Mc wed

we're allowed to make payments on our pet bills each year, as long as they're paid off by Dec 31. For the past two years our bosses have taken off part of the bill as our xmas bonus, if we wish. This is fine with me. However, this year, my bonus was less than last year. Both were less than what I got as a bonus at my last workplace, which was smaller and had much less income than this one does.  They admitted that they just go through the bills and pick a random number for what people will get.   The plan is to not have a bill to pay on next year, so we'll see if their 'regular' bonus is any more impressive.  It's nice to get any bonus at all, but it's annoying when they have less employees this year (people have gone off to college) AND they gave pretty small raises (on a review that was 4 months late) yet one still gets a smaller bonus.

 Whining over

 I'm a private contractor, I get no bonuses. On one contract, I have been paid the same since I graduated from community college... I have 20 graduate credits. It was a good rate when I started, given my experience. Now, not so much. I like the client though, and that they let me do whatever I want pretty much. I have some good contacts. People give me stuff. I'm not supposed to accept gifts, but good luck with that. I end up buying stuff for the kids I work with, sometimes siblings depending on how many, and how well I know them, etc.

I was going to mention something else... I forget what though. 

fuzzy_dogs_mom

cakana

 so I'll wait until the shopping frenzy ends and then go in.

Speaking of shopping frenzy ... did you see the news earlier?  Seems Arden Mall and another one opened at midnight last night to sell the new Michael Jordan Shoes, expecting about 400 or 500 people to show up.  2,500 crazies mobbed the door.  I can't believe that 2,500+ people are nutso enough to pay $175.00 for a pair of shoes because Michael Jordan endorsed them.

I did see that and I have no understanding of that kind of frenzy. I get grumpy if there's more than 3 people in the checkout line ahead of me. My other thought was if I was an employee at that store, I'd quit and sneak out the back door. No way would I want to deal with a crazed crowd like that.