The Roof – Journal

I had such a workout yesterday. Instead of my regular sleep-in late Saturday, I woke up and got ready to work again. But instead of dressing in a fancy suit, I dressed in old jeans, ripped working shoes and a regular long sleeve shirt. My father, brother, and I were ready by 8 a.m. and so we went to work with my cousin Diego.

At 9 a.m. we started working. The roof was tall and slanted; I knew I wouldn’t get up there. I’ve never been fond of heights however when the roof is sort of plain I make the effort to help up there, but not this time. I didn’t feel so useless however, as the other four people who could do roof work got up there.

At first my brother and I watched the guys climb up there like spider men, then as the trash went down the roof we watched that, we helped as we could bringing tools, materials, and drinks to the pros. After they got down with one side, the amount of trash was much that it covered the grass. We started picking it up, big pieces first and left everything else on sailcloth to pick it up later. For hours we did this, it was longer than I initially thought. After we were done with one side we went to the other, however we had to take trips to the trash dumpster this time. And with time the trips got tougher, our legs were giving out, I can feel the numbness of my legs now as it’s hard to walk, every time we go roofing though I can expect this.

It’s a terrible feeling when you see someone fall from such a height, while my brother and I were on break, we sat on a bench and watched the guys work. Two of them were stepping on the same 2×4 wood that was holding them while they walked on the roof, and the thing gave up on them and broke. Incapable of holding anything they both fell down as we watched from a distance, impotent and useless, we seemed so slow when trying to run to see if they were okay. A few scratches and back pain it was, and they both were okay, but the scare was enough. It’s nothing like the movies, usually things like that are never like in the movies, more like in books though, when you read it on a book that you’re into you feel it more. First thing you hope is “I hope they are conscious” then you thinking “I hope they didn’t break anything”.

Well apart from that we carried some shingles onto the lifting ladder that takes them to the roofing people, who then carries them on his shoulder through a ladder that is actually lying on the roof (sounds crazy) and places it across the roof for easier retrieval. We finished at 8 p.m. and our whole body ached, we had arm, leg, back, chest workout in every way. I bet if you get someone to do that every day and drink their protein shake at the end of the day they would bulk up in no time.

–          Zogyark

The Four Legged Grasshopper

Grasshoppers have six legs, the front four are used for slow regular walking, like we do. The two in the very back are called hind legs, much bigger than the other four, they are used for those big jumps you often see grasshoppers do. When Nicole found Jene, she was missing her right hind leg, and her left was broken. She was helpless and would probably not survive the next 24 hours as she was. She was mainly subject to being prey for other animals, secondly she would probably be stepped on and the person would not even notice, just like she probably was before she lost her hind legs.

It was a regular school day in the spring. Nicole was in her 3rd grade and was outside in the playground for her recess. The kids were playing hide and seek. Nicole was very good at hiding, behind a tree she would hide and looked to see if she was being looked for. She turned around and giggled, the kid kept looking for her but could not figure out where she was. She looked around and stared at the grass for a minute and saw a strange insect. A young grasshopper, its wings still not grown, was missing a hind leg, and the other was broken.

“Awww” she expressed sadly feeling pity for the poor insect. She grabbed it and held it in her palm, the grasshopper barely moved around, probably wondering where he had suddenly gone to. “Poor thing, I can’t leave you here or you will probably die, I’ll take care of you” she said as she carefully put it in her pocket. Nicole came out from behind the tree and the kid said “I found you!”

“I don’t want to play anymore, I’m going in the class.” Nicole said, with her hands in her pockets.

For the next three hours the grasshopper was in the pocket. In this dark place it could only see darkness, moved a bit but wouldn’t get far. It would often feel something slowly coming into the darkness, carefully to feel if it was still there. It was during these moments, which were very regular that it would manage to see some light. It was finally until the final third hour that Nicole finally grabbed it  and took it out. In the school bus, Nicole examined it a little longer. Its eyes seem sad, probably because of its misfortune she thought. “Don’t worry, I will help you.” She told it. The kids behind her seat looked over and started whispering.

“Look! Nic has a grasshopper!” one yelled. “Oh can I see it?” another said, “Let me see what it feels like” another one exclaimed and just like that, the whole school bus full of kids were all intrigued by the grasshopper. “What’s its name?” One of the kids asked.

“Jene, she’s a girl.” Nicole said.

“How do you know she’s a girl?” another kid asked, a boy.

“I just know okay.” Nicole replied confident.

When Nicole finally got to her house, she opened the door, which was usually left open for her and went straight to her room. She took out the Jene out of her pocket and put it on her bed. Nicole laid on the bed and watched Jene barely move. Nicole offered her finger as to play with her and Jene tried to climb the finger with its working legs, this made Nicole smile.

