Where's the money man? Where's the money?

You know, times are tough right now and it seems that everyone and every company is counting their pennies... me included. Well, add all that to the fact that I'm going on vacation in a couple of weeks and so I've been kinda extra careful with my funds lately. Imagine my surprise (I've been getting surprised a lot lately haven't I?) when I went to pay my mortgage and found that more than half of the money was missing from my account! I thought maybe the bank made a mistake and so I went to confront them and instead found out that someone has been siphoning money from my acount for at least a couple of months! Who? Who? How? Uh-oh, I guess I wasn't as careful as I thought and someone took advantage...
The bank is now performing an investigation. We'll see what happens...

The budget, the budget, the budget...

I had to report to work early today... seems I had two meetings to go to. The first one wasn't so bad, My immediate boss told me to write up evaluations on the level one supervisors here and hand them in to him. That task took about 30 minutes... no biggie.
The next meeting was a bit of a surprise; a shock really. I met with the director of my department along with two members of Human Resources... egads!!! Well, I was informed that due to the recession, there was no longer enough money in the budget to pay me! I felt like the floor was puled from under me! All I could think of was my wife, my kids, my mortgage, my bills... in just seconds my thoughts were spinning around in a miasma of fear and worry... then the two HR people, apparently seeing my thoughts play out on my face, assured me that I was not being laid off. They told me that there wasn't enough money in the budget of my present department to pay me! Sheesh, I'd nearly had a coronary. They told me that they'd look for another, larger department with enough of a budget to take me in. They said I wouldn't lose any pay and may even wind up in a place where I'd be earning more, maybe even my old department (which I loved!). They also said that if I found a position in the Job Postings that I felt I qualified for, to let them know via email and they'd put a good word in for me! Man, what a revelation... in the space of just a few minutes I went from jobless to maybe even getiing a better job! Wow.

Six Weeks of Meditation

On January 13, 2009 I was suspended from my job without pay "Pending Dismissal." I wound up being suspended for six weeks, at the end of which I wound up being quite broke, angry, upset, and introspective.
My first day back on the job was March 3, 2009. I knew I shouldn't be but I found myself being very upset with my bosses and my workplace in general. It took me several days after going back to work to remember that I should be grateful to have a job, especially in light of today's economic downturn. Still, I find myself repeating my new mantra, "I love my job, I need my job," over and over again.
Why was I suspended?
That's a conversation for another day...

Sleepy

It's about 6:30 pm and I'm sitting in the Rail Control Center for NYC Transit. It's a fascinating and impressive place, with a lot of stuff going on... unfortunately I'm sitting here waiting for a snowstorm that seems intent on taking its time. I had to do a double yesterday so I didn't get off 'til 3:00 am, didn't get home 'til 5:47am, didn't hit the sack 'til 6:00am. Got here at 2:00pm and have to stay until 10:00pm... so I'm kinda sleepy. Why is this a problem? Well, I'm supposed to stay alert in case of any emergencies, and I tried working on a couple of my short stories but I kept dozing off. Ah well, what can you do? I finally get some time I can use to work on some of my writing and I'm too sleepy to focus!

Reflection of Me anthology...

One of my short stories, The Toll, has been included in an anthology published by AAMBC Publishing. It's a decent story, kind of a Sci-Fi/Fantasy hybrid. I enjoyed writing it and I hope readers will enjoy reading it. I encourage all who enjoy African-American/Minority literature to purchase a copy of this anthology and give it a looking over, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Rain

Hi,

Well, it's raining out. It's a good day to watch a movie, curl up with a good book, or catch up with a writing project. It's also a good day to just stare out of the window and think about things.

The Thin Man...

Yes, the title of this particluar post is, The Thin Man.... and no it doesn't refer to the great mystery series that featured the erudite if perpetually inebriated Nick and Nora... it also doesn't refer to the fact that I have recently shed more than 20 pounds... unfortunately it refers to the fact that I think I may have spread myself a little thin in my quest for gaining more readers for my novel. What I mean is that since the publication of my novel, I have joined a myriad of literary websites, joined clubs, associations, blogs, organizations, fellows, etc. Now I find that in trying to keep up with all of those things, I actually wind up failing them all to one degree or another. Not only that, but I find that I spend so much time at those tasks that I haven't spent near enough time at my actual writing. Anyway, even with the knowledge that marketing is extremely important, I find that I must pull back somewhat if I am to ever finish (or even start) some of the other projects that I want to sink my teeth into. Do other authors exeperience this feeling of being pulled in multiple directions at once like a soft, malleable piece of taffy? Um-m-m, taffy, yum-yum. Do you feel guilt when you leave the marketing of your current project in order to work on your next one? Alas, until next time.... ciao.