[Xist]

Dad lost $100,000 because his former boss, who got fired before Dad did, had some bad divorce (and relapsed into alcoholism). Dad started his own company, hired his old boss, and the guy refused to get a bank account because... something about his ex.

The IRS fined Dad tons of money because he didn't report that properly.

Then there was the problem of the friend convincing Dad to buy the F150 as a company vehicle, for the friend to drive, and then he drove 50,000 miles in a year, but never made a single deadline. I have worked for my agency for a year and eight months.

I barely missed one deadline. The meanies are witholding my pay for two weeks.

"We sent you tons of reminders!"
"You think I wasted my time reading your e-mails when I had deadlines to make?!"

I couldn't start before January First. I wrote three reports on January First, but when school started up I needed to write a couple dozen reports for them. Then I resumed writing reports for my main employer--except Granddad passed away, and I was in charge for five days.

I love my brother, but he requires a surprising amount of time.

I put him to bed on the 10th, the day everything was due, submitted the last report with little time to spare, and went to bed.

I was exhausted!

In the morning Office Lady sent out an e-mail about the signature sheets.

Oh right! Four minutes later I submitted them. Six days later I asked my boss why I wasn't paid and he responded "You missed the deadline!"

Oh good. I will just have tons of fines and stuff because my last paycheck was tiny.

Swell.

I rarely receive junk--spam--what do we call them?--calls. Mom keeps saying that she will call about getting her landline fixed. We insisted that she kept it so we could be sure to get a hold of her when she did not answer her cell phone. Well, sometimes she does not answer either phone, but when I worry that she fell in the shower (ew!), had a bad diabetic complication, etc., I can get here far faster.

Mom used to receive one card saying "Thank you for using Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover!" I am sure they were offering to save her interest, but it always sounded questionable that The United Consortium of Moneylenders would be calling her.

She gets calls about the warranty for her car or house, but her 2006 Camry has almost 200,000 miles.

It was always fun when people called for my parents when I was a kid--aside from them calling me by Mom's name.

People often mispronounced both of their names and I always responded "Nobody by that name lives here."

Like if they asked for Carolyn and Tom, but my parents were Carolanne and Tim. People make honest mistakes, but it always seemed like if they knew my parents they would know how to say their names.