Will caught up to Charlie. "Hey, man," Will said to Charlie.
Charlie turned around and noticed Will and replied, "Hey."
"Wanna hang out at my house?" Will asked.
Charlie answered, "Why?"
Will got a bit of a confused look from the response he just received. "So we can like, I don't know, do stuff," Will answered. "Like what?" Charlie asked.
Will shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I don't know. What do you like to do?" Will was curious to find out.
"I like comic books." Charlie replied. "Dude! That's cool! I got tons at my house! Which ones are your favorites?" Will said.
"Uncanny X-Men is all I read," Charlie explained.
As the boys walked further towards their homes, they got into friendly debates over which X-men was better, Gambit or Wolverine. After the discussion, Charlie agreed to go to Will's house to see what comics he had.
Years went past and Will and Charlie had become best of friends. They were in high school now and made sure they were in the same classes together. After each day of school, they would always go to the local comic book store and scope out the latest stuff. Charlie still stuck to his infatuation with Gambit even though Will tried his hardest to get Charlie to sway to the Wolverine stories.
"Bro, did you see Becky Sanders checkin' you out at lunch today?" Will asked.
Charlie started turning a bit red as he blushed a for a few seconds. "Whatever man, you're insane. We're part of the outcast of the school and she's one of the head cheerleaders. There's no way she'd be interested in me." Charlie declared.
"Dude, I saw her, she was checkin you out big time! This is no joke man, I think she's got the hots for you," Will said as he was flipping through a magazine.
Charlie's self-esteem wasn't all that great. He was grasping the concept of being adopted silently. The thought of his birth parents not wanting him and growing up with people that had to go through an agency to get legal rights to him. Even though Mitch and Debbie claimed to love him as their own, he wasn't really their own. They just owned him in his mind. …Plus he wasn't all that interested in girls. He figured if his own birth mother didn't want him, why would any other woman want him? So he tried his hardest to avoid talking to them on anything more than a classmate or friend level.
"Will, talking to her would be a lost cause. Besides, even if I was interested, which I'm not, the football guys would just make fun of me and I'd rather save myself from the shame they would inflict upon me," Charlie explained.
"Your loss man, and besides, screw those jocks. They usually just talk about who's dick is bigger and who has the faster car. Sad they have to use wheels to compensate for what they really don't have," Will said.
Charlie snickered at the comment and then went to the front counter to purchase the newest edition of Uncanny X-Men.
"Your obsession with this story is sickening you know that?" Will said to Charlie who just rolled his eyes in response as he reached for his wallet to pay for the book.
"Not as much as your playgirl collection, sicko." Charlie said.
Will growled and responded, "Those are not mine dude! How many times do I have to tell you that?"
"Yeah sure, whatever." Charlie responded sarcastically.
A few weeks later, Charlie was sitting by himself in the cafeteria of his high school; Will wasn't there as he was sick and decided to be absent all day. Charlie sat there eating his pizza slice and looking around. He looked towards the table of jocks who were picking on a school nerd and laughing like crazy about it. Charlie noticed Becky who was laughing too, but then glanced in Charlie's direction with a smile. Was Will right? Was Becky, one of the hottest cheerleaders in the whole school checking him out? How could she be interested in an outcast? It wasn't logically possible.
Bucky Davis, one of the football's team top guys, noticed Becky looking at Charlie and said "Becky, what's up with you lookin at that freak? Does he have booger hangin' out of his nose or something?"
Becky went from an innocent look to a disgusted look from the question Bucky asked. "You're gross, you know that?" Becky said as she knugged Bucky in the arm.
The next day, Will came back to school and met Charlie in a park across the street from the school before their first period class started. "Hey man, feeling better?" Charlie asked.
Will responded, "Yeah, had one of those stomach viruses. Being sick sucks man."
"Yeah, I know what you mean bro. You know what you said about Becky Sanders the other day?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah, what about it?" Will wondered.
Charlie smirked and responded, "I think you're right. I caught her smiling at me yesterday during lunch time."
"Hate to say I told you so, but I told you so!" Will jokingly said.
"What should I do about it though? I've never liked a girl before." Charlie wondered.
Will laughed and replied, "And you call me gay. You mean to tell me you've never even thought about a girl at all?"
