About Me

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Vancouver Island BC., Canada
Welcome to the place where I exercise my right to be commentator, advocate, or as some might see it, babbler. What ever your take is, this is where I can take what I have seen and try to make sense by writing it out. Take the ride or don't but I hope something here will resonate with someone out there. My take on humanity right now? We aren't getting it right, but I like to think that given a second chance, we could all get it right. If you do venture into my ramblings I hope you can stay a minute and read two of my posts. They are "Innocence Lost, A Challenge Gained" and "The Hollywood Glandslide" I am a journalism student but please don't read these with a critical eye. I have not stopped to punctuate correctly, nor have I "essayified" them. These are written when the thoughts strike me, and therefore I do not want to "pretty them up." I wanted to catch my thoughts as they came and then later on go back and read them to see if my ideas change over time. Please feel free to comment, this may have a bearing on whether or not my ideas do change. And change... if for the better, is always a step in the right direction.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished!


Wow, I never thought I would say this, but yes...NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED!

I was driving my boyfriend to work when I saw this poor guy laid out on the sidewalk. Nobody seemed to care, and even though my boyfriend said the guy was moving I needed to check on him. So I pulled the car over on the side of the street, and Darren and I hopped out and ran over to the guy.

This poor man(some may not agree), but this poor man was lying on the sidewalk with his guitar clutched in his hands. He opened his eyes upon my inquiry. "Hi," I said, "are you okay."

His reply was soft and polite. "I'm fine mam, I just need to lie here okay?"

I knew we couldn't just leave him there so I asked if it was alright if we helped him to the bench.

"No thank you I am fine I just need to lie her a bit and then I will be on my way." he weakly replied.

Knowing that I had to get my boyfriend to his work on time, I tried to be a little firmer without sounding like I was condemning him. I knew that this man probably had just done a little to much of his drug of choice, and judging by his pupils I could tell it was probably heroin or a cheaper alternative. I also knew by how thin he was that he had not been eating and was therefore in jeopardy of overdose because of his frailty. His poor heart probably could not stand much more of this lifestyle.

" We are just going to help you up and get you over to the bench in this park over here okay?" I spoke a bit firmer. "We can't just leave you here on the sidewalk."

"Okay," he said with resignation. "If you could just move my guitar for me, I will get up myself."

I knew that wasn't going to be the best plan so I gave Darren the guitar and walked behind him in case of the inevitable. After being on his feet for all of 5 seconds the inevitable happened, and I was soon playing back catcher.

We got him to the bench and unfortunately by this time it was time to hurry and go.

Fortuitously as we were getting back in the car I spotted a cop car. I ran across the street where they were waiting for the light to change and told them, " I know this guy probably is just using and has done a little too much. But I am worried about how weak he is. Could you please check on him." The woman officer said yes and that was that.

After I dropped my boyfriend off I swung by the park and saw that the man had managed to get himself up and was walking down the road. Not surprisingly though as the cops were there and he knew if they took him somewhere it would mean detox. Though saddened at the outcome, I drove on my way to Tim Horton's for a soup.

Here is where my good deed starts to go sour.

After getting my soup and joking around with the people inside Timmy's I was thinking what a great day.

Then something crept into my mind. I started hearing the saying, No good deed goes unpunished, rolling around in my head.

"Curious," I thought. "Why on earth would my brain come up with that?"

"Oh, oh," my brain screamed, "this can't be a good omen."

As I was making my way over to the car, I noticed my guitar man walking down the street, and railing at the world as he walked. His arms swinging in agitation to the world, he was shouting something about his landlord, and how he couldn't be expected to pay his rent on time because he was ill and he was taking all kinds of medication including Valium. Didn't seem to come as a surprise to me.

I was so worried that this guy was now going to become violent with the teenager walking towards him, that I pulled out of Timmy's and went the opposite way that I was supposed to.

As I made the turn I saw that all was okay and the teen walked past guitar man without incident.

I hadn't realized what I had done until I saw a cop car behind me in the rear view mirror. The lights were flashing and something told me that oops, I think this is because I went the wrong way.

I pulled over promptly and when the officer got out of the car I noticed it was a woman. At first I thought oh this is the same officer that I asked to check on the man. "I wonder if she needs me to testify about something, I hope he hasn't done anything wrong." At the same time I was thinking OK no that couldn't be it, they wouldn't have let him go, I noticed it was a different woman officer.

This officer asked me, "Do you know what you did back there," I was pretty sure it had something to do with my turn, so I replied, " yes sorry, I was watching the man whom I had the officer check on, and wasn't thinking about the turn." I should have said. Nope, what did I do officer? But dang it, I can't lie. Wish I could, but I can't.

She was probably thinking, what the heck is this woman talking about... and is she drinking?

But instead of taking a breathalyzer she said, "What man are you talking about."

I explained, and she said OK just wait there. I had to giggle because what was I gonna do, make a run for it!

I really thought that when she came back she would have found out about my asking for aid from the police for this guy; however, what really happened wasn't as karma induced.

She instead said, " I' m sorry to inform you I am going to have to give you a ticket for an illegal left hand turn." I was dumbfounded and could only inquire to how much the ticket would cost. 109 dollars she replied. At this amount I was even more dumbfounded and with that amount I realized that this month was going to be a hard one. The tears started to well up so I just nodded my head and said OK thank you. OH MY GOSH, I am not sure why I said thank you but this is one time I wish I had not been so darn polite. She said it was because there had been so many complaints but you would think that after my good deed I wouldn't have been punished. Maybe a warning would have been more appropriate in this case. I could see if I had just been blatantly ignoring the sign, which I am assuming there is a sign there. You know I don't even know if there is. I need to go check that out, because if there isn't I should fight this. Being on disability is hard enough without having to pay 109 dollars for being a good citizen.

You know what? I think I am going to check into this anyways. I really feel that I do not deserve this. I feel as if I was the person who got the slap for others doing this all the time. This is the first time I have done this and it was because of a good reason. Yeah I know, just because it was for a good reason doesn't make it right. But surely it didn't warrant me having to buy less groceries this month. And I don't even have any tickets except for one years and years ago and surely they could have looked at my record and my reason and given me a slap on the wrist instead? I don't know, I just know that this still will not stop me from helping people. It just stings a lot. Thank you to those who have listened to my rant. I needed to voice it. I don't feel better, but I hope soon I will. Talk to you all soon.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

As The World Turns; A slightly changed version.


Well, well, it's that time of year again, a birthday is about to assault me. Yes... a truly wonderful time to go insane!

I really have to get my humour back don't I? I told you all this was to be a place to laugh and have fun at my expense but I am just dragging you all down with my in the downward spiral.

But I believe tomorrow will be a turning point. Yes indeedy, it is gonna be the start of a new day.

Well Duh! tomorrow is a new day anyway, but seriously I am even going to buy myself a lottery ticket because I am sooo sure it will be a new era of happiness, prosperity and a turning point in my health. Ok well one out of 3 would be great. And 2 out of 3 I will definately take!

So tune in next time on... "AS THE TRULY NUTS WORLD TURNS" In the next episode we will see this overly optimistic woman buy a lottery ticket and win, get all A's at college, walk outside find her crappy car has been stolen but in it's place someone has left her an brand new Candy Apple Red Tesla, and she finds her keys don't fit her 400ft sqare apartment but they fit the 4 thousand sqare foot mansion that is on the water front. All in all it will be an exciting episode. So tune in and have your life changed too; just by watching!

See you soon!