Resort companies will find a reason to weasel out of things. Hubby and I had signed up for a free weekend in Vegas to hear a condo spiel, and the form had a place that said you met a minimum income level. The guy who signed us up said that didn't really matter and initialed that line on the form that we didn't check.

Six months later, we're trying to organize the trip, and the phone minion asked again about the income thing, and I said, no, we don't meet the minimum, and Oh, look, here's my copy of our form with that line unchecked but which is initialed by your representative. Minion's brain locked up at the discrepancy, she got a supervisor on the line who said, "Sorry, you don't meet the requirements, and according to the fine print your deposit is nonrefundable." Unfair and cheesy, but legal.

I always thought that if you were fired for performance, you couldn't file for unemployment.

I think it varies by state, but most places do make a distinction between being fired for performance and misconduct.

Unemployment eligibility varies by state -- here in the land of "workers? have rights? you must be joking!", you're basically screwed if you're fired (as opposed to laid off). In other places, the regulations are a lot more liberal. So the general rule is document everything, find out as much as you can about your specific state rules, and be ready to contest if needed.

I always thought that if you were fired for performance, you couldn't file for unemployment.

Maybe it's because Ohio is an at-will state, because it would be perverse to deny someone unemployment when their employer fired them with the reason of (and I quote) "You're not working out."

Wedding~ma, Kristin. I hope they can sort it for you.

Thanks. It's just...I wouldn't care so much if it were a normal vacation, but it's our wedding. The whole point was getting away just the two of us to have a completely private ceremony somewhere beautiful. I've never been to Hawaii, and was really looking forward to it.

I don't know what we'll do if it falls through. I guess we'd have to cancel everything else just have the wedding elsewhere, but we can't have it locally without having to deal with ND's family, which neither of us want to have to do. Sigh.

Cereal:

Anyway, enough about me. Not having a job is a much bigger deal than wedding woes. I'll keep vibing for something better to come along for you, Erin.

Wow, Erin. What a mess of conflicting expectations and requirements your former employers had. And how very badly they handled you. Just, wow. It astonishes me that establishments that are that badly run and impossible to work for somehow manage to keep shambling along.

Ok, I just committed the biggest bit of geek foreplay, ever. I just sent Keith Olbermann's office the correct Spanish translation for "The Worst Person in The World" I never get to laugh at Trekkies again. But it sort of shocked me that he stumbled over it, considering all the jugadores cubanos de beisbol But if I really sent him Coultergeist's ear, he'd chastise me. And maybe not in that sexy Giles "Do you want to be punished?' way.