Displayed below are screenshots of all the cash account entries from 2001 to the start of 2005. These were the years of course when cash was king. Prior to the financial collapse of 2002, cash was still a major component of my spending and I was diligent about tracking it; that diligence continued through the Koyo years especially since by then it was the only way to track money since there were no credit cards or checking accounts.
Happy Fourth of July 2001! First entry on the list, Confisco IOA, we are obviously at Islands of Adventure, sitting at the Backwater Bar, no doubt with Rick and possibly Gary too since $21 would probably be about the equivalent back then of three good sized drinks and a tip. These were the Halcyon Days.
June 10th 2002. All right almost a full year later and only four lines down from the head, I guess I wasn't that diligent about tracking cash in 2001. But now we're in the pre-Koyo times and we see our first entry under the category Miscellaneous : December 23rd Fund. Colonial Counseling was basically this dude who did these very lame group counseling sessions that I had to attend as part of my mandatory sentencing for the DUI. The DUI which occurred December 23rd 2001, hence the name December 23rd Fund. So yeah as you can see from the additional entries, this shit cost me $90 every two weeks, plus, as you can see towards the bottom, the occasional unannounced drug test for $30. Good times!
July 19th 2002. OCSO standing for Orange County Sheriff's Office. I think this was something like that a Victims Impact fee or something else $70.13 is really precise.
August 8th 2002. CCD. This was probation. $40 a month. A bargain compared to those counseling sessions. And if I remember it was only a phone call to my probation officer, not an actual in-person visit. Oh the paperwork said that they could demand and in person visit at any time either by me coming in or them showing up at my house but I think other than the initial meet and greet right after my sentencing and subsequent jail time stint (eight days if you remember) it was all phoned in.
February 23rd 2003. Here we go marching to Koyo. I sell my couch, and a bunch of other furnishings in my soon-to-be abandoned apartment at Reflections to Gary for 20 bucks.
February 26th 2003. I'm leaving not on a Jet Plane... But a Greyhound bus. $62.75 one way Orlando to New Orleans. I remember the Heartbreak of placing the huge bag that carried practically everything I owned on the scale at the check-in desk and being told it was overweight. I had to dump a lot of stuff out. I can't even honestly remember what. Probably clothes. They can weigh a lot and they can be replaced readily at any Salvation Army or Goodwill and if I remember correctly that's exactly what I did. But I'm sure I had a few favorites that ended up in that trash can in the Orlando Greyhound terminal that bleak day.
March 14th 2003. My first job in New Orleans. Oh I remember walking home after my shift was over with that check in my pocket, the glee I felt. I hadn't figured out yet how I was going to cash my checks. I guess I figured it out because as we can see there's an entry two days later accounting for $250 spent but not saying where it went, labeling it only as miscellaneous unknown. Kind of suss if you ask me... What's this all about Past Michael?
March 23rd 2003. Oh but Raegan gets her cut.
April 1st 2003. But not for long, here I am in my room at the blue house on North doujinwa, LOL, oh speech to text software and French words, let me type that: North Dorgenois.
May 16th 2003. The Chinese lady that ran the Magazine Grocery store where we cashed our checks for some arbitrary fee, whatever she felt that particular day. We all put up with it because we were all checking account disabled and had no choice. Well one day, her not too bright son was behind the counter and doling out the Benjamins for our weekly paychecks and he accidentally gave me one extra. Woohoo!
May 27th 2003. Jay and I venture out like old times to the theme park. Only now it's a much shittier theme park then the Orlando ones and I'm not driving us, of course, we're taking the bus. Yes this is the much talked about Six Flags New Orleans theme park famous for its downfall as a result of Hurricane Katrina and its now spooky abandoned tract of land out in New Orleans East. But back in this time, it had just been newly named Six Flags after their takeover of Jazzland and it looked brand spanking new. But still shittier than Disney or Universal of course. So....
