December 2008 Archives

One of these days, I'll learn to take my own advice.

If it were up to me, I would never set foot in a Japanese hospital, ever again. Didn't matter what ailed me, it could be a head cold, or I could be missing an entire limb. Just give me a Band-Aid and some Bufferin and I'll be good to go. And that's not just tough guy talk - I fear that going to a Japanese hospital would put me in a worse state than before I went. If I went for a missing limb, I'd come out with cancer.

Unfortunately, as it turns out my wife is a major worry wart. So whenever the smallest little health concern comes up, her immediate and unwavering response is "you need to go to the hospital!" My fear of contracting the Ebola Virus from a Japanese hospital aside, as I'm unemployed I don't have health insurance at the moment, so a trip to the hospital will set me back about $100. I always find it amazing that my wife, who is usually a penny-pincher in every other way, is so nonchalant when it comes to the hospital...

Me: Say, let's eat out tonight!
Her: We don't have the money for that...
Me: C'mon, we don't have to go to a fancy place, at most $10-15 per person.
Her: If we can afford to spend that, then we should keep it and save it for an emergency.
Me: .....*disgruntled*
Me: .....*sneezes*
Her: Oh no, is that a cold? You should go to the hospital!
Me: I'm fine, I don't need to go.
Her: But you should, just in case! You never know, it could turn into something serious.
Me: I'm fine. And besides that, we don't have money for the hospital.
Her: Sure we do! I'll pay for it! Just go!
Me: .....Can we stop at a nice restaurant on the way?
Her: We don't have the money for that!

If only the hospitals served a nice steak or something...

Its December already? Wow, this year has gone by pretty quickly.

Anyway, this is not an actual, content-filled update. I'm just stopping by to say that I'm here and not neglecting the site. While I actually have quite a bit to write about, currently I'm not really in a good state of mind to write. At least, not something coherent/entertaining that I would be comfortable with posting. I have this personal policy about not throwing up crap, so I'd rather do nothing rather than put up a sub-par piece. With any luck, next week I'll be back on track and can write again.

Since I'm here, I guess I can give you all an update on the Sour Apples saga, since I wouldn't want to make a new entry (Part 9?!) just for this. I met up with some of my former coworkers earlier this week for lunch, and I was surprised to find that there had been huge layoffs - at least 10 employees. That may not seem like a lot, but when you are talking about a small company (maybe 30-40 people tops), its quite a chunk. On Monday, the president made the announcement, and for all those laid off, their last day of work was the next day - talk about no warning!

Also, apparently at some point, regarding my last paycheck, the president openly admitted that he withheld my pay specifically just to piss me off. Yeah, he's a charming fellow, ain't he? At this point, I can only laugh about it and pity him, really.

But anyway, I'll get back on track with entries when I can actually write something worth reading. Thank you for your patience.