No Good Year

I can't say I've had a good year so far. I feel a lot of negativeness.

JOB
First off my supervisor Kristen has put in her two weeks and quit. We all went to Social on 01/16 for her last day party. From what she tells me there was just too much pressure and something finally pushed her over the edge, she couldn't do it anymore. I don't like that. A bad place to work uses up every ounce of everything from a person and then discards them. A good place cares for their employees and makes sure they are happy and healthy and taken care of so they can do the best job possible. I wish her the best but I need to worry about myself and my family. I know they are not going to promote me to her job but I figured if I can help with as much as I can hopefully they can help me in return. If not we'll have to see who will. I"m going to need a bunch of money to pay for things (see below) and I am not yet where I think I need to be here.

BOY
Apparently the boy is still missing school because of this whole big thing with his mother's van. This started before Xmas break and is still going on. I don't know what the problem is over there or why in the hell does it persist for so long. Obviously it ended up me being the one that had to throw money at the problem to resolve it. I sent a letter to the boy's school to make sure they knew what was going on and there were things out of our control that we were doing our best to maintain.

MONEY

• At the end of January the car insurance is due. That's a grand. 
• This stupid high interest loan needs paid off as soon as possible. We have to pay that off to start with the mortgage stuff and building our house. 
• The baby is coming. It's going to cost a fortune to have and to keep since we both work. Ale is hesitant about asking Aunt Dee about babysitting. 
• We will probably have to pay a little bit when we file our taxes instead of getting money back because last year was a year that she claimed the boy. 
• Now Chuck has raised our rent like $80 a month out of nowhere.  

I am not enthusiastic about our financial future.


BABBY
One day Ale got really upset when she felt the baby was not moving enough. I know at one point they told us 8x in 8 hours and then I think it upgraded to 10x in 1 hour twice a day. Well she didn't feel it was moving enough and got super upset which then upset me. Luckily the doctor was the next day and when I kept pressing her about it she seemed to think if she paid attention that the baby was moving enough. We brought it up to the doctor and she suggested to take an hour off and just sit there and pay attention. Apparently everything is okay now but that was a scare I didn't need.

VIDEO GAME CONSUMERISM
I had Majora's Mask 3D pre-ordered on 3DS as soon as it was available to do so. One day I came home and read on the internet that there was going to be a Limited Edition version with an awesome Skull Kid statue. I checked the websites but it sold out in less than 2 hours. I kept poking around and even visited a store to check but apparently that was the stock. It's gone now. I am not very happy that I was not given a shot at buying this as I most certainly would have.
Also a new wave of amiibos have been announced so I have to worry about getting my order in before they all disappear again. I need to keep my collection at 'obtaining one of every single one available'. This is not a fun game to play. Me and my stupid possessions should not cause me such anguish.

MORE MONEY
I got ripped off at least twice so far this year on food purchases. I swear I have always checked my receipts but I must not be doing a great job lately. That and I don't like the conflict of bringing it up to somebody.
It took me 3 years to fully fill a punch card for Brooklyn's Pizza to get a free X-Large pizza. I finally went to cash it in and ordered a pizza and wings. Somehow that order came out to $22. Somehow I got ripped off there.
We stopped at Sheetz just the other day to get food for the boy who was home alone after school while we were at the party for Kristen. I got him a thing of popcorn chicken and fries. It came out to $13. Somehow the lady added all these coffees on my receipt and only minused off one or two so I ended up paying for one or two. WTF!? I must be more vigilant in stopping and checking my receipt after I buy something and say something if I notice it's wrong.

FAMILY
Blair is still having trouble with MaryJo and it seems that whole thing may be done with. It all starting with drinking and her kids were worried she was partying too much. (Yeah thanks for interfering in a grown couples business kids) So it started out they both quit then I noticed at family gatherings she was allowed to drink but he wasn't. Then I hear he could drink if she drank with him but not by himself. Sounds like a bunch of crap to me. You can't make someone stop doing something if they don't want to. Especially if you feel you can do whatever you want. So he drank by himself one day and she flipped. He took it very hard and the decision was made to leave. I had to help him this past weekend get all the crap out of his house and to a place out in Ligonier by his buddy and funny enough his first ex-wife's sister (who recognized me!).  He seemed to be in a daze the whole time. I feel bad but you don't want to have to deal with shit like that. The best part was when she came out screeching what a horrible inconvenience this was for her. Seems like you made the right decision Blair.

