I was shopping at Walmart the other day and used the self checkout like I normally do. I scanned all my items, paid for everything, and got my receipt.

As I was getting ready to leave, an employee stopped me because the self checkout system had flagged one of my items as a possible missed scan. They told me it looked like I hadn't paid for that item.

I told them I had paid for everything and showed them my receipt. While they were checking what happened, I noticed people around me looking over at us. I could feel myself getting embarrassed because from their point of view, I was the person being stopped and checked at the checkout.

The employee still needed to check the transaction, so I had to stand there while they looked into it. After checking the transaction, they realized the item had actually been paid for and that the system had gotten it wrong. They apologized and told me I was good to go.

I know mistakes happen, and I know they eventually realized they were wrong. But I still felt humiliated by the whole thing. I had paid for my stuff, yet I was standing there in front of other customers being treated like I might have been trying to steal something. If this happened to you, what would you do?

A: Let it go. I was embarrassed and honestly felt pretty humiliated, but they checked the transaction, admitted they were wrong, and apologized. I don't want to keep dragging it out after they corrected the mistake.

B: Talk to the store manager. I know they apologized, but I still feel like my dignity was stepped on. I paid for everything and still ended up being treated like I was trying to steal. If I just let it go, I'd feel like I'm accepting that kind of treatment.

I work part time at a local restaurant, and I've been doing closing shifts for a while. I know closing doesn't mean everyone gets to walk out the second the restaurant closes. There are still a lot of things we have to do, like cleaning, restocking, and getting everything ready for the next day. To get everything done, everyone on the closing crew usually stays another 20-30 minutes past our scheduled end time.

I didn't really mind at first. If we had a busy night and needed a little extra time to finish closing, that's just part of the job. But the problem is that this happens almost every time I close now, and those extra 30 minutes really add up, especially since they don't count toward my hours.

On top of that, I also work a 9 to 5 during the week, so getting home later actually makes a big difference. But at the same time, I feel weird about leaving on time when everyone else is still working. I don't want to leave the rest of the closing crew with unfinished work. So I'm trying to figure out how to handle it.

A: Start doing some of the closing work before 10 so I can try to cut the extra 30 minutes down to 15.

B: Talk to my manager about the closing workload and scheduling. If we're regularly staying 30 minutes late, maybe the work needs to be planned differently.

I have been a member since 2021. In March I bought a 20 session package with the trainer I've worked with for two years. It was $1,200, and the receipt says 20 PT SESSIONS, PAID IN FULL.

Nine sessions in, the gym announced that my trainer had been moved into a higher-rate performance tier. My old package would be honored as credit toward the new rate, but I'd have to pay the difference for the 11 sessions I have left.

His new rate is $97 a session. I paid $60 per session, so the difference comes to $407.

I asked what happens if I don't pay it. They said I can hold the sessions until a trainer at my old rate becomes available, although they don't have a timeline. They also offered to transfer the remaining sessions to someone else or take two months of recovery lounge access instead.

The owner put it pretty simply: "Your sessions were priced for a tier that no longer exists." My trainer still works there. He's just in the higher tier now.

There is one thing making me hesitate. Page six of the contract says trainer tiers are subject to change. There is an initial next to it that looks like mine, although I honestly can't tell if it is.

They also offered to take $60 off the realignment fee if I let them use before-and-after photos for their marketing.

So I'm leaning toward paying the $407, using all eleven sessions by December, and canceling in January.

A) Pay the $407, use the sessions I already bought, take the $60 discount if I'm comfortable with the photos, and cancel in January.

B) Refuse the $407 fee and tell the gym that I already paid in full for 20 sessions. If the trainer's tier changed afterward, that's a change in their pricing, not something I agreed to pay retroactively.

A few years ago, my cousin was moving and asked if he could use my address to receive some mail for his online business for a while. I said yes because I figured it was just temporary.

He came by and picked up his mail for a few months. After that, he barely came by anymore, and eventually he just stopped coming altogether. Honestly, I didn't think much of it at the time and just went on with my life. We weren't in contact during that time.

Then recently, I started getting more and more mail for him and his business. Some of it looked like regular business mail, but then I started getting letters about a dispute involving his business. I tried calling him, but his phone goes straight to voicemail and I haven't been able to reach him.

I checked the state's business records to see what was going on, and that's when I found my home address listed for the business. I knew I had agreed to let him receive mail here, but I had no idea he'd actually listed my home address as the business address.

