1. Home to Contradictions, 2. Six Degrees from Home, 3. Welcome Back to My Therapy,
4. Lying, Cheating, Stealing and Intent, 5. Power of You, 6. One Split Second,
7. Marvelous Mistakes, 8. I made a choice to make a change, 9. Connections to the Farm,
10. Back to the Farm, 11. It's a small world after all, 12 Fair Weather Friends,
13. Ghost of Roommates Past, 14. You can never go to far, 15. Glamorous Life,
16. Double Standards, 17. Lazy? No Exhausted, 18. Crossroads of Life and Death, 19. One Last Time, 20. When Worlds Collide I, 21. When Worlds Collide II, 22. When Worlds Collide III 23. The Unwanted New World, 24. Means the Old World Must Go, 25. So Where was God in all this? 26. Where did you get that from?, 27. The Reason for My Season, 28. Was Always a Little Rascal, 29. Pictures and Quotes of the Little Rascal and final chapter 30. Closing in Contradictions. ~Use these links to read in order (some chapters have songs, new added content, pictures or all:) Volume 2 >>>>>
I loved Fergie's catchy tune and it was one that could stick in your head for days even though I am one of the most unglamorous person you will meet. I do not enjoy attention in the spot light so to speak. When I was younger it was different of course but as I grew up and into my role of adulthood I found that I prefer to listen to people in a group setting rather than talking especially if it was a topic I knew little or nothing about. I also suffered from foot in mouth syndrome and have worked hard to get that one under control. But I can talk one on one for hours as long as it is engaging and we both are learning something. And let's face it... I am a lot of things but graceful is not one of them. As a child I fell out of trees, walked into poles or columns, fell into fountains, walked into doors and tripped over my own feet more times than I can remember. In fact once in 8th grade I think I had on sandals which mom loved for me to wear... even though I hated them. I was running on the outside hallway and tripped spectacularly into a face dive in the concrete... in front of a boy. I am no stranger to humiliation and being a young teen was the hardest time in my life. In mom's infinite wisdom she enrolled me into dance class around the age of 5 and I stuck it out for 9 years. She so wanted a girly girl I guess and dad wanted a boy so I don't think either of them were very happy that I was a tom boy girl. It was not a pretty sight and every year we were to present a recital so our families could see how well we learned to dance. One year I think I was 11 or 12? and I had a little number with 4 other girls and I fell during the performance. I felt about as tall as an ant and just wished I could crawl away... but I got back up and kept on going. What else do you do?
I'd like to tell you that mom's investment paid off but I can't do that with a straight face so I won't. After I bought my house with stairs... it became the running joke about me falling up and down them. Friends would ask me if my paramedics were on duty 24/7 and gave me the nickname Schleprock. To be honest after so many times I stopped being so embarrassed because it was... what it was. I have accepted we all can't be good at everything... even if we would really like to be. I still love dancing but as long as no one is around or others are doing it. I inherited being clumsy from mom and passed it on to Trey because he was known to do many of the same things I did. So are you starting to understand why I don't seek out the spot light or want attention? Good. :) When I started as a private investigator, I didn't believe that is was a glamorous job. Yes I watched Rockford Files and Magnum PI... but I have always lived in the real world. My life was never going to be anything like TV and I was thankful for that. Really!
Our firm was old school meaning we were in the car with cameras... video and 35mm, dictaphone, paper maps and radio's. We sat in the car and waited for many hours on end in lots of locations for maybe 5 seconds worth of action. One hotel room here looks like another one at the beach or where ever. If any of you have happened to watch the TV show Cheaters and think that it's cool, well you'd be in for a big surprise. I have worked over 24 hours at a time and driven all over the south east. Turns out when people are cheating on their spouse they are pressed for time and that causes them to fly to get to their destinations. You have to be able to keep up with them in their sporty cars and find out who, where and when they are doing the things they do. I have spent my fair share of time in parking decks, lots, hotel stairways, sitting in grave yards, on the side of roads, in restaurants and malls. Did I mention I hate malls? If the people went to a single family house then we had to creep around it and try and catch a peek of them inside... doing things they shouldn't be doing. I used to joke that the boss would have us repel from the roof tops if it would make a difference.
