2010 and Not Counting

Shortly before Christmas, I was sitting on a cheap, uncomfortable chair at a folding table in the Bureau office, wondering how I was going to survive the next seven hours and fifty-nine minutes of sitting and doing nothing. I had no actual work to do, no computer access ,very few co-workers to talk to and the rather daunting task of sitting and 'looking busy' until mid-Feburary.

Within a few hours,  the walls started closing in and I felt short of breath. Nothing brings on a panic attack quite like enforced inactivity, and this was mandated tedium at it's dullest. I could tell that I'd be freaking out if I twiddled pencils much longer, so I mumbled something about not feeling well to my boss- who agreed that I looked pretty shaky- and  I went home.

The next day, I just couldn't cope. The office atmosphere, the holidays, the cumulative disappointments of the  past couple years combined with the terrifying prospect of a no-future 2010...it was too much. I called in sick. I could scarcely afford to miss the hours, but I was afraid that I'd have a complete public meltdown if I went to work...it was not an easy decision, but I chose sanity over salary.

At 10:30 I received a call from an unknown number-probably a bill collector, I thought, letting the machine answer.

A woman's voice began leaving a message...I heard the words "I am looking at your resume" and made a mad, breathless dash to the telephone.

Am I still looking for a full-time job? As a matter of fact...

Do I have time for a telephone interview? Why, yes. I do.

And I did.

I must have given pretty good phone, because I got a callback later that day, scheduling me for an in-person interview the following week. This was the first non-Bureau job interview that I'd had in well over a year- I spent the days preceding it in a heightened state of nervous anticipation, playing and replaying myriad scenarios in my head:

Interviewer: So, Mr. C.- it seems that you have a history with the North Carolina State Police...you sold some bootleg Japanese cartoons to a Trooper back in 1996 and he was indicted as part of a RICO sting and your fingerprints were found on a VHS copy of Dragonball Z...

Me: Wait...I can explain. It started with a Traci Lords tape...no, wait, I mean Jackie Chan...

But that never happened. Instead, we talked about the job and whether or not I could do it.

I can do it, I concluded.

I went back to the Bureau office feeling a little better about the future. Just a little.

The next day, I was in mid-nothing at work when my cell-phone rang. Officially, we are not even allowed to answer our private phones on the office floor (security!) but I recognized the number as my potential employer- throwing caution to the wind, I answered.

It was my new boss, calling to offer me a full-time, permanent job with good pay and great benefits. Was I interested?

WOOOHOOO!

*ahem*

Yes. I accept.

Would I mind doing a drug-test?

Why? I'm pretty sure that I have tested all of them at some point in my life and I don't feel like repeating most of the experiences...oh, you mean a piss-test. Oh. Sure. (I didn't say it like that)


Can I take it now?

Yes.

So I did. I passed, was officially hired and I start next week. The new job is in a nice downtown building that is directly on the City bus route, door-to-door from my apartment to the office! Amazing.

Some folks hate the bus, but I prefer it to driving when it come to commuting. I enjoy the 30-minute "book-time" each way...plus, my car needs work. The less I drive, the better.

I turned in my Federal badge Monday and said goodbye to my friends at the Bureau. I won't miss the office, but there were some decent people there and I feel better for having known them...but that is the past.

This is now. Now is looking good.

Other News:

- I won our 'Fantasy Football' pool this year. I'm using my unexpected windfall to buy a vintage Morley pedal to use for...

- The Monday Machines CD, which should be completed and released on April 1, 2010- no fooling! But that is the subject of a whole other- and as yet unwritten- post. It may well be the happiest post of my life, so be warned.

-Goodbye to all this:

Hello 2010!

Worth Watching

Last night's Iowa caucus was a great night for a number of reasons. First, there was Barack Obama's upset victory over Hillary Clinton in the Iowa Democratic caucus. The Caucasian caucus-goers gave Sen. Obama an eight-point win over Clinton and put him in first place for the Democratic nomination...I was also glad to see that John Edwards was able to get more support than Hillary did, despite the fact that she heavily outspent him. It's great to see the underdogs taking first and second place, especially considering my utter disenchantment with all things Clinton. Her voting record of support for Bush's war puts the lie to her newly-adopted mantra of change- Obama doesn't have her experience, but he also doesn't have her baggage.

And then there was Obama's masterful victory speech. It was a work of oratory art. He managed to take what I considered his weak point- the call for bi-partisan cooperation- and turned it into a strength that even this hard-bitten cynic has a hard time denying. The Illinois Senator didn't say anything particularly novel , it was the way he said it that I found important.
There was a passion behind his words that leads me to believe that he is very angry- as angry as Edwards- at the current state of Government; there was more than a hint of velvet glove/iron fist diplomacy...why didn't he just come out and say: "I am gonna go Teddy Roosevelt on your ass" a la Edwards?


Oh.

I keep forgetting that America still has a long way to go regarding race and that, sadly, a significant number of non-black Americans will be uneasy with the idea of a black President - those voters would almost certainly be scared off by the idea of an angry black President.

The record number of white, middle-American Democrats who participated last night seems to indicate that race is, thankfully, a lot less important than the idea of change. It is inspiring to see new voters taking an active interest in politics- after all, it was a bored, disinterested public that allowed BushCo to usurp power in 2000.
And hold on to it in 2004.

Politics is like a sleeping pit bull- it may not be much fun to watch, but it's very risky to ignore.


Some observations :

- It's almost impossible to overstate the significance of a 98% white state tipping towards an African-American candidate. In Iowa , twice as many Democrats attended this year's meetings as in 2004- Obama will be unstoppable if he can inspire that sort of turnout in states with more diverse populations than Iowa. There is no reason to believe he cannot.
(Every state is more diverse than Iowa, btw)

- Obama , with a Kenyan father, has a personal connection to a region that mystifies many Americans, black and white alike. As violence rages around the election in Kenya this connection is increasingly important. Check out this map:


Can you find the unstable neighbors on this map? Obama can.

- A black president would be a powerful symbol to the rest of the world, a sign that America isn't over yet- that despite all our troubles we still have a better system than, say, Kenya or Pakistan. It would be a clear sign that we are moving forward, not backward.

- On the GOP side, turnout was around the same level as 2004- the big difference being the large number of evangelical Christians who turned out in support of Mike Huckabee, who apparently is holier than Mitt Romney.
The total number of GOP voters didn't much increase from 2004; for every Bible-thumper who came out to vote, a disenchanted conservative voter stayed home, indicating that the neocon-driven GOP continues to collapse. A few more implosions like Iowa and it'll be time to drown Grover Norquist in the bathtub.

- The Obama win is, hopefully, a warning to the traditional Big Money Democratic Party much in the same way that an ascendant Huckabee spells trouble for the Republicans. Out with the old, in with the new. That's an American tradition, ya know?

- By change, Huckabee means a return to 1950. I would like to say that a dim-bulb candidate like Huckabee doesn't stand a chance in a general election, but that's what I said about Bush in 2000. And 2004.

- The Iowa winners spent less money than the losers.

-The Iowa results accomplished another minor miracle- it kept Britney Spears off the news, even during a four-alarm public meltdown. Impressive.


Conclusion: Put me down as being for Obama, with Edwards as second.
It's a toss-up between Hillary, Ron Paul and Bullwinkle for third, leaning towards the Moose.
I hope it doesn't come to that.