He Might Just Be The Right Man For The Job

Delroy Simmonds

In Brooklyn, New York, Delroy Simmonds, 30, selflessly jumped in front of a subway train to save a 9-month-old baby boy who was blown onto the tracks by a gust of wind.

Simmonds was going to a job interview when he saw the baby had fallen on the tracks while still being strapped into the stroller. He quickly jumped down and pulled the baby up to the platform just as the train was heading towards them.

The train was able to stop a few feet from where the baby fell. The baby suffered cuts to his head and will be fine. The baby’s parents called Simmonds a hero.

Simmonds hopes the family will be all right, now that he has been hired for the job. Simmonds, who was laid off over a year ago from a job helping kids with learning disabilities, landed a gig as a project employee doing maintenance at ABM Janitorial Services at Kennedy Airport. His new boss said that Simmonds will have the opportunity to become a supervisor given his qualifications and experience.

“What he did to save that baby, it just shows character. He didn’t hesitate. He’s got a very good attitude.” —The guy who hired subway hero Delroy Simmonds today for a job as a maintenance worker at JFK airport, where he’ll earn $9.50 an hour.

Delroy Simmonds sitting alongside Daniel Zamara & his Mother.

“That’s the little man that got me a job today,” Simmonds said with a smile at 9-month-old Daniel Zamara as he walked into his room at Brookdale Hospital today.

“It feels amazing. Just seeing him alive,” said Simmonds. “It’s a miracle.”

“A lot of people at the hospital said ‘thank you’ and ‘congratulations’ and ‘good job’,” said Simmonds. “It’s good to see that it was a life saved instead of a life lost. It makes me feel good. Everyone told me congrats on getting the job too.”

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• Mystery Man Rescues Toddler From Oncoming Subway Train (nymag.com)

Ban on Baggy Pants (Don’t Trip)

Pants on the ground!

If a New York Senator can get a ban on baggy pants passed, why can’t it work here? Now hear me out, this ban is only effective in schools. I know I’m not the only person that is fed up with seeing male youths walking around with sagging pants that exposes us to their underwear & ass cracks.

Senator Adams, who says his Brooklyn district is the “ground zero for sagging,” says the style that many find offensive represents much more than a teenage stand against authority.

The Senator also started the “Stop the Sag” campaign last year against the “epidemic” trend, which is a title that befits his motto, “If we raise our pants, we raise our image.”

This saggy fashion surpassed being a fad & ten years ago is a full on epidemic.
If you’re wearing a belt & your pants still needs to be held up like you’re lifting weights, your pants are TOO big.
If the zipper on your jeans is touching your knees, your pants are TOO low.

It’s not discrimination, you can wear other pants. You do have another pair of pants you can wear in public (school) that wasn’t made for 3 people to swim in?

I’ve seen guys on the treadmill at my friends gym wearing saggy pants. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t using them as part of weight training or to simulate wind resistance.

And how the hell do you sag tight jeans that are supposed to suck onto your nuts like some kinda Twilight Vampire from Down Under (sorry Australia)?

Raise your pants. Raise your image.

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Charlaine Meet Stephen

I came to an odd realization that I probably already discovered in my teens but somehow forgot.

I have little to no problem talking to women that I’m NOT romantically interested in.

So here are the basic equations:

Female Stranger = Minimal risk
Female Friend = No problem / No risk
Attractive Female Stranger = Medium risk / Just need an opening and I’ll be fine
Attractive Female Friend = Small problem / Minimal risk (yeah she’s pretty, but she’s also the person I make fun of & confide in)

Female I’m Romantically Attracted To = Maximum Carnage!! (I become my tongue-tied 14 year old self all over again. Abort ALL missions! Avoid talking to at all cost)

“Conversations lead to interrogations.”

Flawed logic, I know, but it makes sense in some messed up way. The more I talk, the more what I truly feel rises to the surface. The rush of attraction, building expectations, unrealistic dreams & the need to confess all come cascading in to make a glorious mess. As a “shy” person who used to be introverted, I find that sometimes I just can’t win. I can speak easy, but then I choke once in a while.

Sometimes I can make a “Hail Mary” pass & save myself…. from myself. It’s like wearing a mask while talking to someone you’re close to (or would like to be close to). Everything I say is veiled in double meanings, white lies or distractions.