"Dude, shut up. I'm asking you this in all honesty!" Charlie exclaimed.
"Make a move bro. See if she'd like to go out on a date or something." Will said. "Just make sure you do it away from the jocks or they're gonna eat you for breakfast." Will added.
Charlie sat on top of the park bench and just stared into the lake in front of them. Thinking heavily about the situation and how exactly he should approach Becky was weighing heavily on his mind.
Chapter 3: "First And Last"
As Charlie walked down the hallway to his locker, his breath started getting heavier. All he could think about was Becky Sanders. "This isn't like me" he said to himself. 'What's wrong with me?' he asked himself in his mind. He started thinking how he needed to get over those thoughts and just do it and get it over with. "What's the worst that could happen? So she says no, tells her jock buddies, they get a laugh, make fun of me for a couple of weeks, then everything goes back to normal." His mind kept battling the thought of rejection and the consequences of what would happen if she rejected him.
As Charlie turned around, Becky was walking down the hallway towards him. His heart started beating faster. His eyes got a bit wider. He inhaled deeply through his nose as he tried to keep from obviously staring at her. She started turning the combination to her locker which was just three away from his. He kept glancing her way, and then noticed she was doing the same thing towards him. He gathered up all the courage he needed and then shut his locker and turned to Becky and asked "Becky, are you doing anything this Saturday?"
"Not really. Why do you ask?" Becky questioned.
"I was wondering if you, well, umm, if you, uh, would like to, uh, do something that night." Charlie asked while stumbling for his words.
"Why Charlie Remy, are you asking me out on a date?" Becky asked.
"I know, sorry, it was stupid of me, sorry." Charlie said shamefully.
"Sorry for what? I'd love to go out with you." Becky responded.
"Look, I know you're probably just……..what? What did you say?" Charlie asked with a shocked look on his face.
Becky giggled for a second the replied, "I said I'd love to go out with you. You're cute."
Charlie started blushing like crazy. "Thanks, so I'll pick you up around 7?" He asked.
"Sure thing, I can't wait, see you later." Becky replied. She walked away as Charlie just stood there watching her. Little did he know that Bucky and his friends were watching from the other side of the hall, and had heard everything. Bucky was fuming with hatred for Charlie now, and one of his buds was about to make a move for Charlie but Bucky stopped him. "Not now, I got a better idea, we'll let Becky go out with this chump, then we'll crash the date and embarrass the hell out him." Bucky explained. The boys behind him started laughing as they agreed with the idea.
"Dude! NO WAY! You got a date with Becky Sanders?" Will asked while him and Charlie were at the patio in the back of the school.
"Sure do bro. I'm picking her up at 7 on Saturday." Charlie said with a big grin on his face.
"I swear, I'm either living in the twilight zone, or Becky Sanders has been hitting the crack pipe." Will said jokingly.
"You're just jealous that I'm going out with one of the hottest girls in the school and not you." Charlie joked.
"So where are you taking her?" Will asked.
Charlie got a pondering look on his face and replied, "I'm not sure yet. Where do you think I should take her?"
"Bro, come on, you have to have a game plan for this date. This is big! This is BECKY SANDERS! Come on!" Will exclaimed.
"I know, but I don't know her well enough to know what she likes. All I know is she does cheerleading and likes sports." Charlie said.
"Well, maybe you could impress her with your obsession of Gambit, Mr. Uncanny X-Man." Will said sarcastically while laughing.
Charlie responded by throwing a waded up sheet of paper at him.
"Hey!" Will said, and then both young men got up and started walking towards the doors leading back into the cafeteria.
Finally it was the big day; Charlie started the engine of his 1997 Chevy Monte Carlo that his parents bought him for his 16th birthday. He turned to his cd collection, putting in a mix of songs he burned on to a cd using his pc. He cranked up "The Pretender" by Foo Fighters. As he started backing up from the driveway, he started singing along with the song. The night was fair and warm. No cloud in the sky. Charlie kept thinking to himself how perfect a night it was for this date. He arrived at Becky's house and pulled up to the side of the curb in front of the house. He cut the engine off and was starting to undo his seatbelt when he noticed Becky walking out of the front door of her house.
