Tuesday, June 28, 2011

For argument's sake....


I couldn't help but post this. Most people know I am agnostic, not atheist, so to me, this was a valid argument. It's not that I am trying to be rude but I just laughed through the whole thing. If you can't find humor in most things, then life is just way too serious for your own good. 

Friday, June 24, 2011

Daylan has competition

Yesterday afternoon, I asked Tricia if she could take me home from work. Since this is about the 4th or 5th time, I figured she wouldn't mind. As always, we sat and ate lunch in the restaurant. We talked with two other girls who we thought was attractive in the restaurant, who we are rumored to be "hooking up with", our high school stories and other not so classy things. It was all a great laugh.

Afterwards, I loaded up in the car and went with Tricia to get her two boys, Jared and Javen. Javen is the youngest and when he saw me in the front seat, his face brightened up and he waved at me. He got in the backseat of the car, found a plastic ring on the floor boards, and gave it to me. He said that it belonged to me now and that I should keep it. He wanted me to put it on right then and there, so getting the joke, I put it on my ring finger. It fit snug and I already had a feeling I wouldn't be able to get it off. He ended up wanting to sit in my lap until his mom came so that is what we did. He crawled and I helped pull him. There we sat for a minute as he looked at me and smiled. This little boy has only seen me a few times and it was only in the time it takes to drive me home. His mom came back a minute later and he had to go in the backseat.

I am now engaged to a 5yr old boy, and that little gesture made my day. Now I can't take the ring off! My hands started to swell during the night when I was picking  up the house. I'm sure the swelling will go back down but it is jut a matter of time before my knuckles swell again. It's not a big deal since the story behind the ring is a cute one. I just say Javen got me a fatty piece to sport around.

Isn't it a beauty?

I'm sure at some point I will take the ring off, but I imagine that at some point, Tricia is going to have to take me home again, probably next Thursday, and Javen will be tickled pink to see that I still have the ring on. :) I'm sure I could take it off around that time....if my hands allow.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Cheating the system a little

A few days ago I went and had my hair done. I needed to have it cut but I decided it would be good to get a deep conditioner. Daylan and I went into the mall so I could have Michael so my hair. Normally he just gives me a hair cut, but my hair could use a bit of extra TLC. I had always gone to my beauty school for extra stuff so I forgot just how expensive having a salon do your hair can be. A shampoo, deep conditioner, hair cut, blow-dry/flat iron with a 20% discount was $60! What the hell?!? The hair cut was really good, but he thinned my hair out entirely too much.

I have very fine hair, I just happen to have a whole lot of fine hair. It usually means that my hair falls flat. I asked him to trim up my layers and texture to them so that they would blend more easily. Instead, he pulled out the razor and started shaving my hair. Normally I am very trusting of the person who is working on my head and I really liked the look until he was putting the flat iron to my hair. I noticed parts along my forehead that were shaved and sticking straight out. It was like I had the pink streaks in my hair all over again and that was where my hair broke off. When I ran my fingers through my hair, I was astonished with how THIN my hair was. I am not exaggerating when I say that half of the thickness of my hair has disappeared. While my hair is shiny and healthy, I can't help but feel resentful for the outcome.

The kind I want is similar to this because I can clip it in and take it out whenever I want. No glues, no  strings, no knots. You do three layers in the back and two layers on both sides of the face.


I did go and treat myself to some stuff to make myself feel better. I went into Victoria Secrets and bought five bras and four pairs of lace underwear for $99. Each bra is normally $55 and I got it for $15. I got a flat iron for $99, which is supposedly $275. Now I don't know if this is true. The website doesn't say much. Various sites say $55. One says $376. I think I got screwed a little, but it curled my hair and it flattened it again. The videos on youtube seem to show happy customers, and these are from black women, so in the end I guess a flat iron is a flat iron. I also got some colored extensions since I don't want to bleach my hair. I got hot pink, light pink and purple from Hot Topic. I had been eyeing them for as long as I could remember, I just wish the comb had a clip so they would stay in. Instead I have to use a clip to try to keep the extension in.

