OK, Congress has voted itself a salary raise almost every year for the past sixteen years to combat rising cost-of-living costs (sitting currently at around $165,000/year). Question: Why, for the past nine straight years, has minimum wage not been raised even once? Are poor people/students/me not affected by the same rises in the cost of living?
Just a thought.
~DTAR.
Mesa, Arizona is one of three of the biggest forty cities in the United States which doesn’t have a property tax. One of the others is Las Vegas, NV which will never need additional funds as long as gambling is still legal. The other is some crappy town in Texas. We are in rather desperate need of funds, to the point where we were in danger of closing both of our museums and reducing the hours of the main library so that it is only open a few days a week. So, there was a bill to create a property tax. It wasn’t all that onerous. Only about 100 bucks a year for most homes. And for that money we would have kept these public things open, been able to fund more firefighters and police, and even been able to repair some of our notoriously bad city streets.
Well, consider the museums closed. Consider the library hours shortened, and the police and firefighters can stay home. The motion failed in yesterday’s election by a margin of 2 to 3 (40% for 60% against). The most common reason given for voting against in exit polling? “Because the city already mismanages their funds. If they really need the money so badly why did they sink $100 million in building an arts center?” WAKE UP YOU FUCKING MORONS! The Mesa Arts Center was built 100% without the use of city funds, you fuckwits! And the money we owe so badly which is forcing the budget cuts? We’ve owed it for over 20 years and the bill is just coming due! It’s no one’s fault who even still lives in Mesa! So you’ve decided to “teach the city council a lesson?” What, by ensuring that YOU can’t enjoy a safe city?
“Well why does Mesa need to keep growing anyway? Keep it the size it is!” (actual quote from the newspaper). Are you kidding me? Do you think this will stop people from moving into the city? NO! And you better hope it doesn’t anyway because then that precious property value that you are so fucking proud of is going to go right into the toilet. Hell it’s going to eventually anyway because really who wants to live in a city with no museums and a library which is only open three days a week?
My aunt has already asked if I want to sell her house for her. I said I would if she’d take me with her. I absolutely adore Mesa and have missed it since I’ve been gone, but seriously. This is just so ridiculous that I’ve been seeing red ever since I found out last night.
What is wrong with people?
~DTAR.
First off I missed the Partner’s Meeting for Keller Williams this morning. The reason? Because I wasn’t told that it was happening. JoAnn claims she sent out an e-mail blast, but seeing as how I’m 110% sure I didn’t get it I’m pretty sure it’s not my fault. Nonetheless I was chewed out for it. By five different people. Literally. Adding insult to injury is the fact that at no previous meeting have I ever been mentioned, and yet at this one my name was brought up TWICE, once to point out that I would be one of a few guinea pigs in our office working with a new web technology (talked vaguely about at my normal webpage: AshRhodes.com) and once to acknowledge that I’ve been working my ass off as a technology/education guru for little thanks and no pay. And I wasn’t even there for it.
On top of that, the whole reason I came into the office today was to go with a female agent to a sign-call appointment to help reduce the risk of rape/kidnap/murder (for her, that is), and yet the appointment was cancelled at a moment’s notice by the potential buyer saying he “needs to postpone” without of course specifying if he meant later in the day, later in the week, or later in the month. So that was a waste of shower gel. I was then chewed out AGAIN because I didn’t get an e-mail about ANOTHER meeting that at that point I was late for but could still attend. I went, and it was about that same technology that I mentioned before. During the course of this meeting I became splattered somehow with blue sharpie, totally ruining my favourite dress shirt and even managing to make it look like I had kissed someone wearing blue lipstick. I got mad skillz, yo.
Then of course came the not-being-able-to-find a gas station that would take the gas card that I had, then the being-so-desperate-for-gas-that-I-stopped-at-ARCO-and-paid-$50-instead, all of which were fun.
And THEN, I stopped to pick up A_____ when she got off work . . .
. . . and all that crap became just entirely OK the moment I saw her.
Yeah. I’m so screwed.
~DTAR.
So the whole Real Estate thing is what I’d desperately prefer to keep doing, but right now it is just NOT bringing in the money I need, you know? And by “money I need” what I really mean is “any money whatsoever.”
SO, I decided a few weeks ago to go back into the only business that I KNOW I can do well . . . Door Stewarding. I applied at a few places but didn’t hear anything and then on a lark applied at a bar in Tempe near where A______ works and was immediately hired on with great — almost embarrassing — levels of gratitude! So my first shift was last night, and I’m certain I don’t need to tell you all that the differences between it and Jinty’s were . . . striking . . . to say the least. It’s a nice place though, and despite the fact that a lot of my bretheren are a little on the small side for this line of work AND there’s not a female on the door staff, I think I’m going to really enjoy the job . . . assuming of course that I can get used to standing for 6 hours at a time again!
