Sometimes you have to blow your own trumpet. I want to start off by congratulating FedEx Express, where I work full-time, on attaining 50 years of operation. The company started on April 17, with 389 employees delivering 186 packages, using 14 aircraft. I am now one of 530, 000 employees of the company. I have been with them since June 2000. Imagine I never wanted to go for the interview that fateful day because I had sustained an injury to my right arm the night before in a volleyball league game and had to dress up in a suit and do a presentation with one-and-a-half arms. I started off in corporate sales in the Caribbean, and the Divisional Manager who hired me, Danny Dasent (now an actor in Hollywood) kept laughing the whole time as I was a mess, trying to gesticulate but was impeded by my arm in the sling.
I had almost finished typing my article for the month and then strange things happened in the last few days and I thought I would share this with you. Most people like music, I do too. I played the piano briefly when I was younger but was given an early retirement option when I was 12 years old, and I took it. I stopped playing the piano and ended up hurting myself as I am the only one of four siblings who plays no instrument. My children play the piano and cello, so I am thankful. So back to music! On April 13 I met a young man in Dallas and in the six minutes of conversation, I am going to be helping him with his music from a media perspective – promoting him, doing press releases, and a lot of other media-related stuff. He will then be able to focus on making music. He is the first ever artiste I will work with, and I am excited. Here is a link to one of his songs https://youtu.be/GLSdBfpHChk. I have since that meeting been able to reach out to a few more artistes: one in Maryland, a gospel artiste, and then in the last 24 hours I met Joe Philly, a rapper, and producer based in North Carolina but happened to be passing through Dallas due to flight complications. Then today I connected with two young men I have known for a while here in Dallas. They actually were part of a popular group about 13 years ago, GS Boyz. They were in the big leagues, traveling the world, featured on prominent US TV stations and more, before the group broke up. Their genre is rap. So, for me, it is going to be a bit of a challenge in the next few months, helping a variety of artists hone their craft, but it is what I enjoy doing.
Garden again. I have finally summed up the courage to grow a garden up front. In Beltsville I had to battle the deer, to get my plants to grow. In Dallas, the problem is the rabbits. So far, so good. I have a few flowers I planted from seeds, and they have germinated. I have some regular flowers but my most prized possession in the garden are two blackberry plants. I got them from Walmart on clearance for $1.75 and was able to revive them. They have fresh shoots and I have to get a little chicken wire to cover them before the rabbit patrol reaches there. My dog sheds a lot, and a coworker has suggested sprinkling some of the dog hair in the shrubs around the garden, so it is harder for them to tell if the dog is actually there or not. I will try it and let you know later whether or not it worked. Happy Mother’s Day to all of you.