“Well what’s so urgent that you come home and not say hello to your mother?” a woman’s voice said from the door.

“Hi mommy! look, it’s my new pet!” Nicole replied

“You know we can’t have pets in the apartment? But what is it? I don’t see it” her mom said. Nicole grabbed Jene and put her in her hands, then she closed her hands as if praying but left space for Jene. She then walked toward her mother and opened her hands to reveal Jene. “She’s Jene, she can’t jump!” she exclaimed.

“Aw poor bug” her mom also couldn’t help but feel pity for Jene.

“Please can we keep it?” Nicole asked.

“Okay, but keep it inside something, or you might lose it.” her mom told her. They found one of those long cans of chips, about the size of a ruler and Nicole would then put Jene in there and take her with her every time she went out. Jene would survive more than the 24 hours she would have lived at most. She survived days, and weeks, and maybe years.

Nicole always took Jene to school with her, she didn’t want to leave it alone because her little brother might find it and let it out, to forever be lost. She kept the can in her backpack and took it with her at all times, she was very protective of Jene. Jene didn’t mind at all, it often was exploring the can it was in and was not always caged. Sometimes the can would be open for whatever reason and explored outside of the can. Often it would find a place similar to her home, with plenty of food that she would feed on. Often Jene met strange figures that looked like Nicole but much smaller, they moved though. Jene tried to touch them a couple of times but they felt a little weird so she would let go, a lot of the times the figures simply disappeared. Then she would be put back in the place where she usually was and be moved around pretty fast as if flying. Someday she would fly too Jene knew, she could feel it would be soon. Jene looked outside the can, at the concrete, the trees, the grass. Her can had been upgraded from a normal one, to a transparent one, so now she could see things through the plastic.

It was because of this that one of the kids saw Jene in Nicole’s open backpack. “Look Mr. Susaki! Nicole’s got a bug in her backpack!” the kid yelled it out in the classroom. Mr. Susaki was her substitute teacher for this day, and he was interested in this as so were all the other kids. Nicole having no choice showed Jene to Mr. Susaki. Jene, who’s wings were almost fully grown was starting to learn how to fly around the can. It was her new hobby. Jene was excited about this, finally she could travel much faster than what she usually could. Back when Nicole found her she almost had given complete hope, but now, she knew that she could finally travel farther to places she couldn’t reach before.

“I only got one word to say about this…” Mr. Susaki said, “Awesome” he said. He stopped inspecting Jene and gave her back to Nicole. Nicole then took it to her backpack again and put it in there. She stuck her tongue out at the kid celebrating her victory.

The last day Nicole saw Jene was three weeks after she had found her. It was a morning before class. Nicole had woken up late and was in a rush to get her things so she could catch the bus. In the rush of things the bus came so she left with what she could, and later on the bus, she realized she had left Jene. All day, Nicole had been worried about Jene, she knew her little 5yr old brother Jack would go into her room and try to play with her. He always would go in her room and ask Nicole if she could, a few times she had but other times she told him no.

When Nicole got home, she rushed through the living room and went in her bedroom to look for Jene, she went to her can was and there it was, but it was open, just as she had suspected. She searched front and back, second and first floor, moved her stuff around, asked Jack, then asked her mom, but nothing.

“Nicole, Jene fly, she fly.” Jack told her.

“Listen to what he says hun, she must have flew out of the house.” her mom explained to her.

“But it was closed, maybe its lost, she doesn’t have her legs, I promised I would take care of her.” Nicole cried, the loss of her first real pet was very upsetting for her. That night, Nicole was awake for a while, hoping that suddenly Jene would come back to her, the night was quiet, the moon was full. But nothing, no Jene, all there was, was a far away noise, a sound, a song maybe and with this she finally went to sleep. A few weeks later she got over Jene, she made up with the idea that she went back home with her parents maybe, or other grasshoppers.

Jene stood on the tree branch at its usual time, around 9:00 p.m. She would fold her wing and lift her broken leg up and rubbed it against her wings as if playing the violin, this produced a grasshopper song, she would always play it for Nicole to help her go to sleep. Sometimes she would play something different, sometimes she would sing with her wings. She would rub both wings together and produce a beautiful sleep song that would play in Nicole’s dreams, a thank you song for Nicole. (To be Edited)

January 21, 2012 – Mr. Dr. Professor Landon

When I turned in one of my first papers in my English Class. Mr. Landon looked at it, then made into a little paper ball and threw it in the trash basket. Then he said “Write it again, this time go straight to the point.” so I did, and the story suddenly was more readable after skipping boring introductions and pointless descriptions. “See how better that looks?” he said.

