What A Difference A Day Makes

So... I put up my last post at 4:48 pm on Tuesday afternoon. At that point things were looking pretty grim. No word on my withheld funds, no prospect of work for the next two weeks. About a half-hour after I posted, I got a call from Advantage with a 3-day fill-in assignment on Wed, Thurs and Fri of this week. Okay, nice. Big relief. Then, at 6:35pm ( Who’s still working at 6:35pm?) I get a call from my “caseworker” re: the status of my funds. As I’d hoped. He ruled in my favor that the issue was bullshit and released the $1500 in benefits that had been withheld for the past month. BIG, BIG RELIEF. A much-welcome break from the stress, anxiety, frustration and uncertainty of the past month or so. AND, as an added bonus, I ended up getting another couple days worth of assignments for next week, which is also helpful.

See, there’s a lesson for me to learn here and I’m trying to figure out if it’s simply about having faith and not getting myself so bent out of shape over shit I can’t control, or if it’s something deeper and more complex. Not quite sure, but I’ll let you know if I land on anything profound or insightful.

Follow-up items and random points of interest:

*The Car – We managed to get ANOTHER ticket for the expired inspection sticker. That makes 5. FIVE. Which is awesome. However, we were finally able to afford to drop the car off and have it inspected, so we can at least close the door on THAT ongoing headache. And remember the first jagoff I took it to who said I needed $1400 worth of work to pass the safety inspection? The Missus dropped it off at a different shop today and they called me with the estimate. He was totally affable and said everything looks good, we just need a couple new belts. Cost? $160. $160. That’s a big leap from the $1400 the other douchebag was asking for. What a racket, man. I’m definitely in the wrong friggin’ business.

*Pinkeye – The Doodle finished her antibiotics last night and she’s 100% back to normal. I mean, except for the whole missing-a-leg thing.

*The Stoop/Fuck/Porch – Only one day’s worth of work done this week, but they did finish the wall. Hoping it’ll be finished by the end of the month so we can enjoy early fall evenings outside.

*U2 – “PopMart Live from Mexico City” DVD released this week.

*My Wife’s Hair – The Missus got a haircut a couple weeks ago and it’s absolutely adorable.

*My Hair – Needs to be cut.

*The Mets – Currently lead the NL East

*Injured First-Round NBA Draft Picks – C’MON. This story is EVERYWHERE. They were even yammering about it on NPR this morning. Can I let you in on a little secret, guys? If your whole team rests on the well-being of one rookie player’s knee, then you don’t have a team.

*Movies – Very much looking forward to seeing this , this and especially this.

*Music (Live) – Saw The Veils again Monday night. This time at Bowery Ballroom. AMAZING. Just amazing. Looking forward to Arcade Fire in October and Gogol Bordello in November.

*Music (Albums) – A brief rundown of what I’m listening to this week:

The Organ – “Grab That Gun”
Elbow – “Leaders of the Free World”
Devotchka – “Una Volta”
Film School – “Film School”
fIREHOSE – “Ragin’, Full On”
Spoon – “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga”
Dinosaur Jr. – “Beyond”
The Clientele – “God Save The Clientele”
The Sea and Cake – “Everybody”

And of course the last 3 Gogol Bordello albums have been on non-stop rotation. What? You don't have them yet? That's really unfortunate. I'm trying not to judge you, but it's not working...