She was dressed in a blue casual dress and white heels. Her hair was curled. Charlie smiled at the thought of how beautiful she looked. She walked around his car to open the passenger door and get in the seat next to him, As she shut the door, Charlie said to her, "You know I was gonna open the door for you but you're so fast that you didn't give me a chance."
She smiled and replied, "It's ok Charlie, I'm not expecting you to be a perfect gentleman with me."
He smiled back and then turned the engine back on. As he turned the gear into drive, Becky said to him, "Oh you got the new Foo Fighters cd? I love them!"
Charlie was shocked for a second and replied, "Really? I didn't know you were into this kind of music."
"There's a lot of things you don't know about me Charlie." She replied.
"I guess not, but I hope I can get to know as much as I can." Charlie said.
"What would you like to know?" Becky asked.
Charlie glanced at her and responded, "Well, lots of things. Like what do you like to do besides cheerleading? What are your plans after high school? Other things too."
Becky replied, "Well, I love swimming, volleyball, fishing, a lot of outdoors stuff. I'm the tomboy of the family. My older sister is the bookworm and my younger sister who is in junior high is the punk rocker style. What about you? What are your hobbies?"
Charlie hesitated for a second and replied, "Well, you're probably gonna laugh at me if I tell you."
"Come on, it can't be that bad, can it? It's not like you're collecting peoples' thumbnails or watching porn on the internet are you?" Becky replied.
Charlie laughed at the question and responded, "No, nothing that extreme. No, I collect comic books."
"Awww, that's cute." Becky stated.
"Collecting comic books isn't cute, it's manly, ya goof." Charlie responded.
"You're the one who collects comic books and you call me a goof? Becky laughed as she said that.
"Well, other than that, I collect dvds and music as well as go to concerts and festivals." Charlie stated.
"So where exactly are we going? You haven't even told me what we're doing on this date." Becky asked.
"Well, I figured we go grab a bite to eat so we can talk, then after that we could go to the theme park around here." Charlie answered.
"Sounds like a plan to me, Charlie." Becky responded.
They pulled into the parking lot of a local Italian restaurant. Charlie opened the door for Becky and they were seated by the hostess. They ordered drinks and looked at the menus while conversing some more.
"So, how many girlfriends have you had?" Becky asked.
Charlie started blushing again. "Well, to be honest, I've never even been on a date till now."
"Are you serious?" Becky asked.
Charlie's face stopped blushing and went to a more shameful look. "I wish I wasn't, but yes." He responded.
"Wow Charlie, well, I'm glad and honored to be your first date ever." Becky replied with a smile.
Charlie stopped feeling shamed and started feeling more appreciated. They ordered their meals and conversed more about themselves as the night went .. dinner, they drove to a theme park with roller-coasters, live shows, and tons of junk food and other things. They went on every coaster, went to the live show, bought some popcorn and cotton candy and stared walking around and taking more.
"So you're telling me that you have no idea who your birth parents are?" Becky asked.
"That's right, and I've had no desire to even find out. I figured if they didn't want me in their lives, why should I want them in mine now?" Charlie explained.
"Wow, that's heavy. At least you're with parents that care for you though. Do you have any siblings from your adopted parents?" Becky wondered.
Charlie looked at her and replied, "Nope, I'm an only child in this family. Which in a way is good 'cause I get all the attention and get spoiled too. I don't brag about it to a lot of people, though, 'cause I don't want the attention." Charlie said.
"Well you know being with me is going to get you a lot of attention at school now," Becky stated.
Charlie thought for a second and replied, "Well, I don't care, I'm having fun being with you, and that's all that matters."
"Awww, that's sweet Charlie. I'm having fun too." Becky replied. They smiled at each other.
Little did either of them know that Bucky and his football teammates were waiting at Charlie's car, drinking cans of beer and keying the sides of Charlie's car while one of them slashed his tires. Bucky had nothing but malice on his mind, and he was going to make sure that Charlie never thought of talking or even looking at Becky ever again. "Hurry up you guys. I want to see the look on Charlie's face when he sees what we did to his car. Maybe next time he'll think twice before going out with my girl." Bucky said to his mates.
"Well, we better call it a night handsome," Becky said to Charlie who responded, "Handsome? Why Ms. Sanders, was that a flirtatious compliment?"
