ANGEL DUDE

Do you guys believe in Angels? (Half- Baked-jail cafeteria scene…I Love that movie.)

But do you? I don’t really know if I do or don’t. But, If there are such-a-things, then I think maybe I have met one. I don’t know, I’ll tell you this story, then you can tell me what you think. You can just put your comments down in the “Comments” link at the bottom of the page. I’m interested in your theories……

OK. So here’s the deal. Timothy, my 1976 Toyota Corolla, had just once again decided that it was way too hot in the Sun City (El Paso) for him to be carrying the 4 of us on his back. So he decided to break down, right in the parking lot of a Pep Boys, on the West Side of town. After a couple of hours of us trying to get him back on his wheels, we finally gave up. We decided that we were gonna hoof it the 5 miles to my apartment.

It had to be about 150 degrees out that day. I’m talking HOT. So here we were walking down a main street. When the notorious “Thumper“, decided we should hitch a ride. I think he was really joking when he threw his thumb up, but it wasn’t 5 seconds and an old El Camino pulled over to pick us up. What was really weird about that was that we were all thugged-out. We really looked like we had just stepped out of a scene from “American Me” or maybe “Blood in-Blood Out”. And this dude, was WHITE to say the least. I mean the epitomy of goofy whitedness. What was he thinking. He really was putting himself in a potentially dangerous situation. Lucky for him, we weren’t near as criminal as we looked on this particular day.

Now, when I say this dude was WHITE. Let me describe him to ya. He was a pretty big guy. He had kind of long straggly hair. He was wearing a “flap-hat” (I know you remember those) that was like pink and baby-blue. He had on rose colored sun-glasses, goofy teal colored shorts that were much too short, a tie-dyed shirt, and some flip-flops. It was like he did his shopping at the Salvation-Hippie-Army.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, he had just pulled over and said, “Get in.” So we did, one of my friends jumped in the front seat, while the rest of us jumped in the bed. He yelled, ” Where ya headin’?” over his stereo, which was blaring “Petra”(a Christian rock band of the late 80’s and early 90’s) of all things. So, I explained our situation and gave him directions to my apartment. Since we all did go to church, and we all knew who Petra was. I had to bring it to his attention, for some reason, that we knew who he was listening to. And that opened up a whole can of worms that I really didn’t want to open.

So this dude(We’ll call him Terry, for some reason that’s the name that keeps popping in my head) gets all excited. He starts telling us,” Dude, I knew you guys were Christians.” He talked with the inflection of a total surfer, my best reference would be “CRUSH” the sea turtle in “Finding Nemo”. He rambles on about what a coincidence and what-not for the whole 10 minutes to my apartment. We were really tripping out on this guy. You don’t really meet a whole lot of people like him in El Paso, Tx.

So we finally roll up to the crib and we start piling out of the “Ghetto Sled”. Then Terry says,”Hey dudes, I never part paths with other brothers in Christ without praying first. You dudes cool with that.” It was kind of strange, and I really wanted to go ahead and “part paths”, but he was entertaining to say the least so we invited him up. But we sure had an embarrassing surprise in store for us.

Apparently, some of the “Homies” had broken into my house that day to play a practical joke. I opened the door  (with Terry right behind me)to find my whole apartment decorated with about 100 or so pictures from a “porno mag” all strewn about the living room and kitchen. I believe there was even some mayonaisse involved to suggest the worst. I looked behind me to see that it was already too late. Terry had already let himself in. In the words of Popeye, “How embarraskin”. But Terry seemed totally oblivious to the situation, while he was aware of my embarrassment. Before I could even try to explain, he quickly cut me off saying,” Dude, I had friends like that in college. Don’t even worry about it. Hey, let’s get to prayin’ then I’ll be on my way.”

So as rediculous as it might sound, here we were. Four “thugs” and a wannabe surfer-hippie-Christian, all holding hands in a circle, standing on a floor covered in naked women. Then Terry started praying. Basically I was kind of just looking around, checking out this crazy scenario, and not much paying attention to what Terry was saying. That is, until Terry stopped praying in mid-sentence…..

Terry pointed right at me and said,”Whoa, Dude, No Way! Dude, I had no idea I was in the room with such a man of God. Are you excited? Dude, you are gonna lead so many people to Christ. This is AWESOME.” Now, I had been told this kind of stuff all of my life, being a PK and all. To be honest, I was quite “over it” at this period of my life. In fact, the reason for my lifestyle during this period of my life, was to get all of these “so-called prophets” off of my back. So of course, I was cynical. I said, “Really, and when does this all happen?” To which Terry replied, ” Dude, you are gonna be like a pastor of thousands in the Dallas, Tx. area. I don’t know when, but you’ll see. You’ve been called buddy-boy.” Then he left.

