Just too Thuggish...

That's what the Flamms are. 8-10 days ago I was bailing my brother out of jail. Last nite, I bailed myself out.

Yes, I was arrested. I had 3 warrants for failure to appear in court from 06 and 07. I knew about 1 of them. I got pulled over for rolling a stop sign and the cop decided he wasn't playing games. He had my car impounded and cuffed me up real tight. My damn wrists are still sore. I was taken to city jail. I had money on me so I posted my bond, because they said I was gonna be transferred to county on that warrant. They had that I only had 1 there. So, I had enough money to post there too, so I wanted to get it over with quickly. Unfortunately, nothing in the government works quickly. I was there from 730 to midnite.

While there the cop that arrested me, was searching me. My shorts were wet from swimming and my underwear I guess got a little bunched up. So, as he's searching me he's like "do you have any drugs hidden in your crotch" I kind of chuckled and said no. Right after he got real serious and he's like "follow me."

I'm like shit, is this dude seriously gonna get pissed off because I'm chuckling. So, he takes me in another room, it was like a closet or some shit, not even by ourselves the door was wide open.

"pull it out and give it to me right now" he says.
"What?! pull what out? I don't have anything"
"Then what did I feel in your crotch?"
"What? I dunno. You want me to strip?"
I immediately start stripping, shoes off shirt off...
"You didn't have to take your shirt off"
Shorts pulled down
"Okay, okay, just shake your underwear out, that's fine"
Shake my soggy, baggy drawers out for him.

I'm like there aint no way in hell I'm getting charged with possession, this guys got me fucked up.

So, he's satisfied. I'm standing there in my undies and socks like it aint nothing.. cuz I had nothin to hide.

So, I get booked and post bond and wait forever for the County police to pick me up. Guy in the cell with me is knocked out cold like he's at home on his bed, I can't sleep. Finally guy comes.

He cuffs us together and we get in the paddy wagon where there are 3 people already waiting. We make another stop then it's to county we go.

Same thing, get searched. Then I find out it's not 1 but 2 warrants for county and I don't have enough money on me to post bond. So, I gotta make some phone calls and get my dad and brother up here with some cash. I was only there for about 2 1/2 hours. I was told I could wait to see the judge at 1 pm, but the place they were holding us was just a damn lobby with chairs. No beds, no where to lay down, even though you could tell the people who were used to it, cuz they were out cold. I post and basically get home at 4 am. $320 gone. Cuz I'm dumb and broke.. all the time.

So, I get up at 9 am and call the impound. THe car was in the impound for 14 hours... $195 and "oh by the way" the lady says, " it's 3 dollars a day if it stays here" I'm thinking, WHAT THE FUCK is the three dollars really a big deal after paying 195$? My car is worth more money per hour than I am. What a fucking joke, especially considering where I got pulled over was 2 blocks from my brothers house and I even asked the cop if he could just come get it. "Company policy says it has to be towed." Bull shit, your cut of the 195$ says it has to be towed u fing piece of shit. The corrections officer even told my dad that they can let someone come pick it up , "they're just assholes."

So, my mom is all upset and come to find out when my brother called to tell her, an hour before that she had just been in a car accident and was T-boned. Unfortunately, though her boyfriend had no insurance on his car and so, they may not get anything from the guy that hit her. It's been a bad week and a half for the Flamms.

I wasn't upset at all during the nite. The only thing that really upset me was the money lost from this shit. Luckily I had some extra this check but at the same time it's like, damn I finally have some extra money and POOF be gone. The whole time I'm just like, well knew it was gonna happen. I'm just glad I didn't have to miss work and explain the situation to my boss. that would've sucked.

Mark it down as another experience in life. I always knew I'd be arrested some day. I can take that one out of the bucket list now. I even got to ride in a paddy wagon and eat some nasty ass bologna sandwiches.

Hard time man. I wrote down some rhymes. Started a book. My baby mamma is pregnant... again. I found Jesus, then Islam. I no longer go by my slave name, my new name is Muhammad Josiah Jehovah Jihad. Like my new tattoo?

Sunday Stew

Can't believe I haven't posted anything in over a week.