I guess this is my theme when I write nowadays. In whatever I write, I try to go straight to the point, avoiding details and descriptions of the characters. It’s not just about going to the point, but if you can describe and give details as the story moves along it kind of flows more nicely. I hate when I’m reading a book and in the beginning I’m being thrown different, irrelevant things such as the shape of some building, the color skin of some people, the background or fictional background of someone much irrelevant to the plot. It seems that many writers do this to fill up space and add words to their count. I remember I won a book in an English Contest for top 3 writings of the college. The book choice was minimal, about five books, with authors I didn’t know. I don’t blame them though I know few authors, I’m more of a writer than a reader.

It’s hard to draw some people in the story, specially if you’re not very popular like Stephen King or James Patterson. I read the book, I tried my best, but after the 30th page I thought. I think I’m done with this story, whatever it is about. I closed the book and never read it again. It’s still gathering dust in one of my shelves, it had a nice cover that’s how I picked it. Make sure your book has an interesting cover and people might pick it.

Jeff Landon was my English II teacher, and he was good at what he did, and probably still does. The man would give you English puzzles, writing scenarios to work with, random stuff. He threw three words at you and said “Write me a story about these three things.” Some stories came around good, some not, others were funny, I liked the funny ones. But to me funny stories are just two or three pages long. The man had a good sense of humor, he was funny and could come up with some funny stuff, something I’m not so great at.

Landon published a few stories and poems. He wasn’t no one, he had some skill, he was good. There was this guy in this class, funny dude. He would always call him “Mr. Dr. Professor Landon” Sort of as to make him seem like some godly teacher. He asked Landon if he ever wrote a novel. Landon said he had tried, many times, but at could not get past a point. I remember this well and hope that this curse doesn’t stay with me, since after some point I want to move on.

I got three stories I’m working on now, and I think that should be plenty to keep the creativeness going. Now I just need to fill in the gaps and whichever I’m in the mood in I could work on. I like variety because when I stick to continuing only one, i sometimes get bored and can’t come up with anything goo.

I haven’t seen Landon in years, but let’s hope that this post helps me get in contact with him again, he’s a good teacher to have.

Pizza and Movie time for now, a break is sometimes necessary.

– Zogyark

January 18, 2012 – First Day as a Teller

I woke up at 6.a.m.  I washed my face ,I dressed, and I washed my face some more. I helped my 7yr-old brother with his sentence structure homework, something like… El Matador taunted the bull with his red cape. Lately his homework has been doubled by his teacher so he ends up not doing half of it until the morning. Some people would be nervous at their first day of work as a teller. But I’ve done enough to know better than to show lack of confidence at a job, or at anything for that fact. Doubt is a mean enemy that you don’t want on your side. 

To be honest, I didn’t do much for my training. I tried to do as much as I could and offered my help. My first jobs were something like: put this there, cut and print these papers, put these papers in envelopes, put those envelopes in that box, etc. etc. Pretty much a helper boy, it was my first day of training. at 11:30 we played some jeopardy about Christmas (awesome huh?)  and i got 2 out of 10 right, almost three but I don’t know why I picked octopus instead of oysters. What would any of those two things have to do with Christmas you wonder? Take a good guess.

at 12:00 we had lunch break, so I got some exploring to do. You see I work inside a hospital, and my bank is the smallest bank unit I’ve ever seen. It’s a little smaller than a double mobile home. I found the cafeteria and asked my way around on how things are done there, I used to be shy of asking such things, but not anymore. Go figure if you don’t ask and just stand around you’ll look even like a bigger fool. I took my hour and a half break (ehem, I mean hour break) and returned to the office at 1:30. I went inside and my co-worker started teaching me the basics of the computer system that I’d be using. After a few easy jobs, I would watch as they took customers in at 2:00p.m. Yes the bank opened at 2 and closed at 5. So I watched how they did stuff, but these guys were fast. I mean fast as like the skill of a Piano Player when he knows how to read sheet music like if it’s nothing and may place any piece at any time, or the skill of a call of duty player that’s been playing since the first game came out. These guys have had over 7 years of experience and it will be a while until I start catching up with their speed.

Once we were done, I said my farewells and went home. I won’t have work until Monday so I’ll have time to continue on my projects or start a new one since I tend to jump from topic to topic. I noticed the change though. I was busy all day, I came home hungry, tired, with a headache and time went by just like that. I still want to do a lot, I want to write (or do i mean type?), I want to continue searching for online jobs, but I also want to give in and lay down and fall asleep like normal people for once. The average person is said to fall asleep in 7 minutes, bullshit I thought. But today, just for today, maybe they’re right.

– Zogyark