That's right. We got a phone call today.
It was the lawyer's office. She tells my wife that our bill is $4800. My wife is like, wait we don't even know how much we are getting. The lady says, "Oh they didn't tell you?"
"Well, the award letter says you are getting $19,800."
At this point my wife breaks into tears and has trouble talking to me on the phone about it. When she called me she said "20,000" I'm like "what?" We're getting 20,000. Obviously I called her a liar. but she insisted it was the truth.
Our back pay check is going to be that amount and our monthly check will be $975. In the grand scheme of things, taking into account if my wife would've been able to work instead for two years, she would've made at least double that. But, after all we've been through and with my wife unable to work, it's fantastic! I can't go Ballin down the streets of st. louis or anything but, that extra G a month will definitely help us a LOT. It's pretty sick the lawyer gets as much as he does, but whatever I guess 15k will have to do. I feel so relieved. Now, of course they tell us it could be a month or two til we recieve the money. Lol. It's always another wait. I'm sure once we get the check and try to cash it or deposit it, it'll be another few weeks til the bank will be able to process it. eventually it will be nice.
We are thousandaires! lol. I'm rich bitch!
ok not really. But, it'll be fun for awhile at least to have that kind of money on me.
Can you say, all on black?
Monday, August 31, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
A little stress lately.
I've been stressing a little bit lately. I got a lot of stuff going on and I feel like I never catch up on any of it. It's round 2 of the Evaluations at work and so we are having to go to special meetings and we have a constant string of Manager's coming in our stores to rate us. Besides, that which is stressful enough, I had to go to a meeting last week because my store was one of the stores on a list of biggest drop in sales of the last 4 weeks. It's frustrating because we had 2 bad weeks. We usually do about 7-8k a week in sales and two weeks in a row we did 6500 and 6000. The frustrating part to me is that they want answers on why and they tell us to fix the problems, but yet we don't get marketing material from them. They want us to doorhang yet they give us no doorhangers. They want us to have great service yet, they are constantly on us about labor being too high. I don't know it just seems like they are so day to day, it's almost unbearable.
Part of the reason I didn't do much marketing in July was 1. no material and 2, i had a lot of employees out on vacation or requesting time off, so I wasn't staffed up very well. I have a lot of young girls that like to take every other weekend off it seems. I feel like if I had done a bunch of marketing and got sales up, then was understaffed for it, that we would've been killed in service and probably lost customers for it. One thing they talked about at the high performance gm class was getting your operations and staff ready before campaigning to raise sales. What good is bringing in customers if they become unhappy? So I had a plan, but bailed on it. That got me noticed, in a negative way.
So, the meeting wasn't that bad, but it was basically, "request materials, make a plan, get out their and do it. We're behind you 100%." Yet, over a week later and all I've gotten is some menus and a few flyers. I requested some stuff.. never got it. I asked my boss yesterday if I could just go out and get the stuff myself... no response. That's how it seems to work. We get the blame but we can't get full control. Working for the man is weak-sauce. I put together a little book to showcase what good I have done, I have no idea if they saw it or not. I gave it to my boss, but I'm guessing it found it's way to the bottom of someone's desk by now. Whatever.
I don't sweat it a lot. I mean I obviously want this job and I like the money it brings me and there's no reason for me to think my job is in jeopardy, but it's not the end of the world if I get transferred or they take the store from me. I want to do more with the job and I want to raise sales and really start popping, but if they aren't going to actually support it, then why sweat over it? It's like beating your head against a wall some days. I make sure I do what I can control and I figure that's the best I can do. They don't wanna be honest with themselves and realize that they are just talking out of their asses half the time, then so be it. Implement, implement, implement... planning is the easy part. They need to take their own advice.
