Surprised?

I don't talk much about my life in the past on here; that's mainly because I never had time to do much more than browse once in a while.

I've been singing in public since I was 7. I'm 39 now. I've been performing on my own and with bands for nearly 25 years.

I've hustled every kind of hustle a cat can hustle. I've not only made ends meet, I've made ends make babies together! It sure took a lot, but my motto back in the day was, literally, "I'll always have a hustle".

For those who are not used to this particular jargon, there are different kinds of "hustle". There's hustle as in physical effort, like on a sports team.

Then there's hustle as in suckering people. Three-card monte, keeping an ace up one's sleeve... that kind of hustle is long behind me now; that kind can get one in boatloads of trouble. 'Nuff said.

Then there's the kind of hustle Big Al is talking about. It's the kind that says "no matter what, get it done".

I've been very encouraged by the advice and suggestions here so far. I'm down, but I've been down before. I will blow the blues again VERY soon, and I'll have your energies to thank in part for that.

On one side note, however, I'm afraid your experiences with credit-card companies, etc, are a little dated, Big Al. These days, what with electronic fraud and identity theft and what-all, the banks are fact-checking like crazy so they don't hemorrhage money like they did back in the 80s and 90s. It was probably YOUR fault, Mr. Whittle! ;-)