One morning, I awoke to find my checking account in the negative numbers. Long story short, it was a childish mistake of mine, mismanaging money and not realizing exactly how the system worked. It wasn't the first time this had happened, but on this particular day I was quite torn up. I was costing my parents mad cash with thoughtless errors, and I was quite down on myself. After taking Courtney to work, I was unable to go back to sleep, and I found myself sitting in the barn, in front of a big screen TV, next to a packed bowl. Now normally, my comfort-seeking self would have found this the ideal haven to chill out after a stressful ordeal, but on this particular day, I was determined to change. I got up, got dressed, and got down with the working world. I had seen an ad on craigslist for a hotel front desk job, and so I went to inquire in person. Long story short, After a couple interviews, I got the job.
Now, I had a four day a week job that took me from 7 am to 3 pm, but the job was an odd match from the start. The place is pretty run down as far as hotels are concerned. No pool, moldy rooms, bad look, not so bright a future at this place, but still, I was employed, making money instead of wasting it. After the first day, however, my feet were killing me. I hadn't stood up consecutively for that long since before the break, and I felt the consequences on Tuesday morning. I woke up at 5:30 in a near paralyzed rage, so I talked to my boss who told me to go to the doctor and see what he said. Long story short (again), my therapist wrote me a note that allowed me to sit down once every couple hours, and everything was going to be cool. I went back for my scheduled shift on Thursday and thought I had done an ok job in my starting week.
Today is Monday, and I woke up this morning ready to start week two. I got dressed, got Courtney to work and headed to the hotel for a 9 am start. When I got there, however, I was immediately told to come into the general manager's office. I sat down, only half expecting what was coming (I bet you can guess). Yep. I got fired, let go, dropped. Use whatever euphemism you like. This morning I had a job, now I don't. They said it was a "long term decision". The hotel was taking on more than it could budget, and they could only afford to keep on one new front desk agent out of the three they planned to hire. I think we all knew I wasn't likely to stay there long. My ambitions extend further than general manager of some piece of shit Sheraton, and I'm sure they could tell. Still, the experience was quite disturbing. I had never been fired before, and to have it happen so quickly after starting was, quite frankly, embarrassing. All those people I had mentioned it to, my parents and my siblings, thinking I was starting my employment, instead, I was ending it. But still... life goes on.
Now the story comes full circle. I had scheduled work so that I would have the majority of this week off to take my trip. I was originally going to take my little brother back to school in Ohio and notified the hotel of this prior engagement even before getting hired. Collin decided to fly back, however, and so this left me with the perfect excuse to get a couple days off and do my down south trip. I asked the hotel if I could have half the week off, and they said that would be no problem (yeah, I guess not). My plan was, and I guess still is, to leave tomorrow, Tuesday August 25th, and drive down to Roanoke, Virginia. From there, I will drive to Clarksdale, Mississippi and start seeing the trail of delta blues history, finally finding my way up to Memphis for the weekend, then back home to New England. It seems more necessary now than ever before. I will escape this bubble, meditate on my future and basque in the southern sun.
I will be writing constantly while I'm on my way, but it won't show up here until I'm back home. After I conclude the Blues Blog, I will start writing the Band Blog, a series of stories inspired by my life in an aspiring rock band. It certainly is an interesting time to follow your dreams, and the journey to realize those dreams should (and already has been) word-worthy. At the moment, I'm still stunned from this morning, hungry as fuck, and stuck on what else to write. So as I prepare to depart this part of the country, let me leave you with another haiku in the hope that it helps you when your time comes to get dropped like a bad habit. It's called, "Oh Well, Hotels Were Never My Dream to Begin With".
The hotel hell hole
I got fired from my job
And don't care at all.
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