"Don't get a big head now Charlie," Becky responded.
As the laughed a little bit, they walked out of the exit gates towards Charlie's car. Bucky saw them coming and shouted to his friends, "Hurry up, here they come!"
Charlie started saying something to Becky but then stopped all of a sudden and froze in his tracks.
"What is it Charlie?" Becky asked as she noticed he'd stopped walking. She turned her head to the direction that Charlie was staring at, and looked in shock of the sight of his car. The tires were flat, the sides were keyed, the headlights and tail lights smashed. The trunk had been bashed in, the hood as well.
"What the fuck man?" Charlie said in a shocked voice.
Becky stood there in disbelief. Charlie walked around his car to survey the damage while holding his hands on his head. "What the fuck!" he said again.
"Charlie, I am so sorry. I have no idea who did this; do you?" Becky said to Charlie who was first looking at her and then past her with an upset look. She turned around to see Bucky and his friends pointing and laughing at Charlie.
"What did you expect loser? You think you were gonna end the night with a fairytale ending? Think you were gonna get the goodnight kiss to brag about at school on Monday? Sorry to burst your bubble, or should I say, your car, but that ain't happening punk!" Bucky stated as he was staggering a little bit, apparently he had been drinking a tad bit and it was showing.
"Bucky, why did you do this? What did he ever do to you?" Becky asked in a scolding tone.
"Oh come on Becky, you can't be seriously standing up for this freak. He's nothing but a loser and that's what he always will be. Right loser?" Bucky stated and then turned his attention back to Charlie.
"Go screw yourself man." Charlie said to Bucky who looked a bit surprised at the ballsy statement.
"Go screw myself? Nah, I think I'll screw your little girlfriend here instead. Come on Becky, we're leaving." Bucky stated.
Becky looked at Bucky in disgust and replied "I'm not screwing you or doing anything with you Bucky. You're drunk and what you did to Charlie's car is i inexcusable"
"Look, you're coming with me, and that's that." Bucky said as he grabbed her arm and started pulling her towards him.
As she screamed and struggled to get away from him, Charlie started running towards Bucky but was cut off by his friends. "Where do you think you're going there, punk? Gonna be there hero? Not this time," One of Bucky's friends said right before he swung at Charlie and knocked him to the ground.
Charlie opened his eyes and felt pain throbbing through his head. He rubbed his hand over his mouth, and noticed blood. His nose was bleeding from the blow. As he tried to get up from being knocked down, he saw Bucky push Becky into his truck and shut the door and lock her in. He then got in the driver seat and closed the door behind him. The truck started and the tires were peeling as he pulled out of the parking space.
Bucky's friends had left now, too; Charlie was alone and in pain. He reached for his cell phone and called his parents. "Dad, I need you to pick me up. It's a long story, just hurry up please." Charlie hung up the phone and put his hands covering his face in shame. He started crying at what had happened. His car was ruined and he hadn't the money to fix it. His girl was taken by the drunk jock and he was beaten up. He couldn't believe his first date, a date that was going so well, had ended in tragedy. To make matters worse, he had to explain this all to his father who wasn't going to be one bit happy about the car.
Well, here's the new story I'm working on. Hope you guys like it.
Chapter 1: Stay Home
"Look Charlie, I know you're not the new guy anymore around here, but you're still not ready for a job this big. Besides, you'll get yourself killed and we need you alive, you're our best driver."
A big mob-like figure was sitting in a black leather chair, smoking a cuban cigar and explaining to a younger male how it was in his best interest to just be a driver for a bank job they were setting up.
The young man being Charles Remy, known to his friends as Charlie. The mob figure being Big Mike, gang lord of the southside of New Jersey. Charlie had only been in the gang for about 8 months now. They had him starting out doing small jobs like mugging people or robbing convenient stores, then had moved him up to picking up packages from scumbags in dark alleys. He'd kept climbing up the ladder, working his way up to bigger jobs with more payoffs. He was told he was gonna be the get-away driver for this bank job, but he'd already been doing a lot of driving for the past two months and he wanted more.
"Big Mike, I appreciate you lookin' after me and all, but with all due respect, I do believe I am ready to do something bigger than being the driver. Just give me this one chance and I promise I won't disappoint you," Charlie said, with the with hopes that he could, for once, get out from behind the wheel and get some of that cold cash locked up in the safe of the NJB.