During an overnight case I was working in the country I had to try and get close to the house so I could take a picture of their cars parked together. There was a lot of trees in the yard and statues of deer along with other yard ornaments. After I think they have gone to bed I get out of the car and walk ever so slowly toward the house. It was off the road a good distance and I am trying my best to be quiet with crunchy leaves on the ground. The house was a huge two story with a semi circular driveway and I was about 30 feet from it when... one of the statues moved and snorted... which caused me to jump.... which caused the motion sensor to activate the flood lights... which showed I was about 3 feet from a huge buck. Beautiful creature but I took off because I didn't want to explain what I was doing there. Soon after getting back into my car, I heard a thump in the rear and turned to look and there was a raccoon setting on the trunk looking at me through the glass. Whew... it was a long night. In this business unexpected things happen as regularly as the Sunday paper.
When I first started we would get to eat out at some of the best places in town. Ones I would not have been able to afford otherwise and it was nice. We worked on several high profile cases over the years and it showed that just because people had money doesn't mean they had good sense or were any happier than the rest of us. It was a whole other world to which I was a witness to. I had it easier than the guys in the field because I am far less threatening looking to many people and I found if you were nice especially to the cops then it could go a long way toward easing any situation you may find yourself in. This one case we were working in Georgia had turned bad pretty quickly after following a person there because of the guy working with me. He was an ex policeman and thought he knew it all. See in Georgia they had apparently just passed an anti stalking law aimed a PI's, I guess because one of them may have got caught with their pants down? So when our person of interest called the cops, who came out to the hotel and spoke with my partner, I moved down the highway and found a nice big mall to park in while he did his thing. It was lucky he wasn't arrested because the tensions were running high that night. And later when he finally got free and asked where did I go... I told him that there wasn't a point of both of us getting arrested for his stupidity. Besides the boss didn't pay me enough to go to jail. Especially in Georgia. My exes family is from there and the little experience I had in that city at 16 was not pleasant because they threatened to lock me up just for being 16 without a parent with me. What kind of crazy stuff is that?
Our weirdest case was a man who had a girlfriend that looked exactly like his wife. They met up one night at a local movie theater who's parking lot was lit up like a football stadium and parked in the center of the parking lot directly across from the exit doors. When the crowd let out and were walking toward the parking lot, they all had a great view of the activities going on in the car. While my partner was trying to get shots of them in the car, I was filming the crowds reactions as the walked by... it was great! Apparently money can't buy you class either. Another case in Tennessee I found myself drifting onto the shoulder of the road with a guardrail that led to a very steep drop off... a cliff!. It was late, I was driving a car that one of the guys let me use when mine was stolen and had worked for 18 hours and still had more to go. I was lost and looking for a place with no address, just route numbers when this curve came up... I just about didn't stop the car in time. I then pulled over, realized that no one would have been able to find me or even identify me in case the car blew up because I wasn't in my car. Then I hurled, got my breath back and continued on. All that was recorded on the audio tape from screeching wheels to losing my lunch and when the others heard it they were stunned.
The absolute hardest thing for me was going to court and having to be a witness. I hate speaking publicly period but it gets even worse in court. My first few times on the stand I probably looked like I was ready to jet out of the seat and attach myself to the ceiling like old Sylvester the cat. My leg would shake uncontrollably making my voice sounded like I was talking through a fan and I probably looked like a complete idiot up there. I am truly thankful that most of the cases settled before we had to go to court because it didn't really seem to get much better. Another fact is just by sitting in court waiting to testify I could see that we were all just pawns in the game and he who has the most wins. Another difficult thing that most people don't think about is that it is really hard to find a bathroom when you really need one. And with my luck no matter when I chose to go, the people I was watching would leave about then. I just couldn't win for losing.