What I am looking for is normal extensions. I was going to get some for the wedding so I could have the fullness to pull off the look I want, but now it seems like getting the clip-in extensions will be the only way for my hair to get that fullness back. I saw a tutorial on youtube where a girl got a brand of hair called Remy by http://hellogorgeoushairextensions.com/ The only problem is, 1/2lb of hair for the length I am thinking about is $200. Of course it is human hair, but they are supposed to put more hair in for added thickness. I want to definitely do some internet window shopping to see what other options there are. $200 is a lot of money but I can color it, cut it and style it however I want.

Any suggestions?

Do I have to?

Daylan has his interview with Cici's today, and I still don't like the idea. His interview is at 10:30 and I have to be at work at 11:30. I still don't know if I just have to be dropped off work early or if he is somehow going to pick me up. The thought of getting ready now and sitting at work for at least an hour makes me just not want to go. I want to stay in my bed because I am so tired. I can't sleep till late and I still make myself wake up at 8am. Of course Daylan closed so I had to pick him up. We didn't get home till 1am and it still took time to wind down. I had six hours of sleep. Something has to give!

I work a single shift today and someone asked me to pick up a night shift for them. I'd rather work a Saturday night so I can get the extra money but when I tried to pick up a shift last week, I said I would be in overtime. I am kind of hoping that "the powers that be", meaning the managers, will tell T'rele that I can't pick up for him. I'd like to have another night off work. While I enjoyed a day off yesterday, it was spent doing other stuff. The second half of my night was spent ironing a lot of Daylan's clothes. I didn't even touch mine. The house is trashed so I need to clean it. Once again, let's insert the title of this blog right....here.

It needs to be done, just like the ironing did. I have been meaning to do it for so long and I did feel a slight pang of accomplishment when I saw how much I had ironed but I wish I had a system of making it faster. I just want to get every damn wrinkle out and it takes a while. Maybe I just need a better iron?

Alas, it is time to get ready and see if I have to be dropped off work early.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Everything blurs together

I've been so exhausted lately. Some days it seems as though five to six hours of sleep is enough but other days I wake up after having seven or more and still feel tired, like this morning. Seven hours of sleep and I tried to go back to sleep twenty minutes ago. It felt as though I was laying in bed forever but all I saw were coupons (because I was just checking to see if there was anything) so I couldn't go to sleep. As I am typing now, I still feel my eyes get heavy. Maybe taking that sleeping pill was a bad idea but I am trying to regulate when my body feels tired again.

Daylan says that he has been putting resumes out there lately, not only for San Angelo but for Fort Walton Beach too. I just don't know exactly how dedicated he is to trying to find a job in Florida. I stopped trying to push him when we thought this Mr. T's thing was going to go through but that was back in December. All I know is I want him to leave Sonic all together. His hours have been changing a lot and he hasn't been getting his bonus checks. He's been doing the inventory every week for the past year and a half but hasn't been getting his bonus checks for it. He refuses to talk to anyone about it. He says it will fall on deaf ears if he tells Joe but he refuses to take my advice and go over Joe's head. If that is in fact the case, he needs to talk to Bobby Bell or David Bryant because they run the district. He just won't do it. I don't care if it is loyalty, if he isn't getting his money then something needs to happen. What Daylan is trying to do is get the rest of his vacation days first before he makes some sort of decision.

He wants to move up to casual dining restaurants, work there for a bit and then move up to a more upscale restaurant. He has an interview with Cici's on Thursday and I think that is a waste of time. He says it's casual dining but it's more like a halfway  house to getting into the restaurant business. It's still fast food. It's a pizza buffet. It's not what he is wanting! He just doesn't see that! Yes, he may get benefits. Yes, he may get better hours and he may just make more money. This just isn't the step he needs to take. If he wants restaurant work, he needs to just apply for more restaurant positions....preferably in Florida.

If he were to get a job in Florida, we could move faster! I wouldn't have to save up as much money to get a security deposit for an apartment. I still have to pay the previous bills in order to get it under my name, but if he were to move, it could be under HIS name until I pay mine off. The rent and utilities would be cut in half and I'd have a live-in babysitter if I needed one.The best part about this is I would skip the rumor mill all together. I already know what would be said if I went back to Florida without Daylan. Word would spread to people who shouldn't even know I moved back. I'd never hear the end of it. I'm not talking about enemies, I'm talking about family too. Besides, it would look better in court if I moved back WITH my fiance who is there to support me.