Big Mike took another puff of his cigar then looked Charlie in the eye and responded, "No Charlie, you're the driver, that's final. If you do ok tonight, I might consider you for a future job, but not tonight. I already got Davey, Joey, Lugs and Bobby doing this job. Another figure will just get in the way and screw things up. Now, go get some rest, you're gonna need it for tomorrow night."
Charlie sighed and nodded in agreement with his boss. After all, who was he to argue with the boss? He'd get his head blown off for such a blasphemous thought. Lesser men had been killed just for looking at Big Mike the wrong way.
Charlie walked out of the office into a garage area where some of the gang was working on choppin' up cars so they could be sold for parts. On the other side, there was another room which lead to a poker room. Bobby and Davey were in there playing Texas Hold 'Em with some of the new guys. Knowing Bobby and Davey, they had some plan to swindle the new guys out of their money. Charlie went outside of the garage to the back, where there was a fenced off area where they kept some pit bulls as guard dogs. Charlie looked down at them, they knew him well enough by now not to bark at him. He reached into his pocket, pulled out some slices of beef jerky and threw it to the dogs who fought each other for a bit of something more than typical dog food.
Charlie leaned against a metal wall, grabbed his pack of cigarettes and a Zippo lighter. As he lit his cigarette he kept thinking how good it would feel to finally get into the big times with this gang. To be one of the top dogs, so to speak. He took a drag of his cigarette and exhaled the smoke through his nose. His breath was so cold that he couldn't tell if there was any left-over smoke coming out his mouth or not.
"Well fellas, enjoy the jerky, I'll see you guys tomorrow night." Charlie said to the dogs as he started walking away from the building to a set of tracks as he headed for his lower eastside apartment. He started to zip up his jacket and adjust his gloves and then wiped the ashes from his cigarette off of his pants.
The next morning, Charlie had a knock on his door. He was already lying in his full sized bed, his top sheet covering his lower half of his body. He raised his bare arms to rub his eyes as the knocking got louder.
"This better be important of someone is gonna fuckin die!" he said to himself as he tried to get enough strength to get out of bed. "Just a fuckin minute!" Charlie shouted as he tried to get a pair of pants on. He sluggishly walked to his door and unlocked the locks, opened the door and said, "What the fuck do you want?"
The UPS delivery guy was a lil' taken back from the question, but quickly regained his composure and answered, "Just got a delivery for you sir. Can you sign here please?" Charlie looked at the envelope and then looked back at the delivery man and replied, "Damn dude, I'm sorry, I'm just not used to being woken up this early in the morning and I wasn't expecting a package. You're just doing your job right?" "Right, sir, and it's 3 o'clock already,", the delivery guy replied. "So you guys do shipping 24 hours now? This is the first 3am delivery I ever got." Charlie asked. The delivery guy looked a bit confused and said, "No sir, it's 3 in the afternoon." Charlie's look went from a bit zombified to a bit of shock. He just realized he'd been asleep for ten hours straight. Guess a shot of Jack and a sleep-aid pill do wonders for insomniacs like himself.
"Thanks man, again I'm sorry for yelling at ya earlier" Charlie said. "It's ok sir, I've heard worse. Thanks, have a good day," the delivery guy said as he handed Charlie the envelope and then headed to the stairwell down the hallway. Charlie went back into his apartment and shut the door behind him. He locked all seven locks on the door. When you're in a gang, you have to take all precautions you can. Security is one important thing to have to keep your home safe in a line of work such as his. For Charlie, seven locks was just the icing on the cake. Next to the door was a table with an assortment of weapons. Knives, guns, brass knucks, nunchucks, throwing daggers, Chinese stars, and a baseball bat. Next to that was his rifle closet. Anything from pump action handles, to A-K47's, to 12 gauge shotguns. Above his front door was his pride and joy, his elephant gun. Ever since he'd watched the movie "Tremors" he wanted one. He figured if Reba could handle one, so could he. He'd never used it once.
