Losing Money But Gaining Paint

Hey yo.

Have you ever had a couple weeks of your life where you just seem to BLEED money? Everyone here knows what I'm talking about. Especially those of you who are careful with your money, like I am. I have a system of personal budgeting that would boggle a normal person's mind. Have for years. I allow myself a certain amount of playing money, pay my bills, and save the rest. But weather you are into that or not (most are not), you know... everyone just has those periods of a few weeks where they can't account for the money that's disappeared. I suppose the total silver lining to this is that in a month, I'll be making mad scrilla so it won't matter so much.

But this last month alone, I seem to have lost thousands of dollars. Fuck knows where it all went. I have a vague recollection of spending some of it on my car (maybe a LOT of some), some of it was spent on suits for the upcoming gig, I also had to get a new phone for the same upcoming gig... but I definately seem to have lost more than that. And I haven't even gone on vacation yet.

None of this money was for anything fun (OK, the RAZR phone is cool, but that's it, and that wasn't really all that much money after I held my contract up to Telus' face and dropped the good old BELL-bomb). I didn't even snare myself a Nintendo Wii. Although apparently, I would have inevitably killed someone via a wayward nunchuk controller already if I had. But at least I would have made at least that much and more back in the lawsuit against Nintendo that would follow. And maybe the person I killed would have been Heather. But that's me. I always look for upsides, even in the worst of situations.


And it seems to me that every time that we have weeks like this where money sweats out of our pores, we find out about someone making a stupid amount of money for doing something stupid. My example of the month was that my company has decided that some of the offices on the floor need painting. And they do. But they did not hire professional painters. They hired a friend of an employee who is NOT a professional painter (come to think of it, ARE there even "professional painters"? Painting ain't hard. Dip brush, touch to wall, repeat.) and paid her THREE TIMES the amount that a "professional painter" would make.

Makes sense, right? Companies in self-described "financial peril" do this shit all the time, right? Right? Right? It makes sense not to just use the JANITOR to paint, even though it's part of his JOB DESCRIPTION and we have to pay him ANYWAYS, right? Right? Right?

$800 for painting one office in our store. Less than the size of a REALLY small no-tub, no-shower bathroom. One office. This took her maybe 5 hours to do. 5 hours. $800. One room. 5 hours. $800. One room. 5 hours. $800. One room. 5 hours. $800. One room. 5 hours. $800. One room. 5 hours. $800. One room. 5 hours. $800. One room. 5 hours. $800. One room. 5 hours. $800. One room. 5 hours. $800. One room. 5 hours. $800. One room. 5 hours. $800. One room. 5 hours. $800. One room. 5 hours. $800. One room. 5 hours. $800. One room. 5 hours. $800. One room. 5 hours. $800.


One room. 5 hours. $800. For that kind of money, I would have not only painted the tiny room in its entirity in 5 hours, I would have done it while playing Twister with a 400-pound recovering crack addict.

This bitch didn't have to buy suits. She didn't have to get a new cell phone. She had to buy painting supplies and paint, which she was promptly reimbursed for. I'm surprised we didn't buy her new clothes in case some paint dripped onto the poor girls pants or she came home and they smelled like paint. And she made this much money for so little work. Did I ever hit the wrong profession or what. I apparently should have been a painter. Not a professional one, though, apparently.

There's two ways to look at this... because in a month, I will be in a position to make decisions such as these. So I could be noble and say that this kind of thing will NEVER HAPPEN while I'm in charge, or I could pay Mizzle $500 to install the space heater in my office.


On a more cheerful and sane note, I have realized, now that I only have a week left in the clubhouse, just how much I'm going to miss it. No more chilling with my girls, no more Taco Tuesday's with Frances, no more early breakfast meetings with Peggy and Kathy... and most of all, I know that I will never find another group like these people again. Don't get me wrong, I'm not second guessing myself, I'm just saying that this was a time in my career that can never be duplicated, where I would not take a single thing back.


Anyway, enough woman emotions. Time for some manly guns and death.

YouTube For Today: The Death Of Tony Almeida

In the spirit of the new season of 24 starting in a month or so, I found a video to post with the saddest death of the series. Tony Almeida.

Again, this is good TV, folks. You don't need to enjoy 24 to enjoy this clip. It's just plain good.


God Bless,
B.a.D