Time just seems to fly by now, week to week, period to period. Work, work, work.

Why is everyone dying all of a sudden? MJ, Farrah, Billy Mayes, and now Steve McNair. Craziness.

I don't get sentimental or anything when some celebrity dies. I think the media hoopla, is pretty goofy actually. I guess some people struggle with it, because celebrities become so important to them. Like in the case of MJ a lot of people grew up loving him and his music. People can remember where they were when they heard this song or who was around them when they heard that song. So, something like that's a bit more personal. My reaction is usually just a "wow, that sucks." But, I'm not gonna say someone is wrong for going overboard with it. Everyone grieves differently. I've always kind of wondered what eulogy I would give if my parents died. I'm sure I would be the one doing it. I would be expected to do it. I've always kind of been the leader of the family and the one everyone turns to for that sort of thing. If that makes sense. When I was a christian I would always be asked to pray.. like I was the only one that was worthy of doing it or something. It's actually kind of awkward now, because at thanksgiving I'm still asked to pray... I have to awkwardly decline. My mom doesn't know me well enough anymore to know I'm not a christian.

The 4th was dead for me too. I worked an open to close after my opening driver called in on Friday night. Every single girl who works at my store had the day off, so a total of 4 of us worked on it. We weren't very busy, so it wasn't bad. The day dragged on for the end part of the night and I was struggling to focus. I didn't see a single fire work or get a single taste of BBQ. weak sauce.

Still haven't heard anything about my brother's hit and run incident. He's very worried.

I must go to the gym tomorrow. Every week that goes by just seems like another week lost. A few weeks ago I posted that I was finally getting used to my schedule and then of course it changes and I'm working a ton again. This past week I actually had my two days off, but couldn't get my ass up to do anything. I'm off monday and saturday this week. I took off saturday so that I could go to UFC 100 at hooters with my brother. That'll be a nice break. assuming I get to do it.

I'm getting a little annoyed with my "bonus" at work. Period 4, which was 3 periods ago still hasn't been fixed. I'm owed like 60-80 bucks there. Then I get my period 5 information this past week and it was wrong. I should make like 85 from that, instead I got 0. I don't understand how they can keep f-ing up the paperwork and then they just lolligag to get it done. If it was their bonuses I guarantee you it would be top priority. It's really pissing me off actually. Granted it's not like it's life changing money. But when you're struggling most weeks, it helps. Plus, it's just the integrity of the whole thing. As GMs we work are asses off and then when it comes time to get a little extra money, they've f-ed it up and are basically like, oh, oops.. it'll get fixed when it gets fixed. I'm pretty set on saying something at our meeting monday. It's not like mine is the only one messed up either.. it's a few people in just my bosses area, I don't even know if other district manager areas are having the same problem. I don't even know if my boss does the paperwork. It doesn't matter... we are expected to do our shit right, why aren't they? Luckily it's all extra money, so it hasn't cost me. But eventually, I plan on getting my bonus, and more of it, regularly.

I have to remind myself that the job isn't just about the money with me. I'm here mainly for the experience and for the promotion opportunities. By no means, is the salary worth the amount of work I do. But, that's okay. I have no problems with working hard and being the best I can. I believe it's an investment right now and it'll pay off in the future. It's like grinding basically. You keep playing that .25 no limit and improve your game so that when you get up to the big tables you know what you're doing and what to expect. I burned out on poker because I couldn't move up. I know I'll be able to move up here. Not to mention there's never a risk of losing a bunch of money. I work I get paid... well, for the most part.

Youngest brother arrested

Around midnite last nite, I get a call from my dad telling me that Shaun, my youngest brother hit a guy, fled the scene, got arrested and his (my dads) truck was being impounded. He's like come pick me up. I'm like, where did this happen? Where did they take shaun.. if i pick u up where are we going. He was so frantic he's just like, I dunno just come pick me up. FInally once it all clears he's able to get ahold of the police that arrested shaun. So we go.

