Socializing is expensive
You pay to socialize with people. You pay for the food, for the transportation, for the medical bills…
But when I socialize with my coworkers, I’m beginning to think that you don’t just pay, but you pay real money.
It’s the end of summer and we’re at this great frozen custard joint in Chicago called Scooter’s. The stuff cleans you out better than a White Castle. But at 4 o’clock R– looks up and sees the lady handing out fifty dollar tickets for rush hour parking.
Guess where I found easy parking?
Then there’s a Cubs game, later in the summer. I park my car on my parents block so that I can ride the train and avoid the traffic and the parking fees.
I don’t realize there’s a handicapped parking space on the curb…where my car is. Two hundred dollars.
And just recently I drive out to McCook Illinois for a wedding reception. It’s great fun seeing my coworkers and talking until my voice is hoarse. But I step outside and turn the key to my car and the engine doesn’t start. The starter motor turns, the lights turn on, so a jump start doesn’t do it.
I can’t get it towed to my mechanic in Albany Park (it’s the weekend no less), so I settle for Pep Boys. They tow my car to a service center in LaGrange.
As the calls keep coming in, the cost of the work keeps going up, until I’m more than a thousand dollars in the hole.
Now my coworkers want to take me to the racetrack.
I think I’ll stay home and spend my (wife’s) money on something that doesn’t involve my coworkers. It’s getting too expensive to leave the house with them.
felixnation :: Aug.07.2007 :: Odysseys, coworkers, wife :: No Comments »