YMCA

If you know me much at all, you know that I like to bend the rules sometimes, or not even follow them at all if I don't agree with them. Por ejemplo: making a U-turn when there's a "No U-turn" sign. Or, making a U-turn when there is a "No Left" sign, because a Left is not technically a U-turn.

When I moved to Richmond in 2005, I joined the downtown Y. They look at the previous years tax returns to determine how much I needed to pay per month, so I ended up with a super cheap monthly membership fee b/c in 2004 I was a student and I think I made a total of $100 (I substitute taught for 2 or 3 days nbd). The Y was all "Ian you are poor so we're not going to make you pay much" and I said "OK great I hope this lasts forever great thanks."

I now have a job and I make more than $100 a year. But!, the Y never asked me to re-evaluate my membership, and I never volunteered to let them know that my income has changed. Let a sleeping dog lie. I mean, don't punch a dead horse in the face. Wait, it has to be your dead horse.

But you see what I'm saying. I felt like I was workin' it w/ this membership thing, paying not much at all even tho if I were to join fresh as a new member, I'd have to pay more. Workin' it. Stickin' it to the man sort of.

But today!, I walked into the Y and the dude was all "ok Mr. Davis, looks like we'll have to re-evaluate your income situation" so my heart stopped for 3 minutes and I was all "hmm.... why should we go and do that?" - "b/c the time is up, time to re-evaluate. Please bring last year's tax statements."

So what am I going to do? Good thing I dabble in a little piece of software called MS Paint, and I've been taking MS Paint night classes from 5:30pm - 3am every day after work, so I'm going to use my 2004's tax return and just change all the 2004's to 2008's. It's a win-win...-win.

What is my goal? My goal is to pay even LESS than what I do now, to find some loophole in the system, or maybe even give them a coworker's bank account number instead of mine. Because this is what I do: I do my best to work the system.