I was a little shocked this morning when I came into work and began my routine. I sat down with my water, coffee, logged onto my computer and then turned on my work messenger. The first ping of the day was an inquiry about a friend. “Did you hear about Jesse?”
My heart practically stopped. Jesse?? What happened to Jesse?? I just talked with him at work yesterday. Did the task I asked him to do wind up giving him a heart attack, cause him to be distracted whilst driving home and into a ten car pile up? WHAT HAPPENED TO JESSE?! Immediately I searched my messenger list. He was online and obviously not dead or on life support in some hospital that was in another state as the injury was SO bad that they had to life flight him to a special place (my mind tends to run away with me).
I calmly replied back, “No. What happened to Jesse?”
“He lost his apartment to a fire yesterday.”
From that I gathered all the information from Jesse who was sitting at his desk and not doing what I would be doing, which would be on my knees in front the ruins of my home, with my fist shaking at the heavens, screaming, “WHY?!?!” (okay, perhaps I have a level head in crisis, but I’ve always liked that visual, especially during Oscar season.)
Heat damaged wood studs ignited when a neighbor used their fire place causing ten tenants to become displaced (homeless), and among those people was Jesse and his coatless roommate, Ross who lost his beer can fort in the tragedy.
Jesse. Mi amigo. A friend who has always been there during the hard times that have hit me and mine during my work career with him. He is Mad Movie Guy, he is Jesse. He is awesome times ten. He was now without a home.
Photographs: The photo on the left was taken at our work holiday party last month- when he had a home. The first photo is my rendition of the event via a photo from… Jeez Jesse, what the heck WERE you doing???
The Red Cross has set him up a little motel for the next couple of days, but after that, then what? The highly allergic to cat person only knows people who HAVE cats, including his own family. The soulless landlords are being nice by giving half this months rent back after informing him immediately that he now has to move/vacate the apartment complex and has the daylight hours of tomorrow to collect his fire and water damaged things or lose them forever.
It’s not the best beginning of a new year, and hopefully the bad is now out of the way. I can’t do much to help, but hopefully I can assist in some way. If you’re a fan of our Mad Movie Guy, a friend of dear Jesse or you just know what it’s like to be in a difficult situation, please send good thoughts or you can donate to help get him back into an apartment (and hopefully he’ll get renter’s insurance this time) by clicking the donate button:
News Article:
http://statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080117/NEWS/801170351Jesse's Blog (aka MadMovieGuy.com)