I had a scare the other day when my GM, Eric, handed me a sheet of paper with two names, a phone number, and a case number. It was the day that I was going to put in my change of availability but then decided to wait till I knew what the hell was going on. What struck me as odd was that Eric didn't mention that the guys worked at a law firm but an agency. Daylan came home and googled the number on the internet and found a page dedicated to that number. It seems to be a "collection agency" but people were complaining about it. The claims were that these people were saying whatever they needed to get these people to talk to them. One woman said that they claimed to be doing the debt collection for Continental Finance, but when she called her credit card company, they had nothing bad to say about her. It sounded like this was a dirty company just trying to get money, so I printed the page just to be sure. I'm not sending money that is supposed to be used for my move back to Florida to a company that may not even be legit! I just gave Grammie $900 to pay for the fuck-up that Greg did!

Daylan and I decided that whenever we buy a house, which more than likely will be in San Angelo, that we will buy a foreclosed house. The show I saw on tv was for homes in the 60K-100K ranges and plenty of them were 3BR/1.5BA and a few even had a storage unit. We have always talked about having a master for us, a bedroom for Gabriel and a room for his gaming/my makeup. The separate storage unit could be for my stockpile. If we don't get one, then the third bedroom would be a catch all. Makeup, gaming and stockpile. Maybe we'd even have a one car garage. The only problem with getting a house in San Angelo is we don't have ANY of the stores that double/triple coupons. We don't have Rite-Aid, Kroger's, Food Lion etc. Albertson's started doubling and tripling but the coupon I had yesterday that should have tripled only doubled. It's a start though? Who knows how much foreclosed homes are in Florida or if there is a way I could find out. I never had to look before. A foreclosed home is a good starter home. Why pay $250,000 when you could get a nice starter home for $80,000? Of course we would try cheaper ;)

Case texted me the other night to tell me he got orders to deploy out of Japan, where he was on a two year tour, to go back to Iraq. He just wasn't sure when or how long he would be gone. He made it seem like he had good news to tell me. I can't help but be kind of sad. I've been watching way too much Army Wives to get that sort of a text message. Since he's already had to be in Iraq once and spent about a year in Japan, his debts are pretty much gone but I still don't want him to be in harm's way. He is one of my best friends. I can't bear the thought of something bad happening to him when he is over there. It's not as bad as Afghanistan, from what I've been hearing, but Iraq is still a war zone.

To end this blog, I have to report that my A/C went out in the bedroom. For those who don't know, we have two of the old-fashioned window units. They are loud, they don't have temperature settings and it costs an arm and a leg to run constantly. The one in the bedroom sort of broke. It blows room temperature air, which really doesn't help since we hit 108 just a few days ago. The one in the living room is trying to work double time but it only cools the kitchen and the living room. The bathroom which is on the other side of the wall as the kitchen still remains a sauna and the sun room is an oven. At least the bedroom is dark so it doesn't heat up  as fast. Daylan's been sleeping in the living room, where the A/C works, while I've been sleeping in the bedroom with the floor fan at my feet. Hey, at least I am sleeping without him waking me up when he changes positions. It's just the house is unbearable the rest of the time. I have no idea how much it will cost to fix this problem but we are going to have to wait another two weeks since Daylan just got paid. We need his next paycheck before we start shopping for a replacement unit.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Doubles are killing me.

Working doubles tends to be overly exhausting. I'm getting to be the age to where I just can't seem to do it anymore. I spend the entire day at the restaurant and I really don't make that much money because of it. I work for the rush, but then they cut me. I still have to take an hour to clean my section, do my side work and cash myself out. I take a long break, two hours but sometimes four hours, just to work for the dinner pop to do it again. I am having to do my section all over again, do more side work and cash myself out. By the end of it, I've been at work from 11am-10pm but was only waiting tables for four or five hours. The last few doubles (with the exception of Tuesday where I made $78 for a double) I've only made $40. 