May 28th 2003. NOW I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane. Southwest Airlines one way Louis Armstrong Airport to Orlando International Airport $128. Also the same day two cab rides and a SeaWorld fun pass. I simply can't remember this. I do remember taking one cab from the airport to Ric's house rather than the bus and had the cab wait for me quick quick while I went into a 7-Eleven to pick up a six pack. I'm pretty sure I wrote this in my Chronicles, but then hopping into another cab and taking it to SeaWorld? Knowing how spontaneous Ric and I were back then I wouldn't rule that out. I remember having a SeaWorld pass during that chapter in my Koyo Chronicles but I didn't think I got it the day I landed. See kids, this is why it's good to keep records. EDIT: I just checked Chronicles and Chronicles is wrong. In Chronicles I say I took a bus. The evidence in this ledger contradicts that. Ugh, am I going to have to rewrite Chronicles?
June 12th 2003. The Irish Pub was a small bar in the strip Plaza near Smokey Bones on the corner of Semoran and Howell Branch Road. Ric, Gary and I ripped it up in here regularly. Including on the night that Rick threw that glass top coffee table at me and it shattered all over the living room floor. Good times!
June 14th 2003. Bennigan's! Right across the street. How convenient! Maybe this $32 included those bear claw chicken things, yum yum, or maybe it's all just booze? A week later, at the same place, I only spend $4 probably because as you can see I'm dirt ass broke, it leaves me with just $1.86 in pocket.
December 12th 2003. My first solid chance of getting out of Koyo. I'll tell you though right now as I'm doing this looking back at what I was making at US Grants in New Orleans and iCare here in Florida, equaling about $500 a week... Roughly the same amount that I was making in the job I just left, but these were entry level simple jobs, for about the same pay, yet 20 fucking years apart!
January 16th 2004. Ah, Del Dio's! Oh ho Ric and I loved the Italian food in this place. Little hole in the wall in a strip mall on 436 in Fern Park. Long gone now, of course.
January 28th 2004. Is this my first stop at Pelican Discount Liquors? It wouldn't be my last!
February 4th 2004. Spending much more now at Bennigan's!
February 17th 2004. I hit the wrong blogger icon and created an indent on this line so now it's fucked up sorry. We'll just deal with it. Anyway, $229.23 for Sprint. So this is when Sprint was a landline carrier and I had a landline phone with DSL installed but due to my past patronage with the fine people at Sprint they noticed I had a little bit of an outstanding balance so that accounts for why this charge is so high.
March 1st 2004. Back in the 90s when Rick and I lived on Lee Road we discovered this pizza place and loved it ever since. Long gone now as well of course. Also the same day we stopped into an Electronics Boutique and went half and half on a Tiger Woods PC game we'd play together on my then computer.
March 6th 2004. Ric, Gary and I knocking down a few pins (and pints, no doubt) at good old Casselberry Lanes. Wow, speech to text knew how to spell Casselberry.
March 12th 2004. Rick's favorite go-to for delivery pizza. It was darn good too.
March 16th 2004. Progress Energy now Duke Energy the same power company I currently pay exorbitant fees to, namely last month's bill at about $160. Here, almost 20 years ago, only $39.34. Well it was only spring I guess but still I pay around $60 to $90 a month during the mild weather months now... The good old days.
Here we begin another stint of unemployment after being fired from iCare. We can see I'm a little concerned about my glug-glug juice, tracking the brands and the amounts, well, for a little while anyway. Ooh, on the 21st of May we see we have a new job. It lasted only about another week.
Hilarious! Notice on May 31st there are two entries for $183 for Florida unemployment comp. I later straighten up the account with an adjustment towards the end of the year. I never noticed this error. I was probably too drunk or too preoccupied with the terror of impending homelessness. Not to mention the lack of entries after June 2nd probably due to the fact that my power got cut. I'd be on my way to New Orleans again that summer and would start tracking in this program again in Spring of 2005 when life got a little more stable.
