Friday, July 1, 2016

Walking To New Orleans

It's Friday.
I could have made sure I had gotten to the office here at Sacred Heart Apartments to get a complimentary "Jazzy Pass," one of which is given to each of us per month, ostensibly to assist us in our survival, by providing us the means to ride the bus all day for one day per month.
But, I woke up to the sound of my alarm and just ignored it. I couldn't remember what time I had set it for.
I am flat broke.
I made 3 one dollar tips last night, spaced about a half hour apart. The times in between saw gaps when nobody walked past for up to 10 minutes.
"It was slow out there," said Niko later, when I saw her on the trolley.
The skeezers were pacing back and forth. At about midnight, they seemed to have taken the night off.
I had run into Bilal, who had given me a set of strings.
I had paid him back for the last string bail out loan. I had made 36 bucks that night, after spending 10 on the strings and went into his gallery the next night and gave him 7.
"I invested the money into raw materials (strings) and then added value to them through labor (playing them)," I joked.
That was the last 36 dollar night that I have had in the past week or so.
I am flat broke, as stated, and soon will begin the walk into the Quarter.
It is the first of the month and there is really less danger in walking the streets because of all of the government checks that are in the hands of those who get them by faking mental illness or faking physical ailments.
This computer room, usually full at this hour, is empty except for myself and another white guy of about my age and from my same generation that never saw faking mental illness as a career move. We are truly the mentally ill ones. Allowing our self created senses of self worth, dignity and pride in our ability to be self sustaining, and shame in taking charity, to get in the way of a 500 dollar freebie that's just there for the taking; with social workers standing by to assist at every turn.
A lot of people think that they are high rollers when they have $505.00 in their hands, and will be out tonight, riding in cabs, eating at their favorite Chinese restaurants, etc.

Tonight seems crucial.
One more slow night, and I am going to shut myself away somewhere and meditate upon a course of action.
This is the last weekend that Tanya and Dorise are going to be here; they are taking off for parts unknown; separately.
Like I said, I am going to follow suit; even if I only leave here with 20 bucks in my pocket and a blanket stuffed in my backpack... 

4 comments:

  1. Are Tanya & Dorise not getting along lately? Where are they going? Back home to NYC? Or, Dorise to NYC and Tanya to someplace else, like California?

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  2. Dorise has cancer and has been cutting their usual 11 hour gigs short, Tanya continues on without her; with a backing track;
    I blogged about it when Johnny B. was clamouring to shmooze his way into her spot when she's not even dead...
    Dorise will go to Connecticut, Tanya to Formosa;
    Let's hope they've come a long way from putting leeches on people and can cure her breast cancer (I think that's one of the most "curable") I think it's the treatment that's making her tire easily; not so much the disease...

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  3. I think Tanya's cancer can be cured if they caught it early enough, as for Formosa, I hear they're keeping it in Taiwan these days.

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  4. It will always be Formosa to the Huang family....

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