To me the most interesting people were the ones I met working the cases that had nothing to do with the cases themselves. Having worked in the service industry one way or another for years gave me a deep appreciation for others performing similar duties. These would include the parking lot attendant at the buildings we were in, to hotel or restaurant staff. I even ran into a guy I worked with at McDonald's down at the beach who I hadn't seen for about 10 years or so. Once while I was filming at the beach the critical part of getting both parties behind closed doors and even though I was in the shadows across the way, all they had to do was look behind them and they could see me. While filming I heard a shuffle behind me and breathing but I didn't move until the people were in the door. I then slowly turned around and a lady said to me, "I almost hired one of you for my husband, but then decided I didn't want to know." I was so relived she wasn't a whole lot of different things, all I could think to say at that point was okay! You know I had done a lot to break the habit of lying in my life but being a PI means you have to use a lot of pretexts to get information and I found that it was much harder to do now. And you had to be ready for the boss who would ask rapid fire questions like the DA in court.
You remember that attorney I've been mentioning through out this whole series? Well he worked in both of the buildings I worked in through my job at the law firm and as a PI. I met him once in the office and couldn't help but saying " Hi, I've heard a lot about you for years" and left it at that, but he gave me a quizzical look as the boss then asked him a question. I'm sure he was trying to figure out who I was as I was jetting out the door. Later I would talk to his secretary outside on smoke breaks and learned that she knew Krystal well from coming in to the office and was surprised that I did too. I am sure the way news travels it didn't take him long to figure it out. We also lost a lovely lady who had worked in the office for the firm for so very many years to breast cancer and as luck would have it she lived in the same county as my grandma in SC.
Because of the turn around there was always a new guy to train as well as do the job too. Another double standard I got tired of was training guys to do the job while still doing the job itself and they sometimes started off making more than I did currently. And they wonder why I and many before me was a pain in the ass? Hummm... let me think. The ones fresh out of school were still looking to have a life and would keep asking questions about how long it was going to take. They didn't like the answer... as long as it takes. Being a PI was not a job it was a life and you had to be ready at all times. I mean you could sit at home for a few days with nothing to do but let me start a project or make plans and that phone would ring just a sure as the sun would rise. We worked many of holidays and helped out in the office when we were needed. We had many people come and go in this profession and more often than not I would hear them say, this is not what I thought it was going to be. My response was... Well what did you think it would be? And I would hear that tune in my head...The Glamorous Life.
16. Double Standards >>>>>
4. Lying, Cheating, Stealing and Intent, 5. Power of You, 6. One Split Second,
7. Marvelous Mistakes, 8. I made a choice to make a change, 9. Connections to the Farm,
10. Back to the Farm, 11. It's a small world after all, 12 Fair Weather Friends,
13. Ghost of Roommates Past, 14. You can never go to far, 15. Glamorous Life,
16. Double Standards, 17. Lazy? No Exhausted, 18. Crossroads of Life and Death, 19. One Last Time, 20. When Worlds Collide I, 21. When Worlds Collide II, 22. When Worlds Collide III 23. The Unwanted New World, 24. Means the Old World Must Go, 25. So Where was God in all this? 26. Where did you get that from?, 27. The Reason for My Season, 28. Was Always a Little Rascal, 29. Pictures and Quotes of the Little Rascal and final chapter 30. Closing in Contradictions. ~Use these links to read in order (some chapters have songs, new added content, pictures or all:) Volume 2 >>>>>
I loved Fergie's catchy tune and it was one that could stick in your head for days even though I am one of the most unglamorous person you will meet. I do not enjoy attention in the spot light so to speak. When I was younger it was different of course but as I grew up and into my role of adulthood I found that I prefer to listen to people in a group setting rather than talking especially if it was a topic I knew little or nothing about. I also suffered from foot in mouth syndrome and have worked hard to get that one under control. But I can talk one on one for hours as long as it is engaging and we both are learning something. And let's face it... I am a lot of things but graceful is not one of them. As a child I fell out of trees, walked into poles or columns, fell into fountains, walked into doors and tripped over my own feet more times than I can remember. In fact once in 8th grade I think I had on sandals which mom loved for me to wear... even though I hated them. I was running on the outside hallway and tripped spectacularly into a face dive in the concrete... in front of a boy. I am no stranger to humiliation and being a young teen was the hardest time in my life. In mom's infinite wisdom she enrolled me into dance class around the age of 5 and I stuck it out for 9 years. She so wanted a girly girl I guess and dad wanted a boy so I don't think either of them were very happy that I was a tom boy girl. It was not a pretty sight and every year we were to present a recital so our families could see how well we learned to dance. One year I think I was 11 or 12? and I had a little number with 4 other girls and I fell during the performance. I felt about as tall as an ant and just wished I could crawl away... but I got back up and kept on going. What else do you do?