That is not worth being at work for my entire day. 

I get home and it takes me a while to wind down. I'll be up really late at night just waiting. I don't want to take sleeping pills all the time. In fact I have stopped the past few weeks because I didn't want to deal with it again. I need to start taking them so I can get back into a more stable sleeping habit. I still wake up feeling exhausted. 

With that said, I am thinking about not working doubles anymore with the exception of maybe one day a week. There would have to be two days a week I would have to close because Daylan closes but the rest of the week he works mids. I would just have to work single day shifts. None of these long breaks, no taking two hours to do side work twice a day. I'd actually sleep normal hours and I'd have time to do so many other things!

My house is a mess. It is messy and it smells because when I am off work, I don't want to do anything. My days off I do laundry and do my shopping, but that's it. I have to have down time to sit and relax. We spend money on movies that we can't watch. I can only print coupon early in the morning and late at night around my work schedule. I have to plan my shopping trips late at night when I am off work. Makeup has taken the back  burner because I am too tired to do anything. Besides, it takes time to apply the makeup and then take pictures. Whenever I do it, it takes days for me to edit the photos just to post them. I don't even know when the last time I cooked was. I'm sure I could go through the album and see since I post pictures of everything I cook. Like I said, my house is horrible. Horrible is an under statement.

Oh, lets not forget that I have to get rides home from work four out of my five days a week. Daylan said "Keep an open schedule; we will make this work." That turned into he can't get me so I have to ask various co-workers to take me home. I live seven miles away but they swear I live in the boonies because half the drive seems to be in BFE. There aren't a lot of street signs and street lights because I live literally on the lake. I get a lot of "No" when I ask if I can get a ride home from work. It's just seven miles. Daylan is supposed to be able to take me in to work and take me home. Oh, sometimes his dad has to take me to work. If that can't happen, Daylan has to leave work to get me and then go back to work. We waste so much gas. It's unreal.

I'm just going to have to tell the managers that this is not working for me. It's not working financially and it's not working domestically. I want to be in a closing section. Put me in the two's (the box is the busiest place in the restaurant because the hostesses never forget because it's in the line of sight). I won't have closing duties so they don't have to worry about that. Hell people who have been there half the time as me are closing. If not there, put me in 54, 55 and 56 because it's next to the box and still a "closing" section. I need to have time in my day to do other things besides working. Well, not working but being in the restaurant. I wouldn't even have to eat there as much, if at all! I spend $8 everyday on lunch because I still tip $3. When you are only making $40 for an effin double, $8 is a lot of money to lose everyday.

If they aren't willing to do that, to accommodate me (especially after hiring a bunch of new people), then something has to give. I may just have to move early, even though I don't have the money to do that. I did just have to give Grammie $900. They know I am reliable. They know I am on time. I haven't called out. I have not been late once. I will do my section and do my side work. I don't just do it at the end of my shift but I keep up with it during my shift. Surely they can't say no to my request?

This is what my schedule looks like now (which is estimate because cutting time varies, I don't know how long tables will stay and I don't know how long it will take to do side work every shift:
Monday: off
Tuesday 11-3; 5-9
Wednesday: off
Thursday: 11-whenever they cut me
Friday: 11-2; 5-10
Saturday: 11-3 (usually pick up a shift so 5-10)
Sunday: 10:50-2; 5-9

This is what I hope they will let me work:
Monday: off
Tuesday 11-4
Wednesday: off
Thursday: 4-10
Friday 11-4
Saturday: 4-11
Sunday 11-4

Keep in mind, I may be cut at 4 but who knows how long till tables leave so it could be anywhere between 4:30-5. Still. That is a normal schedule and no losing money because I am on long breaks and spending more time doing side work at the end of the shift. I could make my house not smell, I could cook, I could coupon, I could do makeup, I could iron the mountain of clothes that I haven't touched in two months (no joke), and I could still relax.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

My day, as it stands, even with the help of coffee

Overnight:

