Job Coaching Starts and A Chaotic Day

[davetheanalyzer]

My brother and I have finally settled into the new job coaching service. Three days a week, we’ll have separate mentors visit us to help find jobs and coach us how to do interviews. I had been using the term helper for the person who had that role but I learned the term mentor is more accurate. Last Tuesday since she was exposed to covid we talked virtually applying to half a dozen jobs and improving answers to common interview questions. Despite Christmas Eve and New Years Eve being sort-of holidays, we still meet on the former and will meet tomorrow on the latter. I thought I was a bit distracted during our first meeting but the mentor said I did wonderfully. I hope I can continue to meet those expectations and actually be able to find and hold a job, though it means I’ll have to drop some of my hobbies. She also determined I could and should learn to drive so I’ve been taking multiple choice and similar tests once a day. Hopefully all these new tasks won’t drain my energy for writing. I don’t know if I’ll continue socializing in my usual haunts but I’ll see as I get used to this new routine.

I saw One of These Days on Netflix. I had been eying the film since I heard about it at the end of last year but never got around to seeing it until now. It was alright – I didn’t connect with it as much but it doesn’t need to. It explores friendship, endurance, and bigotry, though in a humorous context where the characters still manage to joke and have fun. Dreux is a fast food worker who has everything together and is about to have an interview for a promotion. Alyssa is a whimsical artist struggling to find interested buyers and is into woo-woo. Dreux is understandably frustrated by Alyssa’s laidback tendencies, trusting a flighty boyfriend who absconded with their rent money. I thought Dreux’s chemistry with Maniac was sweet, though admittedly forgot later and thought a comment she made while tracking down the boyfriend DeShawn implied she was a lesbian. The moment where an oblivious white woman is brought to the apartment by the land lord who proceeds to kiss up to her was awkward. 

The blood donation scene squeaked me out but I was able to bear it until it ended. Dreux being paranoid about Maniac having a violent criminal record was amusing in light of spoiling myself of his firefighting job before that’s revealed. Hope appears when the girls sell stray shoes hung on power lines and Dreux knocks her job interview out of the park. She managed to salvage the clothes used to replace the blood spattered1s into a nice business suit. But Alyssa taunting her boyfriend leads to Berniece tracking the 2 down and not only starting a fight in front of the company building, but stealing their rent money. After Dreux loses the opportunity, her and Alyssa’s fight felt realistic, digging into each other’s flaws and what made them frustrated with each other. I could believe their bond being nearly broken. King Lolo makes things grim, threatening to kill the girls if they don’t cough up the money they made selling off what turned out to be his shoes. He even kills the buyer, which I’m relieved wasn’t played for laughs.

After the 2’s eviction, Bethany the white neighbor unwittingly coming to the rescue by buying 1 of Alyssa’s paintings was a nice twist. Dreux sets up an abrupt art show where Bethany’s connections find customers and the apartment tenants get to enjoy a party. It was nice Dreux reunites with the job interviewer and seeing her accomplishments, they reconcile and she still offers her the job. When King Lolo shows up, Bethany s shows concern for the pair and Dreux asks her to leave demonstrating the 2 warmed to her. The chase and trickery was both tense and humorous, with King Lolo getting into a shoot out with who later turn out to be the predatory loan company from earlier. Keshawn returning to them because he didn’t like Bearnice asking him to do things was amusing. The deteriorating apartment saving them by knocking King Lolo out was good. At least Dreux and Alyssa reconciled in the fire and Dreux reconnected after with Maniac.

I don’t know if they lost the money in the fire but the landlord definitely gets arrested and they receive their compensation to rebuild. I hope the man the landlord kicked out at the start managed to get back in with hopefully better management. The 2 are happier and not as stressed, though maybe they should tell Bethany KeShaun isn’t a reliable boyfriend. The caveats are that a dog visibly poops, a maybe iffy depiction of the abusive landlord being born from abroad, blood as comedy, a guy being hit by a car for humor, and dealing with racism and attempted murder. With that in mind, if this film sounds interesting, feel free to see it.

That’s all for now. I’m altering my writing schedule so I’m rewriting another original fiction story on weekends since I’ve lost passion for the fanfic. I’ll see how that goes. Until the first month of 2026, see you!