San Antonio, TX
Monday October 21, 2002
Wow!! today was the most awesome day I have ever had! Totally not your typical Monday. Today is Monday the 21st and last Friday they called me from the computer shop I had applied at a week ago.
In all my walking and trail-clearing at my old Telemarketing job I found the office of Globalscape back in Northwest Parkway. They're the company that makes the FTP program I use exclusively. What better place for me to work, right? When I had first stumbled onto them, I had walked inside and saw no one at the desk. I walked around inside and located the break room. There were these two nerdy guys playing foosball. I went inside and told them, "Hey guys, guess what I'm going to do soon," and gave them my shpeel on eliminating money and bringing world peace. They seemed to be impressed because they asked me, "Do you want a job?" Back then I was busy working for my goals and told them no.
Northwest Parkway is this area of San Antonio where all the modern computer companies are. I attended ITT tech there a year ago for thirty days. This was back when I was in my big bad suicidal depression. Back then I thought I was stupid. I was 24, never had been to college and mainly worked at that telemarketing place. Since I was sixteen I have worked there around fiften times or so.
West Telemarketing(Teleservices now) is the highest paying "cheating" job in town. You can make up to nine dollars an hour easily, if not more. All outbound telemarketing projects are a scam. If the deals were so good, there wouldn't be such thing as outbound telemarketing. People would be calling you. They'll hire you back as many times as you want to work there. There's a huge turnover there. Telemarketing all revolves around lies and deceit. Naturally, I would never work it as a career. It's a temporary job only. I have absolutely no respect for people who have become managers or have worked there years and years. Sheesh, get a real job. Anyway, it's there to serve a purpose and I used it whenever I needed some fallback money.
In between my tenures at the telemarketing place I would deliver pizza in Medical Center until my cars broke down. Delivering pizza is another "cheating" job. I would average on tips alone, ten dollars an hour. Plus, my minimum wage would bring that total to around fifteen dollars an hour. The money was great and it was a simple job but it all relied one thing. A working automobile. Medical Center is the only place I would deliver pizza in San Antonio even though for extra hours I would deliver at other stores just to learn the city more. The population-density in Medical Center is the highest in town. Medical Center is like ninety nine percent apartments. More people, more tips. It's also very condensed so you can hit doubles and triples in no time. I totally mastered Medical Center. I know all the shortcuts. Name an apartment complex in Medical Center and I can tell you the address and where certain buildings are. I killed two cars delivering pizza for a total of a little bit over two years.
At my last jaunt at the telemarketing place I had been placed on a DSL project and was really excited I was going to be working in something dealing with computers. I went to two days of training and was shown a new system that made the calls. It was all cheap. It was supposed to be internet-integrated and you put the order in through a webpage. It was all mouse controlled though and I hate using the mouse. Windows keyboard shortcuts didn't work at all. I was all bummed out.
Like thirty minutes after my second day of training I remembered Globalscape and how they had offered me a job there after hearing my ideas. I was like, "Screw this place, I'm going to go get an application at Globalscape(which makes more internet software than the FTP program)," and left. I walked along the trail that ran behind the fence of the apartments there that I had cleared and easily showed up at Globalscape and they gave me an application. I took it to my friend Carlos' house where I was staying and filled it out. On the application I had put, "I have mastered all the Windows keyboard shortcuts and am no longer mouse-dependent. Anything you can do with the mouse, you can do with the keyboard, only faster." I was almost positive they would give me a job after seeing that. I called the next day to follow up on the application and they told me to come in and talk to a manager the next day. When I talked to the manager I was really excited of the possibility of working there and I made the mistake of telling him about my ideas. He seemed to agree with me, but later I realized he was just patronizing me. They never called me back. Oh well, their loss.
Anyway, about two weeks ago while I was still at Carlos' house I was riding the 604 bus down Dezavala and I saw two computer shops right next to each other. I was like, "Rad, one of those places should hire me." I got off the bus and walked inside the first shop. I talked to the girl behind the desk. Her name is Tabitha. I asked her if they were hiring and she told me they had a position available for a computer technician, but I would have to be A+ certified even to be considered. I was bummed out, but then she also added that they were trying to assemble a small team to build some computers for a contract they had coming up. I went, "Cool, I can build a computer." I asked her if there were any prerequisites and she told me no and gave me an application.