According to the police and my brother, he was driving down the road. Swerved to miss a guy walking, he thought he missed him however, the side mirror shattered. Shaun thought the guy threw a rock at the truck and so he kept going. An eyewitness followed shaun and called the police, basically following him until the police pulled him over and arrested him for a hit and run. The guy he hit last we heard was in and out of consciousness in the hospital and was suffering head trauma. So we are at the station til 4 am trying to figure out what the hell we are gonna do. The truck is impounded until Monday, when god knows how much money itll cost to get out. They end up not charging shaun at the station, pending investigation. If they decide to they will issue a warrant. However, though because he had an outstanding warrant in another part of town, the county they had to transfer him there. The warrant was a non moving violation, so like a parking ticket or illegal plates or whatever. So, we couldn't even bail him out.

730 this morning after just a few hours sleep I get a call from shaun asking me to come bail him out at this new place. I get there and "he hasn't been processed yet." I sit there for 2 hours waiting. My dad comes up and I give him the money and his stuff and he waits another hour. Finally they let dad pay bail. Then they say he wont be out for 2 hours. Well that was almost 3 and a half hours ago and he just now called to tell us he's out.

We still don't know the repercussions of what went on. I'm guessing the guy didn't die or else they would'nt have let shaun out.. .idk. Either way it's a helluva way to spend an entire night and it's just so stupid. If you swerve to miss a guy, then hear a thud... maybe you should get out to look and make sure you actually missed! Maybe he was afraid and didn't want to fight... pull up 100 yards before you get out! It's such a bad mistake and terrible judgement on his part. Hopefully, it doesn't ruin his life too bad. The boy is having some terrible last few months.

House burns down, new tv he bought goes out, Computer gets a virus and poker, facebook, myspace, get hacked. And now he was arrested for a hit and run. WOW!

I think I would just stay on my bed for a few months and let shit calm down.

Sunday Stew

So, i forgot to mention that my brother's account was hacked... well, his facebook and myspace got hacked and he somehow got a virus from watching a movie online. The hacker sent out a bunch of viruses to other people and it affected my other brother's computer too. It pretty much shut em both down. Out of fear my brother sent his poker money to my other brother and then eventually to my account. Somehow along the way 300$ on poker came up missing. We're hoping it's the hacker, but we're afraid it might have been my older younger brother being stupid. It doesn't make much sense for someone to get on someone else's poker account and just lose 300 dollars. If you're gonna do that you're gonna blow it all. My brother has a history of doing this stuff. He's lost over 5000 dollars before of my youngest brother's poker money. Could you imagine? Being woke up by your brother who in tears is telling you how sorry he is for losing 5000 dollars? You would think it would've ended there too.. but he has done it probably 4 times since. The time before this alleged time he lost a couple hundred. My youngest brother who is the poker professional would change his password, but then for some reason would give it to him when he couldn't get to a computer to withdraw money or something. This last time if my brother did this, it's pretty damn sick. He sends his money to him to be "safe" and instead it's worse than if he had just kept it in his account.

At work, we are having a manager's meeting on monday, to clear the air. I've told you about the issues I've been having. Well, the manager it's basically about comes to me the other day and asks if she has to go to the meeting or if she can just be conferenced in. I'm like, um ya I want you there. It's only 4 of us, if you don't come then I might as well not have the meeting and just send out information to everyone. Then she's like "so I have to drive 20 minutes just for this?" My mouth almost hit the floor. I said I drive 20 minutes to work everyday and I have to come back that day to close even. So yes, you need to be there. I'm just like wow.. this chick is insane. Every day she's all.. oh whatever you need if you need me call me.. blah, blah, blah and then she says she doesn't wanna drive 20 minutes to come to a meeting that is just for managers. So, I text my boss and she tells me that she told her that she either needs a raise, given her own store to run, or shes quitting. My boss was like "wow, what a threat." This just shows you right here the level of incompetence this lady must have. You make that threat to anyone and do you think you're gonna get what you want? What maybe 5% of jobs have people that are irreplaceable? Trust me DOmino's pizza is NOT one of them. You think they are just gonna be like, oh ya, you're so important to us let us fire this store manager and give you their store, because we want to make you happy. I don't think so. So, now I'm hoping she quits and I can be done with her.