Fantasy football drafts are over. I have my Keeper league team and my head to head league team. My studs for the keeper league include Adrian Peterson and Calvin Johnson and for the H2H I have Michael Turner and Reggie Wayne. My wr corps in both is a little sketchy. I drafted a few guys with some upside hoping to get at least 1 that pans out. In the H2H I had to take the same approach with 2nd runningbacks. I drafted R. brown, but also got Felix Jones and pierre thomas. Two guys that when they played looked pretty good last year, but aren't considered the #1 for either of their teams. Again, hopefully 1 pans out for me. I'm not as involved this year as I was last year. I kind of got burnt last year, because I put so much effort and no one seemed to care. Also, I work a lot now so I can't do as much. I have to focus on aforementioned things listed above. I love fantasy football though and would love to put my ideas into the internet world someday.
Waiting on September 1st to, hopefully, find out how much money we are getting for my wife's disability. The day never seems to get here. I like to sit and think about what to do with x amount of money if we get it, but I'm afraid I'm going to end up disappointed so I snap out of that pretty quickly. They want paycheck stubs from the last 2 years. "oh your husband made 19k that year.. that's ALOT so you get 100$ a month" lol, stupid shit like that would happen to us. 2 grown ass adults living on less than 20,000$ a year. I don't know how we did it honestly. self pity time. It's been awhile since I thought about how hard life has been. I wont bore you with it all.
I am a little excited. Ryan from Poker Dynasty is moving to St. Louis in a few months. He is wanting to move to Soulard, which is where I grew up and it's literally 8 minutes from my house. I'm sure that first week will be a blast, with me showing him around town. We've never met and we don't talk as much as we used to but, there was a time we were pretty good friends, well as good as you can be thousands of miles away and through a computer. I keep thinking it'll be ironic if we totally dislike each other when we finally do meet and hang out. I have no hang out friends right now, so it would be nice to have someone like that.. i think. What are friends? I'm not anti social I just don't like having the responsibilities that being a friend has. I don't like demands on my time or feeling like i have to do something because I've told someone NO the 18 times before. I don't know. I just live in my own world and it's always kind of worked for me. Maybe I'm selfish. Whatever.
Part of the reason I didn't do much marketing in July was 1. no material and 2, i had a lot of employees out on vacation or requesting time off, so I wasn't staffed up very well. I have a lot of young girls that like to take every other weekend off it seems. I feel like if I had done a bunch of marketing and got sales up, then was understaffed for it, that we would've been killed in service and probably lost customers for it. One thing they talked about at the high performance gm class was getting your operations and staff ready before campaigning to raise sales. What good is bringing in customers if they become unhappy? So I had a plan, but bailed on it. That got me noticed, in a negative way.
So, the meeting wasn't that bad, but it was basically, "request materials, make a plan, get out their and do it. We're behind you 100%." Yet, over a week later and all I've gotten is some menus and a few flyers. I requested some stuff.. never got it. I asked my boss yesterday if I could just go out and get the stuff myself... no response. That's how it seems to work. We get the blame but we can't get full control. Working for the man is weak-sauce. I put together a little book to showcase what good I have done, I have no idea if they saw it or not. I gave it to my boss, but I'm guessing it found it's way to the bottom of someone's desk by now. Whatever.
I don't sweat it a lot. I mean I obviously want this job and I like the money it brings me and there's no reason for me to think my job is in jeopardy, but it's not the end of the world if I get transferred or they take the store from me. I want to do more with the job and I want to raise sales and really start popping, but if they aren't going to actually support it, then why sweat over it? It's like beating your head against a wall some days. I make sure I do what I can control and I figure that's the best I can do. They don't wanna be honest with themselves and realize that they are just talking out of their asses half the time, then so be it. Implement, implement, implement... planning is the easy part. They need to take their own advice.
Fantasy football drafts are over. I have my Keeper league team and my head to head league team. My studs for the keeper league include Adrian Peterson and Calvin Johnson and for the H2H I have Michael Turner and Reggie Wayne. My wr corps in both is a little sketchy. I drafted a few guys with some upside hoping to get at least 1 that pans out. In the H2H I had to take the same approach with 2nd runningbacks. I drafted R. brown, but also got Felix Jones and pierre thomas. Two guys that when they played looked pretty good last year, but aren't considered the #1 for either of their teams. Again, hopefully 1 pans out for me. I'm not as involved this year as I was last year. I kind of got burnt last year, because I put so much effort and no one seemed to care. Also, I work a lot now so I can't do as much. I have to focus on aforementioned things listed above. I love fantasy football though and would love to put my ideas into the internet world someday.