I was kind of floored. It took me a minute to get it together. When I finally did, I realized that I had a few more questions for this guy. I ran outside to flag him down, but alas there was no trace of him or the El Camino. Wow, he was quick. I was left with so much unanswered. The funny part about all of this, is that about 3 nights later at a Bible study at my girl-friends house, the Pastor of her church pretty much re-played the whole scene for me.

Now, I am nowhere near being any kind of Messenger of God. I’ve definitely got my issues. But I can say that when I have shared this particular story with others, the general concensus has been that I was visited by some sort of Angel. Hey, who knows where my life is leading. If you told me 10 years ago that my life would be the way it currently is, I wouldn’t have believed you. What I can say, is that I will never forget the day that “Timothy” broke down.

So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. If you have an opinion (or even some kind of prophecy). I’m all ears, or eyes in this case. Let me know what you think…..CHEERS

Tags: American Me, Angels, Blood in-Blood out, El Paso, Finding Nemo, Half-Baked, Petra, TX.
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I know, I know. I disappeared for a while there. It has seemed lately that there is just not enough time in the day for all of my “projects”. I currently have 2 jobs, I dabble in affiliate marketing, I spend a lot of time surfing the traffic exchanges for various reasons, I am involved in some MLM programs, all in the effort of trying to “get mine”. There are a few methods that work, i.e. the “Power Surf Formula” (which is FREE to get started, by the way). While I am building SOME residual income, it is definitely not a get rich quick method.

Anyway, I know I have neglected my “audience” here for some time, and want to make up for it. I have a doozy here for today. People have expressed some interest in the fact that I was at one time “homeless”. Some want to hear the whole story, some do not believe me, and others want to know how I actually overcame that obstacle and have gotten where I am today. Well, I guess after reading this story, you can form your own opinion. Was it luck? The hand of God? Karma? Coincidence? Or whatever you believe in. All I know is, I got a 2nd chance. So here we go…….

HOMELESS & HOPELESS

OK, So how did it all happen? Well, right around the first of Dec. in ‘97  was when I had been fired from my job due to my  “record mix up” in El Paso. I was a little embarrassed and ready to leave  El Paso. I had decided to move to Houston, where my sister lived. I stayed with her for a few weeks until right after Christmas, during that time I looked for employment to no avail. I had thought that my ordeal had all been cleared up as promised, but for some reason I couldn’t even get a bite as far as employment went. I knew I needed to get out of her hair, not for her sake but it hurt my pride to be living off of her, especially while she was a newlywed with a new baby. Fortunately, some friends I had made while living in Norfolk, Va. had been in touch with me for a while and had offered to let me come back and stay with them until I could find a job and get back on my feet.

I said my good-byes on New Years Day, and took a Greyhound back to Va.. You see, I had already had my car repossessed, due to non-payment, so I really arrived back in Va. with all of my belongings fitting into my old Navy sea-bag. Talk about traveling light. After about a 3 day trip, due to bad weather, I finally arrived in Norfolk. The first few days were cool. We were all happy to see each other, and they had the satisfaction of “helping someone who was down and out”. I felt like I was with family.

Of course, while I was living there I was looking for a job. Once again, I just couldn’t seem to land anything. I knew I could get a job tending bar somewhere, but due to my hosts’ faith, I was not allowed to seek that type of employment, and still live in their house. I was, after all, better than that. I tried getting other jobs, but since I didn’t have a car, and (unbeknownst to me) I had a dirty “Criminal Background Check”, I wasn’t having any luck. Apparently, they found out somehow that I had applied for a few bartender gigs, and finally asked me to leave. To be fair, they had no idea about my situation (I really didn’t understand the magnitude of it myself). It had only been a few weeks but here I was a 25 year old man who couldn’t get a job, in their eyes. I graciously thanked them for trying to help, packed up my sea-bag, and hit the bricks.

I still had a few “old friends” in the area, so I figured I would be alright. I had about $40.00 in my pocket, and that was about all I had to my name. I initially stayed a couple of nights with a friend I had known for a while. He still lived with his parents and was hiding me out in his garage. After the second night sleeping in the cold, hard floor. I was awakened by a huge cockroach crawling across my face. Yuck! I asked if I could leave my stuff there, put some clothes in a shopping bag, and was on my way.

