Tag Archives: hard times

It’s Off To See The Wizard

It’s around 6:30 am and the radiator pipes are knocking.  During the night the pipes were pretty quiet so I got plenty of sleep.  My twenty dollar second-hand suit and my two five-dollar second hand shirts are ready.  It cost me eighteen dollars to get everything out of the cleaners. My black boots are clean and brush shined.  The two disposable razors, one for my face and one for my head, wait on the rim of the bath tub.  I’ve been shaving in the shower ever since I was an eighteen-year-old army recruit.  Around 8:00 am I’ll leave my nice warm apartment and walk the cold five Pittsburgh blocks to the bus stop at Forbes and Craig and wait for the 61B bus to take me to the employment and training center where this local hospital is having a job fair.  I have to admit it was at a similar job fair at the employment and training center that got me to the very brink of being hired by the state before the hiring freeze.

So, I’ll go to this job fair and hope for the best.

GHH

Pitt Is It!

It’s crowded in Hemingway’s today.  Lots of undergrads.  The $1.50 draft special is Circus Boy.  I swear the staff makes these names up.  They swear they don’t.

On one of the flat screen TVs a young Bruce Willis and another man and woman are all strapped down sitting in chairs while an obviously psycho cop is threatening them.

I just realized the Steelers play tonight.  I don’t know how much of the game I’ll watch.  After I leave here I’m going to get my suit and two shirts out of the cleaners for the job fair tomorrow at the employment and training center.

A former student from the center came in today.  I was here before she was.  Now she’s got a good job and I’m still here.

GHH