It's Alive!

Most of you readers know that Joey and I started "Two Feet Below" with the idea of joining able-bodied people who want to learn more about crip life, and help crips get through this thing we call life on this berg we call Earth through our experiences.

Let me back up—Joey and I are artists and writers. She writes fantasy and a bit of horror while I write horror and children’s stories. We also have taken up photography. It’s the photography part that birthed "Two Feet Below" with the idea of making a photography book of our lives, as well as miscellaneous pictures we’ve taken wherever we’ve gone. Joey thought of the title because, as she says, we’re two feet below everybody else in our world. Genius, right?

Now, getting the book together has been slow-going because, last year, fate took a left, and it turned out to be hard for us personally with the government trying to fuck with my Medicaid over a $.53 raise! You can’t even buy a fucking can of soda for that, nowadays! Anywho, they tried to take away my Medicaid, and did manage to get me kicked off the program that paid for my providers, so I’ve been doing it on my own with the folks' help.

But this is a new year and I’ve gotten on a new program. Granted, it’s not as good as the program I was on, but beggars can’t be choosey, right? So, exactly a year later, I’m getting that squared away. Yes, I left my job of 18 years in October, which has been a bit trying through the holidays, but it was for the better, in the long run. I didn’t want to be a bitch to the hospital that my folks’ office was acquired. It’s not like I didn’t try. I tried for four years to play nice and be the professional employee I’m known to be, but I knew in the beginning it was going to be bad and, sure enough, shit just got worse. I called my two weeks, and the day before Joey’s birthday (October 6th), I left. I was the longest working original employee there at the time.

Since then, I’d put in apps to various jobs, with many rejections…I guess 18 years at one job with experience means exactly jack these days. I’ve been putting bids for writing jobs at Upwork with no one biting. My friend, who runs the online music/film mag that I’d been writing for on my spare time when I had my nine to five out of love for writing, started paying me to transcribe the interviews he conducts with entertainers. It’s not much, but it is something.

So, I’m living life on my terms now, doing whatever it takes to make end's meet while trying to be an entrepreneur because, like I say, the number one rule to being a successful crip is adaptability. Now that the holidays are over, people are hiring long-term instead of just seasonal, so hopefully that will be fruitful.

Given that, back to "Two Feet Below." Joey and I are broadening the brand. Yesterday, after doing some homework and research, I bought our first domain from Google! Like what I’ve done on Facebook and Vocal, we’ll blog whatever comes to our minds, whether it’s about our lives or movie reviews—whatever. We hope to engage people from all over while pushing our art or writing in the hopes of making it. I’ll still be reading you fine writers here on Vocal and will drop a line every now and then. So, if you liked what I did here, then, join us at twofeetbelow.twofeetbelow.com!