Waiting on September 1st to, hopefully, find out how much money we are getting for my wife's disability. The day never seems to get here. I like to sit and think about what to do with x amount of money if we get it, but I'm afraid I'm going to end up disappointed so I snap out of that pretty quickly. They want paycheck stubs from the last 2 years. "oh your husband made 19k that year.. that's ALOT so you get 100$ a month" lol, stupid shit like that would happen to us. 2 grown ass adults living on less than 20,000$ a year. I don't know how we did it honestly. self pity time. It's been awhile since I thought about how hard life has been. I wont bore you with it all.
I am a little excited. Ryan from Poker Dynasty is moving to St. Louis in a few months. He is wanting to move to Soulard, which is where I grew up and it's literally 8 minutes from my house. I'm sure that first week will be a blast, with me showing him around town. We've never met and we don't talk as much as we used to but, there was a time we were pretty good friends, well as good as you can be thousands of miles away and through a computer. I keep thinking it'll be ironic if we totally dislike each other when we finally do meet and hang out. I have no hang out friends right now, so it would be nice to have someone like that.. i think. What are friends? I'm not anti social I just don't like having the responsibilities that being a friend has. I don't like demands on my time or feeling like i have to do something because I've told someone NO the 18 times before. I don't know. I just live in my own world and it's always kind of worked for me. Maybe I'm selfish. Whatever.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Played Some Pokers
After work last night, since my wife was staying the night at her friends house, I decided to stop by the casino and play a little NL poker. I started with just over 100$. My wife wont enjoy hearing this, but maybe she shouldn't be leaving me for the night to spend it with her friend!
Anyways, I started at table that was shorthanded, but luckily soon got moved to a full table. This guy was hammered. First hand I was in he raised it to 35$ preflop, at a 1/3 blind. I was thinking... geez great. I would've loved it had I had more money and a bankroll. He was definitely a live one. But, since I planned on playing pretty tight and hopefully walking away with $60 profit, it sucked. But whatever, that's poker. So, anyways, a few hands in I get QQ, utg. The guy had been raising a lot so I decided to gamble a little bit. NOw QQ is obv a good hand, but in games like this they shouldn't be overplayed. So, I decided to limp in EP and reraise the drunk guy if he raised. If not I would pretty much play cautiously after the flop since there would likely be a bunch of people in it. Sure enough 5 people limp in front of the drunk guy and like magic he reraised to 20$. Pointless reraise really, but great for me to bump it up again. I made it 60 to go, and everyone but the drunk dude prompted to fold. Flop came 874, rainbow. I had less than the pot in my stack, so i went all in after he checked. He called me.
Blank, Blank. I show my QQ, he flips over his 72 sooooooooted, and I take down a 300$ pot. Thank you sir. You know I was sweatin the whole time. I won a few other pots on the night and finished with a COOOOOLLL $305 in profit. Not bad for an hour and a half of work. That guy went through about 1200$, with only 300 max buy in each time. He was from "dallas, and the money didn't matter." Must be nice.
THere were two pretty sick hands. Guy next to me, who clearly never played in a casino before got involved in a hand. Drunkie raised pre and this guy wanted to reraise but made a string bet so they made him just call. Donk next to drunkie called as well. Flop comes 77T. Drunkie bets all in (his standard flop bet, soon to become standard preflop raise), newb calls leaving himself with just like 100$ left. Donk's eyes get real big and he starts becoming super jittery, it was interesting to watch. He says all in. Newb doesn't really know whats going on, just waiting for next card, finally realizes he only has a few chips left compared to the massive pot and says F - it and calls. Turn A, River 9. Drunkie says "Straight" and turns over J8. Donk turns over Q7 for trips, and newb shouts Ya! as he flips over AA, for Full boat. Newb gets pot, drunkie doesn't know what's going on, cuz he had a straight and that should win. Donk just shakes his head in disbelief. Newb starts mumbling about ya, I got 3 7s and Aces, whats that? Huh, What's that! He wasn't really asking, he was telling. and wrong I might add. His girl behind him is like, we're leaving right? He's like, these people never got nothing, they play trash. Their garbage. Not even considering the fact that he hit a 2 outer to win the pot.