I found out last nite that the MIT (manager in training) I had, that just transferred to be closer to home is very unhappy at his current store. Apparently the manager is a bitch and doesn't do her job. He said she talks a good game about how she wants to change things and this and that, but when it comes down to it, she does nothing but blame everyone else. It's sad. This is the manager who just took over for the guy who hid piss in the bathroom. From one standpoint it makes me happy cuz it shows that I'm a rare breed, but from another standpoint, I don't like to see people put in a position and then they are obviously not fit for that position. Then others have to suffer from it. My MIT went over there thinking it would be a good opportunity to get noticed by helping her turn the store around. Instead he mentions to her in a letter that things need to change and instead of talking to him, she cuts his hours in half. This week he is only working 2 or 3 days a week. I told him he could have 1 day at my store. He's a good guy and by far the funnest person to work with ever. He has some flaws but he is not dishonest or troublesome at all. He does his job and he has a passion that I'm find is rare in this business. In a perfect world, in two weeks I have 1 manager quit and I get this one back. That would be heaven right now.

Happy father's day out there to all the pappas. I'm not one yet, but I know it will happen some day for us.

What days off?

I know I complain a lot now on here about work or people at work, but i have no where else to vent. On my two days off this week, I went into work for 7 hours on tuesday to help with a huge order, fix stuff at work, and then a 2 hour training class. Then on Wednesday I get a frantic call because our make line doors are either falling off or they can't get them open. So, food is not staying at temp at all. I get there and end up throwing 20 pounds of food away out of fear of passing on food borne illness. I also have to go back because I have train one of my managers on how to close. Let's not forget I also went there at 9am this morning, because I had to place my food order. So, that's 3 times I'll have gone to work on my day off. It's so annoying. I have to find someone reliable to help me out. I feel like these people are so useless sometimes. The two young ones I can understand, plus they are girls. But, the one that's been there for 14 years or whatever, whats the problem? She just constantly goes against what's supposed be done... it really is just like, wow.

My brother expressed interest in maybe working for me... I'm gonna find out if that can happen. WHile I don't like family working together.. I know I can count on him and he's a helluva worker. It would only be part time, but honestly if he wanted to he could excel into a GM role as quick as I did. The only issue would be him not having a car, I would definitely catch the brunt of that to start, but hopefully he'll get a car once he's working more and making more money. I don't know. It certainly wouldn't make any sense having to go pick him up after shift or something. Could probably work somethign out with a driver, they are all good guys and some of them live in the city anyways. We'll see I guess. Right now, i can only use him to doorhang, but he could definitely become more of an AM once summer is out.

Nothing else really going on. It's been 5 weeks since the disability hearing and still haven't recieved anything. Someday...

My wife's bff had her baby yesterday. Baby Logan was born at 730 am. My wife has been watching her other kids for her the last few days, she comes home tomorrow. My brothers have been hanging out here, playing some UFC undisputed on 360. I suck pretty bad at it. Something in me was never able to evolve from older video games. I used to be pretty good, but the more complicated the game, the worse I am. At some point I became to old to learn new stuff. Whatever.

Finally adjusted

I think i've finally adjusted to the amount of hours I'm working. The days I'm off I feel like doing things and even the days I work, I'm not so exhausted. This is good. This means I can start doing other things now.. .like going back to the gym.

I actually went to the gym this week. I went 1 day and played some ball the next day with my brother. Going to the gym did bring some bad news though.

Weighed myself for the first time in over a month. I gained 10 pounds back. -cry-

It was expected though. I've been eating terrible again and drinking lots of soda. So, this week I've taken maybe 3 drinks of non diet soda and drank a lot of water. I definitely am ready to get back on track. It was just so hard when your tired all the time cuz you're working too much. At least I didn't throw it all away and I'm catching it before it becomes habit again. So, I'm a little disappointed, but I know now at least that I can lose it.

I visited the Soulard Market a few minutes ago. I'm sure none of you know what that is. It's basically a farmer's market that has been around for like ever. It's in Soulard which is where I grew up and where they have the Mardi Gras each year. I haven't been to the market in at least 15 years. It was so awesome. Just cheap, fresh, produce everywhere. They also have these little stands where they serve food and they have fresh herbs that you can buy. I can't wait til I have some money and I can go back. very exciting.

