Straight From the Streets Report

I'm not sure if I will do this weekly or bi-weekly...but I'm going to give you the gossip... live and direct from New Jersey.

1. I had a phone conversation with a friend from Boston that is in the Marines. He already did one tour of duty in Iraq and made it back safely. He told me today that in 10 months (3 months of training in California and 7 months in Iraq) he made $50,000. He also told me that he had $40,000 in credit card debt and after buying a few things he had like $6,000 when he touched down in the U.S. again earlier this year. The money is not all gone but he was recently laid off from his job. I guess I would be a jerk to hit him up for the $$$ that he owes me.

2. My boy from Boston (not the Marine) came to my paper for an interview on Thursday. I put in a good word for him and he came away with a good feeling about the paper. I hope I'll have a partner in crime in the very near future and it would be a good feeling that I could say I helped a friend land a job.

3. The mega millions jackpot is at $250 million for tonight's drawing. There is a cult at my job that pools their money for tickets every Tuesday and Friday. It is really quite funny how they sent building-wide messages on the how little they win each time and how they are going to roll over that amount for the next drawing. I decided to bypass the middle men and women and buy my own damn ticket. I'm sorry I just couldn't split that type of cash amongst 20 co-workers. Not today. Not next Tuesday (if it rolls over again). Not ever.