The Michael Swayne Story V: King of his Castle

First I shall update you on Gabby and her situation. At the beginning of the day, she was still both an office employee and a delivery person. By the end of the day, she was just an office employee.

I arrived at the office my usual 75 minutes before we open so I could get some work done before everyone showed up. Misty called and had me make make an auction ad. As I was finishing the ad, she arrived. Then, she sold the rest of the paper. While we were both working, some dude came in and said that Gabby told him to come here and ask for a job. Neither of us knew much about what was going on, but we each knew enough about one aspect to fill in each other. Misty knew more about Iris's confrontation with Gabby, I knew more about a possible job opening for a classified ad person. Then Misty left after saying that maybe Gabby was giving her job to this guy.

At 10, Gabby arrived. She didn't seem to be in the best mood, so I stayed quiet. She took my letter well, and was nice about everything I wrote in it. It turned out that she wrote the business name wrong, and when I searched using the phone number, I found out it was for a Pawn Shop, not a plumbing business. I was asked by Iris to not mention the papers, so I didn't.

Iris arrived at 11. She went to the back room, came back shivering because it was so cold back there, and said that she would have to have a private conversation with Gabby up in the front office. I decided to excuse myself, because I was clearly not allowed to hear this conversation. I said that I'd be back in 10-15 minutes, and that I'd go and take the recycling in the shed to the town's recycling bin.

However, I was overconfident and didn't take into account that it was so cold outside. It took me nearly 30 minutes to take the three boxes to the bin. When I got back, the private conversation was over, and they were worrying that I had wrecked or something. I didn't (nearly) fall until I got back in the office. My shoes were wet, and I slipped on the floor.

After lunch, Misty came back. After I asked her approval on a half page ad, Misty and Iris left so they could talk privately. When they came back, it was determined that Gabby would no longer deliver papers. Gabby tried to say that she would do better, and that the rest of us could call the businesses to make sure she did her job. But unfortunately, the decision was final.

Gabby left at 2:45 to pick up her son from daycare. Then Pam showed up. While Iris was confirming a credit card payment from a person, the two of us got to talk about my performance and my current work. I told her of my ideas with the menu: finding out the restaurants color scheme so the takeout menus would match, possibly extending the ads to fill the blank space, putting in pictures of the actual restaurant to fill in space. I forgot to ask about the Facebook promotion idea. She told Iris and I that because of us, she hasn't had to take money from her own pocket to pay late fees to the press and other bills. Iris keeps the bills caught up, and I please the clients with my ad work and keep us from getting a $175 late fee for holding the press up by making sure to finish the paper in plenty of time.

After that, Dad picked me up and we went home. Since then, it was a normal day like every other. I did the same things I usually do. The only difference is that today is my last day as a 25-year-old. The only thing that I became annoyed with is the fact that my sister wished me a Happy Birthday today. I understand other people saying it today, because of time zones and since we don't talk as often. But this is my sister we are talking about. She should know when my birthday is. Also, you would think that my own Dad would know how old I am. After all, he was there at my birth. But he has been saying a group numbers when he would say how old I am. The last time he did it, he guessed that I was either 25, 26, 27, or 28. It shouldn't be hard for him to figure out. I am twenty years younger than Dad, always have been.

By the way, I didn't tell you about my New Year's resolution(s). First, I would like to finally get my torso in as good of shape as my arms and legs. I am not expecting a 6-pack, but a flatter stomach would be nice. Then there's the ever-present desire to not be a doormat so much. You know, say "no" once in a while. Finally, play video games more.

Which brings me to what I bought myself for my birthday. I bought a copy of The Sims 2 to replace the copy I traded with Vince for Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. I also bought Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. It seemed like a good story when I was reading about it on eBay, but some TFFers didn't seem to like it so much. Oh well, one more for my collection. The games won't arrive until after my birthday, but I might get lucky and have one show up tomorrow. It can't take too long for a game to arrive from New Jersey to here, can it???

I had something else to write, but I have to be up early tomorrow for my route. I hope to see you around the forums, and until tomorrow...

Later!

邁克爾 (Michael)

PS, I love being able to see the characters instead of those stupid boxes that my last computer had instead of characters!