Subway: Stories from behind the counter(Part 3) I didn't sign up for this shit. By Cesar Reyes Torres

I was now working with ex cons junkies and people on rehab. You can say whatever you want about my reaction to working with these kind of people, but I didn't sign up for this shit. for the past four years I had worked with cute high school girls that I went to school with, it was fun, they were cute, and we were having a blast working there. And now 30 days later all of those girls seemed like a distant memory

I was what they called the night crew leader, which meant I was in charge of the night shift.I had a night staff which consisted of five people including myself. i had a guy working for me by the name of John. He served one year out in Kansas State penitentiary for some drug-related charge and moved out to Long Beach to stay with his brother and hopefully fly straight for a change.He was white , part Native American and part Mexican, he had a long well groomed ponytail and a clean-cut 3 line goatee and a tattoo of his girlfriends name on his left forearm. He was actually a pretty cool guy once you got to know him, but I found out eventually that he had a very short fuse and use to have a bad heroin problem, and that he was kind of a hot head. I made sure to take note of that.

The next guy they hired for the nighttime was Gary.Gary was kind of a sad excuse for an unaccomplished human being and how far you can get in life by mooching off of others and getting a little lucky here and there.Gary was 40 years old and literally did not have one thing to his name aside from his bike and a few zip lock bags of weed that he smoked. Gary moved out to Long Beach from Mississippi. In Mississippi he lived in a three-bedroom house with acres of land around him. He had gotten evicted and he had to move out somewhere else, so he moved out here to California with his uncle where he grew up for the beginning part of his childhood. He was a tall son of a gun who was about 6'1. He was half black, half white with a scruffy poorly maintained goatee. Gary smoked his pay check away every week on marijuana. He was living rent free and utility free in the building his uncle owned. All Gary had to do was take care of the lawn and take the trash out every few days, and his uncle didn't charge him a dime. Gary didn't own a car and he rode his bike everywhere. The only bill he had to pay was his prepaid phone. Every few weeks he had to go over to Verizon to put some minutes on his phone, but that all changed when he called their 1- 800 number to check his minute balance and the automated machine told him he had unlimited minutes. Gary didn't have a contract with them and he didn't even have a bank account. Someone somewhere over at Verizon had made some sort of mistake and Gary was benefiting from it. He now had free telephone usage for life essentially.

The third person was Michelle, she was a short white girl with dirty blond hair. I remember thinking that she honestly had the face of a treasure troll. She had done three months in a County correctional facility for women for drug charges and was released into a rehab program. Even though she was on the road to recovery she had gotten her two children taken away by the state and she was allowed absolutely zero visitation rights. For a mom to get her kids taken away, it takes a lot. They have to literally prove that you're a threat to their well-being and that you are no longer able to care for them. In her case they were able to prove both.

And lastly there was Espy which was short for Esperanza. She was one of the last regular employee that was still left over from the previous owner. I'm going to say it straight out, she smelled like pee, cigarettes, shit and sweat. She wore layers of make up and drew both her eyebrows and her eyelashes on. She lived in a garage with her three kids. She did stupid things like talk to customers in Jamaican or English accents because she thought it was funny. You could smell her coming from down the hall. She was what many who grew up in gang neighbourhoods would call a "Veterana". Which meant that she was a veteran gang member that had seen better days. Despite all of her imperfections, I personally didn't like her because she was slow, she stole food from the store, and she took an hour sometimes to use the restroom. Apparently she was so big, that she struggles at times to clean her self. And she didn't like me because she said I was quote " a little bitch, who had a fucken fit over everything she did wrong". I have certain expectations of people. And one of them is wiping your own ass correctly the first time.

I went from working with four beautiful young Latinas, to working with a short tempered ex con, a pot head that was mooching off anyone he could, a junky who had all of her kids taken away from her, and a lady who was not handicapped but who couldn't wipe her own ass correctly.

Life is all about adapting to the circumstances that you find yourself in. In my mind I had to do one thing and one thing only, and that was to survive. I had been their for four years, and I was gonna find a way to make things work. But I had to become.....