Anyways, it was a 1000 dollar pot and yep, you guessed it, girlfriend got her wish and he was gone 3 hands later. Suprisingly people didn't say too much about it. Just a few grumbles.
Another hand between D & D (drunk and donk). Drunkie was start to raise 100$ preflop most hands. I guess Donk thought it would be wise to reraise him all in back and he would stop? IDk.. it was bizarre and really bad thinking on this guys part. But, then again his name was donk, so...
Anyways, He pushes all in and drunkie instacalls. Flop comes with K and drunkie celebrates and shows his AK, but runner runner diamonds makes donk expose his flush with his K6 of diamonds. Amazing. 300$ all in preflop with K6 versus a guy who clearly wasn't going to fold to anything. Now, okay, if you do it thinking, well I'm ahead of his range, whatever fine... wasn't that bad I guess... but I'm not giving this guy that much credit. I'd say it's more likely he was still steaming over the Q7 that he shouldn't have called 50$ preflop with a few hands before. but, Idk. So, drunkie goes on cursing spree telling the dealer who he just asked to have babies with, to stop talking to him and everyone else to shut the fuck up and play some cards. He pulls out another 300$ and pushes it all in preflop each hand. 3 hands into this I leave.
I had 300$ in profit and no intentions on risking it vs some maniac who could crack AA with 23offsuit for 300$ preflop. Yes, again, if I had the money to spare or a bankroll, I would've never left. But, these days I'll take my money and run.
It was nice and I got to relax a little bit. Even if it was 2 in the morning. The Felt felt good. I don't plan on going back soon... unless we get a GIANT disability back pay check. I just needed my fix I guess. Back to real life now.
Anyways, I started at table that was shorthanded, but luckily soon got moved to a full table. This guy was hammered. First hand I was in he raised it to 35$ preflop, at a 1/3 blind. I was thinking... geez great. I would've loved it had I had more money and a bankroll. He was definitely a live one. But, since I planned on playing pretty tight and hopefully walking away with $60 profit, it sucked. But whatever, that's poker. So, anyways, a few hands in I get QQ, utg. The guy had been raising a lot so I decided to gamble a little bit. NOw QQ is obv a good hand, but in games like this they shouldn't be overplayed. So, I decided to limp in EP and reraise the drunk guy if he raised. If not I would pretty much play cautiously after the flop since there would likely be a bunch of people in it. Sure enough 5 people limp in front of the drunk guy and like magic he reraised to 20$. Pointless reraise really, but great for me to bump it up again. I made it 60 to go, and everyone but the drunk dude prompted to fold. Flop came 874, rainbow. I had less than the pot in my stack, so i went all in after he checked. He called me.
Blank, Blank. I show my QQ, he flips over his 72 sooooooooted, and I take down a 300$ pot. Thank you sir. You know I was sweatin the whole time. I won a few other pots on the night and finished with a COOOOOLLL $305 in profit. Not bad for an hour and a half of work. That guy went through about 1200$, with only 300 max buy in each time. He was from "dallas, and the money didn't matter." Must be nice.
THere were two pretty sick hands. Guy next to me, who clearly never played in a casino before got involved in a hand. Drunkie raised pre and this guy wanted to reraise but made a string bet so they made him just call. Donk next to drunkie called as well. Flop comes 77T. Drunkie bets all in (his standard flop bet, soon to become standard preflop raise), newb calls leaving himself with just like 100$ left. Donk's eyes get real big and he starts becoming super jittery, it was interesting to watch. He says all in. Newb doesn't really know whats going on, just waiting for next card, finally realizes he only has a few chips left compared to the massive pot and says F - it and calls. Turn A, River 9. Drunkie says "Straight" and turns over J8. Donk turns over Q7 for trips, and newb shouts Ya! as he flips over AA, for Full boat. Newb gets pot, drunkie doesn't know what's going on, cuz he had a straight and that should win. Donk just shakes his head in disbelief. Newb starts mumbling about ya, I got 3 7s and Aces, whats that? Huh, What's that! He wasn't really asking, he was telling. and wrong I might add. His girl behind him is like, we're leaving right? He's like, these people never got nothing, they play trash. Their garbage. Not even considering the fact that he hit a 2 outer to win the pot.