I went home and filled it out, including that same line about the mouse I had put on the Globalscape application and went back the next day and turned it in. I followed up a couple days later only to be told they hadn't looked through the applications yet. About two weeks passed and I didn't hear anything back from them. Then Friday night my sister tells me that she noticed someone from a computer shop called on the Caller-ID. I was psyched! I called back and spoke to Jim. Jim told me that they were having a meeting on Monday and that he wanted me to be there.
Now, my mother who thinks I'm crazy has been begging me to get a job for weeks. She thinks I'm lazy because I haven't been working and not contributing to the household. She, in fact is the lazy one. She should have never gotten a computer because all she does now is just waste her life away playing Internet-dominos and rarely cleans or does anything else. Last night I asked her if I could bum a dollar for bus fare. I was expecting her to tell me no like she had so many times recently when I asked her for a dollar. I had told her about the computer shop and I'm sure she realized what I needed the dollar for and went and fetched me one.
The meeting was at ten in the morning tomorrow. I asked my mother what time she was waking up and she told me five thirty and that she was leaving around six forty five. I asked her to wake me up when she left so I could get ready for my big day. This morning she woke me up on time, I took a quick shower and got dressed. I put on my trademark shorts with pockets all over and my green T-shirt I had got at the thrift store and wore on my little trip at in the state-hospital for a whole month. It says ME in big letters on the front. I looked at the time. I had to be at the elementary school at thirty six of the hour to catch the bus that took me down to the grocery store, where all the buses convene every hour at fifty. Since morning traffic is heavy I was worried that it would be late and would not connect with the other buses. I decided I was going to walk the one and a half mile to the grocery store. I grabbed my walking stick and proceeded to leave.
While I had been in the shower before, my twin sister Laura had arrived and had instantly glued herself to the computer. Like a week ago Laura moved out and started staying at a friends house. She is over here using the computer daily though. Who's not contributing?
As I was walking out I asked Laura if she could give me a ride to the grocery store and surprisingly she told me yes. I told her we had to leave soon so I could catch the other buses. That was around eight twenty five. Even though she could have left at forty and made it by fifty I still put pressure on her to go. You see, my sister has contracted the same laziness-disease my mom has with the computer. She has recently converted to Muslim and spends hours in the Yahoo Islam chats trying to find a husband. I knew I was going to have to pry her off to get her to get me to the buses on time. Sure enough I was right. She kept telling me, "Hold on," but I kept bitching at her and she got off.
We arrived at the other buses at forty five and she dropped me off. All the drivers were outside smoking so I grabbed a cigarette I had rolled earlier and bummed a light off of one of them. I caught the 605 and got off at Prue and Horn. The 604 which runs right in front of the computer shop passes by there. I wasn't sure what time it would come so I just started walking towards the computer shop which was like three miles away. I figured it would come sometime during my walk and I could get on. As I walked I kept turning around to see if the bus was coming, but it never did. I finally got to the computer shop and I stopped and asked for the time at the post office next door. It was only nine thirty five. On the way there I had thought it would be better to stash my walking stick somewhere, so they wouldn't think I was crazy. Next to the shop, there was a post office.
I just had this great idea that should make me some money, but I would need a PO box. I walked into the post office to ask them what the rates were on them. I forgot I had my stick and got an idea. I asked the guy behind the desk at the post office, Joe if I could leave my stick with him because I was going to an interview at the computer place next door and I didn't want them thinking I was crazy. Joe said, "Wow, nice stick. You sure you want to leave it with me?" I laughed and told him I had his name and would trust him. He smiled and put my stick behind the counter.
The time was about nine forty five and I had some time to kill. I rolled me a cigarette in front of the post office and walked over to the computer shop and smoked it outside. When I was done I walked inside and told Tabitha hi. She told me to have a seat and they were going to have the meeting in five minutes. There were three other people there. I assumed they were there for the meeting too. Jim came out and called us all to the conference room in the back. He told us about the contract they had with a school district and that it was only a ninety day temporary position. He included that if we proved ourselves worthy it might be a permanent gig. He didn't interview us each individually. We could just assume we had the job. "Wow, that was easier than the telemarketing place," I thought. We would start if not Thursday or Friday, Monday for sure. The schedule was 9am-6pm, with a one hour lunch. Weekends off. So bam. Just like that I had my dream job(so I thought).
