I would like to start over with a new blog- but that would be a pain in the ass and I'm just too lazy/busy these days. I'll just start over here.
Aren't they so much fun? Spending money, rushing to get things done, seeing family you are glad you only see once a year, cooking way more than you'd like; really, they are a joy.
Actually, I enjoy them for the most part. I love Christmas decorations, I love Christmas movies, I love snow- for about five minutes, until I'm cold or have to drive in it. This will be my second Christmas back in Michigan, and also with Trav. This year, however, will be the first Christmas we're both expected to participate in each other's families Christmas get togethers. This is proving to be a problem for both of us.
You see, I took on a third shift job at a hotel this summer. It was supposed to be a two night a week gig, and therefore, no real problem for us. Well, unfortunately fate took a turn for the full-time night auditor, and she left me with a full-time job that is costing me a lot, even though the big paychecks have been nice. For one, I lost my insurance. I make too much now, but since I'm not considered a full-time employee (I'm considered temporary for the company) I can't get insurance through work. I like how companies can do that, don't you? So the state took away my benefits, and didn't offer me any options to pay, like they claim they have available. My health is suffering considerably because of this.
Second, I never get to spend time with my boyfriend. We live together, so you would think it wouldn't be THAT HARD to get time together. Oh no. You see, boyfriend plays in a band, and has his son two nights a week now. He also works at 7 AM, which is when I get OFF work, and we share a vehicle. He takes me to work at night- a pain for him since I start at 11 PM and he has to get up at 5:30 AM- and then I take the bus home in the morning. I try to get to sleep as soon as I can, which is around 10 AM most times, since I have to wind down and do stuff around the house, so I end up sleeping until he gets home. It seems like that would give us time together. Not so much. He has band practice, so one night a week he leaves as soon as he gets home, doesn't get home until 10. On Tuesdays his son stays the night- I have to request this as one of my nights off, since I don't have a ride in. No alone time. Also, his son takes over the house- literally- and gets to choose what movie we have on, has all of his toys spread out, ten art projects going on, and demands the attention of my boyfriend every time we start a conversation. There goes one of my nights off. The other nights we have together, he passes out by 7 (to get a nap in before he takes me to work), and I have to tip toe around him. My other random night off is either A) a week night such as this, where he passes out early and I'm left up by myself, or B) a night he plays a show. You can imagine how much "quality time" we get together on those nights: Zip.
The holidays are here. We already had to miss Thanksgiving. Technically, he could have gone to his family's, but he didn't want to leave me at home alone. I had to work, you see, so I slept til two in the afternoon. Dinner was at one. I kept telling him to go, but he wouldn't. Thanksgiving isn't a huge deal for me, but I know his mother makes a big event out of all holidays. Love the woman to death, but she smothers us sometimes.
We had lasagna hamburger helper for dinner, made spiked egg nog, and watched football.
I'm dreading Christmas. I keep telling my boss that I don't mind working, but I can't keep working this full-time position without benefits for a prolonged period. He is very laidback, and it's nice in some ways, but in this situation, it's hindering EVERYONE at work. Day shifters are being forced to cover my nights, and that is hard on them. I have to request any Saturdays my boyfriend plays off, so of course they hold it against me that I get a lot of Saturdays off (which was a part of the deal to begin with, since my boss was aware of my ride situation and why I took the Sunday/Monday night shifts). The full-time auditor has been off work for over a month because of a medical situation and is getting medical leave pay, so she hasn't said when she'll be back, but she won't be coming back to work. I know this because she friended me on Facebook, and she's blatantly stated she will miss her job, but her problems (cancerous growths all over her liver) will take months and months to shrink and there's no telling how she will feel during treatment. My boss needs to take action and lay her off, find another night auditor, and fix our scheduling problems. He won't, though- he doesn't like confrontation.
Therefore, this holiday is going to be a wreck. I have about ten Christmases to attend and ZERO time. I am only allowed Christmas Eve or Christmas Day off. Both of our families have things going on both days. He has to take his son to his parents, but I'd like to see my family. It's very confusing and crazy, and I am almost sorry I even have a job. I know- ungrateful. There are so many people that would love a full-time job and here I am, complaining; but it's making me unhappy, and it's making my boyfriend unhappy, and I'm not sure I'm willing to sacrifice both of our happiness to keep a job. After Christmas, I'm asking to have three days off a week. I know it's inconvenient to the rest of my coworkers, but they're getting paid way more and get benefits. I don't. I wasn't even given holiday pay for Labor Day or Thanksgiving, and wasn't asked if I wanted them off. I'm the new girl so I haven't complained much. I expected some bull crap. This is just a bit much.
I just want this season to be over.
I've got several subjects to cover while I'm here, including unprofessional business owners, child support, and spoiled rabbits. I haven't been able to really blog since last summer, due to the lack of a computer (my screen has been broken for about a year), lack of employment (I was fired last Tuesday- you'll hear that story in a minute), and general lack of the appropriate means to do so.
