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My American Sensibilities

In late November 2005 Jaja announced she was visiting here in LA for a week in the middle of December. I immediately asked for time off which was instantly denied due to lack of personnel. I still was able to hang out with her 4 out of the 6 days she was here but i tend to think it cost me precious, precious momentum that i may otherwise never have again. It was the outmost inauspicious time not to grant me time off. Deep inside i was furious.

That leads us to this week's time off denial. A friend of mine called exacty a week ago today about a Mammoth trip from Jan 4-7 (Tuesday-Friday), he was taking his 11 year old daughter skiing. They have a 2 bedroom+loft cabin for 3 days all for themselves and he was nice enough to have invited me. Naturally with Mammoth's almost 10 feet of natural snow accumulation and the recent snow storm i agreed to go, barring another nocuous denial of course... Exactly two minutes after i filled out the online time-off form it was denied, almost seemed like an auto-denial-reply!--- Yesterday my buddy Jee called to invite me to Hooters in Pasadena for the USC-TEXAS National Championship Game with the rest of the boys, this meant i had to change my day off from Thursday to Wednesday. See several weeks ago i thought Jan 4 was going to be a Thursday, until yesterday lol. So i asked my boss to switch my day off which i have done numerous times before without getting denied. And yes, this time i was denied, emphatically!

My official Mammoth Trip is on Jan 20-23. It dawned on me after all my time-off denials that this one might be denied as well, so i sent my request for this trip after the most recent denial... To my surprise it was approved except for the the first day (Friday), which i can work with because i don't actually need the full day of Friday off. Saturday-Monday is more important.

Then finally, on the same day, it occurred to me my Naturalization-Citizenship interview is coming up in a couple of weeks and its falling on a Wednesday. This means i have to switch or ask for a day off (since i requested time off for my Mammoth trip i would only ask to switch my day off... this would be my 3rd request for time off in the last week hahahaha). This time i decided not to fill out the online form yet, i wanted to send my boss an email first to express the importance of the matter. Of course the importance of the matter is irrelevant here because such a day can not be changed (unless you want to wait several months), after all denying time off on such a day to someone who desires to become an American Citizen would utterly be, too Un-American, correct?

Here are the contents of said email:

Hiya Boss, i'm sorry to inform you so late but i'm going to have my Citizenship Interview on either the 17th or 25th of the Month (i have to check but i know it falls on one of those days). Surely you won't deny me that day, right, that would be Un-American of you Hahaha. I'll need to switch my day off from Thursday to Wednesday, ok?

Give me Liberty or give me DEATH... (Bitches) <<--- not included on the email

Marc Gabay

Posted by: Marc Gabay
Wednesday, January 04, 2006