Last week my mother left the country for the first time in her entire life. She went to Paris. Well technically, she went to Cinnicinati, then to Amsterdam and then to Manchester and finally Paris, but you get the idea.

She went to Paris with Janice, her girl friend from high school, and before they left, my mom made me promise that once they got back from vacation, Z would fix Janice's computer. Well, the router. Or rather just set up the wireless network at Janice's house. She said that Janice (who actually makes near a million dollars a year) would pay Z for his time--especially since we'd have to drive all the way to Monrovia on his day off.

Well, Z set up the wireless network, and even tried to figure out problems that Janice might encounter so that she would know what to do. And the entire time we were there, and even when we were leaving, Janice never once mentioned the method of payment. Unless 2 Diet Dr. Peppers and 3 slices of pepperoni pizza counts as payment. The last I heard (when I was working), the computer guy we used, Jeff Bullard, charged $300 an hour for his services--which ranged from just synching PDAs with laptops to troubleshooting networking issues. Z worked on the networking for 3 hours, so I figure he's entitled to $900 (at the most) and $150 (at the least). I mean, what's $150 to someone who makes a million dollars a year? I honestly couldn't believe that she jipped Z. It was beyond my feeble comprehension. But if there's one thing I've learned since we moved to L.A., it's that the rich are stingy.

( 1comments )

at June 3, 2005 12:27 PM  Anonymous said...

Just remember that it's impossible to get rich without saving at least most of what you make. After all if you spent all of your million dollars a year, you aren't a millionare, you're just as broke as the rest of us.

-Sheman