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Punk Rock Work Ethic



Time flies when you’re working your ass off! The situation has changed a lot since the last post. Instead of banging my head up against a wall because I’m unemployed and broke, I’m now banging my head up against a wall because I’m employed and broke. I got hired on at a taco shop part time, but the night shift worker walked out two days before the manager’s vacation started and guess who got to fill in for the eleven hour shifts? It came right after I found out the I was being billed as an out-of-state student at UNM and had to drop out for the semester, so it was actually welcome news. Still, it was exhausting, and downtown Albuquerque at 2:30AM is nuts, but it’s over now and I’m back to my normal part-time schedule (hey, for punk rock former travellers, that’s about as strong a work commitment as you can hope for!).

We got our new apartment (moved in on the second) which is what put the pressure on when I realized I wasn’t getting student loans. Jessie, our gracious hippie landlord, let us move in on the agreement that we would pay August’s rent when my student loans came in, no later than the 28th. The rent is paid as of today thanks to the aforementioned crazy-ass work schedule.

The dire financial circumstances pushed us back to subsistence-dumpster diving, which is less fun than hobby dumpster diving. Also, because we got to a level of hunger and malnutrition that brought us to actually reveal to our friends how bad off we really were, the vegan kick-downs have been amazing. Seriously, a friend who works at a certain Ayervedic restaurant that shall remain nameless has brought us a bunch of leftovers and the feeling of nutritious goodness that you get from eating that stuff after weeks of pasta and dollar frozen pizzas is… well, you know. I really have to give it up to our friends; Daryll even bought a painting from us so we could go to the Goddamn Gallows show on Tuesday, and tomorrow he’s driving Johnny out to Crust In The Dust (I can’t go because I’ve gotta work ).

Everything has begun to turn around now. Like I said, I got paid, and my uncle, after a facebook plea for a $20 loan, gifted me $200, which means our phones won’t get shut off (oh, for the days when $200 would last a month of burritos and Mountain Dews!) and we’ll have food. Christian got a new bike so he’s selling Johnny his old one for $1500; Johnny has been frantically calling around for loans and already got $700 pledged. My bike is supposed to be looked at by a friend of Christian’s in a couple days which hopefully means I’ll be back on two wheels soon. I’ve written down all the favors and loans we’ve gotten so I can return it all in kind later. All I can do is keep moving forward.

I just wish I had some Cometbus to read… guess I’ll have to hold out for Zinefest in October ;) .

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