I then walked about 10 miles to another friends house. Stayed one night, and woke up to the sound of he and his wife fighting because he had some “homeless guy” sleeping in their living room. That’s when it all hit me that I was actually homeless. I asked if I could take a shower, and wash my clothes. He of course said yes, he actually was a good friend. I said my thank yous and good-byes then headed to the bus stop so I could get down to Virginia Beach. I was now down to my last few bucks, which I used sparingly, mostly for bus fare so I could get around town. I also had my “Big Gulp” cup for my 50 cent re-fills. You’ve got to be thrifty when you’re on the streets.lol

I found another old friend who lived in Va. Beach who let me crash for 2 nights before his wife started wanting money from me, which I didn’t have. Same old story. Then I was out of options. Through this final friend I met a gracious, old, retired gentlemen, who for some reason had a soft spot for me. While he and his wife had no room for “company”, he did let me stop by a few times in the following weeks to do some odd jobs for him. For which he would let me shower, feed me breakfast, wash my clothes, and give me 20 dollars. Then I would be on my way. I wish I could remember his name or even his exact address so I could go see him. But for the life of me, everytime I go back to that neighborhood, I can’t seem to pin-point his house, or street for that matter. Which is really strange considering my memory.

During these 3 weeks, I mostly just wandered around down at the Oceanfront. It was really cold, but I had a very heavy leather jacket that kept me warm in the daytime, and served as a blanket at night. I actually still have that jacket, I won’t part with it due to sentmental value, but my wife really hates it.lol. It really is ugly. Anyway, I kind of just depressingly existed during this time. I would use the money that “the gentleman” gave me for food and bus fare so I could go see him every few days when the money ran out. Occasionally, true to my “bum” standard, I would get myself a couple of 40’s of Malt Liquor beer. A couple of those, mixed with my situation, put some really bad thoughts in my head. That was a bad recipe for sure.

I don’t really remember alot about this time frame. I mostly was on my guard at all times. Afraid of being robbed by another “bum” for my jacket. I only slept whenever I could no longer hold my eyes open. Then I would find a bench on the boardwalk that wasn’t already taken. I did try a homeless shelter once when it was snowing. It was worse than jail, I decided I would rather take my chances on the streets. Then, finally, my luck changed.

It was 2:30am. Two and a half hours before, I had officially turned 26. I was on my favorite bench looking out at the ocean. It was about 25-30 degrees outside and raining. I was wrapped up in my jacket, and to be honest, I probably had more tears on my face than rain-drops. It was a pretty rough night for me, all things considered. I noticed an obviously innebriated man walking by. I still remember him in detail. He had on a black leather jacket, a dark braided pony-tail, a beard, jeans (Levi’s to be exact), and a wallet hanging on a chain that was attached to his belt loop. I couldn’t sleep anyway, so I decided to follow him. I don’t really know why, in my mind I wanted to protect him from a robbery, he looked like to easy of a target. I followerd him from a distance for what seemed like an hour. He had stumbled about 20 blocks down the boardwalk, then had turned into a neighborhood. After a couple of more blocks, he made it to a park. This park had public restrooms. He then laid down next to the restrooms and passed out. I was worried that he was going to get robbed, his wallet was actually laying beside him, still on the chain. I went and gingerly woke his drunk butt up. I said, ” Dude, you’ve got to get up and get it together. Someone’s gonna end up robbing you.” He looked around for a second, almost got his bearings, then passed back out. I awoke him again, telling him the same thing. He looked me dead in the face, said,”F@%^ YOU, Go ahead and take it.” Then he handed me his wallet and passed back out. I contemplated the situation, opened it up, and reluctantly took the $247.00 that was in there. I felt terrible, but, Happy Birthday to me.

I waited until the buses started running again, and took the bus back to Norfolk. I stopped in at the house where I had stayed just a few weeks ago to pick up a few things I had forgotten. Lo and behold, there was a birthday card there that my grandparents had sent me. Enclosed in the card was a check for $250.00. Which is really weird considering the biggest birthday gift I had ever received from them was $25.00. I then walked to my friends house where my sea-bag was stored (collecting roaches), picked that up. Then walked to a check cashing place to cash my B-day check. From there, I walked to a cheap flea-bag hotel, purchased a room and paid for two weeks in advance. Then I went grocery shopping. By two o’clock that afternoon, I had a job at a nearby night-club where I was to start the following day.

Within 2 weeks from that day, a bouncer from work (with whom I am still friends with to this day) offered to let me move into his spare bedroom. I lived there for about 6 months, until I got my own apartment. From there sooo much has happened, but to make this really long story come to an end I will say that 11 years later I live in a house that I own. I have a beautiful family, with a new addition on the way. And believe me I appeciate every bit of it. On my birthday every year I make sure to take the time to reflect on that birhtday in 1998, and how much the Lord has blessed me since then.

