Ironic that this post follows the last one… ah well…
Monthly Archive: April 2007
I was filing my papers away last night (still have a pile to go), and found a sonnet I wrote back in 2000. I have added it to my poetry page, with the imaginative title, “A Sonnet”. Please feel free to visit my poetry page and read it and the other poems I have posted.
http://www.stormloader.com/members/zaivala/
Hugs,
Me
SOARing
Today I completed the first of two full days of SOAR training. Nobody seems to remember what SOAR is an acronym for, but basically it’s a new way of helping people apply for SSI (Supplemental Security Income) or SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance), requiring more work on the “coach’s” part but, properly accomplished, getting them approved within 40 days, not two or three years. There were a lot of good people there, but I was the only one (a) receiving SSDI and (b) technically homeless. Again, my expertise in both areas and my glorious amount of knowledge from the inside (patting myself on the back, not really going there) has been of a great amount of value. (I also found that I got stiffed for about 5 months of SSDI, unless the rules changed between then and now.)
All these people were interested in helping others. And all of them were very busy people. And nearly all of them worked for an organization with more than a few million dollars per year of income. I might be able to talk myself into a part-time job actually helping people… I’ll keep it on the down-low until later in tomorrow’s training.
This has been hard on me. I have had to stay awake over 24 hours, and just got up from a nearly 6-hour nap. I hope to get a few more hours in before I have to catch the (ugh) MORNING bus to get back to the second day’s training session. I sort of did OK today.. might have talked a bit much, but nobody SEEMED to mind. Hope my perception is accurate. I also missed my weekly Asheville Homeless Network meeting, but since AHN was paying for me to go to this training they were expecting that.
I managed to wake up early enough tonight to catch Frankie awake still, and we got through a few more chapters of the book we are reading (I am reading to her, over the phone). We have gotten through 10 of the 11 books in this series, and are up to Chapter 7 of the last book. We’re going to have to move to a different series when we get done here. I must say, having Frankie to talk to every day helps me as much as it does her. She’s pretty close to homebound, and I’m pretty close to isolated, and she’s a wonderful friend. Had to say something, she’s been saying too many nice things about me on her blog lately, LOL.
Hugs,
Me


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You scored as Traveler. You are a Traveler Empath, you come from a time & place far removed from here. You are an innocent, in search of your own kin and have a difficult time understanding this world. You are lost & only want to find your way back home. You bring unique gifts to this world and share them with a loving heart. Although very misunderstood, you are also very forgiving. (from the “Book of Storms” by Jad Alexander at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Empaths/)
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I wuz on TV
I traded in my 15 Minutes of Fame for two hours of obscurity today. I was on “The Mad Scientist’s Tea Party” on local public access channel URTV today. Not taped, not rebroadcast, totally live with no sets or anything. On the other hand, I was offered two more hours of obscurity any time I want… they invited me back, open invitation. The show airs on Charter Cable in Asheville only, Channel 20, from Wednesday through Friday, 4 to 6 pm. The host, John Blackwell, has long been a fan of my music. I got to play 4 songs, and I chose well… “The Word of God” by Catherine Faber, “Shallow End of the Gene Pool” by Hank Card (Austin Lounge Lizards), “The Seven” by Michelle Hansard, and later “Fisherman’s Wharf” by Stan Rogers. They kept asking me if I wanted to play more… John knows me better than that, get me going and you can’t shut me off… It was loads of fun, and John did record to DVD and might get me a copy later. I never know how MUCH later, you can’t really hold John’s feet to the fire and expect results.
Hugs,
Me
You are The Lovers
Motive, power, and action, arising from Inspiration and Impulse.
The Lovers represents intuition and inspiration. Very often a choice needs to be made.
Originally, this card was called just LOVE. And that’s actually more apt than "Lovers." Love follows in this sequence of growth and maturity. And, coming after the Emperor, who is about control, it is a radical change in perspective. LOVE is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can’t understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. This card indicates that the you have or will come across a person, career, challenge or thing that you will fall in love with. You will know instinctively that you must have this, even if it means diverging from your chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it you will never be complete.
What Tarot Card are You?
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With the downs come the ups. My mom added some money to my bank account — enough to buy food and pay the bills that Rhonda didn’t help me with (not enough to pay the other two which I had already decided to default on, but hey). She suggested there may be more help in future months, but would not commit to it. I talked to my food stamp worker (despite the fact that they have not given out food stamps for over 7 years, they still call it that), and she raised my food stamps EBT to $33 a month, not enough to make a huge difference but it helps… won’t take effect until May. Getting good support from my friends, although sometimes I have to use a cattle prod to get their attention, LOL. My cousin is home and says her leg feels different than before and better, although of course it hasn’t finished healing and hurts like hell. There is a memorial service for my friend Amergyn soon, but I don’t think I can get a ride.
Hugs,
Me
With the ups come the downs. Rhonda has said that she cannot pay me for what she owes, which includes an unauthorized use of my credit card before we broke up. For the first time in 9 years, I am having to default on some of the credit loaned to me… and still don’t have money for groceries. Needless to say, I am very bummed by this. I may be able to get my food stamps increased, since my rent and utilities went up quite a bit. I’ll talk to them tomorrow if I can.
Waaaah
Hugs,
Me