Charlie went into the kitchen, grabbed some eggs and a frying pan, turned the stove on, sprayed the pan with some cooking spray, then cracked the eggs onto the side of the pan and let them drip out of the shells. He threw the shells into the garbage can. As he stood there cooking the two eggs, he reached for his cigarettes and zippo. He lit a morning smoke for himself, then looked at the envelope he had just received. It was addressed to him as "Charlie". No last name, no return address on it, either. He was assuming it was from one of the gang. He opened it up to pull out a plain white sheet of paper. He flipped the paper over to see that in black marker, it read "If you want to keep your memory, then stay home tonight Charlie." His expression went from curious to confused in half of a second.
"What the fuck?" Charlie said to himself. He quickly grabbed his cell phone off the night stand next to his bed and called someone. "Hey Bobby, is this some sort of joke? What do you mean 'what?' I got the package delivered to me. Is this some sort of pre-job prank or something? What do you mean 'you don't know what I'm talking about'? Ok, do you know of anyone who sent me a package today? No? Alright then. I'm gonna bring this letter tonight at the meeting then you'll see what I'm talking about. Ok, later." Charlie ended the call with Bobby, who apparently had no clue as to what Charlie was rambling about. 'This is fuckin weird,' Charlie thought. A loud sound all of a sudden started going off. It was his smoke detector. The eggs were burning. "Shit!" Charlie said out-loud as he took the frying pan off the stove and threw it in the sink and ran cold water over the now ruined eggs.
"Just pefect." He said to himself. He stood there shaking his head in disbelief, more so of the letter than his ruined breakfast.
When I was young, I grew up in Katy, Tx off of Mason Rd. I remember living just 2 & 1/2 blocks from the elementary school I was attending at the time so I would always walk back and fourth from home and school. I remember at the end of our block was a mean ole doverment pincher (SP?) that was always in the backyard of it's owners and if you walked passed the gate to the back yard, it would come towards you at the speed of light and would bark it's head off in all of it's bullying fashion. Pretty much it wanted you nowhere near it's house and if it ever got lose, you ran for your life. I remember my best friends back then were Sanmeet Deo (his parents were from India) and Jacob Palmonteer. Sanmeet lived one long block past the school and Jacob lived down the street from me. We would always hang out when we could, playing football or watching movies or cartoons, or out in the yard fighting off invisible bad guys or playing with our action figures or nintendo. I remeber having a cat named Frisky Whiskers, we got him as a Christmas present one time and my sister named him. He wasn't a family friendly cat, he would hide all over the house, and at times would claw the hell out of the furniture. I remember we got a dog once, it was a german mix, I named her Sandy and she was my responsibility. I hated it cause I would have to feed it wet canned dog food everyday and if I forgot my dad would get on my ass about it. She would tear the bottoms of the fence boards to get into my neighbors fence who didn't have one to stop Sandy from getting out to the front, so I'd have to chase her to get her back to the house. Finally my dad did something about it and built a fenced area for her to where she couldn't get out but we could get in to feed her. She eventually got sold to new owners since we couldn't take her when we moved. I remember the house like I had been living there just yesterday. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room, den, kitcken area, family dining area, a dining room, fireplace in the middle of the house, built in desk and bookshelves in the den, organ and furniture in the living room, room for the laundry machines, a closet in the middle of the hallway, attic access in the hallway, fullsized 2 car garage, concrete patio in the back big enough for a full size table and chair set, grass in the backyard which was big enough to do a lot of playijng in, the front yard was split off with a sidewalk leading to the front porch so the grass areas were sectioned off between that sidewalk and the main sidewalk that went all up and down the street. We lived in the suburbs. Good times, good memories.
I have to say this is the worst black friday I've ever experienced. I had completely forgot the insanity of people who camp out in front of retail stores just to get the best deals of the year on high priced items and then bombard the store while knocking people over or fighting others just to get the hottest items in time for christmas. I can't remember the last time I worked a black friday in a retail store. The last 3 years I worked in call centers, the year before that I did overnight shifts at Target stocking items, the year before that I didn't work durring Christmas, the year before that I was workin at a Wal-mart in Virginia and the city I was living in has a very low population, maybe like 25% of Houston, So the rush wasn't all that much to worry about, so wow, it's been since like 98 since I worked a retail rush around here for this time of the year.
