Money, money, money

It's crazy how much the whole idea of Christmas has gotten out of hand. Tyler works for American General Financial Services and I hear horror stories of how many loans they do for people to buy Christmas gifts. Around Christmas time they have their "Customer Appreciation Days" and rewrite everyone's loan to give them the month of November and December off (in other words, they don't have to pay on their loans for 2 months). They do this because they know that when it comes down to a battle between spending money on buying gifts and paying bills, the gift buying will always win.
I, myself, am guilty of getting caught up in the "let's see how much money we can spend on eachother" hubbub of Christmas. It's ridiculous. I have spent $700 dollars on xbox 360's for Tyler for Christmas, I've boughten $400 recliners for him as a graduation present, I've spent $450 for him to go to the Chiefs v. Denver Broncos game two years in a row...the list goes on and on.
I know I should realize the true meaning of Christmas, but it's hard to do when it seems like Christmas (at least in my family) has almost become a competition. I always want to get nice things for everyone because I know they're going ot get nice things for me.
This year I have had to swallow a lot of pride. As you all know, I lost my job a few months back and I've struggled to find anything that can pay my bills, let alone buy Christmas gifts. I haven't been able to buy the Chiefs tickets this year or spend hundreds of dollars on the people I love. It kills me, but I need to realize that it's not all about that.
My parents moved two hours away from me about six months ago. I konw that's not far, but with my busy schedule, I don't get to see them much. My sister lives in California and my grandparents live in Holton (again, that's not far away, but I've been to busy to go see them too).
I really need to realize that just being able to spend time with all of them at Christmas this year is more than any present could ever offer us. I really need to get my priorities in order, and I think the rest of the world could do the same too.

Ella had a daily routine. Every Tuesday and Thursday she did the same thing. She got up around 9:30, got ready, and went to her German class at 11. When the class got out an hour later, she went straight to McDonalds to meet up with her two good friends. She always got there a little early, so she would order and study for her next class until the girls got there.
The manager knew her by name and always knew what she was going to have for lunch; a number 6 with ketchup and mayo only with a dr. pepper to drink. She would get her debit card out before she even walked up to the counter, and it would be ready for her to swipe the card by the time she got up there.
On this day, Ella walked up with her card and smiled to the manager. They carried on a conversation as she swiped her card and waited to enter her pin number. After she entered her pin, she stared at the screen and waited for it to say "Aproved, Thank You," like it always did. But the screen never showed up. Instead, it read "Declined, Code 341."
Ella was shocked. She didn't know what to do. Yea, money had been tight lately, but she had just checked her account balance yesterday and it said she had $300 in her checking account.
She stared at the manager with a puzzled look on her face and then pulled out her cell phone. She called the bank and asked them to explain why her debit card had gotten declined. They proceeded to tell her that her account was overdrawn by $134 and they wouldn't allow her to make anymore transactions until her account was no longer in the negative.
Her rent check had just now gone through and she didn't know it. She had never kept a very good record of her purchases, but this had never happened to her before. She was mortified. She quickly made up an excuse to tell her friend, the manager, and started to walk away. The manager stopped her and handed her the sack of food.
"Just take it," the manager said. "You have to eat."
Ella grabbed the food and thanked the manager. She ate her lunch with her friends and never mentioned the situation. On her way back to school, she called her mom and begged for some money to get her by until she got paid the next Friday. She had never had to ask for money before and she never wanted to either.
Her mother generously offered to send as much as she needed, and explained to Ella that everyone goes through hard times and it's ok to ask for help.
Needless to say, Ella would definitely start keeping better track of her finances. She never wanted to be embarrassed like that again.

They haven't seen the last of me!

At the end of September, I got fired from Red Lobster. I was fired because there were tickets that had been rang in under my number and then discounted when they shouldn't have been. This had happened to two other bartenders as well and, as a result, we all got fired. I tried to explain how it wasn't me and that anyone could have accidentally or intentionally rang things in under my number, but they weren't having it.
At first I had decided to count my losses and move on. Sure, I had worked at the place for four and a half years and done absolutely everything for them, but screw it. If they didn't want to believe me, then I didn't need them. But after a while I started getting bitter. I did a little investigating of my own, since the company obviously wasn't going to do any. I found the root of the problem. Two guys had been discounting tickets by adding the crew meal discount and pocketing half the money. They did it under all of our numbers and didn't even realize it.
I finally got one of them to write a statement saying it was him and not me and I called the district manager of the company. I told him my story and he basically said he didn't care. He told me if I didn't agree with the outcome I could do a peer review and that was my only option.
A peer review is when you go before a panel of employees (two co-workers and one manager) and tell them your story. The panel decides if the company had cause to fire the employee or not, and if they didn't, the employee gets there job back.
When I started going through the peer review process, they just gave me the run around. I called one person who told me I needed to call another person, who told me I needed to call another person, who told me I needed to call the original person I talked to. I think they were doing it in an attempt to get me to give up, but they obviously don't realize how stubborn I am. I wasn't going to just give up, and I'm glad I didn't.
Now I'm at the point of having my peer review. It will take place within the next 14 days and I will have an answer within 30 days of that. Yes, it's been a really long process, but I don't care. It's worth it.
The panel consists of two girls that I have worked with for years and a manager who I get along with really well. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but I have a really good feeling about this.
If I do get my job back, which I think I will, I plan to go in and show them what they were missing out on. Then when our district manager comes back to our store, I plan to look him straight in the eye and give him the "fuck you buddy, you can't get rid of me" look!

