Happy Birthday, James Alton White
June 7th was his birthday. He would have been 80 yrs. old. When I was born, he was a forty year old man.

I did manage to get my healthcare provider status from the insurance company on June 1st. The practice where I work gave me three clients as a result. And then I obtained two more just because a new intern at the office was eager to please the office manager and do intakes quickly.

On the other front, the kids are continuing to be elusive. And not just them, but one of their caretakers too. Therapy is something you usually go for when you want help. These kids want to be left alone, and so do some of their parents. But the agencies that get mobile therapists involved with their families have other plans, and so out to Jersey I drive. Since the beginning this time around, I have recorded my travelling expenses. I've spent A LOT of money to get out there. That's why they pay so highly per hour--twice of what I'd get paid per hour from insurance. Next year's tax time will be interesting.

However, I paid June's rent. And I have a few details I left out;

1) The day after I won my eviction trial, my building was sold to a new landlord.

2) I did not in fact owe $4000+, but at the time, slightly less than the $2600 the former rental manager tried to get me to fork over.

3) On June 2nd I met the new owner when I went to his midtown office to give him the current month's rent check and thus obey Part 1 of the judges' order. Part 2 is to pay the back rent by the 24th. That's two weeks from now... except...

4) The new landlord said if I make some progress on this balance but do not pay it all off by the 24th, I should call him and he'd try to work something out with me. I'm sure he was open to this because I was there giving him what I was supposed to be giving him, and I was a presentable young man. (Oof. I'm not a young man anymore.)
So next week, I can pay nearly a monthly rent amount, and the following week I can do it again.

5) I am no longer a Starbucks barista. I quit so I can be more available to chase these kids around, and to have more time to study my craft and not be beat down at the end of a day.

6) I had no cable internet last week because I decided to be a grown up and let the service be interrupted so I could pay that check to the new landlord. Then today I reduced the TV service to save money.

7) I have 3 parts of my four-part NY application process sent out to their respective places. The last part is my own info, a check, and a certification of attending a two-hour class on reporting child abuse. Once I know where to take the class, and take it (how much it will cost, I do not know) I will then send in my info and be about to get busy in NYC.

Three months back, when I mused about death and its' relationship with myself, I felt that something would/could Change, and I'd have hope, and things would get better.

And wow. Here I am on the other side of that Change. All the planning I've been doing, and suffering as a result of my misfired faith, is coming to pass. I no longer feel like I'm making pathetic excuses for a miserably failed life. I goofed, and I addressed those goofs. I rallied. My friends stepped up and helped me float.

Then God illuminated the fact that He's been helping me all along. The things that neither I nor my friends could have made happen--the building selling, my perspective changing one day as if by itself, my car not selling, my getting the Starbucks' job at all, the urban renewal going on around here, it'a all a picture of Divine Grace.

Yes, thank you, Sir and may I have another?

R.I.P. James Alton White. Your son is climbing hard, but he just might make it after all.

Me at 6/08/2005 12:19:00 AM

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