Shitsugyoteate II

Blogging wirelessly from my bedroom at my Momma and Daddy’s house…. in Oklahoma! G-D bless their technologically striving hearts! =)

I don’t even have to tell y’all how hard it is being broke! Two years in to this recession – yes, despite whatever the J-Gov says, it’s STILL going on – we’re all very familiar with the feeling by now. I’ve mostly gotten over it for real. Instead, I, like the rest of you, have learned to scale it back to something alot less fabulous and alot more pragmatic… like “if I can’t eat it do I still need it???” :-/ LOL

So yeah, being broke…. I can manage that. But through this whole ordeal, the one thing that I’ve looked forward to has been going home to spend Thanksgiving with my family. The tickets were bought back in April so the date has been set… November 24, 2009. As the months waiting dwindled to weeks and days, my anticipation was palpable. But then a monkeywrench….

One of the requirements to receive unemployment benefits is that you must show up to the Hello Work on your designated certification day, your 認定日 – ninteibi. This date CANNOT be changed! Well, it can be but you’d have to be sick, dead or working, and I wasn’t about to lie (and attract even more bad karma) about the first two. And if it was the second, then I wouldn’t have to put up with these knuckleheads in the first place!

The problem was that my ninteibi was set for November 25, as in the day after I was supposed to leave… WTF!!! I called the unemployment office, and they again told me that it couldn’t really be changed. My first thought was to appeal for sympathy by telling them that I had a death in the family. Bad idea, I know, but I was desperate already. But they quickly shut me down. If I was going home for a funeral they’d need a certified death certificate, a funeral program and notarized proof of my direct, first-degree blood relation to the deceased. Like these folk don’t play! I can’t wait till I don’t have to deal with these jokers anymore!!!

My second thought then was to call the airlines and see what could be worked from that end. They also were not trying to hear it. I was told in not so many words that they didn’t give a damn about my situation, that I couldn’t change my flight to the next day. Instead, they told me they could void my ticket (a loss of the $800USD that I paid for it) and I could buy a new ticket for $1,500USD. “Best we can do for you, sir!” the very polite agent told me.

Stuck! I was freaking out. And for a man who has made a home on the edge, it was just too much to bear! I mean, I love my beloved City under a Red Sun, but I did NOT want to be in Japan for Thanksgiving. There is something that you have to understand here, and that’s Thanksgiving is unquestionably the single most important holiday in my family. I could be anywhere in the for Chirstmas, but Thanksgivings HAVE to be spent with the family! So, nautrally this was beyond depressing for me! But here I was, I couldn’t miss that appointment because however much their going to give me, I NEED that money. At the same time though, I had already paid for this ticket to go home and at that point I really just need to go home and get get, as my Mother would say, “loved on”.

You ever been too hurt and too tired to cry? Yeah, I was there! So I did the only thing I could do. I turned off the computer and the phone, and got in the bed. Indeed, I was turned off!

Fortunately for me, my family wouldn’t not accept a Thanksgiving without me! My sister called the airlines, and wouldn’t take no for an answer. And so two days of hand-wringing later, I get the email, “Pack your bags, baby bro, you’re coming home!”

Do y’all know that feeling when the impossible suddenly becomes possible?

Related posts:

1. Ninteibi
2. Shitsugyouteate

3 Comments

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  By CeeCee, November 27, 2009 @ 4:21 pm

  This is touching. I Love the way your sister stepped in when you had thrown in the towel. That’s what family is about!

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  By young city extraordinaire, November 27, 2009 @ 4:42 pm

  Thanks, CeeCee! It was nice because I really didn’t see a way, and was ready to spend a terrible Thanksgiving in Tokyo.

  BTW, hope you had good Thanksgiving yesterday!!!

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  By ebonifire, December 1, 2009 @ 4:47 am

  It is so hard to be faithful when you feel like you have taken all you can stand…that’s why having family is so important. So you got loved on by your folks (btw my mom says “loved up”) and got your money. God is good all the time…

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