Anyways, it was a 1000 dollar pot and yep, you guessed it, girlfriend got her wish and he was gone 3 hands later. Suprisingly people didn't say too much about it. Just a few grumbles.
Another hand between D & D (drunk and donk). Drunkie was start to raise 100$ preflop most hands. I guess Donk thought it would be wise to reraise him all in back and he would stop? IDk.. it was bizarre and really bad thinking on this guys part. But, then again his name was donk, so...
Anyways, He pushes all in and drunkie instacalls. Flop comes with K and drunkie celebrates and shows his AK, but runner runner diamonds makes donk expose his flush with his K6 of diamonds. Amazing. 300$ all in preflop with K6 versus a guy who clearly wasn't going to fold to anything. Now, okay, if you do it thinking, well I'm ahead of his range, whatever fine... wasn't that bad I guess... but I'm not giving this guy that much credit. I'd say it's more likely he was still steaming over the Q7 that he shouldn't have called 50$ preflop with a few hands before. but, Idk. So, drunkie goes on cursing spree telling the dealer who he just asked to have babies with, to stop talking to him and everyone else to shut the fuck up and play some cards. He pulls out another 300$ and pushes it all in preflop each hand. 3 hands into this I leave.
I had 300$ in profit and no intentions on risking it vs some maniac who could crack AA with 23offsuit for 300$ preflop. Yes, again, if I had the money to spare or a bankroll, I would've never left. But, these days I'll take my money and run.
It was nice and I got to relax a little bit. Even if it was 2 in the morning. The Felt felt good. I don't plan on going back soon... unless we get a GIANT disability back pay check. I just needed my fix I guess. Back to real life now.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Woot! I got AP.
After some grueling negotiations I got Adrian Peterson in my Keeper league. We have until thursday to make some more trades and announce our keepers, so I'm trying to get some more magic going.
I trade Drew Brees who I had in the 4th round and couldn't keep, and My 1st round pick, 7th overall for The Man they call All Day, who is a 3rd round keeper. I probably overspent. But, when you're going for the consensus best Running back in fantasy football, you gotta do what you gotta do. My options now are only Phillip Rivers as my other keeper who is n the 12th round. I'm trying to trade Marion Barber for Brandon Jacobs, who are in the 12th and 13th respectively. I gotta be smart in my draft, cuz losing that 1st round hurts and then I wont have a 3rd round either.
My draft is saturday.
Went to a High Performance General Manager class put on by Domino's Corporate last week on Tues and Wednesday. The class was cool, learned some stuff that others are doing in the world of dominos to help raise sales. Most of it, I already knew or isn't going to help me too much. I got stuck with special people in both my groups, so that sucked. But overall it was cool. The class was free for me, which its usually 195$. The management group shelled it out, and I got paid for both days... sweet! Not to mention the totally righteous food and snacks they gave us. SEriously, snack time was fresh popped popcorn and soft warm pretzels..... niice.
Not a whole lot going on. Still waiting for a (cross your fingers for us) massive check to come in the mail from disability. So anxious to find out how much. We're kind of keeping a low number in our heads, so we wont end up disappointed. But, we keep hearing about other people who got like 1000 or 1200 a month. Sickness. If a check for 15000$ or more comes, I will shit my pants. But, like I said we are planning for the worst, just in case.
That's pretty much it.. i know I'm boring. sorry.