Then there are those rare moments when I don’t need the mask at all because I can just tell that the woman I’m with gets it. She knows. She knows how I feel & she isn’t running for the hills or acting like her phone isn’t in service until she needs something. It’s in those moments where speaking my mind seems freeing instead of frightening.

I find it oddly funny how easy it is to express things to someone that encourages it wholly. None of that “You can tell me everything. Except for this… That & the other.”

If we knew what the ground rules were for each person, wouldn’t things be so easy?

Random Story:
Anyway I was at Indigo Books earlier today, sitting down next to a stack of Stephen King novels reading. I was deeply absorbed in “The Art of War” & trying to apply it to dating, because war is the only thing I as a man can understand (sarcasm).

So I’m reading when I see from the corner of my eyes, this cute petite mixed Asian girl with long brown hair sit in front of a bunch of books that are stacked right next to me. The books jutted out of place and fell. She got embarrassed & I said with a smile on my face (at least I think I was smiling):

“Don’t worry, that’s been happening all day. I think Charlaine Harris looks good on top of Stephen King anyway.”

She laughed.

We picked up the rest of the books that fell to the ground together. She thanked me & I told her about how I saw “New York” (by Edward Rutherford) fall to my left like a bad game of Jenga as some kid lost his balance. We chatted for a bit in our seats when she told me about the book she was getting for her boyfriend. As if on queue he magically appears and asks what happened. She tells him & then hands him “A Song of Fire & Ice” from the Game of Thrones series.

Then he sits down where she previously sat & a book slides out. Right before it drops I stop it with one finger & push it back into place. Then I say:

“Who knew books could be so dangerous. Things are falling all over the place .”

They both laugh and she calls him a “klutz”.

So what if she had a boyfriend, I spoke with her and it was fun & easy. That experience put me in a good mood. Although I was already in a good mood due to something fun and completely random that I had done earlier.

Life is full of random experiences, you’ve just got to take your shot when it comes your way.

Charlaine Meet Stephen

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WTF: Keep It To Yourself (Kidneys & All)

New York woman fired after donating kidney to help boss.

A New York woman who donated a kidney so her ailing boss would move up the transplant waiting list says she was fired shortly after the operation, according to a complaint she filed with the New York State Division of Human Rights.

Deborah Stevens said her former employer, Atlantic Automotive Group, discriminated against her over disabilities brought about by complications from the surgery, and she plans to sue the company for lost earnings and damages.

The company, which runs car dealerships on Long Island, said Stevens’s complaint is groundless.

“My gal is just a good-natured woman who’s trying to save a life and as soon as she did it, everything changed,” said Stevens’ attorney Lenard Leeds on Tuesday.

“When she wanted to take time off, she was scolded, she was yelled at,” he said. “Instead of being sympathetic, they were very hostile towards her.”

Stevens, of Hicksville, New York, said she learned that Jacqueline Brucia, who worked at Atlantic Automotive, was in need of a kidney in November 2010. Stevens had worked there as well but at the time had temporarily moved to Florida.

Stevens said she told Brucia she would donate a kidney.

“Brucia declined, but told her, ‘You never know, I may have to take you up on that offer one day,'” the complaint said.

Stevens learned the company would rehire her following her return to New York and not long afterward, Brucia told her a potential donor had not been approved by the hospital and asked if she was still willing to donate.

Stevens now believes Brucia was “grooming (Stevens) to be her ‘back-up plan,'” the complaint said.

Stevens’s kidney was not a good match for Brucia, but she agreed to donate it to a stranger in St. Louis, Missouri, setting up a transplant chain that enabled Brucia to receive a better-matched kidney from a donor in San Francisco.

Surgeons removed Stevens’s left kidney in August, and she returned to work about a month later. The surgery left her with damaged nerves in her leg, digestive problems and mental health issues, her lawyer said.

At work, Brucia became “curt and dismissive,” the complaint said. Stevens said she was berated for taking sick days and forced to relocate to a less desirable office after she complained to human resources about Brucia’s behavior.

On April 11, the company fired her, citing performance reasons.

Stevens’s lawyer said the complaint filed with the Division of Human Rights last week was a necessary step before a federal lawsuit is filed against Brucia and the company.

Telephone calls to Brucia’s home were not answered on Tuesday.

Atlantic Automotive released a statement saying: “It is unfortunate that one employee has used her own generous act to make up a groundless claim.”

“Atlantic Auto treated her appropriately and acted honorably and fairly, at every turn,” it said.

Next time, if there is a next time, just keep it to yourself, kidneys & all.

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