cabbages and kings: bah humbug

I was all ready to be a Perky Peter today, and now the accounting woman tells me I'm out of vacation days for the rest of the year.

fuck.

This is the hard part about working for small company, owned by people you legitimately enjoy. I've worked for numerous evil corporations and it's simple to trash their policies and procedures, mostly because they're put into place by heartless cyborgs you'll never meet. I used to steal extra orange aprons from Home Depot simply because they acted as if they were made of precious metals and they'd shit a goat if one went missing. Reason being, some random smart ass would put one on and tell people that lumber was free today, or to use the saws themselves, etc.

I envied those smart-asses.
I used to hide aprons between the bags of manure to make them think impostors were afoot.

But I like my current bosses, and I just can't bring myself to rip on them. Instead I'll take my bitter spoonful of reality and I'll swallow it right down.

For the record, it's not like I went nuts and spent 2009 jet-setting between my homes in Barbados and the damned Alps. I took five days off. FIVE. Still, I had, oh, 3-5 days I was planning on taking off between now and 2010, but the rent, she doesn't pay herself, so now I'm in a pickle.

This woman wants to kill herself.
I can't say I blame her.

Weirdest part? For as poor as I am, I would take more vacation over higher pay without hesitation. Money just come and goes before I even really see it, and I'm quite skilled at living one bad month away from the poverty line. Time, on the other hand....when she sent me the list of days I took off this year, I can instantly remember the family or friend (is there a difference?) I went to see, what we did, and why we did it. And I wouldn't trade any of those moments for the world. Because, to steal the quote:

"It came without ribbons!