I can not wait until the day that Daylan and I can own a Temper-Pedic bed. As it stands, I am going to make sure that not only will I not bounce in the bed but there will be a plexi-glass divider to separate our sides of the bed. How can one person change positions to the point that I am bouncing in bed? It wakes me up. He tosses and turns. He doesn't seem to understand that it wakes me up all the time. On top of that, he feels the need to either poke me, touch me, grope me or slap me (innocently of course) if not all of the above, which also wakes me up. It takes me time to be able to go back to sleep again and usually it's hard because I have to constantly throw his hands off of me. Yes it is flattering that he wants to touch me, but I have this problem on road trips too. I want to sleep but that isn't in his plans. If he is awake (or his body thinks he is awake while his mind is still in la-la-land) then I have to be awake with him. I need my sleep. I'm either going to kick him out of bed or I am going to sleep in the other bedroom. I don't know how many more nights of broken sleep I can tolerate. This Temper-Pedic bed will give me sanity, but the plexi-glass divider will be a god-send. I'll drill holes so he can talk to me, but I'll make sure he can't even stick his finger in it to poke me some more.

Morning:

Daylan wakes me up at 8. Normally I am up at this time checking online sites to see if there are any coupons to print, but this morning I was just too exhausted to even get to my second site. I turned the laptop off and went back to sleep. Not even fifteen minutes later, as if it wasn't a large enough hint that I am laying horizontal with my eyes closed, he feels the need to wake me up every ten minutes. I have alarms set as to when I need to get ready for work. He reminds me that he has a meeting at work so I HAVE to wake up if I want the car. I got him the death stare because had I been able to sleep without being woken up, at all, this wouldn't be an issue. As it stands, I hate his job. He isn't getting paid his bonuses for the extra work he has been putting in for a year and a half. He hasn't got a raise. The bosses' wife makes his life hell, and throws him under the bus all the time, for a blow-out her and I hadn't even technically had yet. His schedule is crap and is constantly changing, which usually means that 80% of the time I have to ask co-workers for rides home from work. I asked him if he wanted me to schedule my job around his so that rides would be guaranteed. "No, just leave your schedule open and we will make it work." I'm thinking all of this as I am being woken up, with very little sleep, to get ready for work two hours before I am supposed to all because of his schedule.

Day Shift:

It started out really slow and I was originally cut after being on the floor for an hour, but I lucked out by having one of the "closers" want to leave early so I took his section. I get to close and be in the box, which is the best place to be, but without the responsibilities. I lucked out. Rather than make $15, which is probably what I would have made at the time I was cut, I made $52. Had I been in the box the entire time, I am positive I would have made $70 but $52 is more than double what I had been making during lunch. I wasn't slammed with four tables, like I was hoping, but I was busy enough with three and was making fairly decent tips. Shoot, I made $10 off of two people. You can't really get much better than that.

Night Shift:

The night was slow. I was in a brand new section which usually is a pretty good section. It's in the corner of the atrium, which is usually used for parties. I had two four-top tables and one eight-top table. If I had a party of around fifteen, I would have been able to take it. Unfortunately, I rarely had two tables at a time because it was slow. Whenever one of the hostesses tried to seat me, they would say the section was too loud because of the other large groups, most of which had small kids. I ended up losing out on money because of that and only made $28. Thank goodness I made a decent amount for lunch or this double would have been like every other one. It wouldn't have been worth it. I really am thinking about changing my availability and only working single shifts because doubles just aren't worth it. I'm cut really early on both shifts. However I am hoping to only be here for another (ugh) six weeks and then I want to call it quits. I just am not making enough money and I don't get enough good/lucky days.