I started working at a hotel in July, under the assumption that I would be moved to front desk from laundry, as I was told when they hired me. They had recently opened another hotel across the street, and were lacking employees in housekeeping and needed help in laundry. I figured it was short-term, so I agreed to do it. I probably shouldn't have. Have you ever tried getting two weeks of laundry done in a day with just one washer and dryer? It's tough. Now, try getting two weeks of TWO HOTEL'S laundry (80+ rooms, 8 towels, 2 sheet sets and 8 pillow cases per room). This is what I was up against. I was thrown into it, never having done this much laundry in my life, and I was expected to keep up with it. I had two washers and two dryers at my disposal. For one load, it took about an hour and a half. It was impossible. However, the head of housekeeping told me, "Just do what you can, they can't complain if you're doing what you can." So I did. I worked my ass off. I was getting overtime and STILL not getting it all done. Because, you see, hotels have constant laundry coming in. The only way it'll get done is if you either stop having guests, or you have someone working on it 24/7. Which wasn't going to happen.
The owners were on site most of the time. I wasn't a fan. The main owner (I'll call her B), in her early 40's and pretending to be late 20's, is stuck up. From what I gather, she is a trust fund baby, and Daddy left her several million dollars. She now thinks she's Queen of Everything and above everyone. She would come in the laundry room and immediately start complaining. No hi, hello, good morning. Just, "Why isn't this done? What is all this stained stuff? Why aren't you working longer hours?" She didn't like when anyone got overtime, though. At one point I had 6 hours overtime and she told the general manager (read: Owner's Little Bitch, OLB) that I can't get over 5 per week. Yet, she expected me to work longer hours? I was working 9 hour days, no lunch break, and only ten minutes to sit down. But apparently it wasn't good enough.
The other part-owner is her boyfriend, T. He's not rich. He is a sub-contractor in construction (read: Construction Bitch). He was put in charge of employees because she has no personal skills whatsoever. Neither does he. It became very obvious that he is a fan of 18 year old girls that wear short shorts, low cut tops, and flirt with him. I'm not that girl. In fact, I'm a woman. I was completely professional. When he asked me, on several occasions, if I wanted to get lunch, I turned him down and said I brought my lunch. It wasn't what he wanted to hear, so I went onto his shit list.
Now, onto how I got fired. I had requested a Sunday off when I first started, because it was my younger brother's graduation open house, and also my family reunion. I was told, "No problem." Three days before this day, B tells the head of housekeeping I can't have it off because B will not be there to cover for me. As far as I knew, she didn't cover me at anytime. When I went to discuss this (since I was told I could have it off when I started), she happened to be standing there with OLB. I told him I'd like to talk about why I can't have the day off, and immediately she started whining. WHINING. Like a 16 year old. "I'm not going to be here to cover you, Nicolette." I hated the way she said my name. I said, "I understand that, but head of housekeeping told me when I first started that you gave the OK for me to have that day off, and it's been planned out since spring." She put her nose in the hair, shook her hair, and said, "I've had my trip to Colorado planned since last September." Like she was competing with me. She stalked away. OLB told me that he'd work it out so I'd have it off. I got it off. Two days later I was fired. In just TWO days, I got most of the laundry done, and actually took a break since there was nothing to do. First, T came in, stuck his finger in my face, and said, "You're here to work, not fucking sit on your ass. If you want to do that I'll throw you out." No joke. Five minutes later, B (for Bitch) comes in and asks why there's stained stuff and I told her I planned on working on it that day. She started ranting, so I held up my hand and said, "Honestly B, I'm one person doing two hotels' laundry with two washers and two dryers. I'm doing the best I can." I said it in a completely respectful tone. She nodded, and said, "Okay, I understand." I thought, FINALLY! Nope...she turned around, pointed her finger in my face (boy was I tired of this), and said, "But if you yell at me again, I'll fire you."
I'd had enough. I hadn't yelled. I grabbed my things and went into the bathroom to cool down. I was so mad. I could have yelled. I could have said, FUCK YOU. But I restrained myself and decided to leave for the day. I told OLB that I needed the day off to cool down, and it wasn't worth 8 dollars an hour to be treated like that. He said okay. They then fired me. Technically, I quit before they fired me, but they wanted the last word. Oh well. Now I'm on the job hunt again. Stressed, yes. However, it's better than being treated like dog shit.
That was a really long rant, I apologize. I'll try to keep the next one short and to the point.
Does anyone on here know anything about child support and how it works? Because I'm lost. I've been with my boyfriend for over ten months now, and we've been living with each other for almost 6 of those months (I know, crazy-fast move). His stress is now becoming mine, since we live together. All of the bills are the same with me there, minus my shampoo and tampons. He doesn't pay anything extra (I even signed up for food stamps- yes, I'm that poor), yet he's broke. Then I learned why- he's always been broke because half of his paychecks go to taxes, and child support.
He doesn't make that much. It's more than a lot, but it's not much. It would be enough to cover rent, bills, his car payment, insurance, and necessities around his house for him and his son. However, for some reason, although she only makes two dollars less an hour than he does, he has to pay her $600 a month. I'm not sure how this is calculated, but after doing my math, if they are doing their calculations right for his monthly expenses, this is WAY OFF. He won't argue with it, though. He's afraid they'll take more.