It's nice getting out and doing stuff on a saturday instead of being stuck at work. I still have to work tonite, but I think I'm gonna start closing on saturdays, that way I can at least do stuff during the day.

At work things are well. Tina, who is my assistant manager, that has been around for ever and ran her own store at one time, is causing me a little bit of a headache. Basically, if things aren't being done the way she wants them or thinks they should be then they are wrong. She is going behind my back telling my other managers that things are supposed to be done this way and that everyone does them this way and she doesn't understand what I'm doing. Then she tells me that she thinks I'm doing a great job and she loves the changes I've made. It's really annoying. She's just old and set in her ways. Hopefully, I don't have to deal with her too long. She was great at first and she still does a great job, it's just drama that doesn't need to be there. No one else has a problem and everyone else is on board with teh changes, becuase they are seeing the positive results of those changes. I explained to my young AM that pretty much my motto for life is "I hate unnecessary shit." Some of the things she wants me to do, because they have always been done that way are just so unnecessary and really only done out of habit and tradition. I am NOT into habit or tradition. I do things for a reason because I've thought about each thing and the best way to do them. I don't worry about doing things "right." I do things that are most efficient and in ways that help the store.

At some point, I'm sure I'll have to unload on her and remind her who the boss is.

Cuz, I'm the boss!

Lazy Sunday

Not feeling motivated today. Probably due to being drunk last nite. After work I went over to the family's house with my wife and we played some games and drank a little. I surprisingly didn't throw up this morning and in fact woke up around 830 am. My brother moved out this week and took his big screen with him :(

What sucks though, which I guess I never mentioned on here, a few weeks ago, before the fire he brought over his ps3 and for some reason when he plugged it into my tv it blew my av outlet. So, I can't play my xbox on my tv anymore. It was the weirdest thing. So, i'm bored. The wife is doing what she always does... sleeping.

I need new shoes bad. the insoles are moving around now and making it very uncomfortable to walk in. I tried to go to the shoe carnival by my house, but they didn't have the right kind of shoes. I know better than to just by any kind now. So, I plan on trying the one by my work before work today. I really hate working on sundays.

Things have been really busy at work this week. I began my summer marketing campaign and hopefully that's why. It could just be a coincidence. I do a lot of spreadsheets at work. One I began doing last month was a month by month comparison of the numbers that matter at work. Basically, it's about the service we provide the sales we do and the compliance as far as food and labor. I got to do May's the other day and things are looking really good so far. In the first 3 months, I've met my service goals each month. I've met 5 of 7 compliance goals, even though I believe 1 to be unattainable. Most exciting is that sales have gone up each month. From March to April our sales increased over 8% and in May from April they increased 4.9%. That could've easily been over 10% had we gotten an extra week of school lunch sales from that month, we had 1 less than the previous months. Since March though, sales are up over 14%. It's pretty awesome. Also, for period 5 we were 4th place in the company (55 stores) on the "Ultimate Question." Basically, if you order from Domino's you can go online and rate each part of the service. From the phone person to the food quality, then finally they have the ultimate question which is "Would you recommend this Domino's Pizza?" You get a rating by stars, 5 being the highest. We did 80% 5 stars last period which gives you the highest score on the OER and only 3 other stores had a higher percent than us.

We've managed to be top 5-10 in other things as well. They are boring to explain, but just know that things are going really well and the fact that my boss is barely seen at my store anymore is a testament to that. They only really come around when bad things are happening. I also got a high score on my boss' OER sheet this week, we got a 94, with the previous high being 91.

It's nice the success we've been having. It's also fun to see the staff energized and taking notice of the changes and improvements. Of course they've noticed the sales increase as well... since that equals more money for them.

I'm kind of caught in the middle right now, though. Sales are doing great, but I'm afraid to start scheduling people more shifts and causing labor to go up. So, some nights are service hasn't been to great. Last week was the first week I didn't meet my service goals. This week would've been close had we not had a great saturday in service. Tonite could blow it up if we do crazy sales. But, I'm definitely not gonna let service drop. NO matter how much marketing you do, if your service and your product are shit, people wont come back.