I'd like to tell you that mom's investment paid off but I can't do that with a straight face so I won't. After I bought my house with stairs... it became the running joke about me falling up and down them. Friends would ask me if my paramedics were on duty 24/7 and gave me the nickname Schleprock. To be honest after so many times I stopped being so embarrassed because it was... what it was. I have accepted we all can't be good at everything... even if we would really like to be. I still love dancing but as long as no one is around or others are doing it. I inherited being clumsy from mom and passed it on to Trey because he was known to do many of the same things I did. So are you starting to understand why I don't seek out the spot light or want attention? Good. :) When I started as a private investigator, I didn't believe that is was a glamorous job. Yes I watched Rockford Files and Magnum PI... but I have always lived in the real world. My life was never going to be anything like TV and I was thankful for that. Really!
Our firm was old school meaning we were in the car with cameras... video and 35mm, dictaphone, paper maps and radio's. We sat in the car and waited for many hours on end in lots of locations for maybe 5 seconds worth of action. One hotel room here looks like another one at the beach or where ever. If any of you have happened to watch the TV show Cheaters and think that it's cool, well you'd be in for a big surprise. I have worked over 24 hours at a time and driven all over the south east. Turns out when people are cheating on their spouse they are pressed for time and that causes them to fly to get to their destinations. You have to be able to keep up with them in their sporty cars and find out who, where and when they are doing the things they do. I have spent my fair share of time in parking decks, lots, hotel stairways, sitting in grave yards, on the side of roads, in restaurants and malls. Did I mention I hate malls? If the people went to a single family house then we had to creep around it and try and catch a peek of them inside... doing things they shouldn't be doing. I used to joke that the boss would have us repel from the roof tops if it would make a difference.
During an overnight case I was working in the country I had to try and get close to the house so I could take a picture of their cars parked together. There was a lot of trees in the yard and statues of deer along with other yard ornaments. After I think they have gone to bed I get out of the car and walk ever so slowly toward the house. It was off the road a good distance and I am trying my best to be quiet with crunchy leaves on the ground. The house was a huge two story with a semi circular driveway and I was about 30 feet from it when... one of the statues moved and snorted... which caused me to jump.... which caused the motion sensor to activate the flood lights... which showed I was about 3 feet from a huge buck. Beautiful creature but I took off because I didn't want to explain what I was doing there. Soon after getting back into my car, I heard a thump in the rear and turned to look and there was a raccoon setting on the trunk looking at me through the glass. Whew... it was a long night. In this business unexpected things happen as regularly as the Sunday paper.
When I first started we would get to eat out at some of the best places in town. Ones I would not have been able to afford otherwise and it was nice. We worked on several high profile cases over the years and it showed that just because people had money doesn't mean they had good sense or were any happier than the rest of us. It was a whole other world to which I was a witness to. I had it easier than the guys in the field because I am far less threatening looking to many people and I found if you were nice especially to the cops then it could go a long way toward easing any situation you may find yourself in. This one case we were working in Georgia had turned bad pretty quickly after following a person there because of the guy working with me. He was an ex policeman and thought he knew it all. See in Georgia they had apparently just passed an anti stalking law aimed a PI's, I guess because one of them may have got caught with their pants down? So when our person of interest called the cops, who came out to the hotel and spoke with my partner, I moved down the highway and found a nice big mall to park in while he did his thing. It was lucky he wasn't arrested because the tensions were running high that night. And later when he finally got free and asked where did I go... I told him that there wasn't a point of both of us getting arrested for his stupidity. Besides the boss didn't pay me enough to go to jail. Especially in Georgia. My exes family is from there and the little experience I had in that city at 16 was not pleasant because they threatened to lock me up just for being 16 without a parent with me. What kind of crazy stuff is that?