Come to find out, this is the amount she wanted, and instead of fighting it, he agreed so he wouldn't have to argue with her. Well, I'm not going to let him roll over and die because she's a selfish bitch. I hate to talk bad about mothers, but I've had enough of her. At first I tried to just stay out of it, but in the last couple of months, she's been awful. They have a custody agreement that makes NO sense: she has full custody, and he gets to see the kid for several hours on Tuesdays and has him overnight for ONE night on the weekend. That's it. I asked what was up with that. He said, "She's controlling and couldn't handle being away from him for more than one night at a time." Where is this his problem?
It occurred to me that this woman has problems. Their son is turning 8 in less than a month. As of January of this year, he was still sleeping in the same bed with his mom, even though he had his own room and bed. When I first started staying the night with my boyfriend, I could only stay when his son wasn't there. Why? Because his son would get out of bed and sleep with him. I can see a 5 year old doing this occasionally. But a 7 year old?
While I wasn't there, my boyfriend asked his son if it would be okay if I stayed the night. His son said that's okay. He likes me, so it worked out. However, when it came to be the night of, he asked his dad, "So, Nicolette is sleeping on the couch, and I'm sleeping in your bed, right?" I didn't know what to say. My boyfriend handled it well, though. "No, you're sleeping in YOUR bed tonight."
What happened: At midnight, I'm woken up by his son crawling into his bed, which is only full-size, and I'm shoved to the edge by him. My boyfriend woke up and took him back to his bedroom, where he cried because "Mom always let's me sleep in her bed."
Yes. Your mom may let you do that, but this is NOT your mom's house. This kid is obviously babied by his mother to the point where he doesn't like coming to his dad's house because his dad can't buy him everything he asks for. He has his own TV, a Wii, PS2, Nintendo DS, and a hundred games and movies at his mom's house. They have cable, with all the movie channels, a flat screen television, and they go out to dinner. My boyfriend has explained that he doesn't have the money to buy that kind of stuff. His son whined and said, "Why don't you ever have money, Dad?" My boyfriend almost lost it. He told him, "Because I pay your mom a lot of money to take care of you, so you can have nice things over there." Way to put it...a 7 year old won't understand that.
My problem with all of this is only: Why doesn't he have his son more often? He lives close to his daycare and his school. There's no reason he can't have him overnight more often, except that he doesn't want to fight with the ex wife. I only started bringing this up to him when she started "forgetting" to bring his son over, or wouldn't call to tell him what time to pick him up, and took away his ONE night a week with him. I've had it up to my forehead.
The kid drives me nuts, but only because he's so absolutely spoiled by his mother that he thinks no one loves him unless they buy him stuff. He actually said that. "If you loved me Dad, you would buy me more stuff." His other favorite thing to say to his dad: "Dad, I love you more than you love me."
I basically told him, "Stop bitching about all your bills and how broke you are and how you can't do anything with your son if you're not going to do anything about it." I convinced him to agree to write a letter to the Friend of the Court (that's who deals with custody here in Michigan) to have his custody agreement reviewed. In my opinion, there's no reason my boyfriend can't have him half the time. We are always home, I can babysit during the days if I'm not working, and it's perfectly manageable. Boyfriend keeps saying he's going to write the letter, but hasn't yet. It's been a few months. It's getting worse by the week. His ex was supposed to pick up their son this past Saturday by 6 PM and didn't show up until a quarter to 9 because she was getting her hair done- apparently she spent $250 on this cut. She then texted him and asked if he'd just meet her outside with all of his things. She didn't want to get out of the car. She asked if it was okay if my boyfriend took him Wednesday night instead of Tuesday because their son has a dentist appointment at 4 and it would take a while. THEN, yesterday, she asks if he can watch his son for a while Tuesday night while she gets her hair fixed. It's disorganized and insensible. If she has something planned, she will bitch and throw a fit with my boyfriend if it's his day to have their son and she wants him. But if my boyfriend has something planned, she doesn't give two shits and will screw him over.
Anyway, I think it would be best if he just got his son for a week at a time, every other week, so he could spend more time with his son, and maybe start to fix his bad habits a little. I think half the problem is his son doesn't spend enough time at his father's house, so he doesn't feel like it's his home, and that's not right. When you know you're leaving with your mom in a few hours, you never get settled in. If he knew he'd be there for a week, maybe he'd chill out a little. Plus, my boyfriend wouldn't pay so much in child support, so maybe we could actually take him to do things once in a while.
End of that rant. Last thing- I now have three house rabbits running around. They're spoiled. We have a baby rabbit that is ridiculous. She'll eat anything we do. No joke. Chili dogs, pizza, nachos, beer, oatmeal, you name it. It's gotten to the point that we cannot eat anywhere in the living room because she will run and jump onto your plate- like she did my steak two weeks ago. She's hard to refuse, though.
Summer: Sets In (Editing)
Summer: In The Middle(sequel, working title)