HEALTH
Health-wise I had a crazy thing going on with my right ear for a few days. I was hearing out of it very strangely in a way that I have never experienced before. Some people said I was getting an ear infection, others said it was just ear wax. I tried to clean it out then Ale bought me some drops and a few days later it seems to be okay but it was still worrisome to me.


Anyway some of things are bad, some may only seem bad to me but damn if you compile them up like this I truly am not having a good year so far. I need to focus, do what I can to fix what I can and not worry about the rest. Here's hoping this is the worst that I have to worry about for a while and that the rest of the year turns out to be a good one that moves my life forward and especially that the baby is born healthy and happy.

Where were you yesterday?

NEWS LINK

It took me an hour and 2 minutes to get from the Penn Hills exit to the Turnpike on my way home from work last night. Did I mention how hot it was yesterday? I had to sit in a puddle of my own sweat. It was not fun.

Isaac's First Taste Of Fail

Last night was pre-test night at karate class and I'm sad to report that Isaac will not be testing for his gold belt this weekend. I'm pretty sure this was one of his first tastes of fail and I hope he learns to not like it.

I did my part to help him as much as I could. For the last 2 weeks I made sure he was practicing all the time especially on days before class. It is helpful for him to have it in his mind before he goes I noticed. The Saturday this started (which probably would have been the 11th) he had the worst class of his life. He got yelled at constantly, repeatedly had to do push-ups and Mrs. Romano even asked him to sit down as he didn't seem like he cared or knew what the heck was going on. I had a talk with him at this point about what he was going to do. I found out that his mother (*shudders) hadn't be taking him to class for the last 2 weeks she had him. I think I detailed this before. Anyway he followed that up with the two best classes I've ever seen him have and I thought he was on track to earn his belt.

I have noticed that when we start practicing he never actually punches, he just raises his arm up and same with kicks. He also just moves his legs forward taking a regular step instead of properly going into a stance (legs wide apart, knee bent). Usually I see this and tell him about it and he does a little better. Apparently this was one of the main things that kept him from testing. I made him go and ask what the problem was. I felt it was a good idea to teach him that. Can't learn from your mistakes if you don't know what they were.

I didn't watch it go down. I sat in the car. I felt I gave him all the tools and assistance he needed at that point and it was up to him now to perform. I didn't want to be a distraction for him as he always seems to look at me to see if he thinks I think he's doing well or not. Well he didn't. He went about it all lackadaisical and it ended up biting him in the butt. All in all Master Romano clipped 9 kids this time and I saw several run over to their mommy's crying about it when they discovered it was them. Isaac was very disappointed in the car. I had sweetened the pot with promises of rewards if he did well and I don't think I like this but it seemed he was more upset about not getting the rewards than not earning the belt.

I keep getting asked 'Why push him to do this if he doesn't like it or want to do it?' and I have to answer like this: He's 7 years old. He doesn't know what he wants. When he's 10 or 12 or 15 THEN he can pick what he wants to do. It's my decision as his parent to do what's best for him. I made the decision to enroll him in karate because I discovered through research that it :

• Builds character, discipline and self-esteem.
• Teaches respect.
  
• Gives him an activity to do so he isn't sitting around the house on the couch playing video games all day everyday or getting into trouble because he's bored with nothing to do.
  
• Related to that, it's good exercise. It helps build his muscles and gives him self-control.
  
• He gets to hang out with and talk to other kids doing the same thing.

I stand by my decision. If someone else can come up with a alternative solution that provides as much benefit as this then I would definitely listen, if not then stfu. Anyway he's paid up until November of this year so he might as well get used to it. In life we all have to do plenty of things we may not want to do. He needs to acknowledge that and learn to develop a way of dealing with it. I will not see him cower and avoid this things. I want to teach him to conquer and overcome these types of obstacles. It's going to be a tough road ahead due to this setback. Now he's stuck doing the same things for the next 3 months and that's going to be hard to keep his interest. Also with his mother finding it easier herself to give in and not take him. I can't go over there everyday when she has him just to ensure that he gets there. I don't know what he does or doesn't do over there but it seems like the work I'm doing with him gets undone to a degree. I hope that is not the case. I want Isaac to be prepared for life and know what he needs to know to succeed and most importantly be happy and although it's hard work and I get confused and depressed sometimes wondering if I'm doing things right or if I made a good decision I know that at the end of the day I am doing a good job and I will do my best to continue that. Hopefully this setback will actually end up being a good thing and he will learn some valuable life lessons that will help him in the future.