Tonight:

The mood changed drastically when I decided to watch Army Wives. Denise really has screwed up her life. What started off as her comparing her life and marriage to others (because Frank is very old fashioned and on a schedule. Hell they have sex on a schedule and it's boring), ended up with her signing divorce papers. Of course I know they didn't get divorced and in fact had another baby. First she went back to school to finish the last leg of nursing and then she got a job. She met a guy who gave her his motorcycle since he lost both of his legs, which then was a huge fight between Denise and Frank, her husband. She got sort of involved with a doctor and kissed him but that was as far as it went. The doctor had a motorcycle accident and her husband caught her kissing his hand when she wasn't aware of her husband being there. The guy died and she admitted to kissing the doctor. Then Frank tries to do therapy but he's so old fashioned, by the book, by the schedule and hard-headed (but he really means well!) that therapy didn't work. He deploys. The guy who gave her the motorcycle comes back and then somehow they have a fling. She has sex with him. Frank almost slept with a girl at the same time but stopped. He finds out because the crippled guy's ex came back swearing she would win the boy back and decided to tell the entire base about Denise's affair, which cost her her nursing job. Word spread to Iraq and then Denise is in mediation for a divorce. So she lost her job, lost the guy and is about to lose her husband all because of an affair. Never be surprised at the consequences you face from doing something stupid.

Yeah that was my day (yesterday)

Monday, June 13, 2011

New items to our menu coming soon for one night only...

This is a story that happened yesterday that I just couldn't help but share.

While I was on my break, I was sitting in a different part of the restaurant so I could eat my sandwich in peace without anyone really knowing where I was. I wasn't hidden, but I was in a section that was pretty much closed off. During my break, something happened to one of the servers. As it was happening, I'm sure she was very frustrated, but I couldn't help but laugh loudly as she told me the story.

She had a man and three teenagers sit in her section. Immediately he started asking her what the drink specials for the day were. As most people know, drink specials do not extend into the eating section of the restaurant. It's policy and not something that really can be changed. The man proceeded to tell her "That's racist". One of the teenagers proceeded to tell him that it wasn't such and then he rolled his eyes and said "Fine, it's bias." The server said that she thought that was the end of it. The four of them proceeded to order. The man ordered the chicken tender platter, which is the most popular dish that we have. It is usually a slam dunk. There aren't a whole lot of complaints with this dish because, really, how can fried chicken go wrong?

The man had one tender that was burnt on the corner. Burnt to the point it was black, but it was only on the corner. He proceeded to try to convince his server that this couldn't have possibly been a chicken tender; the black was the hollow eye socket to a rat.

Yes. A rat.



What do you say to that? It isn't like someone plucked a hair and put it in their food. It's not like a portion of saran wrap was in their food. This is the complete mind concoction on how to get free food. I mean did this guy drink so much to discover he only had $20 in his wallet but ordered four en tree plates? He then said he wanted to speak to the manager. He then tried to convince James, according to this server, that he had a rat on his plate.



What, were we short one tender and figured we would have enough time to fur a rat, batter it really quick and throw it in the fryer? We just happened to have rats roaming the restaurant? How does a chicken tender look like a fried rat? James said that he didn't refund the ticket but the server made it seem like he did. All she knows is that she was tipped $5 for four people. Yeah I know, great right?

Next time the guy needs to be more creative in his search for free food. Choose an animal that is more exciting like a bat or something fatter like a guinea pig. I have to admit, this was a first. It made myself and another server, Jason, laugh so hard that we decided to come up with a new item on the menu. A store special. Fried rat with a side of cockroaches and a side of maggots. The appetizer and the dessert are still up for debate. All we know is "Vermin" is in the title.

Any ideas?

Sunday, June 12, 2011

A quick note on my break

I need to make this quick because I am at work. I really miss Gabriel today. You would think that because i am at work I shouldnmt be thinking this. Typicaly people think about how much longer till they go home. I know that there isn't much I could do with him but I have a list of stuff I could do with him. slip n' slides, water ballon fights, water gun fights, make our own play dough, and other things. I work a lot and don't get a lot of off time. I am usually busy couponing or doing laundry but there are moments at night when I could be reading to him or watching movies with him. i don't talk or post about him often because I don't know who is reading or watching.There are some psychos out there. I tell my friends but I keep the rest to myself. I just donmt letmyself get down because I can't let it affect my work when my positive attitude is really all I have when i am at work. Speaking of work, I have to clock back in.

I can NOT wait to have a day off tomorow. I have so much crap to do.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

He screws us over no matter what we do

I've waited a week to write this because emotions were still so incredibly high. Normally I write stuff right as it happens (when I have the time and I'm not tired) but this time I figured it would be in my best interest to write about this. It isn't that I am afraid someone will tell his father I wrote very angrily about him, I just felt that I would say what I wanted to say and would focus on the feeling rather than the fact. The fact doesn't make this story any less tolerable but I didn't want to focus so much on the adjectives.

