Soooooooo, here I am on January 28, 2015 and what a serious nightmare my post Katrina life has been. It started with me having to get back to work during 2005 which was the year that I went on leave. I ended up in Rapides Parish looking for a job. I tried Pineville High, they rejected me. Then, I tried a few other schools in the area, they rejected me. I was a certified lifeguard so I tried to sell my assets in that area, but I most certainly scared the poor lifeguard on duty at LSU Alexandria (he even threw me a life buoy after I demonstrated that I could swim 500 yards. I even applied (and took the test for) the local adolescent-female mentally ill home. I would have taken that job, but that very day I got the call from Tioga Jr. High School to come in for an interview. Apparantly, according to the principal John Grimes I was "not going to get anything else", he laughed jokingly. So, laughing right back (and quite hungry) I accepted the invite, did the interview, and went through the long procedure of signing up for Rapides Parish Public School teacher. It was fun, all in all, the 5 or so months I sat in for the regular 8th grade science teacher (she was expecting). But, alas as with the generation of today you either connect with them or you don't.
On some issues my traditional learning cycle methodology worked. On other levels, however, I proved to be more of a true physics high school teacher than the BIOLOGY substitute teacher that they planned for me to be. So, shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! on certain issues like Creationism, procreation, sexual developmental points of view (like revealing to students that we're all hermaprodites in the womb) I was shocking to say the least. Actually, I was right down offensive to certain foreign students who, as children go, were revulsed at the thought that the sexual organs originated from the same 'budding' system, i.e., ovaries are testicles, etc., etc. You get the picture .... things that I knew about, but things you prooooobably don't want somebody like me teaching your kids, if you're conservative, racist, and/or squeemish to a great degree.
At the end of December 2005 (that year I was on leave, remember?) I was exhausted still getting over the pneumonia, Katrina, and the death of my father from earlier that year. I couldn't get through to the kids even with the biology and environmental science experience I had. So, since I had made several trips to what was left of New Orleans already and surveyed the house I made plans to leave Central Louisiana and return 'home' (or what was left of it). I got back with all my stuff after several trips placing much of the stuff into storage and the rest at my aunt's house. The trailer we'd ordered through FEMA arrived so thank God I had someplace to stay. The next thing to do was secure employment. I'd worked at Channel 32 before during the spring and summers of 1986 (the Papal Visit) and 1987 (The Republican Presendential candidate campaign). It was sooooo much fun and I had just re-enrolled at UNO in Electrical Engineering (that's another story). I volunteered at Ch 32 again just as I did decades ago and, as luck would have it Ch 12 needed some place to shack up so they were there as well. That's funny because Ch 12 happened to be at Ch 32 back at the seminary on Carrolton Ave. one of the years back in the 80's.
At first it was a love love relationship. We got along very well I being one of the only people that would walk into the rain soaked and hurricane destroyed building. It looked like swiss cheese. Holes in the roof, the walls, and not really a place to run a business based on electronics. It was a mess, but I helped the engineers and technicians rebuild just enough to run the place producing, recording from satellite, and broadcasting shows. We were in love ... until, you know, I proved to be a heterosexual in the land of communications majors. Everyone knows that music, art, communications, and some teaching areas are no no's for guys who really like women. Over the months and years, especially as the talent returned, I became less and less popular. Special 'eyes' were focused on me in relation to my proximity with certain members of the crew, especially certain talented hosts/producers/directors. The montra was "David, David, he's our man, if he can't do it (ahem, get the technical shit work done) nobody can." That was all of 2006. By the second month of 2007 I was handed my walking papers. By June, I was definitely out! But, I'd been advised to take my retirement fund from the public school system which gave me a solid nest egg for a good number of months ... that is until Bob Gass from Channel 4 gave me a call on the day that I was standing in the middle of the Public School system headquarters parking lot. To make a long story short, I was to be a master control operator again .... BUT OVERNIGHT, GRAVEYARD SHIFT. Yes, if you saw some of the crazy things that went on overnight at Channel 4 from 2007 to 2014, I was probably responsible for either causing it or saving the station from it. At first, admittedly I worked tape deck watching others do their tasks ... including other master control operators. Then, after a probationary time period, it was my turn. I had my goofs, and then there was that time a whole 8 hours of my on-air computer log was missing. Thus, I had to go in and create 8 hours of a schedule (not knowing yet how to download the log from the master computer).
I worked this shift not knowing that loosing sleep, pain killers to get to sleep during the day, antacids to calm my stomach, gallons of coffee (not decaf), and of course the most unhealthy food of the region was increasing my blood pressure. I ended up in the emergency room a couple of times not realizing that I was grossly overweight, and yet malnourished. I was a hot mess of nerves, that is, until about 5 years into this disaster I called my life I got recertified as a lifeguard. Master control really did not pay that well for someone still trying to finish school, and so I needed another source of income. So, get this, in addition to television, I was also volunteering as a musician at Ocscher Hospital (as I did for 7 years or so), and I decided to go to EMT school. So, I had 2 jobs, my volunteer job, EMT school, and maybe 3 hours of sleep between the day shift and the night shift. Lucky for me I got the bright idea to start swimming miles AND LOSING THE WEIGHT! I eventually was assigned the task of teaching aerobics after I was moved from Harrell Playground to the Joe Brown Park facility. I was pooped, however, and it showed. Over the summer when given the chance I would go on leave opting to take my vacation from the television station (CH 4) at the same time. I would usually go to visit my mom up north (who I should have never separated from after Katrina, technically). But, during the summer of 2014 I got really adventurous and embarked on a 2 week vacation trip to Los Angeles, where I have relatives from both my mother and my father's side of the family. It was a blast, and I needed to get away from New Orleans (which is not really recovering in the direction I wanted it to after Katrina). It was time for me to leave, even though on the week before I was to leave my first cousin lost his life to special complications. So, very sorryful, I left the very day of the funeral, not getting a chance to say goodbye like his relatives from California and around the country probably wanted me to. So, we criss crossed, as they made their way from L. A., I happily made my way toward my Pacific destination. I kept Chris in mind, but I enjoyed the vacation to the fullest visiting Venice Beach, Man's Chinese Theater and Hollywood Blvd., and other places I had enough cash to visit. I even got the invite to visit, and stay with, relatives who I'd not seen for decades. I even met a relative I never actually met (Freddie) but had talked to frequently. The train trip to and from the Pacific Coast was a blast, too.
