Zel-kun’s Words

I’m not sure, but I think I almost got jumped on the way home from work today.

After a long drive, I sat on the corner of Ashland and 47th, a scant five blocks from home, waiting for the light to turn green.  In the turning lane pulls up a brown sedan.  It catches my eye because a stethoscope is dangling from the rear-view mirror.  As both our windows were open, I have a very clear glimpse of it.  After a moment, I turn back to gaze at the light, and begin to hear shouts that I can only assume are directed towards me.

“What the F is wrong with you, boy? (I’m paraphrasing)”

“You need to recognize and turn that shitty music off, thinking you can stare like that.”  (For the record ‘All is quiet on New Years Day’ was playing.  Not sure if that’s the title, and I can’t remember the artist)

“I ought to kick your ass.”

As I said, both our windows are down and I’m literally a couple feet from the car.  I’m not entirely sure if these words were directed at me, but rolling up my window would have been recognizing him, so I decided to continue ignoring him.

Finally, the light turned green.  I drove through the intersection, and they pulled halfway through and stopped.

I drove down a few blocks and turned into a side street, finding a parking spot.  As I got out, I could swear I saw the same sedan driving slowly down the road I just came from.

Maybe I’m just paranoid.

Zel-kun out.

When I lived in Bolingbrook, my daily commute averaged thrity to fifty minutes.  Nothing major.  But moving to Chicago changed that to an average of and hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and a half.  It took some getting used to, but I managed to work it into my routine.  Besides, it was Chicago, it was expected.

Then, as my luck would have it, they began construction on a few onramps in Schaumburg.  These onramps are on my direction, and they back up traffic for miles and miles.  This new jam has added another half hour to my commute.  Joy.  Incidentely, this now transforms my work day into a twelve-hour day.

I think I’m going to seek out new employment downtown.  I only live twenty minutes from downtown, and I’m bound to find something there.  I’ll miss the job here, but a two hour commute is a bit much.  Time to update my resume and get back out there.  With a little luck, I’ll find a good job as a technician somewhere.

A few years ago, when I got my first IT job as a Help Desk Technician, Jeff (my boss at the time) began teaching me about computers, more than I ever learned on my own.  He asked me a question which I did not have an answer for, “You want to work in IT, great, but what do you want to DO?”

There are so many occupations.  I could write script, manage databases, application design, web design, et cetera.  I think, as I look at my job now, that I’m doing what I like, End User Support.

Despite my occasional complaints, I like working with people, I like taking a problem and fixing it, I like sitting down with someone and solving their issue.  I’ve done it here at Verizon, I’ve done it for many of the other jobs I’ve had, and I’ve always enjoyed it.  And from what I’ve heard, I can make a pretty comfortable living out of it.  At least until I finish my novel and make billions of dollars.

Also, an upside to the commute, I am offered a beautiful view of the city both ways.  Today it was raining, the air finally cooled from the constant 95 degree days we’ve been having these last couple of weeks, and a thick fog covered the city.  The tallest towers barely peeked out of the cloud cover, with the Sears Tower rising above everything.  I wish I carried a camera around with me, sometimes.

Zel-kun out.