I trade Drew Brees who I had in the 4th round and couldn't keep, and My 1st round pick, 7th overall for The Man they call All Day, who is a 3rd round keeper. I probably overspent. But, when you're going for the consensus best Running back in fantasy football, you gotta do what you gotta do. My options now are only Phillip Rivers as my other keeper who is n the 12th round. I'm trying to trade Marion Barber for Brandon Jacobs, who are in the 12th and 13th respectively. I gotta be smart in my draft, cuz losing that 1st round hurts and then I wont have a 3rd round either.
My draft is saturday.
Went to a High Performance General Manager class put on by Domino's Corporate last week on Tues and Wednesday. The class was cool, learned some stuff that others are doing in the world of dominos to help raise sales. Most of it, I already knew or isn't going to help me too much. I got stuck with special people in both my groups, so that sucked. But overall it was cool. The class was free for me, which its usually 195$. The management group shelled it out, and I got paid for both days... sweet! Not to mention the totally righteous food and snacks they gave us. SEriously, snack time was fresh popped popcorn and soft warm pretzels..... niice.
Not a whole lot going on. Still waiting for a (cross your fingers for us) massive check to come in the mail from disability. So anxious to find out how much. We're kind of keeping a low number in our heads, so we wont end up disappointed. But, we keep hearing about other people who got like 1000 or 1200 a month. Sickness. If a check for 15000$ or more comes, I will shit my pants. But, like I said we are planning for the worst, just in case.
That's pretty much it.. i know I'm boring. sorry.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Milestone at the 400th post... The Wait is Finally Over!
Well, i planned on using my 400th post for a reflection, but a Milestone is way better.
My wife FINALLY got a letter of decision from the Disability hearing. It took 11 weeks since the hearing and 21 months total.
They have ruled fully in our favor. She has been approved.
I almost cried twice after she told me. It's just like a huge weight lifted off. I don't think either one of us thought we would actually get approved. I'm kind of in shock really.
In a way it's kind of sad. Cuz it's like accepting your fate. The fate that you are truly disabled. I feel bad for my wife. My only hope is that she finds something meaningful to do with her life, with our lives, that will make her happy and this disability to become just a hitch in the road. I couldn't imagine going through what she has to go through on a daily basis.
We are supposed to be contacted within 60 days to discuss payment. From a monetary standpoint this is great. We've struggled for the past 2 years. It'll be weird not struggling. I've often wondered what it's like to have 2 people bringing in income in a marriage. Obviously, my wife has worked and when she did she made great money. But, it seems so long ago and so far between. I made a joke to her. I said, about the big lump settlement we should be getting, "hey, i planned on quitting my job and playing poker full time again, when that came in." She didn't find it very funny. In fact I think she said if i did that, she would divorce me and keep all her money. Now, that's not funny. It's still hard to believe. I think once we get that first check and it actually is able to be cashed, is when it will actually sink in.
Life should get a little easier. I hope.
My wife FINALLY got a letter of decision from the Disability hearing. It took 11 weeks since the hearing and 21 months total.
They have ruled fully in our favor. She has been approved.
I almost cried twice after she told me. It's just like a huge weight lifted off. I don't think either one of us thought we would actually get approved. I'm kind of in shock really.
In a way it's kind of sad. Cuz it's like accepting your fate. The fate that you are truly disabled. I feel bad for my wife. My only hope is that she finds something meaningful to do with her life, with our lives, that will make her happy and this disability to become just a hitch in the road. I couldn't imagine going through what she has to go through on a daily basis.
We are supposed to be contacted within 60 days to discuss payment. From a monetary standpoint this is great. We've struggled for the past 2 years. It'll be weird not struggling. I've often wondered what it's like to have 2 people bringing in income in a marriage. Obviously, my wife has worked and when she did she made great money. But, it seems so long ago and so far between. I made a joke to her. I said, about the big lump settlement we should be getting, "hey, i planned on quitting my job and playing poker full time again, when that came in." She didn't find it very funny. In fact I think she said if i did that, she would divorce me and keep all her money. Now, that's not funny. It's still hard to believe. I think once we get that first check and it actually is able to be cashed, is when it will actually sink in.
Life should get a little easier. I hope.
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