You’re probably wondering why I have chosen to share this somewhat shameful story. I really can’t say. I just feel that there might be someone out there who feels that things are hopeless right now, especially with this economy, and they might be considering giving up. I’m telling you right now that I have been there. Times have not been all peaches and cream since then, I can assure you. But what I can say, and know to be true, is that this too shall pass. You just have to push through it, and have a little faith.

AND for all of those who have helped along the way….. I thank, Love, and appreciate you all. If you know anyone who might be encouraged by this story, please pass it on.

Tags: Criminal Backgrond Check, Homeless, Homeless and hopeless, Hopeless, Power Surf Formula
Posted in Criminal Identity theft, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Ok, Salutations and Greetings to all. First of all I want to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas. This will probably be my last post to this blog for the year 2008, so a Happy and Prosperous New Year to one and all, hopefully that includes ME. Don’t fret though, I am almost finished wrapping up all the back-end tedious stuff to this web-site. And my plan is to post a story a day in 2009. So visit often and get your daily dose. I was actually going to wait until Jan. 1 to write even this, but I got the itch so……….

Since paranormal shows seem to be the trend these days(Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters International, Ghost Adventures, Paranormal Stories, A Haunting, Scariest Places on Earth, and all the other shows we know and LOVE). I have decided to add a TRUE Ghost story of my own. Here goes.

One night in about 1990, I was leaving a friend’s house in Canutillo, NM., completely sober mind you, at about 1am. I was going to stay at my Mom’s house in El Paso,TX. because I was borrowing her car (a Nissan Sentra) and she needed it the next morning. Now my friend lived in an area outside of Canutillo where there were only 4 houses on his road, and besides those four there were no houses for a couple of miles. I had just left his particular road and was traveling, at about 55mph, down a road that was about 2 miles long, no houses, no street lights, only Pecan trees as far as the eyes could see on both sides of the road. So this road was pretty SCARY in its own right, without any craziness. But wait ’til ya hear what happened next.

As I was speeding along, as I always did at the age of 18. I saw a pretty weird site about 1/4 mile ahead. It looked like a person walking about 7 or 8 dogs, all on leashes. The dogs looked like German Shepherds, or maybe Huskies. As I got closer I noticed that one of the dogs was in the middle of the street, so I did what anybody would do and tried to flash my brights as a warning that I was coming. Well in that Sentra the way to turn on the brights was on the same lever on the left of the steering wheel that also had a turny-knob on the end that turned the headlights off/on. So you guesed it, as I was trying to FLASH I accidentally turned my headlights OFF. I kinda freaked out, but managed to get the lights back on, just in time to see myself hit the dogs at about 55mph.

I, of course, immediately slammed on my breaks and skidded to a stop. All I could think about was the person holding the leash. I was like, “What have I done?”. Now it took me probably a good 200 feet to come to a complete stop, and I was really afraid that I had dragged this poor person the whole way. When I finally did come to a complete stop, I threw the car in reverse so I could help, assess the situation, and assume fault. As I put the car in reverse, I looked back before backing up, using my reverse lights to make sure I didn’t back over anything. As soon as my reverse lights came on, to my horror I saw the person. It was gruesome, and gives me chills to even write about it, but he/she was wearing a long black hooded robe, and had a hideous white,white, white face. He/she had both palms down on the trunk of my car, and an evil look on his/her pale white face. Now, I am not scared of much, but I felt sheer terror. I threw the car in first and tore outta there. The only thing racing faster than the car was my heart. It was the longest, fastest drive to my mom’s that I had ever experienced.

In retrospect, I realize that at that time I really thought that I had just stared DEATH in the face. This thing really looked like my idea of The Grim Reaper. As the sleepless night went by, and morning came. I had spent the whole night trying to logically explain to myself what had happened. The next day, as soon as I thought my friend was awake, I called him. I didn’t want to say too much right off the bat, so I fished round. I asked him if any of his neighbors had mentioned anything about any of their dogs. He said that none of his neighbors had a dog, except for maybe a little Yorkie a couple of houses down. He, of course, asked me why I was asking. After I related the whole story to him, he said, (and this is the kicker) ” Dude, I’m not trying to freak you out, but the same thing happened to my dad last week.” No explanation, no joke. It was just one of those unexplainable mysteries that will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Got a similar story? I’d love to hear it. Just throw it in the comment box. CHEERS

Tags: Add new tag, Ghost Dog, Ghost story, Grim reaper
Posted in Stories and tales, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

