Thursday, October 16, 2008

Damn it, why in October?

It's my favorite month; I thought that meant immunity from bad things. I guess it doesn't work that way.

I got the sad call yesterday my grandmother had passed away. It wasn't too surprising, as she'd suffered a stroke two weeks ago and also was almost 92 years old. It was nothing like when my dad died, when Lisa died. Which is how you rationalize it to yourself as your driving home from work mid-morning with black mascara tears running down your face and a big ol' snot mustache. I cried a lot yesterday. My sister cried a lot yesterday. Mostly on the phone together, making each other cry more. But I guess that's normal.

Today I am sad, but I feel better knowing I'm going to be with my family in two weeks, people my grandmother brought into this world, and we'll have fun. I'm lucky to have family and I need to remind myself of that when they're blowing up my phone and emailing me and making me feel like I want to beat my head against something hard and unyielding. I love them, no matter how whack they can be. Everybody's family is crazy in one way or another. At least mine is funny too. It helps.

Another thing that happened of note this week is I had my one year review today at work. It went well, even better than I expected since my boss can be a weirdo sometimes. We spent AN HOUR AND A HALF going over all my wonderful qualities, she didn't even say there was anything I needed to improve and at the end of all of that came my reward. The state of South Carolina is poor, so everyone's annual raise this year is 1%. That doesn't sound very good, right? Well, just hang onto your seats, because not only do I get that, I ALSO get a Paid Per Performance raise since I did so well. NOW we're talking big money. ANOTHER 1%!!!

Here are the things I plan to do with all the extra cash flow:
- Buy cigarettes by the carton instead of the pack
- Fill my gas tank 3/4 of the way instead of only 1/2 tanks at a time
- Switch to name brand food; oh wait, I already do that

Well, that's all I can think of for now. If you have any other ideas for decadent spending, let me know. After all, we're about to get a new President and judging from the fabulous choices both of the candidates are proposing to save the economy, I'd say none of this matters at all anyway. Shit creek man, Shit creek. And not a paddle in sight.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I'm so sorry about your grandmother. I wish we lived closer so I could give you a big hug or buy you a drink...or both.

Congrats on the stellar review and the raise!

Anonymous said...

I am very sorry for your loss.

One percent...?

You could "Supersize It" a couple of times a week.

Jayne said...

So sorry to read about your grandmother passing away.

cargon said...

Oh man, I'm sorry to hear about your grandma. Hang in there and rationalize some heavy drinking, too.