stay on point

still on the topic of tipping.  there used to be a show called 3rd rock from the sun.  it wasn’t very good but it was one of those shows that whenever i turned it on i seemed to always catch the same 2 episodes.  whenever i think of tipping i think of it.  i reference it often when i’m out and it’s not usually found humorous to anyone who hasn’t seen it.

 

so just in case we go out to eat one day and i make some jokes, here you go, now you can get it too…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1ZZWhSvOMI

  

  

~ today i learned…Turtles can breathe through their butts ~

oops no title

in an effort to tie up loose-ends i left a $5 tip.  it seemed to make the most sense without breaking my budget (yes, the same budget i’ve been blowing on unnecessary shopping sprees at Marshall’s).

much like magda and freckledk mentioned, i too am a chronic over-tipper.  i have self-induced anxiety over what my tip says about me.  the frugal side of me says that on a bill of $15, a $3 tip is more than appropriate as it’s a solid 20%.  the former waitress and bartender side of me says that if i have $20 and i ask to get $2 back i’m a cheap-ass who shouldn’t using services that require tipping.  this is another reason i’m broke.  i’ve contemplated starting to track how much i pay in just tips a year.  i’m convinced it’s a considerable amount.

it’s bad enough that i don’t want complete strangers, who are waiting on me at a place i’ll probably never go again, to think that i’m cheap but it gets much more costly with my regular servers.  at our usual mexican place i totally over-tip.  i know we’ll be back and i don’t want to piss off the waitstaff.  whenever i go to my stylist, that i’ve been going to for almost 6 years now, i tip excessively.  i know that tipping over 20% on a $75 haircut is not in my budget but i can’t help myself.  yes, the service is wonderful.  i love my stylist and when i hit the lotto he’s got a job and a pool house to live in, and i will have impeccable hair every day.  so i never feel like leaving him a straight up tip because i guess i feel like 20% is standard for me.  so it’s not really a representative of phenomenal service.  and let’s face it, the man has scissors to my hair every 7-8 weeks so i’m not gonna’ risk having him not love me.  am i buying his love?  heck yes.  the other problem is that i feel like i’ve set this precedent.  i’ve always tipped him over 20% to get to a round number.  and even though his price keeps going up i feel like i have to maintain that margin… even though i KNOW i can’t afford to be this generous.  i’m pretty sure i tip more than most people but i’m so afraid that i don’t that i’m willing to break the bank to not appear cheap.  which i should be.  because i’m broke.

i just can’t help myself sometimes.  i even find myself tipping people just because i’m not sure if they’re supposed to be tipped and i don’t want to gip them if so.  when i traveled for work i learned that you’re pretty much supposed to tip everyone you come in contact with… at least then i was able to expense it. 

anyway, moral of the story is i tipped $5 and it seemed to suffice.  at least we’ll know when i go back in 4 weeks for  my haircut.  if i come back crying i’ll know to tip more on the free bang trim next time.

  

  

~ today i learned… it takes approximately 95 Hershey’s Kisses to equal one pound of chocolate.~

need advice

i have a bang trim tomorrow.

i’ve never had one before.

they’re complimentary at my salon (to which, for the money i pay for a freakin haircut i say Damn Right!)

so i’m taking up 10 minutes of my stylist’s day tomorrow at no cost.

here’s where i need help…

do i tip? 

i assume so, but then how much?

i hate tipping… it always makes me anxious.

any help is greatly appreciated!

today

i’ve got nothing today.  that’s not true, i’ve got all this…

incompetent workplace = stress

drama causing mom = unnecessary stress

possible job interview = more (positive) stress

lacking bank account = unavoidable stress

unintentional shopping sprees = self-inflicted stress (also helps negate the other stresses but it’s really a catch 22)

anyway, that’s really all that’s going on.

  

and in important news… tomorrow at Cheesecake Factory all cheesecake slices are $1.50.  i suggest you put it on your calendar!

  

  

~ today i learned… a “jiffy” is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second ~

crash boom bang

just one day short of a week from this post i found myself lying on my bed crying, trying to make sense of why these things always happen to me.  wondering what i’ve done to be punished.  wondering why the time of June/July is always bound for disaster in my life.  poor M was hovering over my hot mess of a self trying to convince me that i’m most definitely not cursed and it’s all just happenstance.

why was i such a wreck?  earlier that morning, as i lay sleeping, at 7am i suddenly popped up wide awake.  i’d heard a noise, or had i?  was it just in my dream?  it sounded like something snapping then shattering.  i didn’t want to get up and see what it was.  M was already out to make his early tee time so i was alone.  in my sleepy mind i thought my tv stand had broken and my beautiful tv had shattered.  but as i started to come into consciousness i realized that probably was the least likely situation.  maybe someone broke into my apartment, kicked down my door, broke a window (i need to stop with the Law & Order marathons).  as i came to my senses i got out of bed to check and as i opened my bedroom door i knew instantly what it was.  as i rounded the corner to my bathroom my theory was confirmed.  there was a chunk of my ceiling plaster, on the floor.  damnit!  i looked at the mess and decided i’d clean it up later right now i was going back to sleep.  and i did.

about 20 minutes later i woke up to an even louder CRASH!  SPLATTER!  as soon as i opened my eyes i knew what it was, the rest of the ceiling falling down.  i grabbed my phone and got up.  i knew it was early but i called the landlady anyway.  i called M next to ask him to bring his shop vac over after golf… i needed to take a shower and my tub was filled with ceiling right then.  not to mention the parts that fell and hit my etagerie (and busted that up) and then proceeded to shatter all over the floor spreading out as far as possible.  ugh.