It’s about time to wrap this thing up. I’ve got an itchin’ for some story-telling. This auto-biographical stuff is depressin’, but I guess I owe it to you, the reader. I left off back in VA., so that’s where I’ll pick up. OKAY? By the way, I do have my first story up HERE

I had by some chance been convinced to move back to Virginia by a family I had met in a church I had attended when i had lived here before. I was in DIRE STRAITS (not the band) at the time, had no car, and nothing really holding me anywhere. They offered to let me stay with them until I got employment (they had no idea about my IDTheft). I took them up on the offer, they were really nice people, and I had a little crush on their daughter, all in favor? But as problems seem to follow me…..I had a dilemna. Their offer ended up with a condition. I couldn’t bartend and stay with them, it was against their beliefs and I was better than that, so they said. Well I couldn’t get a job any other way, and I didn’t want them to hear about my background check (how do you explain that?). So, I graciously moved out, with no place to go. I ended up officially HOMELESS for over 3 weeks. I will tell you all about my HOMELESS experience at a later date.

Luckily, a miracle happened and I came up with over $300. and a job, all on the same day. I got a hotel room for a week, and started tending bar at a “really dark” nightclub. I met a bouncer who became a good friend(still to this day), who let me move in with him for 6 months while his wife was at sea. I then met a Mexican girl, who reminded me of home. She had 3 kids who I loved very much, despite that I had stopped liking her early in the relationship. Nonetheless we ended up getting married, she cheated, got a divorce, all in a year. I don’t play that, but we were both bartenders, with not alot of morals at the time, so it was expected I guess. Then about a year later I met the LOVE of MY LIFE! WHOOPPEE!!!!

Actually, I had met my wife now while I was still married, but just as a customer. We actually were friends for a while, hung out with the same crowd,etc…But we finally figured out that we were for each other after over a year of hangin out. Then we were engaged for a year, then married, 6 years and countin’ :).I REALLY RECOMMEND MARRYING A FRIEND. We’ve been through alot together, and are still fighting battles, but together, I finally have a team-mate.

Well, since getting married, it’s been kind of a blur. Our first-born (Emily, Daddy Loves You) was born still-born, it was very devastating for both of us. I will eventually fight the tears and tell you all about those 2 days that my time stood still. But on the bright side, our daughter was born 1 1/2 hours short of exactly 1 year later, and she has been a blessing for over 4 years now. Besides that tragedy, we are still fighting my ID theft. I actually, after 10 years got an expongement of my record back in January. I still show up negatively on most background checks. That sucks! I have been told that I probably will never get a job that I deserve, but I’ve proven them all wrong. I am now officially a P.D.D for a Nationally Recognized Company. That’s right……a Pizza Delivery Driver for Papa John’s. YUK! See you in Story-Land!

CHEERS

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So, Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, so I left El Paso (good riddance) I didn’t really like being a Mexican anyways. I mean they are good people with a rich culture and a beautiful language but try as I might I never really fit in. I went on a road trip with Lexington,Ky as my final destination. But that didn’t really work, I made a pit-stop at my uncles house in the Arkansas boonies with a gang-banger buddy of mine named THUMPER. My uncle saw us as poor lost souls and was gonna make men out of us. So we hung out for a few months, then I got kicked out for not being redneck enough, but they kept my Hispanic buddy. They actually put him through college and he lived there for another 4 years. During my time there I had few other options so I joined the Miltary but I wasn’t to go to bootcamp until May of the following year. So off to Lexington (where my grandparents still lived) to wait it out until May.

I LoVED Lexington. I had a decent job as a produce person at a grocery store, dated fairly often, and loved my life at home with my grandparents. Now my Grandfather(PAPAW), was not only a Pastor, but a pretty famous one. In fact he was Vice-president of the ABA(American Baptits Association) and a well respected Christian author, and unlike my POPS he actually practiced what he preached. So I stayed out of trouble so as not to embarrass him. Plus I was tired of trouble. While I was there my papaw took a job in Hatiessburg, Miss. where he was a pastor and Dean of a seminary. So off I moved again. Only 3 months til boot-camp. Hattiesburg was cool, but not too much to mention. But I’m sure I have a couple of stories from that era as well. Then in May of that year I went in to the Navy. And that is where I will leave off for now. Sorry, this intro is way longer than expected. I should be able to wrap this stuff up in the next couple of postings then we’ll get to the good stuff. Sound like a plan?

By the way I just purchased this new product since my 4 year old is always hogging the TV, if you have a similar problem you should check this link out!

Tags: ABA, Television, USNAVY
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