Can't keep a good Woman down (with pics) in My Unpredictable Life ...

I finally found a couple of pictures that go along with my previous entry. I knew I had them, I just couldn't remember which box they were in. As any military family can tell you, you move, a lot. Each time you move, the movers have to unpack boxes and repack them into "their" boxes. So after a while, especially when you move states twice in an 8 month time frame, well, you forget just what "misc stuff" or "pictures" are in each box. So anyway, I found them and tried to take the best picture of them. I tried scanning them but since they are 24+ years old, they looked worse scanned. But you get the jist of them ...

1st picture is taken the morning of my graduation right before I start trying to work my make-up magic on my eye ...

The 2nd picture is about 20 - 30 minutes after arriving at the football field, about 45 minutes before the ceremony started and the make-up is holding up so far. Although no amount of make-up can cover up swelling lol. It's a different story by the end of the ceremony.

So for all the nay-sayers, who thought maybe I was just dreaming up an example for the assignment I was given, I truly did have a black eye for my High School graduation. And yes, my Mother really did give me the black eye. I have no need to lie about that part.

So work has gotten ... what's the word I am looking for? ... weird I guess. Rachel was fired as I previously mentioned. Things have been interesting to say the least with the changes. For the most part, they don't affect me at all since I only work 11-7 Friday thru Sunday. Especially since no one can be bothered to inform me of changes. A few times the owner has verbally told me "We are doing things this way now" and that is fine. Easy enough. I have more work to do on my shift now, more than the 3 - 11 shift, but that is ok. Not that I am getting paid more. Of course not. But at least it keeps me busy. With a couple of the new changes, I now spend the 1st hour doing work instead of only 30 mins. I still do my sweeping and mopping around 2 to help break up the shift and give me an energy boost to make it through the remaining 4 hours.

We've had some interesting characters work for us in the 5 months I have been there. Shelia is one of them. She exhibits classic behavior patterns of one who is "controlled". She can't make eye contact with anyone. She's very quiet, very meek, very withdrawn. The guests (long term) don't like dealing with her because they feel it's like dealing with an abused 4 year old. Chances are, her husband is a piece of work. Anyway, when I needed The Child's birthday off back in Oct. it was like pulling teeth to get her to switch with me. At first it was because her wedding anniversary was the next day & she had planned to cook him a nice dinner. Then it changed to her sister doing the cooking. Then it changed to her sister & Mom throwing a party for them at a banquet room. I finally lost my cool and said, "Look, which is it? I don't have time for wishy-washy. Either you can work for me or not. It's a simple yes or no. If you can, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, truly. If you can't, fine, tell me so I can make arrangements with Bill (the owner) to rent a suite so that my daughter can still have her slumber party, but while I am working. We don't have any family here. There is no one to help her celebrate her birthday except Hubby & I. I'm not about to break her heart and tell her she can't celebrate it with her friends, since she has no one else to celebrate it with." That's when she brought up me maybe working Thanksgiving for her.

Ha! I'm not that clueless little girl! So right off the bat I said no. I told her that we had made plans to go out of town. I then went on to tell her about how we had spent 20 years of my husband being deployed for holidays, anniversaries & birthdays & other special occasions & now that we were done with that, I was not ready to give them up again after just 1 year, especially when I am scheduled to be off on them. I also reminded her, again, that we only have the 3 of us. We don't have the luxury of going to family for dinner or to visit or anything. And since I work weekends, when Hubby is only off on weekends and The Child doesn't have school on weekends, we don't get to do family things since I am working every single weekend so if Hubby & The Child are off on a week day, I am going to take advantage of the family time we have, regardless if it is a holiday or not. She said she understood.

So what does she do then? "How about Christmas?" Seriously, Shelia? Did you not listen to a word I just said??? So I said it was the same deal for Christmas. HOWEVER, I would be willing to talk to Hubby about working Christmas NIGHT for her. As a mother myself, as a mother who had to be both Mommy & Daddy when Hubby was deployed for Christmas, I understand. I truly understand! So I talked it over with Hubby & he was fine with me working Christmas night for her, especially if it would get her to agree to work The Child's birthday.

So I told her yes, I would work Christmas night because I understood it would be difficult for her to get off work at 7 that morning, rush home to see her kids open Santa's gifts, spend time with them, go to her Mom's for lunch, go to her In-Laws for dinner and find time to sleep to come back in at 11 that night. So I would be a team player and work that night for her so she didn't have to worry about cutting her time short with HER family, on Christmas Day, to get sleep to come back in to work. BUT IN NO WAY WOULD I WORK CHRISTMAS EVE. CHRISTMAS EVE WAS OUT OF THE QUESTION.

She agreed to that. She agreed to work The Child's birthday & she signed the paperwork for that.

Done deal right? HA!

