Learning to Breathe Again
I've been sick for the last week and a half. Allergies. I am so in touch with my inner phlegm. I can breathe again, thankfully. There were a few days last week that I just wanted to die. I'm going to be tested next week to possibly become part of an allergy study. It means free meds and getting paid. Love it.

My brand new Epson Printer/Copier/Scanner just arrived today and I love it.

My roommate informed me that we are going to have a houseguest for the next three weeks and because of it, he is knocking $100 off my next month's rent. When I told him that he didn't need to do it, he insisted. So, I love that too.

Things at the Pizza Factory keep getting weird and annoying. I got a promotion to Take-Out about 6 or 7 weeks ago. Oh yeah, I have a master's degree and 20+ years of work experience and I am now good enough to work in Take-Out. Look out World! The job is not so bad. It's the bullshit that comes with working in a corporate franchise. There are rules for everything. There are standards about how far you can roll up your sleeves; what time you can phone in sick; and how many employees are allowed to sit together at one table. I just try to roll with it if I can. I recently addressed some other bullshit at the Pizza Factory. I was recently told by one of the managers that I come off as short to some of the employees (read: he doesn't like the way I talk to him like an equal) and I needed to work on my communications skills. I remember looking at him while he spoke to me like a I was the fry boy at McDonalds. "I want you to work on this. It's an issue." I wasn't sure if I thought this situation was weird was because I was ill and feeling funky. Or was the situation just "funked up." I wondered when Ashton Kutcher was going to jump out and tell me that I had been Punk'd. He never did.

Major announcement: The comedy duo of Straight & Nappy is over. Rebecca and I have decided not to continue our working relationship. It is a little sad but I'm actually quite relieved. It was a lot of work. My goal is to put that kind of ingenuity into my personal career. Below is one of my favorite Straight & Nappy characters in a scene that I loved. The character is named Dolores and she is transgendered. Her best friend Carl is also transgendered. I originally wrote the scene while watching the documentary series Transgeneration . The scene was later re-written but this is the earliest version.