So, after work yesterday I ran to the bank to get some $$ so I could pay my overdue phone bill. Then, I called someone who told me "hey, didja know your phone is disconnected?" And shonuff, that mug is CUT OFF. I'm a day late & $150 short. Cause that's the deposit, y'know. $150. It sucks doubly because it was in my daddy's name. He knows, and he SAYS he's not trippin, but I feel like a shithead anyway.

So, no phone for a good long time. Which means no internet, either. Pops is talkin about getting me a cell phone, which would be kinda cool, I guess. I wouldn't be able to get online, though. I never really tripped off of having a cell phone, mostly cause I don't have anyone to call. It would just be my mom, maybe my job or Jayden's school. Although if it's my only phone, obviously it'd be more folx than that. I just think cell phones are a humongous ripoff. They're way too expensive and you only get so many calls before you get charged beaucoup bucks per minute. So whatever.

But the best news of all is that today MY CAR IS GOING TO BE TOWED TO A GARAGE AND SOMEONE IS GOING TO START WORKING ON IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes kiddies, Ol' Cutty will be up & runnin in hopefully no more than a month! Don't ask how I'm gonna pay for it all...Daddy says he's gonna help, but he doesn't make as much $$ as he makes plans for, so I don't know. But it's at least a step in the right direction, eh? Except I've got to scratch up about $400 to get my license back, get it registered, pay these bullshit ass tickets, and get some insurance. And I've got to do it quick, or my mom'll get her hands on my car and she's an ex-cabdriver - she's awfully hard on cars. But you can't tell her about it, cause she's crazy and she'll scream and have a tantrum (she has LOTS of tantrums, about stupid shit, and there's nothing more pathetic than a grown woman having a tantrum). But she is. Cutty don't like the way she drives. And I know if my car is running and I don't have my license she'll talk me into letting her use it...

Anyway I'm thinkin with my fingers here and I've got to get back to work now. Ciao!

Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Folx. Merry Christmas!

Tonight I rode the 40L bus out to East Oakland to get my son from my mom's. It brought back memories, for real. I rode the 40 for years and years. The route's changed a bit over the years - back in the day it would continue eastbound after Foothill becomes MacArthur at 73rd Avenue, but now it turns south on 73rd and then east at, I think, Bancroft.

It's a long line, from San Leandro through East Oakland, downtown, North Oakland, to downtown Berkeley via Telegraph Ave. The 40L makes limited stops, every third or fourth one through the East Side. It was the first bus I ever rode by myself, when I was seven. When I was in the Oakland Children's Chorus I caught the 40 out to Beebe Memorial church on the North Side twice a week, on Wednesdays after school and on Saturdays.

I caught the 40 from 51st Ave and Foothill down to the pool at Fremont High, where I learned to swim. We caught the 40 to 27th Street and Telegraph to shop at Sears and the Wherehouse. I rode the 40 to transfer to the 18, which took me to McChesney Junior High and later to Oakland High. The 40 was the bus I rode to get to summer school at Castlemont, and in the 12th grade I rode the 40 to 23rd Ave and walked a couple blocks to the Oakland Emiliano Zapata Street Academy. Most importantly, the 40 goin Norty was the bus that took us to Berkeley, where we'd cut school and hang out in People's Park or buy pizza at Blondie's and cause as much trouble as we could think up.

Man, the 40 used to be a crazy ride. Sometimes you could get a contact on the 40. I got in fights on the 40. Usually there'd be a fool or two somewhere along the line, and that'd provide plenty of entertainment. In the late 80's I lived up by 106th Ave and I worked downtown, on Franklin Street. Sometimes it took that damn 40 an hour and a half to get downtown. Then they started the 40L with the limited stops, and I was hella happy. I used to catch the bus home in front of the Tribune building, before the 40 started turning left at 11th instead of 13th. Often I'd sit at the bench and smoke a half a joint waiting for the bus. I enjoyed being high and trippin off the crazy mofos on the bus.

I haven't smelled smoke, weed or Newport, on a bus in years. If people still fight on the bus I don't see it. Maybe it's just cause I'm older now, and I don't see the secret crazy society of the young anymore. But the 40, the 57 and the 82, all buses that used to be pretty rowdy, are quite mellow these days.

Tonight's ride was cramped, and there was an unfortunate man who smelled pretty awful. Even though it was freezing there were windows open, and most of us around him covered our noses. Fortunately for me, he got off the bus soon after I got on. At Eastmont (can't call it The Mall anymore, cause a mall it ain't) there's a new metro center for the buses, and I got off there and caught the 57 six blocks down MacArthur towards my mom's house. Jayden had been sick, and was with my mom the past two and a half days. As interesting as it was riding the 40L again, wasn't no way in hell I was gonna ride an hour on the bus with my baby. So I dropped a twomp and took a cab all the way back home, to my nice little hurray-I-escaped-the-ghetto apartment.

And if anyone, anyone at all, out there in blogland knows what the "AC Mob" was, you are certifiably O Town Old Skool and u should send me an email.

Have I mentioned that I can't stand the president of the United States of America? I hate him, his policies, what he supposedly stands for, his crooked fambly. I can't stand that lyin ass man.

Jayden's birthday party, yesterday evening, was very cool. I don't have any pix for y'all, because my cheapo digital camera doesn't work well in incandescent light, and I forgot to get a disposable one. I did get much of it on video, though. His cake was decorated like a construction site (what else?!), complete with trucks & diggers. He had one whole piece just for digging in the frosting with the lil' backhoe & bulldozer. He got so much stuff! A toy chainsaw, books, stickers, a camping set with compass, binoculars, magnifying glass & flashlight. He got a wooden 18-wheeler, a mini-truck racetrack, Jake Justice the rescue hero, and some brand new Hard Hat Harry videos. We had pizza & cake, opened presents, danced & played with Jayden's uncle, auntie & grandma. The grownups had almost as fun as Jayden did!

Happy Chanukah to you all. My prayers this holiday season are, fervently, for peace.

I can let my life pass me by
or I can get down and try
to work it all out
this lifetime

Good for Davis - I was finna get highly upset about that budget cut. We still got miles to go, tho'.

If I were a work of art, I would be Pablo Picasso's Three Musicians. I am colourful and provoking, always looking to break out of the mould and to pioneer new ways of doing things. I have a jaunty outlook and although I am a bit weird, most people have some idea what I'm about. Which work of art would you be? The Art Test

(thanks George!)

Today I went to the doctor and I'm happy to report that my blood glucose was 90 and my weight is down sixteen pounds.

Whoo hoo!

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