Well this is me blogging from my phone again while waiting for food, and I think it’s about to come, so I’ll say good bye. Wish me luck for day number two!
~DTAR.
. . . like, say, hosting open houses perhaps? I sit before you all currently in a vacant house in Gilbert, writing an update to my blog because I have sweet F.A. else to do with my time! There sure as hell isn’t anyone else here, after all!
I can’t really blame anyone but myself though. Had I been more on the ball I would have advertised and marketed this thing and might have some people showing up. Alas I didn’t find out I’d be doing this until Friday, so as a result I didn’t exactly have time to do all I should have.
Anyway. So yesterday I had an interesting experience. A____’s younger brother is just about to ship out to boot camp for the Marines, and they had a picnic for the families of such soldiers-to-be, and I was invited along. I’m torn to be honest. On one level, this young man is about to be given intensive training for a successful career if he wants it (and will be paid for the priviledge) and I’m a bit jealous of the options this gives him (though part of that may just be my jealousy of him being 17 with so many options open to him in general). But by the same token, I’m just disgusted by some of the attitudes of the drill instructors who were there. Frequently mentioned in a “ha-ha-just-kidding-but-not-really” manner was the fact that these kids are about to be utterly brainwashed by their training into believing that the Marines is the best thing that’s ever happened to them. Also lingered over with relish was the fact that the kids were now the sole property of the United States government. All in all it was just ever so ghoulish. What was even scarier though was the fact that most of these parents obviously didn’t have a clue as to what was going on and what the kids were in for. One mom even asked if she would be allowed to reclaim her son if he decided he didn’t like it! Scary!
Wow. Just had a young couple come in! Holy crap! I guess the day has officially not been a 100% waste of time after all!
OK. I think I’m bored with this now. hope everyone out there is doing just great . . . Oh, and do me a favour and wish me luck with A_____. Things are absolutely great with her. Amazingly fantastically terrific in fact. I’m just terrified that I’ll manage to screw things up as per usual!
Later on.
~DTAR
I was apparently mistaken, and the “Mel Elward Celebration of Life” will be open to the public. It will take place on Saturday, May 7th, 2005 at 10:30am at Mesa Country Club. All are welcome and we hope to see you there.
Papa’s obituary ran in both the Tribune and the Arizona Republic and you can read the Tribune’s here. I think it’s beautiful and was written by my mother, my grandmother, and my uncle (if the link is dead, you can download it here).
For those of you who can’t make it to the Celebration of Life, you can download the pdf version of the programme here. I hope to eventually have the 20 minute photo tribute available for download as well.
Many of you I will see on Saturday. Those that I don’t, I hope you are well.
~Daniel Thomas “Ashton” Rhodes
Happy late Beltane to all you folks out there who, you know, appreciate such salutations. Unlike some people that I’ve recently been speaking to, I did nothing to celebrate my favourite holiday other than spend part of it with A_____. And no, it wasn’t spent doing that! Pervert! Instead we played video games with her younger sister, grabbed some food, and then curled up to watch “The Whole Nine Yards.” All in all, very low key. There’s a reason though. Those of you who have been reading for a while know the story of me coming home this time last year, and the fact that I missed seeing my granddad one more time by just a single day. Well, that really was a year ago yesterday that he died, so celebrating the holiday of fertility and love seemed a bit perverse, you know?
There’s really not that much more to be said at this exact moment. I’ve got a really busy week ahead of me, but as long as it doesn’t involve me spending too much money that I don’t have, I’m OK with that! I do want to say congratulations to and however. These two radical feminists (in the nicest possible way) apparently have done something I could NEVER manage to do, which is win something off of the radio. They’re both pretty much ready to pee themselves in excitement over the fact that they got tickets to a very private concert with Imogen Heap (if you don’t know who that is, that’s OK. It means you’re neither a radical feminist nor a hippy. Good for you!). So yay for them and I hope they have a grand ol’ time!
Take care everyone,
~DTAR.
P.S. To those of you who care and in the interest of not gaining too many enemies, please allow me to point out that Imogen Heap is not actually a super militant feminist (read “wymynist”) singer/songwriter like, say, Ani DiFranco (and that statement will also earn me enemies, but whatever). I just mean that for some reason the fans of said Heap tend to follow a trend, at least when I was in Glasgow. I can’t really comment for here . . . I just like giving these two girls a really hard time. Because they’re easy targets! 
You know you love me, ladies!