Hey readers, I’m back, back, back again. It’s Robby you know, like from the block.
The “Sunshine State” in the dog days of summer, becomes the “Brutally Hot Sunshine State.” The heat is unbearable. How do native Floridians deal with it?
Approaching the first anniversary of my move back to the FTL it has been quite an adventure. Lots of ups, lots of downs, lots of good times, lots of not-so-good times.
As the new school year starts I am turning to remote teaching options. As previously mentioned substitute teaching jobs here want want want from the applicant and pretty much give nothing. I have to take a 6-hour training class AND pay $125 for fingerprinting. {I have been an English teacher for almost 20 years, many of those years in FL and I have been fingerprinted 3x each time at a cost over $100. Heck, I could fingerprint myself and just give it to them!} Oh, and the teacher’s pay – $15 an hour.
Every other job I applied for – retail, restaurant – pays more. How did we get to the point where we devalue teachers so much?
On top of employment issues, there have been roommate issues as well. As in, my roommate turned out to be a complete degenerate scumbag POS. And he was a teacher too! Stabbed in the back by a fellow teacher – of all the nerve! How did he pass the fingerprinting?
After quickly realizing the situation wasn’t going to work out I gave him six weeks’ notice. Dude had no intention of leaving. EVER. He cried poverty, he cried past abuse by an ex, he cried he had no friends. Lots of tears but all of them were crocodile. His goal was for me to change the locks or to put his boxes out on the street. Both of those would have gotten me arrested. Yeah because he was here longer than 30 days the onus was on me.
Not only was the onus on me, but the “blame” was as well – with some people even saying things like “I hope you learned your lesson,” or “It’s time to start winning, you’ve been on the losing end of things lately.” And remember, I’m from Brooklyn. I’ve got street smarts I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck and land here in FLL.
Excuse me? How are the despicable actions of someone else, someone who squatted in the apartment, someone who still owes me $500, someone who interviewed and presented well, but someone who was ultimately a really awful human being – how does he come out looking like a prince in the forum of public opinion? It’s like bizarro world.
It’s like waking up one day and being told a 2nd Trump Presidency is all but certain. It’s like waking up one day and being told that Joe Biden cannot beat Donald Trump. It’s like waking up one day and being told that 50% of this country would vote for Donald Trump if the election were today? Oh, wait…. That did all happen. We are currently living in bizarro world!
I’m supposed to believe that after a poor 90-minute debate performance Democrats like you and me, independents from Maine to Washington decided that Joe Biden was too old, feeble and weak for a second term. And these millions and millions of people who already voted for Biden in 2020, 81 million in fact, all of a sudden went from Biden to Trump? I’m not buying it. That’s as shady as my roommate clearing the fingerprints for teaching.
But like the Democratic party, I rise from the ashes of…a hugely successful Biden first term Presidency where — the US is once again the strongest economy in the world. Crime and unemployment are both down. The stock market and NASDAQ keep shattering records.
There is renewed energy, vigor, and gusto with Kamala as the nominee. The entire campaign has changed and been revitalized and I have hope once again. And so has Brooklyn Fort Lauderdale Robby! Bring on the next roommate and the next heatwave. Let’s get that fingerprint background check started – I’m ready!
(yeah I’m still waiting for the money he owes me…)
*this column was edited by Kathleen Regan.
The Gays of our Lives 