I'm in my third week of having returned to my old job at Sultan's Express in downtown Lansing. This is my 20th day of not drinking alcohol, having recovered from the depths of depression, the nadir that I reached when my return to work was uncertain, when my daughter was complaining of the financial crush of having to pay the entirety of the rent since the time of my accident. The mental health rebound for me in that short period of time been amazing as has been my outward return to normalcy.
In my first full week back at work I returned to the job as if I hadn't missed a beat. I insinuated myself in with the staff flawlessly (it a new crew none of whom I had ever worked with before). Abu Amira, the dishwasher, was particularly appreciative of me as he's only been in country for one year and speaks next to no English. He does manage to ask very basic questions in broken English and I tend to respond in Arabic. He asks me the names of things in English and I respond by enunciating clearly and slowly as I'm aware of the difficulty in hearing the sounds in a language that is not your own. The other guy, Abood, who divides his time between cook and cashier since we're short staffed, is fluent both in Arabic and English. He's a bit standoffish but we work together well.
Two weeks ago in my first full week back I was down to one egg in my refrigerator and one package of Ramen noodles. I made it through that week by loading up on my free take home meals at the end of my shift. After getting the week's tips and going grocery shopping, I bought the basics such as sugar, flour, beans, etc. and subsisted the next week mostly on tostadas and spaghetti with my homemade sauce in addition to my take-home work meals. Now into my third week I've moved up to stir fry, tacos, and hamburgers. Of course I'm stocked up on Starbucks for my coffee pot.
In my short time having returned to work I've accepted every opportunity to pick up extra hours here and there because we are short staffed. I do this, not just for the money, but also to make myself invaluable and also because the time off since my accident was excruciating. Staying home, writhing in agony from my injury, and watching Netflix all day is not something I ever care to repeat. At this point in my life work is my identity more than anything else. If someone were to offer me the same amount of money to just stay home, I would not accept it. As much as I dislike intense socializing, complete isolation is destructive to me. That is not an exaggeration. My period of non work since my accident totaled just over two months. If I didn't know that from the calendar and had been asked to estimate my time away from work I would have said it was nearly five months. It was the slowest passage of time in my experience other than jail.
In addition to work I've also been donating blood plasma for money which has given me the opportunity to catch up on some exigencies such as paying the quarterly bill for the trash service and sending some money for my child support arrears so those people don't summon me. I also have some money set aside to repair a lawn mower my friend Bernard scavenged from one of his jobs clearing out a property some people had moved out of leaving a lot of belongings behind. My daughter and I are responsible for the lawn maintenance here at the new place which is a fair trade off. The old place we didn't have to do the lawn but we didn't have a washer and dryer either. This place we do have that and it's just us here so we don't have to contend with weed smoking downstairs neighbors making our lives miserable with the stench their smoking produced.
Lastly, I will mention that when we first moved here my only association with this house was physical pain, unemployment, and depression. Now that I'm working again I'm making new memories and associations. Leaving in the morning riding the bike to work (for exercise, I have a bus pass but I need to get my resting pulse rate down, a problem that had manifested due to my inactivity). I'm making good memories now such as good meals here with my daughter and my mother who I have come over on the weekends. Life is good and I can honestly say I'm truly happy. Perhaps when they take the hardware out of my shoulder this summer and the discomfort is gone I will get a second job working weekends and nights but for right now all is well with me. Thanks again to all who have helped me during this ordeal.
