Mr. Christmas Spirit

Thursday night finally got to me and I don’t think I have fully recovered yet. I had fully planned on sleeping in yesterday since I didn’t get to sleep until after three yesterday morning. The wife and boy had to go out so I was up by eight. They didn’t make it home until the afternoon and we ate and I got to nap for maybe an hour. Just not enough.

At that point the boy and I went out to pick out my Christmas present. They had looked at several different leather coats but it was decided that I needed to go pick it out myself. It just makes it easier to do it that way. I know it’s supposed to be a surprise but I am funny about my clothes and if you are going to spend that kind of money it’s best to try stuff on and see how it looks and fits.

It took forever to get in and out of the mall with the Christmas shoppers. Had to also stop by Wal-mart for a few miscellaneous items that they had forgotten on the trip earlier in the day. It was also pretty crowded but nothing like it will be this weekend. We finally got home around seven last night and had to wrap gifts since the girls were out with a friend.

I had planned on going to bed early last night as well but with the present wrapping and whatnot I didn’t hit the sack until pretty late and it took forever to get to sleep. Maybe tonight I can get to bed at a decent time. I don’t particularly want to face Christmas day with only ten hours of sleep between now and then. Luckily all of my managers are in place until Wednesday so I shouldn’t have to go back in unless there is an emergency. I know a couple of them are behind on the prep work that they need to have finished and it’s not for lack of me trying to have them do it, they are just dragging their damned feet. I guess they just magically expect for it to get done for them.

I will go to the bank this morning as I have to pick up the change for Christmas. It’s a chunk at around $2200 for the two stores. I told them Thursday to make sure and wait on their deposits so that I could get the stuff. One can only hope that they followed directions. I don’t have enough in my checking account to cover the change purchase if they didn’t.

I am somewhat pissed off at the Marine right now. Originally he was going to get something for his mom for Christmas but he just doesn’t have the money, so I told him I would get the expensive present and he needed to order the other one that she really wanted anyway. The kid waits until yesterday and wants to search online for it. Friday night before Christmas. It would be OK, he could just make her something and then get her the gift late but she refuses to help search for the damned program online and I can’t find it. Whatever it is that she wants isn’t something that’s sold at Amazon or Borders and searching on the web doesn’t bring anything up, at least on the first page or two and that is unusual, particularly since I was searching by name. My brother will be in town on Sunday night so they can just go the fuck out on Monday and find her something.

I went ahead and kept him on our cell phone plan because even with the unlimited data plan that he uses it will still only cost him about $50 a month, which is half what he would be paying on his own plan. I just deal with the family minutes and make him pay the $45 for the data plan and another $5 for the extra line, which is half the cost. He is supposed to have set up an automatic transfer to my account every month and hasn’t. When I reminded him on the first he asked if he could pay it on the fifteenth and I told him no problem. I asked him again last night and am still waiting. With the data plan he’s on my cell phone bill is touching just under $400 a month now and this time next month I am going to take the hit and cancel his phone. January thru March are the crappy times at work and aside from what I make online that we will use on vacation in February I am not going to have any extra since most likely I will owe the IRS at least a couple of grand and I have to make sure that’s set aside. I don’t have very much taken out of my check during the year since I’m not particularly impressed with the idea of giving the IRS an interest free loan during the year. I would rather owe them a bit at the end than get a chunk back. I like keeping my paycheck when I earn it personally.

He’ll pay it, that I don’t doubt. I am just slightly pissed off. He’s spent seven months earnings on DVDs, music and game consoles, maxed out his credit card and has no money. I bought the bus ticket for him to come home for Christmas as one of his two Christmas gifts and he just needs to suck it up and start paying his fucking bills and saving some money. He still has yet to sign up for their retirement plan although he’s had the paperwork since June. I guess most of it is the fact that he’s been overwhelmed with his freedom to spend his money any way he wants now. He will figure it out, but with the fact that he will be stationed out in California he needs to figure it out soon if we wants to be able to fly home on leave next year.

I suppose that’s about it this morning. I need to start getting ready for work but don’t really want to. I just needed to rant for a moment. I am actually extremely happy he gets to spend the holiday here. This is just a rough time for me. I spend quite a bit of time at work during the holidays and it seems to get harder every year and there’s not a lot of support from my family on that end and it seems to get worse every year as well. Sometimes it’s hard being Mr Christmas Spirit around here. Sometimes I feel like the lone fucking ranger.

Now that I have that shit out of my system I think I will go listen to some Christmas music…

I don’t normally rant and cuss in my open-trackback posts but since this is the only thing I am posting this morning it is going to be my open-trackback entry for the pre-Christmas weekend.

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