The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Like the retailers, this year our service providers are starting early.

Returning home on Thanksgiving evening, holiday greetings from the staff of our building were peeking out from underneath our door. It was a color xerox sheet with a longer-than-usual-list of building staff cited. They've downgraded the quality of their greetings--we used to get a card. It also got me thinking today about how much cash we'll need to shell out for the holidays this year to those who kindly service us all year long. I started to make a list.

Our building staff alone will set us back nearly a grand. Mike, the dry cleaner who gets weekly business from us and delivers every Tuesday, gets another $50. Leslie, the cat sitter gets $50 for her care (even though the cats are now dead, she provided loving care when they were with us). Janet, who does my blowouts, gets $100. Stacey, who does my color, gets $100. Rupa, who does the best pedicures on Earth, gets $75. Ahmed, Ehmed and Wossim at my parking garage get $100 each (and these guys do deserve it, however, I usually snub the owner, Jimmy, who does nothing). And so it goes. I am nearly at $2K in expenditures and I haven't actually started shopping for family and friends.

The truth is, I'm not complaining. I enjoy quality service all year from all these people. I'm working long hours with a long commute with little free time for myself and at the end of the day, these people have made my life easier. It's like a bad cliche, but money is only money and I'm happy to pay out a bit of largess for those who make my life easier. They all do.

I would say all these people have spoiled me a bit. If I ever move to the suburbs, I definitely believe I'd be at odds.