In the spirit of my last post, I feel obligated to record my next Christmas miracle: Holiday pay.
That's right, I get PAID for the HOLIDAYS.
What does that mean, you ask?
A few things. A.) I get paid for the two weeks off after Christmas, which is a miracle in itself. I was always under the impression that if I'm not working, I don't get paid. Which brings me to B.) I should've been paid for those two weeks for the past couple of years. A.k.a., the college has screwed me(not on purpose, but still). And not just those two weeks-every single holiday and admin closing. I figured it up, actually. Roughly 6 weeks of pay total, counting every Thanksgiving, Christmas, July 4th, Spring Break, and snow day. They quite literally owe me thousands of dollars.
I have inquired into this, and haven't gotten an answer just yet, but we'll see.
Even if I don't get all that back pay, it is amazing to know that my low financial point of the year is now covered. For years, I've struggled through January, praying that I could make just enough to get by(because let's face it, I'm never going to spend less on Christmas. It's the one time of year I get to spoil people properly). I may or may not have cried tears of joy.
There have been other, smaller miracles. One trip to Barnes & Noble got the majority of my shopping done. The office secret Santa went smoothly(And there's a half-decent chance that the muse drew my name; But we'll see). My house is sort of coming together, even if I do hate the place. I found new Grinch-themed accessories(namely a shirt, and a pair of pajama pants that are just SO SOFT).
I've finally gotten into the Christmas spirit. It was awhile coming this year, and I was a little concerned. I thought that whatever is going on in my head, it might ruin the one purely good thing left in the world, but it didn't. It hadn't stopped Christmas from coming-it came! Somehow or other, it came just the same.
Monday, December 7, 2015
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
God Bless Us, Every One
I believe in Christmas miracles.
I, more than anyone you've probably ever met, have faith in the particular kind of magic that happens every December.
The movie industry seems to agree. Every other movie is Christmas-miracle themed, with the "miracle" usually being in direct correlation to someone's heart growing three sizes and sharing the winter joy. It's love-magic.
And that, perhaps, is why I so thoroughly enjoy Christmas. Whether they do it subconsciously, a habit brought about years of brainwashing people to be kind, or if they really are just more aware of the needy and lonely in the holiday season, people open their hearts(and wallets) to help other people out. I love it.
Every year, I jump directly on to the giving bandwagon. My main variety of giving back is the adopt-a-kid tree. The college puts up a tree, with little tags all over it. You pick one, get a list of things your kid wants, and leave them under the tree by the preferred date.
I've got one every year so far(last year was little Jaquim, who liked Spiderman and really wanted a set of nice clothes). This year, I was worried. Partly because with all the fuss, I didn't know if the tree would make it up, and partly because I am what a rapper might call a "broke ass bitch". In the 11th hour, the tree went up.
My bank account is looking a little shallow, but I have about $140 stashed away in my travel jar. I figured that it should be enough to give a kid a decent Christmas, and being me, I grabbed a tag off of the tree this morning(Her name is Diamond, she's 11 and wants nail polish and lego sets and I love her).
I know the story right now is shaping up to be "girl spends her last cash for a kid for Christmas", but I don't mean it that way. I do try to be a good person, which sometimes does take effort, but there's nothing special to it. The point of the story is that I was willing to give with an open heart, which is really, really important to the moral of the story, so bear with me.
With all the ruckus in the past few weeks, I worked about 46 hours, and about 30 of those were while we were closed. Full time employees are paid whenever the college is closed, and anything they work at that point is over time. Technically, it's double time and a half. By the numbers, $10 per hour for the eight they would've normally been there, and $15 for every hour they work anyway, for a grand total of $25. This is not a courtesy that has ever been extended to me. Snow days? Fuck it, I'm on my own. My boss is pretty good about letting me come in and make up those hours, but it's still a pain.
I got the word this morning that part-timers do qualify for administrative closings, and that all of those hours I worked will be at time and a half. I almost cried tears of joy.
When all is said and done, I'm chalking it up to Christmas magic. Here I am, concerned about how I'm going to get my remaining Christmas shopping done, and along comes this sort of bonus to help me along.
Christmas magic, man. Nothing like it.
I, more than anyone you've probably ever met, have faith in the particular kind of magic that happens every December.
The movie industry seems to agree. Every other movie is Christmas-miracle themed, with the "miracle" usually being in direct correlation to someone's heart growing three sizes and sharing the winter joy. It's love-magic.
And that, perhaps, is why I so thoroughly enjoy Christmas. Whether they do it subconsciously, a habit brought about years of brainwashing people to be kind, or if they really are just more aware of the needy and lonely in the holiday season, people open their hearts(and wallets) to help other people out. I love it.
Every year, I jump directly on to the giving bandwagon. My main variety of giving back is the adopt-a-kid tree. The college puts up a tree, with little tags all over it. You pick one, get a list of things your kid wants, and leave them under the tree by the preferred date.
I've got one every year so far(last year was little Jaquim, who liked Spiderman and really wanted a set of nice clothes). This year, I was worried. Partly because with all the fuss, I didn't know if the tree would make it up, and partly because I am what a rapper might call a "broke ass bitch". In the 11th hour, the tree went up.
My bank account is looking a little shallow, but I have about $140 stashed away in my travel jar. I figured that it should be enough to give a kid a decent Christmas, and being me, I grabbed a tag off of the tree this morning(Her name is Diamond, she's 11 and wants nail polish and lego sets and I love her).
I know the story right now is shaping up to be "girl spends her last cash for a kid for Christmas", but I don't mean it that way. I do try to be a good person, which sometimes does take effort, but there's nothing special to it. The point of the story is that I was willing to give with an open heart, which is really, really important to the moral of the story, so bear with me.
With all the ruckus in the past few weeks, I worked about 46 hours, and about 30 of those were while we were closed. Full time employees are paid whenever the college is closed, and anything they work at that point is over time. Technically, it's double time and a half. By the numbers, $10 per hour for the eight they would've normally been there, and $15 for every hour they work anyway, for a grand total of $25. This is not a courtesy that has ever been extended to me. Snow days? Fuck it, I'm on my own. My boss is pretty good about letting me come in and make up those hours, but it's still a pain.
I got the word this morning that part-timers do qualify for administrative closings, and that all of those hours I worked will be at time and a half. I almost cried tears of joy.
When all is said and done, I'm chalking it up to Christmas magic. Here I am, concerned about how I'm going to get my remaining Christmas shopping done, and along comes this sort of bonus to help me along.
Christmas magic, man. Nothing like it.
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