I know last week seemed like a good week for me. And in many ways, it was. I got offered what is essentially a dream job, giving tours of the city I love. I started training Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n
For the first time in a long time, I have hope. Hope of having stability while loving every minute of the work I do.<\/p>\n
But hope doesn’t change current conditions.<\/p>\n
And current conditions are not good.<\/p>\n
It’s July 31 and I haven’t paid my July rent yet. And August is now 6 days away from being past due. I’m surprised they haven’t served me with papers saying they’re starting the eviction process.<\/p>\n
My AT&T bill is past due. Part of the new job is answering questions and booking tours. I need a working phone to be able to do that.<\/p>\n
My Xfinity bill is past due. I need working Internet to do my job – and to continue publishing these daily posts about what’s going on Downtown.<\/p>\n
My MLGW bill is past due. Without power, I can’t charge my phone or operate my MacBook.<\/p>\n
I’m down to my last roll of toilet paper. I’m down to my last pen. I have enough laundry detergent for maybe 2 more loads.<\/p>\n
My bank balance stayed negative for so long that First Horizon closed the account I had for more than 35 years. That’s why I took the Tip Jar links off my posts – there’s nowhere for the money to go. For the same reason, I can’t take Venmo or Cashapp or PayPal. What little royalties I still earn from Medium now have no place to be sent.<\/p>\n
I mentioned there was a financial chasm I had to leap over until paychecks start coming in. What I just described above is the chasm.<\/p>\n
If I’ve seemed sleepy when you’ve seen me lately, it’s because I lie awake two-thirds of most nights worrying about money.<\/p>\n
Friends are making sure I eat regularly. So at least I have that in my favor. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it. Without that nourishment, I’d never have been able to walk those 16,000 steps Friday.<\/p>\n
I was in financial straits this dire once before, back in 2019. At that time I thought the solution was to jump off my 16th-story rooftop. Two feet from the edge, I realized it wasn’t the solution at all.<\/p>\n
And I don’t see that as the solution now. I have too many people who love me. And now I have a job I’m excited to go to. I have a ton of reasons to live.<\/p>\n
It’s just really scary not knowing what the future holds.<\/p>\n
My birthday falls on a Saturday this year. I was gonna request not to be scheduled for work that day. Hopefully I will wake up that morning in the very same bed I woke up in today, get on my MacBook and do a blog post, get on my phone and “Like”\/respond to people who left me birthday wishes on Facebook, then walk around the corner to Bardog where I will celebrate with friends… and, of course, continue the celebration at Blind Bear later in the day.<\/p>\n
I just have to leap the chasm between here and there.<\/p>\n
Thanks for reading. And now, let’s get on to the news…<\/p>\n
The Downtown Blue Monkey is once again open on Sundays from noon to 8. One of their Sunday regulars told me that they have a breakfast sandwich all day and that they post their specials to social media.<\/p>\n
I did not know until yesterday that there’s a Downtown Memphis meditation community<\/a> with 792 members on meetup.com.<\/p>\n A grocery tax holiday<\/a> will be in effect in Tennessee tomorrow through Halloween. However, candy, prepared food, booze, and dietary supplements will still be taxed.<\/p>\n Today is National Avocado Day<\/a>. I’d recommend celebrating with a Cobb salad at Bardog, which comes with thick slices of avocado.<\/p>\n There was a shooting<\/a> on B.B. King Blvd. about a block south of Beale last night.<\/p>\n A sinkhole<\/a> has developed at Second and Madison.<\/p>\n Feels-like temperatures will “only” reach the upper 90s today.<\/a><\/p>\n I mentioned that I’ve been reading two books on Memphis by Bill Patton<\/a>, my tour company’s founder. Several friends of mine have recommended another Memphis book, Beale Street Dynasty<\/a> by Preston Lauterbach. It’s the story of Robert Church Sr. (1839-1912), the South’s Black millionaire, and of Beale Street of that era.<\/p>\n One of the friends recommending the book told me he was assigned to read it for work – and he works for the Grizzlies.<\/p>\n The U.S. Women’s National Team plays Portugal in the final match of the World Cup group stage at 2 AM tomorrow (Tuesday). A win or a draw advances the USWNT to the knockout stage. If you want to watch the match – the entire match – at a Memphis bar, it’ll have to be on Beale Street. They are the only ones allowed to be open past 3 AM.<\/p>\n The NFL pre-season begins Thursday night as the New York Jets play the Cleveland Browns in the Hall of Fame game.<\/p>\n That’s it for today. Back tomorrow, assuming I have power and Internet access. Again, thanks for reading.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I know last week seemed like a good week for me. And in many ways, it was. I got offered what is essentially a dream job, giving tours of the city I love. I started training Friday and Saturday. For the first time in a long time, I have hope. Hope of having stability while … Continue reading “Personal update and Monday news”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26879"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26880,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26879\/revisions\/26880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}