Surgery

Back in April, when I went to the dentist, the dentist saw some a dark spot on the x-ray that he thought might be a cyst. I have a genetic disorder that causes recurring cysts. As a kid I had about 3 surgeries for cysts in my gums, one for a cyst on my right shoulder, and one for a cyst right below my nose. When I got out of the dentist's office, I called my dad (he lives in Orlando, FL near Gainesville, FL which is where I lived before moving to Utah) and told him about the cyst. He told me that I should call the doctor in Florida that did the other surgeries to remove my cysts, Dr. Graper, and tell him about the cyst. I called Dr. Graper and they told me to have the dentist's office send him a copy of the x-ray. About a month later Dr. Graper called me back and told me that I should come down and have the cyst surgically removed. I told them that i also had another cyst on my left shoulder that needed to be removed. I called my dad and told him. He told me to get it scheduled and he would buy me a plane ticket to fly down there and have the surgery. I called Dr. Graper's office and had the surgery scheduled for Friday, July 7th.

Two weeks after Chere got arrested, Phil called me and told me that he was going to be managing a new club where Room 32 used to be. It's called Club Exchange. He told me that he wanted me and Brandy to come be Managers and he wanted me to run Security. I told him that I was flying to Florida for surgery that weekend. He said he wanted me to start working as soon as I got back. I should have given my 2 weeks notice at Teleperformance but I didn't. I wasn't 100% sure that I was going to quit. I wasn't sure that I wanted to work for Phil again for the reasons stated in this previous blog post.

On Wednesday, July 5th I did Security for the VIP room at Club Vortex for the Rihanna concert. Jeannie Ortega opened up for Rihanna. The VIP room at Club Vortex serves as the dressing room for the artists when they have concerts there. I secured the VIP room during the concert and then escorted Rihanna to her bus after the concert was over.

Shortly after I got done escorting Rihanna to her bus, I was hanging out by the side entrance on the north side of the club when I heard a call over the radio for a Code Red outside. Code Red is the code for a fight. Immediately after the Code Red call Gary, the Head of Security, called for everyone to Stand Down. A couple minutes later the call for a Code Red outside came over the radio again. A few of the other Security came running out the side door and we went running around to the front of the building. There was nothing going on there so we continued around to the south side of the building where there is a two-story parking garage. Gary radioed everyone and told them to fall back to the building. I saw Grant trying to prevent a black guy from fighting 5 or 6 Polynesians. I wasn't going to let Grant get hurt so I went out and tried to help him stop them from fighting. Grant told me to stay back and Gary had told us to fall back to the building but I didn't want Grant to get hurt. Eventually the cops showed up and although it took them a while, they finally got control of the situation.

After it was over, Grant yelled at me to get out of his sight. Then Gary yelled at everyone and told them to go inside for a meeting. When I went inside for the meeting, Gary came up to me and told me to go home. I walked up to Grant and asked him if I was getting paid cash or should I give my hours to Greg, the manager that handles payroll. He told me that I was getting on his last nerve and told me to go home. I later found out from Brandon, one of the Security guys there, that Gary had chewed everyone out for not Standing Down and Grant chewed out Gary and all of the Security guys for not getting control of the situation earlier. So basically, Grant chewed everyone out for not doing what I did, which was try to de-escalate the situation. So him sending me home didn't make any sense.

On Friday, July 6th I flew to Orlando, FL and my dad picked me up at the airport. I had not seen my dad since moving to Utah 10 years ago. He drove us to Gainesville, FL and got us a motel room. At 9 A.M. he drove me to Dr. Graper office and I got another x-ray done on my mouth. Dr. Graper saw that I actually had two cysts in my gums so he took them out as well as the cyst on my shoulder. When I woke up from surgery, I was more coherent than I remebered being when I had surgery as a teenager but I was still very groggy. I slept most of Friday and half of Saturday. I had to wake up periodically to take my medicine. Saturday afternoon dad took us to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. I give it a C+. The effects were cool but the story was lacking.

Saturday night dad and I got into an argument. He is a pacifist and believes that Christians should not do Security, Law Enforcement, or be in the Military. He was also giving me a hard time for not having done much with life besides Security work. I lashed out by telling him that him being abusive to me and being too controlling (he didn't let me do things like study martial arts, play football, and join the police cadet program) as I was growing up was the reason I hadn't done much with my life. He kept pressing the issue and I told him that I didn't want to talk about it any more. He didn't respect that and still pressed the issue. I ended up walking out of the restaurant we were eating at and walking back to the hotel room. Sunday morning we talked. I apologized for blaming him and he apologized for being abusive to me as a child. I thought I had forgiven him for that but apparently I hadn't so it's good that we worked it out.

After our talk we went to the house of a lady that my dad knew and then we all went to First Assembly of God which is the church that we went to when I was living with him in Gainesville. After church we went to lunch with his friend. Then we went to the movies. I wanted to see Superman Returns but it wasn't showing at the theater we went to. My dad and his friend wanted to see The Devil Wears Prada. After 10 minutes of that movie, I asked my dad if I could go watch The Break-up instead. He said sure. I give it a B-. After the movies my dad's friend went home. Then we went back to the hotel. I ate some yogurt (my diet for about a week after surgery consisted of mostly yogurt) and took a nap while my dad went to a nearby movie theater and bought me a ticket for Superman Returns. My dad didn't want to see it but he bought me a ticket and dropped me off. I give it a B. After the movie I walked back to the motel.

Monday afternoon we drove back down to Orlando and got a motel room. I was really craving some food from Boston Market (it's one of my favorite places to eat and they don't have any in Utah) so dad went and got me some meatloaf, stuffing, and yams from Boston Market. After eating I went to bed. Tuesday morning dad drove me to the airport and I flew back home.

To be continued...