One Thing After Another

I should have taken the fact that I had to leave work early on Thursday as a sign.

I guess as a whole, I’ve had a pretty good weekend. But I had a whole bunch of little things go wrong, or at least not like I had hoped, so if I forget to focus on the whole entire weekend as a whole, it seemed pretty awful.

Friday morning I woke up around 5AM. I was stressing about making the ferry because I knew it would be packed. It didn’t leave until 9:00, but when we parked our car in line at 6:30AM, we were already 4th. We ended up leaving the car there and coming back home until 8:00 to sit and wait. I was hoping to be able to pick up my payroll check before I left so that I could cash it in town and not have to worry about how much I was spending but they delivered them late so my principal’s secretary - my sister-in-law (the space cadet) assured me she would bring it with her when she took the later ferry at 1:30PM.

When they finally loaded, there were well over 20 cars on a ferry built to hold 18. The seats inside were full and people were sprawled out on the floor so a lot of us had to sit in our cars. I didn’t mind, though. We had our DVD player and watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on the way to town.

We got to the hotel and experienced our first set back. The cleaning crew was not on duty yet so our room was not ready. Without my payroll check, we hesitated to start shopping. It’s too hard to be frugal when I’m shopping for gifts. I never pay attention to what something costs. Gifts have never been about money to me. I choose gifts because they were made for whoever the recipient is, not because they are on sale. Besides, Alaska sale prices are way higher than anywhere else anyway, so why bother?

We walked around Safeway wasting an hour because the hotel clerk assured us that our room would be the first one to be cleaned since we were the first ones to try and check in. After the hour, he said they needed another 30 minutes so we went and had lunch at Subway.

When we finally got our room key, we had a couple hours to wait for the ferry and my paycheck so we hung out at the hotel and watched Christmas programs. When my sister-in-law finally arrived, she was supposed to come right to our hotel but she went to my other sister-in-law’s house instead. We waited and waited and finally called her.

She said, “I’ll be down to your room in a little bit.”

We offered to go up to where she was but she said no, she would come to us and be there in a few minutes.

We waited almost an hour and called back. My niece Bryn said that she went to the bank and then would come to our room.

She arrived and her first words were, “You’re going to want to hang me.”

“Why?” I asked.

“I had your check in my hands…I put it in the visor of my car and left it there.” Michael asked her why she didn’t bring it up to the room and she said, “You don’t understand. I put it in MY visor. But I brought DAD’S truck. The check is still at home but my husband said he’ll send it over on tomorrow morning’s ferry.”

She was right. I wanted to hang her. I kept my mouth shut because the things I was thinking were too terrible to say. She hadn’t even started her shopping yet. She had tons to buy for her 3 daughters and whoever else was on her list. She wanted to give me $500.00 to carry me through till the next day when I could cash my own check and pay her back. I refused to take her money. I told her I’d just pinch my pennies and wait till the next morning to do some whirlwind shopping before we had to take the ferry home. We had already decided at that point that we would only stay one night because I was still not feeling well.

So she left with her money and I was left with no paycheck. I had money, but like I said, I don’t like having to worry about what I’m spending. I feel terrible when I see something I know someone will love but have to opt for something else because it’s cheaper. I hate that.

So anyway, we do our shopping and take care of the most important people: Space Cadet’s oldest daughter, Michael’s parents, and my dad and step-mother. I have friends who won’t be getting gifts from me this year because I don’t want to go back over and didn’t have the money to shop for them this weekend. I hate that, too.

We were going to go to a movie that evening. We had a choice between Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events (how fitting…sounded a lot like how my weekend was going) and Ocean’s Twelve. We decided, however, it would be better to show our support for our high school girls’ basketball team. We went and watched them get slaughtered by 28 points against the school who has been our school’s biggest rival since the beginning of time.

Saturday morning we got up early, as we usually do, and headed out to breakfast. We wasted time till about 9:30 when the ferry arrived. We picked up my check and I was shocked at what I saw.

It was covered with White-Out. Apparently, the business office had a printing problem and my check didn’t print correctly. Rather than shredding it and issuing a new one, our genius of a business manager chose to cover it with White-Out and re-type the information that was incorrect. Problem was everything was incorrect. The only part of the check that was not covered was my address. My name, the numeral amount, the worded amount, the check number, the date…everything…covered in White-Out.

I commented to Michael that I didn’t think the bank would accept it. He said to try anyway.

So I did. I was right. The teller took one look at it, said she would be right back, and took off towards the back of the bank. When she returned she said she wouldn’t cash it because it was altered. I assured her that it was in that condition when I received it. Showed her my district ID, my state ID, and the check stub hoping that she would see that the amount was correct and that I was who I claimed to be since my photo and address are on both ID’s and my address happened to be the only part of the check that wasn’t covered up.

She went back and got her supervisor because I was pleading with her to cash my check. The supervisor came up front and said she would not negotiate. I had to get a new check issued before she would cash it.

I tried to explain that our business office was closed. I work for a school district made up of out-of-towners who don’t ever stick around for Christmas. I told her I couldn’t get a new check issued until school resumed in January.

“I’m sorry. I will not negotiate. I will not cash this check because it’s been altered and there are no initials.”

“But there are initials right here. The initials of one of the school board members who signed my check.” I’m trying so hard not to cry because I’m so frustrated. I can hear my voice cracking.

“There should be initials for each mistake. Only one is initialed and the inks don’t match. I’m through negotiating. I will not allow you to cash this check.”

I turned and walked out without another word. I had to spend what I had in my checking account on our shopping and wasn’t able to buy the ham for our Christmas Eve gathering at Michael’s parents house.

My oldest sister-in-law is the superintendent’s secretary. When I told her what happened, she said she’d help me out. She called the chairman of the school board and told her about the trouble I’m having with the check. She (the school board chairman) is going to call the bank tomorrow and tell them to let me cash my check; that the error was mechanical and that the alterations were made by the business manager and he is out of town for the next 2 weeks. I really hope it works. I really want need my money.

As if all that wasn’t bad enough, I bought Michael’s last Christmas gift over there and had to give it to him early. It was a new coat and the one he had on was thin and worn out. The lining was starting to tear and it was raining so hard, his shirt was getting wet. I gave him his new coat. So now he got an early present and I have to wait 5 more days to open mine. *pout*

The ferry was packed on the way home so we were stuck in the car again. The wind was gusting at least 50 so the ride was extremely rough. I was so glad to get home even though the wind shakes my house. The wind didn't calm down until after Midnight.

Today was a good day, though. The sun was shining so we went for a long afternoon drive. My niece Bryn and her brothers are here for Christmas (their mom and, hopefully, dad will be here by Thursday). She came over for a visit. After dinner, Michael and I went to a choir concert because 2 of his sisters (space cadet and superintendent's secreteary) are in the choir. It was a really nice concert.

Now I'm exhausted and must get some sleep. It's almost 11:30PM. I'm on vacation, but not used to staying up late. By the time I am, it will be time to go back to an early bedtime. hehe