December Challenge Day 6

We were on our way out to dinner last night when we picked up Adrian at school. Not only did he have the shittiest day ever in class (teacher wants ANOTHER parent/teacher conference to discuss his behavior issues), but he also apparently died at the bowling alley in Extend-A-Care for acting like an asshole and the entire group of kids on the field-trip were forced to end their “fun time” early and go back to the school. The three adults were in tears when we got to the school to pick him up because they say he hit the ground face first with such force that they thought he may have fractured a vertebrae or something. I was so angry about his behavior in school that we cancelled our dinner plans and went home instead. I felt like a dick for punishing him after he had a “nearly life-ending experience”, but I sent him to bed…at 6pm…without any dinner…and a stern lecture. Our fun family night out, therefore, ended up being a sack of burgers from What-a-Burger and watching Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer with Nathan while Adrian cried himself to sleep.

This morning Adrian and I were in much better frames of mind. We had a discussion about his shitty behavior through the week, as well as whether or not he was actually hurt from his near death experience. He said that it didn’t even really hurt when he fell. Oh well.

We went to our regularly scheduled Campfire meetings. It had been our first in a few weeks with all the Thanksgiving/Oklahoma travel. (It’s only once a week, IT’S ONLY ONCE A WEEK)

Afterwards I sent Jed to the theater with Nathan to see Bolt again while I kept Adrian home with me. Perhaps I’m punishing him too much? But I don’t know what else to do to get through to him other than putting a remote control shock collar on him and giving the remote to his teacher for Christmas. I’m not really sure what the deal is. I know how he is when I drop him off at school…my sweet little loveable Adrian. But something happens to him between 730 am and 1030 am and his body, mind, and mouth are taken over by Satan.

So after campfire Adrian and I went and did our weekly grocery shopping AND we bought all the supplies to make our Christmas gifts for various teachers/teacher aides/co-workers, etc. I bought TEN bags of pretzels y’all. For real. I loves pretzels. BUT, these ain’t for me, sadly. I’m doing my oft requested asshole burning spicy pretzels (I keep telling folks to eat them first before sticking them up their assholes, but they just don’t learn) and I’m going to make some white/brown chocolate drizzled pretzels as well. A “naughty/nice” pretzel blend, if you will. I also bought stuff to make some slap your momma good caramel corn and cashew brittle and candy cane brittle.

Then we ran to gay-Wal-Mart (Target) to buy some more stuff. We got a last second birthday invitation to one of Adrian’s classmates yesterday (thanks for that advanced warning) at Chuck-e-fucking-Cheese’s of all places. Two of Jed’s knocked up co-workers will be soaking their panties soon, so I got a couple of baby gifts. I got a ton of other shit too that added up to 140 bones, but I can’t honestly remember what it all was. I DO know at one point the cashier was feverishly looking for something and I noticed the screen said “scan gift card now” and she then handed me a $5 giftcard. I asked what it was for, assuming I had been her 100th blow job for the day or something. She said it was because they had merchandise throughout the store that if you bought certain quantities of such you automatically got a giftcard. Apparently the 4 Glade candles I bought netted me a $5 gift card.

So here’s my thought about the current state of financial affairs.

Rather than giving me 5 fucking dollars back for spending $10 on candles, WHY NOT JUST LOWER THE PRICE OF YOUR FUCKING CANDELS BY $1.25? Instead of giving me back $5000 for buying your $32,000 car, WHY NOT JUST PRICE YOUR MERCHANDISE APPROPRTIATELY TO BEGIN WITH? Why bother with 25, 50, or even 75% off sales? Merchants, hear this. WE realize you’re not LOSING money by selling items at 75% off. YOU WOULDN’T BE SELLING IT AT 75% OFF IF IT WERE GOING TO NET YOU A LOSS. Merchants, if you would mark your shit at a reasonable cost to begin with you wouldn’t be having problems getting people through your doors now. Last week I bought two things at Target. I bought a game called “Break the Ice” for Adrian to give to Jed for his birthday. I paid $4 for the game. Today I bought the same game for the party we’re going to tomorrow. I paid $5 for it today. AT BOTH prices Target is still making a profit. AT TWO DOLLARS, Target would probably still make a profit. It infuriates me, ESPECIALLY since I KNOW how much I paid for the fucking game last week the way stores fuck with their prices. MOST INFURIATING…last week I bought a dual screen DVD player for the car (at Target). I paid $88. Jed’s cousin mentioned she wanted one for Christmas. Since I drew her husband’s name for the family gift exchange this year I thought I would get him one. Today, same Target, SAME DVD PLAYER, $164. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? Ford, GM, Chrysler, and any of you other greedy business owners out there (Target dude) can go fuck yourselves. Sorry you’re failing, but quit taking advantage of your customer base. Perhaps that’s why you’re failing. Consumers are tired of your shit.

I think I’ve spread enough cheer here. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.