Isn't that everyone's goal in life? To find a job they actually enjoy doing so it doesn't seem like work, yet you get paid money for? Perfection, I thought. Jim dismissed us at around 10:45am. I walked outside and smoked a cigarette with a couple of my future coworkers. This black guy named Antonio offered me a ride home. "Badass," I thought. On the way home I told Antonio about my plan and he agreed with everything I said. I then found out that Antonio knew how to design webpages. "Perfect," I said. I told him, "Eventually I'm going to need a webpage to publicize my idea more, even though I will still have my simple FTP up all the time." Bam, he agreed to help me as much as he could. What luck.
Antonio drove me all the way home. At my house I realized I had an appointment with this guy I had talked to last night that read my ideas. His name was Andres and I had agreed to meet him at this cafe he worked at near San Antonio College. After reading my ideas and talking to me online, I told him we should get together and brainstorm. He's an avid chess player so I assumed he was intelligent and the kind of person I need on my team. He told me to come buy the cafe because he could hook me up with some free food. I told him, "I'm there, dude."
I told Antonio about it and apologized for having him take me to my moms house, but if he could take me over to the telemarketing place where I would catch the bus to go downtown and meet Andres. He told me it wasn't a problem and drove me back and said goodbye. I had a transfer from the 605 bus, but they only last two hours and mine was about an hour overdue. I realized this and thought I could go bum some change from people smoking at the smoking cabana at the telemarketing place. No one was out smoking though. Just then I saw the 96 pull up. Two buses go to the telemarketing place, the 96 and the 91. They both go downtown, but I needed to catch the 91 to University Hospital, so I could catch the 92 that went by the college. I walked over to the 96, which was empty and spoke to the driver. I told him, "Excuse me, sir, my transfer is expired by one hour and I really need to get home. Do you think I can have a new transfer so I can get on the 91 when it comes?" He smiled and told me, "Sure, I'll give you one, but don't tell anyone." Hehe, I was elated. Problem solved.
About five minutes later the 91 came. The driver stopped and told me that he was going to Northwest Parkway. The 91 goes out there only twice a day and he told me to just wait for him to come back around. I told him I didn't mind going on the trip, but he put out his hand and said, "No, I'll have to charge you twice." I said, "Oh, okay. Forget it. It's a nice day I'll wait for you to come back." I waited for about ten minutes until he came back around. I boarded the bus and handed him the transfer. His bus was still empty and I was hoping he would pick up someone on the way to the hospital, so I could bum fifteen cents for another transfer. I got an idea though. I walked up and sat next to him and proceeded to tell him my whole plan. He just couldn't stop listening. He was captivated by my words and very impressed. I asked him, "If you would have let me on earlier what do you think would've happened? I sure as hell wasn't going to tell on you." He told me that he didn't let me on because he's not supposed to. I got on his good side quick though and had him smiling all the way to the hospital.
In telling him my stuff I told him how I would sometimes cheat and use day old transfers and trim them to the right time, so I would get free rides. The transfers never showed a date, they had some letters you can punch, but I didn't think it was the date. I got away with it a lot. Recently, it didn't work on some drivers and they told me that I had to use the transfers the same day. I was puzzled, "How do they know I didn't get it today?" so I asked my new friend. He told me that they punch certain letters to mark the day and only some dispatcher guy at VIA knew what it was. Ahhh, I finally found out. He then told me a trick. He told never to throw transfers away. He said that he knew of this lady who kept a huge roll of used transfers with her all the time. She would find out what the letter of the day was by getting on the bus and looking at the driver's stack of transfers, then would pick the right ones out of her stash. Ahh, I'm going to do that now.
We got to the hospital and I still had some time to kill. The 92 which I needed to catch to the college comes every twenty minutes, so I wasn't in a rush. I was a bit hungry already, so I decided to fix that problem.
The bus transfer center is connected with University Hospital. There's an elevator you go up to gain access to the hospital. Two years ago when I had my second head-injury I was in University Hospital for thirty days. That's where I got hooked on Boosts. Boosts are these yummy liquid nutrition milkshakes. They pack a whopping 260 calories into one can of the stuff. So, for the past two years when I was hungry and riding the bus I would go into the hospital and see if I could snag a Boost or two. I got in the elevator at the transfer center, went up to the next floor, walked down this hallway and took the elevator to the sixth floor where I had been after my accident. It was twelve forty five and everyone was gone at lunch. I walked down a hall and turned right. The gym where they give people physical therapy was dark with all the lights off and there weren't that many people in the hall. Right then this worker turns a corner and I pretend to be looking into the dark room. He says, "Yeah, they're all out to lunch." I asked him(like I didn't know), "When do they come back? I was going to say hi to a friend." He told me they would return at one and kept walking. Hehe, I walked straight to the nourishment room hoping they had some Boosts. They had a full stock and I grabbed three and stuffed them into my pocket and walked out of there real fast. I drank one in the elevator. They're like quick meals. I just throw one back and I'm not hungry anymore. Simple as that.
