Laura - it is going to be like this through tomorrow night.

I have a ton of work to do because I'm taking Friday off for a small convention. I have a PT massage at 3 and then I HAVE to get some schoolwork done as I've allowed myself to fall way too far behind. I also need to pack for the weekend tonight.

Tomorrow is work, PT, hair cut, and then I pick up my Con roommate J and we head up to the Con hotel. Maybe grab dinner before we see if they need setting-up help before we go to sleep. Friday is set-up, attendees aren't due until 5pm, so hopefully it will be a low key day.

The one nice part of packing is that I'm borrowing two costumes from J, so I only need clothes for Friday, jammies, underthings, and toiletries. Plus my backpack with my computer, school stuff, GISHWHES picture books (the hunt starts on Saturday and I'm hoping to knock off some items with Con goers), and...oh snacks. I should pack some snacks. I need to mark this post for when I'm actually ready to pack.

Spike's Bitches 49 - featuring Suzi fussing about panic attacks, company buyouts, running in circles, running in more circles, and doing math.

Math, you say? Yes. I finally decided to see how much stock I have in my current company. It makes up a fair chunk of my 401k. The buyout is at 175% of the current internal stock value. And I just did that math on what I have. I won't be able to retire any earlier, but it doesn't suck either.

Not sure how it works since the stock is part of my 401k. I'm assuming I end up with Jacob's stock that I can then reallocate if I don't want to hold on to that. Wish I could get the 75% in cash. That would be pretty sweet.

Hil, your landlord sucks.

askye, that lady has a place in hell right next to people who talk at the theater.

I need a sanity check. I have a teenage helper who is about to go back to school. He just passed on a request from his mom to see if he could get paid four days early because "he needs school clothes." I was taken aback and told him I had to let him know.

• He has no car and public transport sucks, so I pick him up and drop him off most days.
• I have already paid him more money than I will get for the job he's been working on the whole time, and he knows that.
• He generally spends $16/day on eating out (I take him by McD's for breakfast and somewhere near the shop for lunch, even when I bring my lunch).
• He just bought a new iPhone a few weeks ago, just because he wanted it.

Meanwhile in my world:

• I eat a PB&J every day for breakfast and make my own iced coffee at home.
• I bring my lunch 2/3 of the time, and when I don't, it's because I was too tired/had no time/had no spoons to make something.
• I am paying the minimum on my credit cards and am *barely* making bills this month due to the aforementioned project which was supposed to take two weeks and has taken THREE MONTHS.
• I do have a badly needed vacation coming up, but only because my parents are paying for everything, and even then the check they sent me for my plane ticket is going towards rent.
• I've been paying him mostly out of my paycheck from my part-time job, and he *knows* this.
• He has another part time job at a grocery store.

I mean, fuck no, right? I haven't said anything to him about how he spends his money because I didn't want to be *that* older person and it's not my lane. But this is *my* money we are talking about, and I am in a delicate financial balancing act, and he could have been saving all summer.

Forget all of those perfectly valid points, smonster -- it's hardly your responsibility to pay him early for reasons, whatever reasons those are. Those points just make it super-easy for you to say no.

"I'm sorry, I can only pay Mr. McDonald's on his regularly scheduled pay days".

If you need more "I'm a small business and must be mindful of the company's cash flow".

You are a small business and you pay on a set schedule. If it has been defined in advance then you should feel no guilt in responding that you can only pay according to the previously agreed upon schedule.

The other side is that it isn't your worry how he uses his money. He, or is mom, is reasonable to make a request for an early paycheck, but it is just that, a request. It is also perfectly reasonable for you to say that you only pay as scheduled.

Be careful making judgement calls about how your employees spend their money. Your relationship with them is to exchange a quantity of money for a quantity of work. How they spend that money is completely up to them.

I'm sorry, it is not possible. You don't need to give reasons. You don't even need a reason.

Hugs to the stressed out Bitches. I actually had a pretty good day. Work was pretty easy, then I had 8 family members for dinner and that went really well. Son did the dishes without me asking him. I'm wiped out, but it a good way. Also, other son is doing well and is enthused about his new job he started Monday. Sent me a picture of himself with his key card.

I totally agree. This situation does not require rationalizations or evidence.

It is just not acceptable.

It sounds like the youngun is perfectly okay with taken what is given. Not good.

Ugh. The attempt to find an ob-gyn here did not go well. Not terrible, but I won't be going back to her.

Strike one is that she won't prescribe birth control pills if I'm not actually using them for birth control. Which is of course her right, and I understand her reasoning, but I also have my reasons. So.

Strike two was that I told her my last exam was very painful and that my doctor in Houston had made a couple of suggestions, and she basically just ignored me, with the result that it was again painful. I am generally kind of stoic, if only because I don't want to be embarrassed in front of strangers, but it's actually starting to traumatize me a little.

And the thing that is not her fault, but that irritates me, is that my possible UTI is not a UTI, because I was mistaken about where the blood was coming from. So it could be nothing, or it could be something, and I have to go get an ultrasound next week to see what's going on.