The Real Memphis Mike (don't settle for imitations)

If you're friends with me on Facebook (my chosen alternative to reality! LOL), then you've seen my posts the past few days about Ashley. She's my buddy Dolo's niece and a sweet kid...who happens to have a particularly nasty form of cancer. Yes, it's a sad fact that many kids out there have cancer. So just why, you may be wondering, am I so enamored with posting about Ashley and trying to help? It's simple... Some of you may know this, some may not: I'm a two time cancer survivor. Basal cell carcinoma and prostate cancer. The basal cell was, at least to me, pretty much a non-issue. A few out patient surgeries and a few series of pills that made me want to puke. 60 days later I was cancer free.  A couple of years ago, I went to my doc for a check up and as I'm "comfortably in my 40s", he suggested a prostate exam. As my doc is a big fat man, I did NOT relish the thought of his sausage finger going into my nether regions...but I was glad to ...

Everyone keeps asking me how the new job is. Well, the best I can honestly say is that it is truly a unique learning experience for me. Having spent 25 years in the MH/MR field, I saw the corporate model imitated (poorly, I can thankfully say) but never really had to deal much with the corporate mindset. We were all too busy doing our jobs and helping out the individuals we served. Today, at the new job, a group of us newbies were informed, by management, that 12 of the 30 new employees had been laid off (already?!). The reasoning? Corporate HQ had performed a code push (in short, screwing up our computer network) over the weekend in an effort to deal with some order timing issues. As Monday was a holiday, and there was no mail service, it appeared that our workload had slowed...hence these 12 fellow humans being given the axe...after working diligently and at the best of their ability, to learn their new jobs. Needless to say, many of my fellow newbies were a bit taken aback. ...

I haven't written anything lately...and that's probably because I've been busy with my new job. I am extremely thankful to be working again after 13 months of unemployment. The new job is far from exciting...but it's steady...alas, it's not very inspiring. So I guess that leaves me looking for inspiration everywhere else. I cleaned out the medicine cabinet the other day. I threw out a large supply of antidepressants. Seriously....probably about $500 worth. Before anyone gives me grief about it...they were well past their expiration date. You may be wondering why I had them in the first place. Well, if you know me well, you know I've lived with depression my entire life. Most of you would never guess it...probably because you don't understand what depression really is. I don't mope around and recite bad poetry or anything like that. My serotonin gets out of whack and I get depressed. Sometimes it only last minutes, sometimes it lasts months. I've ...