I went outside and smoked a cigarette to another Boost. Right when I had finished smoking a 92 bus pulled up and I got on it. I went to the back and started asking for fifteen cents. I was so happy with how my day was going so I started talking to this guy sitting in the back. He immediately thought I was crazy, just like I wanted him to. Just then, this black lady asked me, "You tripping people out still?" Apparently I had spoken to her before. I told her to ask the guy and laughed. I asked her if I had already told her about my plan, because I couldn't remember talking to her before. She told me, "Yeah, but I didn't trip, you thought I did."
I rode it all the way downtown and got to the college around one fifty. I wasn't sure exactly where Andres' cafe was, but I was hoping I could walk there in ten minutes. The address was on Main street and he said it was next to a Subway. San Antonio College is between San Pedro and Main street so I just started walking across to the other side. I didn't know which way to turn when I got to this corner so I just went impulsively. I had to pee real bad, but I didn't want to take the time to find a bathroom. I wanted to be there at two like I told him I was going to be. Just then I walked past this little doorway in a recession of the building. "Perfect," I thought. I unzipped and pee'd, zipped up and kept walking. Coincidentally, the way I had chosen to get to the other side of the campus, was the right way. I had gone straight to the Latino Cafe where he worked. I walked inside and the clock read two exactly! There was a guy behind the counter and I asked him if he was Andres. He said no, that Andres was coming in at two. Ha! I had beaten him to his own job.
I went outside and smoked a cigarette and at about two ten, Andres pulled up with his friend who had given him a ride. I shook his hand and he went inside. He was late for work, remember? He told me he was going to have to wait for the other guy to leave before he could hook me up. While I waited, I talked to his friend about my ideas. I got up and asked Andres if I could get some water and he told me I could go in the back.
To make a long story short Andres is going to help me. The cafe would be the perfect place to hold meetings and it's right next to the college so people are familiar with the cafe already. "This is the beginning to a revolution, Andres," I told him. "Welcome." He made me a sandwich and gave me a brownie and some chips, for free. Yummy, free stuff tastes so much better. His aunt or something showed up and I talked to her while Andres was helping other customers.
I caught the 92 back to the hospital, and jumped on the 605 to go to the grocery store by my mom's house. It was around rush-hour so the bus was late and all the other ones had left. I happily walked the three miles home. While I was walking I noticed I had a rolled cigarette behind my ear, but no lighter. Right when I noticed, I saw some guy crossing the street. He was wearing a cowboy hat and boots. I asked him if he had a lighter and he pulled one out. Cool.
After a little bit I hopped on the bus and came home. What a great day. When I got to my moms house I noticed there were no cars there. "Cool! The computer's free so I can write up a paper on how my day went. Before I forget it all," I thought. Then I remembered I didn't have a key. I banged on the door hoping my sister was home or something, but no one answered. Bummer. I went to the backyard and rolled a cigarette, and turned on a Weezer tape I had made yesterday for my new friend Andrea. I then got the idea to check to see if the sliding glass door was locked and it was. Then I went to the side of the house to see if any windows were unlocked. Eureka! My sister's window was! Today really was my lucky day. I climbed inside and went straight to the computer and started typing up this paper.
An hour passed and my mom finally came home. Whew, I was glad I didn't have to wait outside. She came in and asked me if I got the job. I told her to read this paper when I finished it. When I was done I called her over to read it. I went outside to smoke a cigarette. I then remembered I didn't talk too nicely about her in my report so I went and told her, "Oh mom, there's some stuff in there that you probably shouldn't read, but you've seen it before, and its the truth," and went back outside to finish my smoke. When I was done I came back and asked her what she thought. She told me, "I didn't even finish reading it." Apparently she had read that stuff about her. I don't know how many times I have warned her, but she never took me seriously. Remember, she thinks I'm crazy.
- Victor
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[addendum]
Here's the conversation I had with Andres yesterday night:
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