Our weirdest case was a man who had a girlfriend that looked exactly like his wife. They met up one night at a local movie theater who's parking lot was lit up like a football stadium and parked in the center of the parking lot directly across from the exit doors. When the crowd let out and were walking toward the parking lot, they all had a great view of the activities going on in the car. While my partner was trying to get shots of them in the car, I was filming the crowds reactions as the walked by... it was great! Apparently money can't buy you class either. Another case in Tennessee I found myself drifting onto the shoulder of the road with a guardrail that led to a very steep drop off... a cliff!. It was late, I was driving a car that one of the guys let me use when mine was stolen and had worked for 18 hours and still had more to go. I was lost and looking for a place with no address, just route numbers when this curve came up... I just about didn't stop the car in time. I then pulled over, realized that no one would have been able to find me or even identify me in case the car blew up because I wasn't in my car. Then I hurled, got my breath back and continued on. All that was recorded on the audio tape from screeching wheels to losing my lunch and when the others heard it they were stunned.
The absolute hardest thing for me was going to court and having to be a witness. I hate speaking publicly period but it gets even worse in court. My first few times on the stand I probably looked like I was ready to jet out of the seat and attach myself to the ceiling like old Sylvester the cat. My leg would shake uncontrollably making my voice sounded like I was talking through a fan and I probably looked like a complete idiot up there. I am truly thankful that most of the cases settled before we had to go to court because it didn't really seem to get much better. Another fact is just by sitting in court waiting to testify I could see that we were all just pawns in the game and he who has the most wins. Another difficult thing that most people don't think about is that it is really hard to find a bathroom when you really need one. And with my luck no matter when I chose to go, the people I was watching would leave about then. I just couldn't win for losing.
To me the most interesting people were the ones I met working the cases that had nothing to do with the cases themselves. Having worked in the service industry one way or another for years gave me a deep appreciation for others performing similar duties. These would include the parking lot attendant at the buildings we were in, to hotel or restaurant staff. I even ran into a guy I worked with at McDonald's down at the beach who I hadn't seen for about 10 years or so. Once while I was filming at the beach the critical part of getting both parties behind closed doors and even though I was in the shadows across the way, all they had to do was look behind them and they could see me. While filming I heard a shuffle behind me and breathing but I didn't move until the people were in the door. I then slowly turned around and a lady said to me, "I almost hired one of you for my husband, but then decided I didn't want to know." I was so relived she wasn't a whole lot of different things, all I could think to say at that point was okay! You know I had done a lot to break the habit of lying in my life but being a PI means you have to use a lot of pretexts to get information and I found that it was much harder to do now. And you had to be ready for the boss who would ask rapid fire questions like the DA in court.
You remember that attorney I've been mentioning through out this whole series? Well he worked in both of the buildings I worked in through my job at the law firm and as a PI. I met him once in the office and couldn't help but saying " Hi, I've heard a lot about you for years" and left it at that, but he gave me a quizzical look as the boss then asked him a question. I'm sure he was trying to figure out who I was as I was jetting out the door. Later I would talk to his secretary outside on smoke breaks and learned that she knew Krystal well from coming in to the office and was surprised that I did too. I am sure the way news travels it didn't take him long to figure it out. We also lost a lovely lady who had worked in the office for the firm for so very many years to breast cancer and as luck would have it she lived in the same county as my grandma in SC.
Because of the turn around there was always a new guy to train as well as do the job too. Another double standard I got tired of was training guys to do the job while still doing the job itself and they sometimes started off making more than I did currently. And they wonder why I and many before me was a pain in the ass? Hummm... let me think. The ones fresh out of school were still looking to have a life and would keep asking questions about how long it was going to take. They didn't like the answer... as long as it takes. Being a PI was not a job it was a life and you had to be ready at all times. I mean you could sit at home for a few days with nothing to do but let me start a project or make plans and that phone would ring just a sure as the sun would rise. We worked many of holidays and helped out in the office when we were needed. We had many people come and go in this profession and more often than not I would hear them say, this is not what I thought it was going to be. My response was... Well what did you think it would be? And I would hear that tune in my head...The Glamorous Life.
16. Double Standards >>>>>
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