It's been less than an hour...

And I'm already sick of work. People come into my office to tell me there's some sort of vending machine conspiracy involving the bagged chips and candy bars. Why? Because my office is right across from the break room and I guess they feel it's their duty to inform me of their snack buying escapades.

"$0.75 cents for a small bag of mostly air? I'll bet the vending machine people are laughing all the way to the bank."

Yes, it's a vending machine, not a mini-Wal-Mart. You're paying for the instant access to snacks, candy bars and sodas. Do I need to hear about it? Probably not. Do I hear about it? Yep, every day.

Here's the kicker... sometimes the vending machine would jam up, not fully releasing the snack from the corkscrew-like dispenser. Have you ever seen a pregnant lady not get her Kit Kat bar? I have and it's not pretty. I recall the day that lady went into labor on the day the machine held onto her Hostess cupcakes. As the paramedics were delivering the baby, she was still pounding on the machine trying to jar the snack free.

Okay, I'm exaggerating. She didn't go into labor, there were no paramedics and by lady, I meant a man, a handsome man. Okay it was me.... but you must understand that $0.75 cents is hard to come by for a guy like me.

*ahem*

Imagine if you will the day the vending machine people raised the prices. Yes, they raised the price of a candy bar from $0.50 cents to $0.60 cents. Now it had become impossible to buy a candy bar and soda with the same dollar.

The chips went from $0.65 cents to $0.75 cents. Luckily, the moldy, hard gum circa 1976 at the bottom of the machine remained $0.40 cents. Focus on the positive?

I kept a dime in my drawer at all times in case I ran into the one employee who hadn't yet noticed the price increase, just to keep the peace once they realized their $0.50 cents was worthless when trying to buy that ancient Snickers bar.

Most people know the prices now... that dime sits unused in my drawer. Occasionally I still get an earful from that one uninformed employee about the increase. I reach into my drawer, pull out the dime and flick it to them...

Sometimes I wanna say;

"Here's a dime... call someone who cares."

A phone call still costs a dime right?

-Jeff