Coming Home

She stared impatiently at the clock. It was only 9:47 a.m. She had only been there for 18 hours and she already wanted to leave.
Shell was back in Kansas again. It was as horrible as she had remembered. The weather was cold, the ocean was miles away and to top it off, she had to spend the next three days with her family.
It was Thanksgiving day and her mother had insisted that she come "home" to see everyone. But this wasn't home anymore. Home was Urvine, California and she liked it that way. No one knew what she was doing with her life, mainly because she didn't want anyone to know. She could call every now and then, tell everyone things were great, and they wouldn't know any different.
But now she was face to face with all of them. She would have to plaster on a fake smile and play the loving daughter-sister-cousin-niece-granddaughter role until she could shut herself in her room at night and finally be herself.
At 11 o'clock, the door flew open and in walked her younger sister, Meg. She was obviously the favorite of the who. She had stuck around after high school and went to the local college. She would graduate in a year with a mass media degree and, unlike Shell, she made frequent trips to visit both her parents and her grandparents.
She had been a big trouble-maker back in high school; back when Shell was the favorite one. But now Meg had turned her life around and it seemed as though the two had swap places. Meg was now the fun, bubbly, energetic daughter-sister-cousin-niece-granddaughter that everyone loved. Her plastered-on smile wasn't fake, and it drove Shell crazy.
Finally around 12:30 p.m. the rest of the family started showing up. They were in an unfamiliar place this year. Shell and Meg's parents had moved to Wichita and this was the first time they had all been down to see the place.
It was a beautiful home; four bedrooms, two fireplaces and a new pool table. All signs of a big promotion and new opportunities in a new town. But to Shell it was just a bigger Topeka. It would never compare to California and her new life she had started for herself. It's true, she was broke and struggling to pay the rent every month, but damnit she was doing it on her own and she would never ask for anyone's help.
Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, as always. Afterwards the men headed downstairs for some football and belly-rubbing while the women stayed upstairs with their cups of coffee. Shell answered the typical questions about where she was at now and what she had been up to for the last year. She felt as though she was being interviewed for a documentary on VH1.
Finally around four the family started packing up the kids to head back to Topeka. Shell had survived. As miserable as it was, she made it through. Now she just had to make it through the next two days and she would be on a plane back home. Her real home, that is. Then she would have a whole year to herself before having to deal with them all again.

officially old

Tyler officially became an old man on Saturday night. It was his 24th birthday, although I like to tease him by saying he was 23 going on 40.
We started our evening with a fancy dinner. Las Fuentes was his restaurant of choice. The assistant manager was our regular server, however we weren't able to be sat in her section that night. But she still stopped by to say hi and wished Tyler a happy birthday.
Not ten minutes later, a crowd of servers came over, clapping and singing. Our server was cupping a flame and from far away I thought it was a birthday dessert. As she got closer, I realized I was wrong! Instead, it was a flaming tequila shot.
Tyler hates tequila. Not only does it mess with his stomach (like I said, he's an old man), but it makes him mean! But tonight he had no choice. There were seven women standing over him and they weren't going anywhere until that shot glass was empty.
So against his own will, he threw a straw in the shot glass and sucked up the tequila. It only went downhill from there.
After Las Fuentes, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings to grab some beers and watch football. We saw some friends we haven't seen in a while, so we sat down with them.
After the beers started going down like water, I decided it was time to spice things up a bit, and I ordered us a round of shots;three jager bombs and a shot of plain jager for Tyler (gross!). That was a bad idea.
After the first shot (well technically it was the second), Tyler thought he needed to take more-a lot more. Every time I turned around Tyler was slamming a shot of jager.
By eleven o'clock, a couple more people had joined us and we all decided to move the party to Bullfrogs Live. Tyler seemed up for it, so I drove us there and we headed inside.
At that point, I wished I would have just taken him home. He was belligerent. I could tell he needed to get home so we said goodby and made our way to the car.
On the way out, I saw some friends from high school so I stopped to say hi. When I turned back around, Tyler was gone. He was no where to be found.
I walked to the car and he wasn't there. I walked back to the bar and he wasn't there either. I finally started roaming around screaming his name and found him sitting in front of Las Fuentes.
When we got home, I gave Tyler some space to relieve himself of all the jager shots he took that night. After he passed out in the bathroom, I helped him upstairs and into bed. He was asleep before he ever layed down.
After 20 minutes of listening to the loudest snoring I've ever heard, I finally decided to go sleep on the couch.
The next morning Tyler stumbled downstairs and gave me the sad "puppy dog" look.
"I don't know what I did, but I obviously did something and I'm sorry," he said.
He leaned down and rested his head on my stomach. I couldn't help but laugh. He thought we had gotten in a fight and that's why I was sleeping on the couch. If i wasn't such an honest person, I would have played along for a little while and made him feel bad. However, I don't think I could have kept a straight face long enough to do it.
So, as you can see, Tyler has officially become an old fart. He is just too old to party like he use to. It's sad to say, but he obviously can't hang with the big boys anymore. =)