Needless to say, I'm exhausted. I worked a 13 hour shift even though I was scheduled for 10 & 1/2 hours. At first I was under the impression that I was gona be behind the customer service desk the whole time and just sell ipods and mp3 players there as well as accessories for all of it and have soemone ring them up. I diid that for about 3-5 hours then all of it got moved back to my department. So that was pointless in itself. So the rest of the day I havve to shimmy my way through my own department since it's the smallest on in the whole store, and it's right in the front so everyone and their grandmother was going through it. I don't remember how many times I had been pushed around and whatnot by customers or rudely intterupted by customers while I was already helping someone. It was a freakin nightmare. I'm glad it's over with and I have the next 2 days off.
If you don't beleive me about all of this insanity, well read this story that a friend of mine posted on a message board I'm on, (Still Got Luv For Ya E-Money!)
NEW YORK (Nov. 28) - A worker was killed in the crush Friday after a throng of shoppers eager for post-Thanksgiving bargains burst through the doors at a suburban Wal-Mart , authorities said.
At least four other people were injured, and the store in Valley Stream on Long Island was closed. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville, Ark., called the incident a "tragic situation" and said the employee came from a temporary agency and was doing maintenance work at the store.
He was bum-rushed by 200 people," co-worker Jimmy Overby, 43, told the Daily News. "They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too. ... I literally had to fight people off my back." Nassau County police said the 34-year-old worker was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead at about 6 a.m. The man's name was not released and the cause of death was not immediately known.
A police statement said shortly after the store's 5 a.m. opening time, shoppers "physically broke down the doors, knocking (the worker) to the ground."
A metal portion of the door was crumpled like an accordion. Shoppers around the country lined up early outside stores in the annual bargain hunting ritual known as Black Friday. Many stores open early and stay open late, and some of the most dramatic bargains are available in limited quantities. Among the bargains offered by Wal-Mart for Friday were Samsung 50-inch high definition Plasma TVs for less than $800. Witnesses told the Daily News that before the store was closed, eager shoppers streamed past emergency crews as they worked furiously to save the worker's life
"They were working on him, but you could see he was dead," said Halcyon Alexander, 29. "People were still coming through." A 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to a hospital for observation, and she and the unborn baby were both reported to be OK, said Sgt. Anthony Repalone, a Nassau County police spokesman. Four or five other people suffered minor injuries, he said.
Ellen Davis, a spokeswoman at National Retail Federation, said the group knew of no other incident where a retail employee has died working on the day after Thanksgiving. Wal-Mart is working closely with police, company spokesman Dan Fogleman said.
"The safety and security of our customers and associates is our top priority," Fogleman said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families at this difficult time."
AOL.com
With that story, I'm glad I don't shop on these days. .. --> google_ad_section_end -->
Well, with Turkey Day upon us, it is once again time for us to say what we're thankfull for. For me, there's a lot of thing I can be thankfull for. I'm thankfull mainly to be in bigger steps in my life than I was last thanksgiving. I've got a better job, living in a house in a good area vs a one bedroom apartment in the ghetto, got some great friends that I keep adding to my group of friends, as well as thankfull for my best friend and roomie Adam who's had my back through this crazy adventurous life of mine. I'm also thankfull for my family who are happy as long as I am which took forever for that to happen. Tell you one thing though, I'll be even more thankfull when this holiday season is over with. People tend to show their true insanity durring this time of year and I don't like dealing with it, but I do to keep my job so I can keep paying my bills and living my life.
Oh, an update on what's been going on, I have a new website for my online show title Mikael's Corner, the website is at http://www.mikaelscorner.wordpress.com and finally a new episode will be up on saturday for your viewing pleasure. I'm also in the process of starting to write the first story to ever be written by myself, and will be followed up by another one after that. Also sometime next month I will be getting a better movie maker so I can make better tribute videos and the first one will be for ECW Champion Matt Hardy. Also if you haven't read my 2 latest blogs, you should. They are dvd reviews of the Foo Fighters live dvd that came out a couple of weeks ago as well as the new Eddie Guerrero dvd. Well, to all my friends, have a safe and blessed thanksgiving, and to those of you in other parts of the world that are not celebrating thanksgiving on thursday, well, just have a great day and know that I am thankfull that you are my friend.