Wednesday night I spent the entire day watching tv to catch up on all the stuff I was missing. Towards the end of the day, I was watching Army Wives on Netflix. I knew Daylan came home and was watching tv back in the bedroom but I didn't know that he went outside to talk on the phone. I was made aware of it whenever he came in and paused what I was watching. He didn't say anything. He simply sat on the couch. This is Daylan's way of being over-dramatic so I just sat and waited. I wasn't sure if he was going to say anything or if he was just going to get back up and go back to the bedroom. This would mean that he wanted to pause my show just to pause the show. Daylan really is a child and will do stupid stuff because he thinks it is funny, even if I ask him not to. Instead, he told me that he just got off the phone with Grandpa Sir.

Ok, a phone call from Grandpa Sir at 10pm is never a good thing.

Before I get into what the phone call was about, I should get into some history. Sir is the boss of the family. He is the Godfather to the Southern Baptist Mafia. He is the minister of the family and what he says goes, period. Rarely are there any exceptions. With that said, Sir is a very tolerable and understanding man but he is a stern man when he has to put his foot down so when Daylan said he just got off the phone with him at 10pm, it couldn't have been a good thing. However it seems that he isn't necessarily mad at us. I'm sure he was in the beginning, until Daylan explained something to him (nicely of course because you are not rude to Sir).

Daylan and I have had problems with Greg, Daylan's father, for as long as I can remember. My first time meeting him was three days after Daylan and I started to date, when Kaydee (Daylan's sister) had given birth to Caleb. I was pinned to the hospital room wall in front of the family, but everyone disregarded it and then went on about their conversations. I, on the other hand, was very uncomfortable. This was his father's way of feeling me out. This was just the first instance. Others have included his father staying with us in my apartment and Greg asking me, within ear shot of Daylan, when I was going to leave his son and be with him. Another was his father coming into the room I was staying in while I was halfway changed into a corset to have a conversation with me rather than apologizing and leaving the room. What is worse is that his father is very irresponsible when it comes to finances.

Within the past year that I have been in Texas, Daylan has lost $1300.00 to his father. It isn't that he stole money from Daylan in the traditional sense of the word, but he did in fact steal from Daylan. $800.00 of it was tax return money from the year before last. His dad had done Daylan's taxes and we were supposed to get the check for it. The check never came. What we think happened is that his father deposited it into his own account but when we questioned him about it (by we I mean Daylan since I refuse to speak to Greg unless I have to) he would say that he was still waiting on the check. A second occasion was back in September. Daylan and I had a family reunion to go to in October in Ashville, NC. We found tickets roundtrip for two for $500.00 and had to have his father buy it. Daylan didn't have a debit card at the time and I had misplaced mine. We wired the money to his father and he said he would order it the next morning. A month went by and he said he was still waiting on the tickets to be mailed to him. Daylan finally went to Sir a week before we had to fly and found out that the tickets were never bought. Sir had to buy our tickets for us. $1300.00 roundtrip for two tickets. Sir told us not to worry about it since Daylan had proof that he wired money from his account to Greg's.

Greg has since struck again.

For a few months, Daylan's Durango was not drivable at all. There was something wrong with the bearings. The whole car made this horrible screeching noise like nails on a chalkboard but louder. You could feel in through the seats and the steering wheel. It was just embarrassing for both of us so we were driving his dad's Pacifica. Greg said that he was waiting on the parts to be shipped to his mechanic so to drive the Pacifica until then. Months later, nothing was done about it but as long as we had a vehicle, we didn't really say much amongst each other. When Kaydee had to have her car serviced due to an emergency when she was in Texas, Greg decided to make it a "family affair" and take all the cars. Daylan's Durango, Kaydee's Equinox, Greg's truck and Kathy's mini suv all went in. Greg made it seem to Daylan that he was going to cover it since "it's just the bearings after all." We figured that this was his way of kind of sort of paying us (by us I mean Daylan) back since he did screw Daylan out of quite a bit of money. We didn't think anything of it when we got the Durango back the day before we drove to Florida.

