10 Yr Reunion

Last weekend I attended my 10yr HS reunion back in TN. Stayed at my mom's on Friday night and at the location of the Reunion Saturday. To give an idea of the lay out of this place, think convention center type place with a hotel tower (6-7 floors) on one end of the building, a decently sized bar and lobby area along with a very large outdoor patio, then the far side of the building are the ball rooms.
Highlights were as followed.
Alcoholess tailgate prior to the HS game Friday night.
Me doing 42 push-ups on a platform held up by 4 scrwany HS kids ala the Tiger at Clemson games. Search youtube for my name and 42 pushups. I'm not stupid enough to post the link.Yes this was on a dare and I made $25 for it. It kept people interested in the game too so that was fun.
A set up basketball game with 12 of us playing full court complete with scoreboard and ref. 32 minutes of basketball. 53 total points and lots of shots. It was fugly basketball but one of hte most fun sporting events I have particpated in since HS. We even had shirts made up. I may get a pic link of that action up at some point.
The reunion complete with competitions to see which table would go to the buffett line first. So mishandled the last three tables were waiting to win a competition while there was no buffett line. They did show a slide show with pictures of past and present which was pretty cool. I definetly dipped it low, grinded on married women with their spouses there, did a little Vanilla Ice dance, then hit on a chic there with two kids and currently going through a divorce. She was sans kids and soon to be ex husband.
I walked back and forth making my own cheap and strong drinks a couple times before saying screw it and bringing in a bottle of ginger ale and a bottle of Jack (empty water bottles refilled) to keep my own party going. We ended up on said patio after midnight when the party was ended due to contract. They let us drink our own stuff without question as late as we wanted as long as there were no complaints from other guests. I was up until after 3 though everything after 1:30 is a blur.
Checked out on time (I think), went back to my mom's, slept a couple more hours, and got back here around 8:30 that Sunday night.
It was a helluva weekend as most of my HS crew was in for this. It was great seeing everyone, especially as I have missed out on a few gatherings those guys have put together since. Hopefully we can get together like that more often and the emails about in general things that have happened are still popping up. I just hope we can keep the college crew doing the same regarding getting together in mass.

A Few Notes

So, they reversed the extra payment into my account. Guess I could have kept my mouth shut but I would have felt guilty about it. The funny thing is, it's not my old companies fault. It supposedly had to do with Paychex. With that in mind, they make enough cash, once it was in my account and clear, those morons should have had to eat it. Oh well.

On to more pleasant thing. 10yr HS reunion this weekend. A few events planned. It should be a good time. I hope so. Seeing some of the folks will be interested. I keep up with most of the guys still. Seeing all the girls that are married, and many with kids will be weird. Should be fun like I said though. Hopefully I'll have a good story or two come Monday.

Avast!

Tomorrow, Sept 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I expect emails to be written as such. It also should be fun to listen to some of the morning radio shows as they typically pick up and run with this. One was prepping us this morning for tomorrow on air festivities. Now if I could only find a lady pirate that will let me shiver her timbers. Aye!

I'll Take It...Maybe

So, I'm going through my normal routine a bit later than normal. The bosses car is dead (battery) and we have been trying to jump it, unsuccessfully. As I am waiting on him to figure out what he is going to do, and if I need to tote him around, I figure I will do my normal check email, online bank statement, ESPN, etc. to start my day. It’s what I do when I come into the office. If I don’t go through this routine, I’m usually set up for a crappy day. Anyway, tomorrow is the 15th which means I get paid either at midnight last night or tonight. I hadn’t quite figured out when JCI posts to your account when the date falls on the weekend. I check the account and my check is in and showing pending. However, I also noticed that my account is up from what a normal paycheck would reflect and commissions aren’t paid mid-month. I check the details and low and behold, my old company has a payment pending into my account as well. Extremely odd as they pay commissions quarterly and I got that check a couple weeks ago from previous services rendered. I noticed the amount looked familiar and cross checked it to my last check from them. The totals matched exact. It was for half what my typical check on salary draw was, when I was there. Now, both of these payments are pending so there is a chance that the one from the old job will be rescinded. I have never seen this happen though. Usually once it is showing as a pending payment and monies in your account, it’s as good as there.
Now the fun part. Do I call my old company? Do I let it slide and see if they deduct it from what I believe will be my last commission check from them in a couple months? Do I not think twice about it until tomorrow AM when it will be either officially posted or not? Ethics suck and I honestly don’t know what to do. I would have understood this maybe in the first month after I left, but considering they had my time documented well enough to give me half a check for my last week or so, previously, why would they have me in at all now? Had it happened in July, I would have happily called, told them what was up and had it corrected. At this point I kinda look at it as a “If your accounting is that screwed up, tough crap, go fix your own problems.” I am guessing taxes and everything have been taken out since the amount match perfectly. I’ll check the mail for a pay stub or something on paper from them. Maybe they shorted me on my commissions for the amount of half a check and found the mistake. I didn’t notice so that’s mighty nice of them to take care of it. Of course, I might have caught it had they sent me my June commission numbers as well. Who knows? If I get more info, I’ll crank out an update. Otherwise, one of the dude’s (and his Mexican’s) coming to give me a paint estimate this afternoon are gonna get the job and it will be as if I didn’t have to pay according to my budget and bank account.

I love you, Tonya

Yes, Tonya. At this moment, I love her very, very much. You are probably asking who this person is and why I love her. Well, Tonya was my customer service rep for Time Warner Cable. See, on Thursday, I ordered the ESPNHD package for college football season. When you have a decent TV, it should be put to use this time of year. Sunday's are for yard work and house chores. Saturday's are for beer and college football. Well, I ordered the package at work and was instructed to check it out when I got home that evening but everything should be good. With the use of computers they can adjust your service now with just a few key strokes, or so I thought. Well, with previous committments on Thursday I didn't get to check on the service but did last night. I found quickly that I did not have my HD ESPN, or the Deuce. After searching around, I did find that I had some kind of Major League Baseball package with a bunch of games. Nice consolation prize I guess but not what I wanted. Now keep in mind, I was on the phone 15-20 minutes just to say "Hey, upgrade my HD package to include ESPNHD, thanks." So last night I get on the phone and get what I assume to be a trainee. I was on hold for nearly 15 minutes before I got a voice then was on with her for an additional 30 minutes. I reset the box, checked the channels, etc. I was put on hold for a few minutes. Supervisors were supposedly being used, I don't know. Then I went on hold and got the same intiall music I get when you first dial into the system. It was time to head out and I punted. Total time on the phone, 1hr and 10min. Read here to see other great communications companies and their service. Got home last night with fingers crossed, no dice. Well, I jumped on after Gameday this morning and thought i was going to get more of the same. On hold for a customer service rep for about 10 minutes, then I got Tonya. Told her the issue, what I think had happened with the MLB package and that I was a TWC customer because of the local Adelphia service buyout about a year ago. Within five minutes, I was looking at the clean, crisp, clear HD ball game while the MLB package was being cancelled. I was elated and Tonya could tell as she got a chuckle out of my candidness. I'm glad there are a few diamonds in the rough, that actually know their jobs, in the customer service world.