So Rachel was fired. All of a sudden we needed a "weekly schedule" made up and the new girl, who replaced Nikki, needed 15 days off during November. Rachel should have never hired her ass! So they have us fill out a calendar of what days/shifts we can work. I did my 11-7 Fri-Sun and then I added in 7-3 during the week incase something came up & they needed 1st shift covered. Obviously that is my preferred shift but Bill only wants management working 1st shift. I marked "OFF" on Nov, 27 & 28 as a precaution. When Joleen (owner's mother who lives on property, who is also on the payroll) questioned me about it, she informed me that Bill's policy has always been that no one gets holidays off. You work what you are scheduled and that's that. So I said, "Ok. I'm scheduled off on those days anyway, but I only wrote off on them just incase someone decided they needed to have that day off. I'm not switching with anyone. I'm not covering for anyone because I won't be here. We are getting the hell out of Dodge for 2 days since Hubby & The Child will be off. We'll be back in time for me to come into work at 11 pm on Fri." So then she went on to reiterate that I may not get those days off and that I don't want to make plans just yet until Bill makes his final decision. Joleen. Seriously. Chill. I'm scheduled off on those days regardless that they are a holiday. There is nothing to stress about. I just like to CYA - Cover My Ass.

So then a rare treat fell into my lap with The Child being able to spend the night away on Nov. 1. I asked Shelia if she would switch. She said no, it was her son's birthday. I said ok, no problem. And that was that. Well then another rare treat popped up for Nov. 9th. I wrote in our Front Desk Notebook asking if anyone would be willing to switch/work for me. I was hoping Ruth would since she owes me a shit load of switches. But nope. Her AND Jimena (the new girl) both needed that weekend off for a school track function. So that left Shelia. Normally, if I had not wanted the night off, I would have worked Wed & Thurs for Shelia along with my normal Fri- Sun so that Shelia could work 3-11 Fri & Sat for Ruth & Jimena. Instead Tammy (Bill hired his Sister Tammy to be the new GM) & Joleen both worked 7 am till 11 pm on Fri & Sat & 7 - 3 on Sun.

Anyway, the week before I had woken up at 4 am & decided to call Sheila & ask her to switch the 9th with me since no one had bothered to reply to my note yay or nay. She asked again about Christmas. sigh Try not to be too obvious there, Shelia. Anyway, I said yes I was still willing to work Christmas NIGHT but we had to wait on signing the paper work & I then went on to explain what all Joleen had told me about Bill's policy regarding time off on holidays. She said ok. I went in, signed the paper work & was able to enjoy a nice, rare night with Hubby, child free.

I go into work on Sun, the 10th and the paperwork is sitting there for me to sign for Christmas. I just laughed. Then I got pissed. How dare she! How fuckin' dare she! So I sat down and started writing her a note. In the middle of that, she called to see if I had seen it. I then proceeded to give her a what for!

"Yes, I saw it. And if you remember correctly, I said I would work Christmas NIGHT NOT Christmas EVE! I noticed that you had wrote on the wall calendar you needed Christmas EVE off but I am NOT working Christmas EVE for you. I told you that already. If you remember our conversation, I said (and I proceeded to recite, word for word, our conversation to her) and you said that would be fine. If you are now wanting Christmas EVE off instead, then there is no point in me signing this sheet. However, if you would still like me to work Christmas night, then I will sign it after I change the date to Christmas NIGHT." I try to get out in as pleasant a manner as I possibly can muster.

Her reply? "Oh. I thought you had said Christmas Eve."

Nope. No how, no way, uh-uh.

I then went on to explain that I would not sign for Christmas Eve, I would NOT work Christmas Eve but since I am a Mom, and I have had to deal with numerous times of Hubby being deployed for Christmas, I understood about wanting to spend it with family so that is why I would give up my night off on Christmas NIGHT to work for her so that she could enjoy her Christmas Day with her family. I didn't think it was fair that she should get stuck working both nights, because I would not want to be stuck working both nights myself, so I was willing to be a team player and cover Christmas Night for her. I even went so far as to say, "You don't even have to worry about switching a shift with me in exchange. I will just take the extra day of pay that week." I could tell she was not happy, especially having to give up a day of pay for it. I have a feeling her husband is going to/already giving her grief about it and I am almost positive he is the one behind her "forgetting" I said Christmas Night and not Christmas Eve.

She finally agreed to me changing the date to the 25th and signing it. I did and I made a copy for myself & one for her and put the original on Bill's desk.