To be continued

Breakthrough (Film Critique): By Cesar Reyes Torres

To be honest, I judged this movie before I even saw it. I thought I understood the basic plot and premise. I told myself it was a movie based on a miracle and events leading up to it and the aftermath. But that is an unfair simplification of it. The film is based on a true story, but it also tells a story about something that many people struggle with, and that is that you can’t control the outcome of everything so that it turns out the way you want in life. I’m sorry but it doesn’t work that way. WE need to learn to let go of certain situations beyond our control or input and let God handle it. I gained a lot of from this film. If anything, it just reminded me to thank ALL the people that root for us when we fall. There is a lot of people who want to see you fail so they can stand tall or prove themselves right. But there are SO MANY more people who are rooting for us to get up and keep going. And I believe that they deserve our attention much more than the ones who do the opposite. I know that at some point or another we have all prayed for a miracle, only to wait and wait and then not get one. Sometimes we may even ask ourselves, “Why does God choose to save some and not others?” There is no simple answer for that question in my opinion. This is more of a reflection on the film than a review, I guess. I loved the movie, I hope everyone gets to go watch it. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

Lady Bird (film critique) : By Cesar Reyes Torres

Your parents end up doing more for you than you’ll ever know or realize. So I’m sure that it would hurt any parent to think that there daughter or son feels ashamed of them. The story is a familiar story, and it’s been told before. It’s a coming of age story about a young girl dealing with adolescence and discovering who she is. There are many small details about this movie that set it apart. For one it’s told within the backdrop of the  start of the 2003 Invasion and War in Iraq. The Catholic in me was able to relate to many of the angles and subtle nuances that the movie points out. The story and movie was enjoyable, although somewhat predictable. This movie is currently trending at 100% on rotten tomatoes , and the reason for that is the several different side stories this it manages to balance really well. Topics such as sexuality, abortion, race, war, and family economics. I liked this movie, and I do believe it’s an oscar contender , although I don’t see it as an oscar winner. 

Justice League (Film Critique) : By Cesar Reyes Torres

Pure action and entertainment, and definitely worth seeing. The movie is currently getting bad reviews by other film critics. All I can tell you in my opinion is that I think their wrong. They are still comparing this Batman to the Dark Knight movie. While this movie is not as iconic as the Dark Knight, I would argue that it doesn’t have to be. Ben Afleck doesn’t do as great a job as Christian Bale, but he doesn’t have to. In and of itself, this movie is very entertaining. With standout performances by Aquaman and the Flash, the audience and myself shared many laughs. I definitely  recommend this movie to anybody who enjoys good fight sequences between some of the most iconic  superhero’s we grew up with. 

Straight Outta Compton (Film Critique). By Cesar Reyes Torres

This movie is raw, real, and flat out legit on all aspects, and it is a must see movie of this summer. In a way the movie only reinforces what we all already know. But whether you grew up in the 90s or late 80s , Straight Outta Compton is a movie that's almost like retelling history. The history of how a few young black guys from Compton spoke the truth and made the truth rhyme thanks to some geniuse lyrics by Ice Cube and game changing beats by Dr Dre. At the same time during this process, they wrapped it all in a big middle finger that intimidated Middle America and even the Federal Government. Truth be told I went and saw this movie and the police departments are so threatened by what this movie says that they actually had a real police officer inside the movie theatre in case somebody took the movies message too serious. While this movie does cover police brutality, it is about much more than that. This movie goes through the ups and downs of fame, the betrayals and the bonds between men. The bad choices people make and their attempts to make amends for those bad choices. I've seen every major movie this summer, and I can tell you this is the best one so far. Go see Straight Outta Compton. 

Me and God. By Cesar Reyes Torres

Me and God

When I feel like I have nothing left to offer the world, I turn to God and he puts me to work
When I feel tired from what seems like never ending list things that need to be done, I turn to God and he gives me rest
When I feel like I'm drowning in the middle of an ocean, I turn to God and we go for a walk
When I feel like I can't trust anyone, I turn to God and he reminds me that I must always trust in him
When I feel like I can't go on, I turn to God and he says go a little farther
When I feel like something is wrong with me because I don't fit in, I turn to God and he reminds me that he created me this way for a reason
When I feel like crying, I turn to God and he gives me a reason to smile
When I feel full and satisfied in all aspects of life, God reminds me to share
When I feel alone, God reminds me that I'm not
 When I feel like  I'm done, God give me more to do