Then, I got back home .... got the old dogs out of the vet, and attempted to return to life as I was living it, such as it was. But, fate had something else in mind for me. Even though I had been barely getting by on the two jobs that I had, I eventually got the word that Channel 4 was letting me go, right after I had gotten out of that fire engine red Mustang and into an economical Fiat Sport 500. I was so excited to be paying $200.00 less for the Fiat than the Mustang and would soon make the payoff on the reduced priced vehicle after trading in the "fire engine mobile". "Fine", I thought, "no more dirty looks from people thinking that the Mustang was out of my price range anyway". That's just when I got word that I was being laid off from the station. What's more, I was getting paid less as a year round lifeguard anyway. So, I voluntarily left that job at the same time.
Then, it finally hit me .... nothing to do! I searched and searched, even getting ready to file for unemployment. I'd gotten a of song copyrighted and spent some time LOOKING FOR AN ARTIST TO PERFORM IT as well. Write me at MrDavidCJohnson@aol.com if you are interested, I'll let you hear it. Probably later on today, not kidding, it will be on MySpace along with another song I wrote. You'll like it.
Anywayz, I registered with the local GOODWILL UNEMPLOYMENT agency, nice people. You're asking why I didn't just apply as an experienced Master Control Engineer at another local television. Really, I'm not the disaster I may portray myself as, but there were so many things to learn at one time one after another with NO ONE to show me, the GRAVEYARD SHIFT GUY, how to get out of jams that I had to TEACH MYSELF how to do it all. I applied to Channel 6, Channel 38, Channel 26, Channel 49, and I was even escorted out of Channel 12 twice I believe for even showing up asking for a job. I presented my resume to some of them and upon revealing my intention to graduate in Electrical Engineering with a full salary, I was sneered at and shown the door.
Sooooooo, I had been friends with the Security Guards at the television stations. I guess I'll finally train for the job. I did it, and Vinson Guard Service responded. I should say here I actually did a little 4 day stint as a waiter at Cafe Du Monde. Now, that I both liked, and hated. I trained at it, and most people were very helpful and nice. But, the one thing about waiting tables is that what people see on the menu is NOT what the business puts in the waiter's head to learn. 4 begneits are actually 'an order' and a medium coco is actually 'a large', and so on an so forth. Whew! I am NOT a waiter! At the same time Vinson hired me, I'd applied to Delgado Community College's Science Tutoring center in an attempt to get back into teaching to some degree. I even know the Physics Department Chair from us both being at Xavier. So, once again, I had two jobs at the same time, just what I financially needed, but not really what I wanted. And, as one could guess it wasn't long before there emerged a TIME CONFLICT between the tutoring center and the security guarding. I was going to have to piss off one or both employers at one point in time. But, since Vinson was the moneymaker it would have to be the 'flexibly houred' tutoring center to take the hit once in a while. Wouldn't you know it, however, after all those years working overnight a guard position opened overnight as well. I took it: 12 hours straight from 7 pm to 7 am driving around guarding parked vehicles in a private neighborhood. But, as explained, the tutoring center needed me and I was originally assigned to close the facility. But, the times overlapped and I had to leave to do my security job and could not close the tutoring center. After all, I wasn't the only one tutoring... eh?
Well, not until this semester when my good friend and partner in crime who covered for me actually had to leave to pursue his life goals. Thus, when returning this semester and seeing the gaping hole in the daytime tutoring schedule, I TOOK IT! There were still night time tutors. Well, due to a very large problem associated with high blood pressure (which I have since beaten and don't want to acquire again) and just not feeling a tight fit with the guard service, I am deciding to leave it. But, me and the tutoring center are still sparring about the fact that they hired me to work nights, but it's more convenient for me to work mornings for the time being. The poing is that it's really not a career, after all, and admittedly they were used to hiring students who had just taken the course to tutor other students, and I'm used to having ALOT of flexibility with the topic of tutoring others. I actually opened my own tutoring business to teach music, art, physics, math, chemistry, etc. and all things that students might need.
Meanwhile, over the Christmas holidays I decided to write "Forgiveness & Avoiding the Negativity Trap!" (on Amazon by the way). That is where I hope to make some change, as my dad would say. Between that and the song I should be living pretty well off, but they have to catch on somewhere. All that I can say is that I'm praying .... for the intercession of St. Jude I'm praying for a Miracle. With the intercession of St. Anthony I'm praying for a Miracle. I may not be at the tutoring center much longer as per the fact that it does not pay that well anyway. I need a career!! I pray for others, please pray for me. Thanks. :)
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