this was specifically annoying for me, and set me into a fit of “why God?!  why?!?” because this is the THIRD ceiling that’s fallen in on me.  not here.  in my life.  Three.  Freakin.  Times.  i don’t know anyone else who’s had this happen… even once!  and this is my THIRD!  WTF!?!

the first time was a place we’d just moved into with my parents in high school.  i had my bed against a wall and the ceiling above looked a little warped but i didn’t think much of it.  i happened to rearrange my furniture one day and it turned out to be a blessing because the next night i was awoken by a thunderous noise.  my ceiling had fallen down.  if i hadn’t moved my bed it might have killed me, or at least messed me up.

the second time was in my last apartment.  i get that one because the building was super old but it still sucked.  i saw the ceiling sagging and called the property company because i didn’t want it to fall on me (see, i learned from that first time).  i came home to see that the guys who’d been sent to “check it out” were morons and poked it and it completely fell down.  asbestos everywhere!  it was a total nightmare.  and they just left it like that.  that was just the beginning of my hate relationship with that apartment.  the enormous hole in my ceiling was eventually was repaired but only after a brown recluse fell out of it and then i got insanely sick.  oh yah, and when the morons came back to “fix” it they decided to use and destroy my new ladder and they never used a drop cloth so everything in my room became speckled in white paint… including my shoes!  i was pretty damn pissed.

so this is just another notch on the belt for me.  i know what to do.  we’ve taped a garbage bag over it so that more crap doesn’t fall on my while i’m showering or using the facilities in any other manner.  the nice thing about this one is no asbestos since adding the ceiling was something done not long ago, it’s not original to the 100yr old home.  so that’s a plus… i guess.

but when you add all of these times up, and the disaster that was last June, plus the 3 windshields i usually get a year i feel like i’m definitely under a black cloud.  i mean there’s got to be some reason behind this life.  right?

  

 

~ today i learned… a catfish has approximately 100,000 taste buds ~

caution: feelings ahead

i’m starting to think i’m one of those girls.  i always like to think that i’m not a stereotypical anything, unless of course you count the fact that i’m type A all the way, i’m okay with being pigeon-holed into that one because it’s all me.  but the type of girl i’m talking about is something i guess i’ve always been but never really wanted to admit.  i’m a bitch, yes.  but i’m a bitch because i’m too sensitive so i strive to go in the exact opposite direction of what i’m realy feeling.  i may come off as cold and heartless sometimes but it’s merely because i’m protecting myself.  it’s not that i don’t get hurt, but i don’t want people to know that they’ve hurt me. 

don’t get me wrong, there are people i’ve opened my heart to and they knew how much they hurt me, but that’s definitely the minority.  with the exception of S the list of these people is all male.  primarily love interests.  i don’t even tell my family when they’ve hurt me.  not in a nice way anyway.  but this is how my family is, this is how my mother is.  we don’t get “hurt” we get MAD.  we yell and scream and cry but we never express how we really feel.  it’s all very guarded.  and no matter how much i want to i can’t seem to break from this style.

i tend to get my feelings hurt easily.  right now, M and S are the only ones who would ever be able to tell you this.  everyone else thinks i’m a hardass.  but when a friend stands me up for a night out, it hurts.  when that friend goes out of their way to find me, stop me, and apologize at a public event it makes me feel better.  but when that friend finally gets on facebook and then doesn’t accept my invite it hurts (okay, the fact that anything that happened in FB bothers me is totally embarrassing, but essentially it’s the equivalent of saying “no, we’re not really friends” and that can hurt).  i just don’t get it.

i get my feelings hurt when i’m scheduling lunch with a friend and they never get back to me.  why did they contact me to do lunch?  i just don’t get it.

i get my feelings hurt (sad to say) when i send out a ton of resumes and don’t hear anything back.  in my head i know that the market is bad and it’s tough for everyone to get a job.  but at the same time i know what a great employee i am and that i’d be perfect for the job.  the fact that people don’t want to hire me, or even contact me based on my name and history in front of them hurts.  it feels like an insult.

that’sall  really been bothering me.  add it to the usual pain of my relationship and it leaves me really down in the dumps some days.  my relationship isn’t bad, it’s wonderful.  except some days i feel some pain.  most days i know how lucky i am.  most days i know that i have found that person i’ve looked for my entire life.  most days i know that i have someone who loves me and takes great care of me.  but then some days… some days i cry.  some days i’m afraid that i may love him more.  some days it really hurts my feelings that we’re still not moving toward that next stage of our lives.  some days i feel like him not asking me those 4 words means it’s one more day that he’s willing to let me go.  some days are tough.  the hardest part is that i have no reason to question him or where this is going anymore.  he’s told me where we’re headed, and we’re on the same path (which was the question that cause all my heartache in the past year).  and while in my head i know that he’s been out looking at rings and he’s got it all “in the works” (that’s what he says) it’s sometimes not so clear in my heart.  and we all know that the head and heart don’t always have an open line of communication.  they could really use some couples counseling. 

but because of this lack of communication between the two i have days like this.  it started last night.  i was having a great day.  i left for work smiling and spent most of the day thinking about how wonderful M is and how happy i am to have him in my life.  and at some point on my drive home from work i got upset.  i believe i was even thinking about imaginary wedding stuff and it just got me upset.  that’s when this started.  talking to M last night i was not myself, i was not happy.  and i woke up the same way.  today is one of the days that i’m hurt.  my feelings are hurt because of so many things the biggest of these being that as of this moment M is willing to let me go.  at least that’s how it feels.

i can’t wait for the weekend.   i need some good relaxing with the love of my life.  i need to get back to good (that’s from a song i’m just drawing a blank on what song but it’s a good saying anyway).

  

  

~ today i learned… google’s name is a play on the word googol, which refers to the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. ~