The Girl That Cried Wolf....and Wolf....and..."Oh Look I'm Still Here!"

Yeah, that's right.

I'm still here.

Peek a boo!

I thought for sure I would lose my internet, my TV and all my connections to the outside world...other than the obvious of walking outside the door.  Because the chick that talked to me on the phone from the cable company last week, apparently doesn't know what loyalty means nor does she know how to keep her customers with the company. I can't remember if I told you all this story or not, but oh well, you are going to hear it again I suppose.

I talked to a woman a little over a week ago about reducing my cable bill. She was part of this company's "Loyalty Department".  Unfortunately the best she could tell me was "I can offer you Cinemax, Showtime, or HBO for $5 extra for three months," apparently she missed the part of our conversation about how I was a single mom, barely making ends meet over here with three other mouths to feed, rent, and utilities and the specific words that I said which were, "Are there any discounts you can offer me? " fell upon deaf ears.

Or ears that did not understand simple English.

In her little world, the word discount must mean "to spend more money".

So I listened to the prices of internet with phone, internet only and phone and cable only to tell her at the end of our conversation that "I will call in a few days. I think I may just have to cancel everything."

I could see her rolling her eyes in my mind and pulling the gum out of her mouth stringing it out and shoving it back in, then twirling her hair around and motioning for a coworker to grab her a diet Coke. She wasn't going to help me, and I wasn't going to fork over one dime to them until I was satisfied.

We hung up.

Then two nights ago, I called, yet again and spoke with a different woman. I was ready to say goodbye to the outside world of technology and social networking. It was like putting your dog to sleep, you don't want to do it, but you have to because it's in the best interests of the dog. You have to be responsible and in this instance, I had to be financially responsible despite the fact that my only source of entertainment on many a lonely night in my apartment would be gone.

However, this woman was a tad bit more understanding of my situation, but unfortunately she couldn't help me either. She transferred me to their "Loyalty Department" and yet again, as I sat on hold I thought "I hope someone upstairs is watching over me and this turns out good."

Enter Cesar on the other end of the line.

He was quite friendly and listened to me tell him my whole single-mom-trying-to-make-ends-meet non-fiction maladies. I told him how I was stuck financially after working only six days for two weeks time because of the holidays with no pay. I told him how I would love to keep the service, but it's just not financially feasible for me to do. After I finished saying, "$186 is a car payment not a cable bill. This is not a necessity but rather a luxury for me and my kids," he advises me to sit for a moment while he puts me on a silent hold to see what he could do.

Minutes pass and finally Cesar comes back on line. He managed to get me a deal, $50 off the car payment... I mean cable bill... and told me that I just needed to make last month's payment and they would work with me to keep me connected with payments over the next few weeks until I could catch up.

I saw a light shining down from the heavens and angels singing. It was a beautiful moment for me.

Okay, well no angels or light shining other than the moonbeams from the approaching full moon, but still it was a moment I was relieved to have nonetheless.

I now caught up with last month's payment today.  So all that is left is the regular cable bill that is due on January 31.

I can do this.

Then yesterday our boss was kind enough to pay us early due to the long holiday weekend and the fact that the crappy paychecks we had due to the six day two week paychecks left some of us sitting on the side of the road with our children singing church hymns while sitting on milk crates and whittling wood for extra money.

No, it wasn't that bad, but it sure felt like it the first week of this month when I did get my post holiday paycheck.

I'm just grateful I have a job and even more grateful for the early payday.

And yet again, another year went by and somehow I survived.

The beast made it, the kids had an amazing holiday, I baked my ass off, and we survived.

So now I'm sitting here just waiting for my kids to get home so we can hopefully enjoy our evening. I say hopefully,  because there is always some drama to be had with my kids. Someone took another someone's toy, or brush, or money or something. Just now my youngest twin called to ask if his friend could spend the night.

I said no.

Yeah, risky move I know but I need to put my foot down. I don't care if dad is the fun parent, I'm being a responsible one, and I'm going to make sure these kids have some sort of boundaries. And no this is not me bashing their dad, we get along for the most part, and I'm past all the "bad mouthing the ex" juvenile crap, this is me just saying that I don't make the six figure income he does and can't afford to spoil and let them do whatever they want to whenever they want to while being disrespectful to their mother.

I told my son in no uncertain terms that I don't care if he wants ten kids to spend the night, until he and his brother start being nicer to one another and they stop disrespecting me that won't happen on my time. Let them tear up their dad's house, or run around getting into mischief there. That's his business. But my kids need to know that there are rules and you need to respect adults, especially your parents. And hopefully it will rub off on them enough, so much so, that when they are with dad they will make more responsible choices.

Then my son tells me, "We won't fight, he wants to see the birds and we'll listen. We'll be respectful."
I said, "Yeah, today you will, but what about tomorrow after he goes home?" Then, I told him when they can learn to be more respectful they can have whomever they want over here to spend the night another time.

You know what happened?

*CLICK*

My kid hung up on me.

True story, I kid you not.

Wait til he gets his skinny little butt home. He will get a talking to that I know will make his eyes roll, because they hate it when I lecture them.

Thank your grandma kids, she's the master of lectures and I learned from the best!

Roll your eyes all you want to, they'll freeze that way you do it enough. *hee hee*

Now I have to go.  I have some mopping to do and a bathroom to clean. I also need to vacuum.

Have a wonderful Saturday.









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