Saturday, August 18, 2012

Sometimes.....

I hate the industry I work in. With all the "be skinny", "be pretty", "who you are is not good enough", messages that some people put out there.
Someone on my facebook just posted "....making a prettier world one butt at a time". Why isn't the message "making a HEALTHIER world"?  At the end of the day, "pretty" and "skinny" doesn't equal healthy. I really think all the focus on looks makes the people who need it the most, stay home on the couch.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Why I hate people

So first, a quick back story.
When I was 16, I bought my first car. It was a total beater...a 1976 Honda Civic; $200 and she was all mine. My second car was an orange Ford Pinto station wagon... I honestly can't remember the year. I just remember it was the only 2 door station wagon I had ever seen, and it was so damn ugly, it was cool. I had a couple more cars before I became a mom at 19 and had to settle into responsible mom vehicle. I had 3 kids by the time I was 24 and had settled into life behind the wheel of a minivan.

At age 36, my kids were finally grown enough that I didn't need the big mom vehicle. I could FINALLY have something "fun". I had always wanted a VW Bug...convertible. It had never been practical until now.

Christmas of 2010 my husband surprised me with Prudence. My 2005 VW Beetle convertible. She had about 13,000 miles on her when we bought her, and in the nearly 2yrs I've had her she still has less than 29,000. I. Love. That. Car.

On Monday, Aug 6th, I was sitting in the left turn lane and a red light waiting for it to turn green. The light changed, I took a second or two to look across the intersection at on coming traffic and see that the line of cars appeared to be turning let as well, so I was clear to make my turn. I pulled out and heard a horn. It caught my attention enough for me to hit the brakes at the same instant a woman ran a red light and plowed into me. Now, let me just say that IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE. Everyone walked away unharmed. If I hadn't heard the horn, she would have t-boned me and who knows how bad that would have been in my little car. As it was, she hit my front fender/tire, area.
I was livid! How do you run a freaking red light and HIT MY CAR. The first thing I did was roll down my window and point to my still green light and yell "WHAT THE HELL AER YOU DOING? MY LIGHT WAS GREEN". She pulled off. I couldn't believe it. I tried to move my car and the tire was pushed in and something under there was broken. My daughter, who was in the car with me, called 911, while I called my husband.
Turned out the woman just pulled into the parking lot of the shopping center I was pulling out of. About this time an off duty officer came up to make sure everyone was ok. As he was asking me what happen, the other woman came up and started asking me why I ran the red light.
YOU HAVE GOT TO ME KIDDING ME. I lost it. I went off on her. I told her I would beat her ass in the middle of the street, SHE had run the light and hit me. The officer told her to go sit in her car.
That was the last I saw of her. All parties decided it was for the best if she stayed on her end of the parking lot
The on duty officer showed up and it was the same story, She claimed she had a green light and I came out of no where. Yep, me and all the people behind me...and the ones across the intersection that were also turning into her path, we ALL came out of no where. The officer flat out told me he thought she was lying, but because no witnesses stayed, there wasn't anything he could do but write it up as I told it and how she told it and let insurance figure it out.

So it's been nearly 2 weeks. My insurance called me today to tell me that their investigation showed "No definitive proof" who ran the light. So, they will take care of my damages, minus my deductible, and she is on her own for hers. My consolation...she was driving a 97 Toyota and had Geico insurance, there's a real good chance she only had liability and will pay out of pocket for her damages. Karma, bitch.
Meanwhile I'm without a car until mine is repaired (thankfully the axle isn't broken like I first thought), because I don't have loss of use coverage (direct quote when my husband asked if we had loss o use coverage, I replied "What you should be worried about is if we have beat a bitch's ass coverage", told you I lost it). Had this woman just owned her shit, I could have had a rental. Plus, it's the right thing to do. Only a piece of shit lies about causing a wreck. I didn't do anything wrong, but I'm the one paying for it.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Where did July go?

So, officially I didn't get fired. Unofficially...might as well have been.

We had our July event. I threw something together that was completely out of my comfort zone, and it was pretty damn good if I do say so myself. And I do, because I deserve the praise. I was told during this time that I would be very happy with the outcome of the following week's meeting based on how well I did during the event.

So, fast forward to the next week. I go to my meeting and get told that I was being taken off the schedule for August. I could figure out what I wanted to go and possibly come back in Sept.  I was scheduled to get Zumba© licensed the next week...I could come back as a Zumba© instructor, or learn the new way they had decided to teach my weight class.
MY weight class. The one I brought to the studio, and developed. No longer mine. No longer taught the way I set it up.
Ok, I was determined to be all Zen and whatever happens happens about the whole thing. I had a lot o stuff going on or me, so just go with the flow.

The next week I went back to my ballroom performance class. That made me happy, since I had missed the last performance to do this studio event. The very next day, I got up and went into  the city and spent 10hrs getting Zumba© licensed. When I got home, I had to pack. I had a 6am flight to Las Vegas the next morning. I managed to sleep for a couple hours, but was up by 2am to head to the airport. We flew ALL DAY.  Finally made it to Vegas around 9am local time. We then crashed. When we woke up, it felt like I had been eating sand in my sleep. Welcome to the desert.
We were in Vegas from Friday thru Tuesday. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas (or lives forever on Facebook)
Tuesday was another day of flying. I was exhausted when we got home. Weds morning, real life started back up. I was back in my ballroom class that night. Barely enough time to stop and take a breath. The rest of the week consisted of back to school orientations and school shopping.

That Friday, we had another studio event along with a staff meeting. It became painfully obvious how unwanted I am there after that staff meeting. Two instructors were auditioned that night. Then we talked about upcoming events.The studio is bringing in a children's dance program. Ballet and jazz to start. That program is getting my old time slot. The prime slot after that is taken by other instructors. There's just no room for me there.
We're also being asked to "chip in" for various advertising expenses. Expensive advertising expenses. And, if we don't sell at least 10 tickets to the next studio event, the difference will be taken from our pay. Say what?? We're all independent contractors, so I'm thinking maybe the labor laws aren't the same as if we were just employees. Either way, I don't really feel like sticking around for this one.

So, am I fired...or just being pushed out? In the end, does it matter?

Meanwhile, I'm trying to set up some other options. I have bills to pay, I can't sit here waiting for something to happen.