The day after we got back to Texas, we were just relaxing. We spent the entire day not doing much of anything. We did some minor picking up of the house and did the dishes, but he was in the bedroom laying down and watching tv while I was in the recliner in the living room watching Army Wives on Netflix. He came in, paused my show, and sat down on the couch like he had bad news. Like someone died or something. Like I previously stated, I thought that either he was going to say something horrible, like "We are breaking up" (since he had did that two and a half years ago) or he was going to then run off in the bedroom laughing. Like I said, I am engaged to a child because that would be his idea of a joke. Pause my show and run away...because he knows I'll throw something at him.

He said that he just got off the phone with Sir. It's 10pm and so this can't be good. Something happened. The last time we had a call like this, Scott (Daylan's uncle) had finally died due to AIDS complications. That call was made around 5 or 6am a month after I moved to Texas.  There are times of day that Sir does not make phone calls at all unless it is an emergency...or he is upset. The latter turned out to be true but before I got the whole story, I wasn't sure exactly WHO Sir was upset about. As far as I knew, neither one of us had done or said anything worth being upset about. With that family, one can never be sure.

Daylan said that Grandpa Sir called Daylan because Greg apparently didn't pay for any of the car repairs, not even his own. In fact, Greg sent the repair bill, for all four vehicles, to Sir and Grammie. Not only that, Greg rang up the company gasoline card to $5000.00 within a month. I guess Sir didn't know if having the Durango bill mailed to Sir's house was his idea or Greg's idea and I am assuming that Daylan set him straight with the whole nonsense. The end result still came out to the fact that we now owed Sir $900. That seems like a shit ton of money for just bearings. I mean I know they fixed Daylan's driver's side window as well, but really? I became furious because Daylan had no money in his account due to the trip to Florida and I didn't want Sir to be waiting long for his money. Daylan did not ask me to do this, but I paid Sir and Grammie off in two visits. He knew about it but I was the one who suggested it.

All the money I make from work are supposed to go to three things: my car payment, my weekly Walgreen's trips and so I can move back to Florida. I want enough money in the bank to cover a security deposit and still have a few months rent and utilities just in case it takes me a while to find a good job. I don't want to be in a place for two months just to be homeless because I couldn't afford it. $900.00 of that money that should have gone into my savings ended up having to go to Sir and Grammie. It's not their fault that Greg did this however it sucks because now I have to post-pone my move. I didn't have enough money in my savings account when I checked so I may have to post-pone this move about six more weeks and try harder to save money at Walgreen's. Right now I am paying for everything until Daylan gets paid. Normally he pays for everything since he knows I am trying really hard to save my money. Groceries, gas and whatnot comes out of my account. The trailer and the gas to get to Florida took more money out of Daylan than we expected.

To top it off, Greg told the family that I was MOVING back to Florida and that was why we were packing my stuff up. He said that I shouldn't have come back to Texas. I guess he thought I had cold feet or something so the family was silently wondering exactly why I was back. It's not any of Greg's business what is going on with me or when I plan on moving. I don't know why he apparently feels it is his duty to announce my every move, thought and decision to the rest of the family.

I wonder if they have even talked to Greg about this. I wonder if they are finally going to cut Greg off. I doubt it. He apparently shits platinum bars and can do no wrong. It's not the first time he screwed someone over. He was married to Kathy (number four) for three or four months when he rang up a $10,000 credit card bill within a month. Not only that, but an additional $3000 for guns and ammo since he still isn't allowed to buy it himself (due to being in jail/prison twice...for tax fraud??) Kathy is STILL married to him. I guess no one really said anything to Greg because not even a month or two later, he pocketed the $500 from Daylan for our plane tickets. Now he is billing Sir for cars that don't even belong to him and ringing up the gas card. Sir ends up talking to Daylan but he probably won't even talk to Greg about any of this.

Geez, a week later and I'm still mad at that very last thing. Daylan says I shouldn't get upset because "it's just money." "Just money" is $200.....not that amount.