When Bill & Tammy & Joleen came in Monday morning, I quickly updated them about Shelia's confusion. Apparently Shelia was just pathetic enough when talking to them (on Sun morning) about getting Christmas Eve off, they quickly agreed and were thankful I was working it for her. It made me look like a super star in their eyes. Once I explained what really was said, and what was agreed to on the phone 8 hours prior, I left there feeling like I was the bad person. Joleen even went so far as to say, "Well I will just work Christmas Eve for her. She has 2 small children & I know how important this is to her." I quickly reminded Joleen that Shelia was not the only one with children and she said, "Oh I know but still. She really wants it off." "That's fine. I do too. I've had more than plenty of them with Hubby deployed so I know the feeling. I was trying to be nice & help her out by covering one of the 2 nights for her so she wasn't stuck working them both. I'm sorry that's not good enough. If you want to work that night for her, fine, I can tear up that sheet of paper since there won't be a need for me to work it for her if she is getting Christmas Eve off. The whole point of me working Christmas night is so she could have 1 of the 2 off. But if she gets Christmas Eve off, I am NOT working Christmas night for her. She can work it since she will have had the night before off. Besides, she gets every single weekend off to be with her family. I've had 2 Saturdays off since August 17th. TWO. My husband & daughter are only off on the weekends and since I work every.single.weekend, we don't get to do family things the way Shelia does. Yes, I am going to be stingy when they are off on a week day because that is the ONLY time we get to spend quality time together. It's not my fault that the holidays are falling on weekdays. I doubt very seriously if she would be willing to work one of them for ME if the holidays fell on a weekend. Especially after how difficult it was to get her to agree to work the 2 different Saturdays she did work for me. I felt like I was being coerced into agreeing to work Christmas Night before she would even agree to cover for me. Since I can't work day shift, since I can't come into work at 3:45 - 4pm to be able to work the 3-11 shift because of my daughter getting out of school at 3 (she stays till 3:30 for band practice) and she's denied riding the bus due to the 2.5 mile rule, I have no choice but to work 11-7. I wanted 3-11 on weekends but Ruth had to have those because of her school & track & she's been here longer than me so she gets first choice/dibs. I chose the weekends because of my daughter's evening activities with karate, Girl Scouts, then volleyball/now basketball. I knew I would not get enough sleep and I didn't feel it was fair to make my job performance suffer due to lack of sleep. I even gave Shelia one of my days. I could have kept my 4th day for a bigger paycheck since I have been here longer than her but I figured she could use it more and it helped me out with the whole weekends only deal. So I don't think I am being unreasonable by agreeing to only work Christmas night for her instead of Christmas eve. Also, if she gets both nights off, she will only have 2 days of pay on that paycheck because I'm not switching a day with her so that she keeps her 4 days. I'm taking the extra day of pay in exchange for working that holiday night for her. And yes, she did agree to that on the phone last night."

Then Bill chimes in with "I guess I should have stated my policy before hand before this got out of control. My policy is that you don't get time off on holidays. If you are scheduled off, that is fine. But if you are scheduled to work, then you work unless you make arrangements with a co-worker." I quickly cut him off with, "Which is EXACTLY what we did in September when we first discussed this. It's not my fault she "forgot" or is trying to change the story now or whatever it is that she is doing. Her and I made an agreement, back in September, which I am still willing to uphold, but I refuse to be tricked into changing what we agreed on. As of last night, she is okay with me working Christmas Night and she works Christmas Eve. If she tells you something different, it is NOT what she told me. I have no reason to lie. I have no reason to cheat her out of a day off. I am the one willing to give up one of my scheduled days off, for her. If she gets Christmas Eve off, it won't be because of me and I will refuse to work Christmas Night for her."

So then Bill just threw his hands up in the air and said, "We'll get this straightened out eventually." and walked off. I left out of work feeling like they were making me out to be the bad guy. Whatever. $8.00 an hour is soooooo not worth this. If I am told I have to work Christmas Eve, I'll quit. They can tell me if I don't work Christmas Eve, I am fired. I'll quit and save them the headache. Although, if they fire me I could apply for unemployment till I found another job. Not that I would get unemployment but then again, there are 16 soon to be 17 hotels in this town. I'm sure I can get a night auditor position in one of them, especially since it's the hardest position to hire and keep filled. And I might even make more money since most businesses offer a shift differential in pay for night auditor. But I guess time will tell what happens. I can't wait to go in Friday night to see if anything has changed. All I know is that I will stand my ground, that $8 an hour is not worth giving up my very rare, very valuable family time. Especially when we won't even be getting time & a half for working the holiday. We are all just part-time employees and only full time (management) gets those "perks". Hubby supports this 100%. I just hope it doesn't come down to me leaving. I really love my job. I love working for Bill. He's one of the best people I have ever worked for. But I won't be taken advantage of by some scared-of-her-own-shadow-jumps-when-you-yell-boo-controlled-wife-who-won't-stand-up-to-her-husband little girl. Especially when I am older than her own mother. Won't happen.

Well, damn, I apologize for being so long winded. Guess this was bothering me more than I realized lol. I'll give your eyes a rest now.

Till next time ...