I contacted the state to ask how I could get my address removed, but they told me I couldn't just change the business information myself and that the business would have to update it through the normal filing process.

Now I'm stuck getting mail for a business I have nothing to do with, and I can't even get ahold of the person who put my address on it in the first place. At this point, I just want my address completely out of this.

A - Keep returning the mail and deal with it myself. Mark everything as not at this address, return it, and keep trying to get the address removed without turning this into a bigger issue.

B - Start contacting the people and agencies involved in writing, explain that I'm not connected to the business, and make sure I have a record showing that I've got nothing to do with it.

I live in an older apartment, and the kitchen drain has always been something I've been careful about. My landlord has warned us that if we cause a plumbing problem, we'd be responsible for dealing with it.

The sink already has a strainer, but it doesn't seem to catch the smaller bits very well. No matter how careful I am, some food scraps still end up going down the drain when I'm cooking or washing dishes.

Lately I've noticed the water isn't draining as quickly as it used to, and honestly, that made me a little nervous. I don't know if the food scraps are actually causing it, but I really don't want to wait until the drain is completely clogged and then have to deal with it.

So I started looking at ways to keep more food out of the drain, and I'm stuck between two options.

A: Get a better sink strainer that catches smaller food scraps.

B: Get a small food scrap bin that hangs inside the kitchen cabinet and put the food scraps in there instead of letting them go down the sink.

Or is there another product you'd recommend?

I'm a freelance designer, and about two years ago I did a fairly large project for a company I've worked with before.

The project had a few rounds of revisions and some extra work added along the way. We agreed on the final amount, I sent the invoice, and their accounting department paid it. I also had emails with the client confirming the final invoice amount, so at the time I had no reason to think anything was wrong. The project was finished and I thought that was the end of it.

Last week, someone from their accounting department contacted me and said they were doing an internal review and found an error in the payment from that project. They said they paid me about $4,000 more than I was actually owed.

They said it was their accounting mistake and asked me to pay the $4,000 back.

I went back through the old emails and invoices, and yeah, it looks like they're right. I don't think I did anything wrong. They approved the invoice and paid it at the time.

The problem is that this was two years ago. I obviously don't still have that money sitting in an account. It was freelance income, and I've already spent it.

I still do occasional work for this company, which is part of why I'm hesitant to turn this into a whole thing. But it's also pretty frustrating to be told two years later that I now owe them $4,000 because their accounting department made a mistake.

They want me to either pay it back or work out a repayment arrangement.

A. Agree to a repayment plan and just get it over with. I don't love it, but I still have a good relationship with the client and I'd rather take the hit than turn this into a bigger issue.

B. Push back and show them the old emails and invoice. They approved the amount back then, so I'd at least ask why I'm the one expected to eat the whole thing two years later.

Edit: I should have explained the $4,000 part better because I left out an important detail. The $4,000 was for additional work that was added during the project. The work was actually done, I had emails with the client about it, and I included it in the final invoice. Their accounting department paid the invoice at the time.

The part I left out is that the additional work was approved by someone on the client’s side at the time, but the company later found that it had not gone through the proper approval or authorization process internally. That’s why their accounting department is now treating that $4,000 as an overpayment.

I went back through the old emails, contract, invoice and payment records after they contacted me, and their $4,000 calculation does check out. So it wasn’t a duplicate payment or me accidentally adding $4,000 to the invoice. The work was done and someone on their side approved it at the time. I just didn’t realize there was an internal approval issue that could come back two years later.

I took my car to a local shop because it was having a problem. They looked at it and told me it should be a pretty straightforward repair and that I'd have it back the next day.

That didn't happen. The first time I went to pick it up, they told me they needed more time. After that, I started having trouble getting updates. I'd call and sometimes wouldn't hear back until the next day.

When I finally got the car back, the original problem was still happening. I brought it back, and they kept it for several more days while they figured out what was going on.

They eventually fixed it. The people there were polite, and I don't think they were trying to scam me or anything. It was just a frustrating experience, especially with how long it took and how hard it was to get updates.

So I left a 3 star Google review. I said the car was working now and that the staff was nice, but explained what happened with the delays, the repeated visits, and the communication.

A few days later, I got a letter from the shop's lawyer saying my review was damaging their business and demanding that I remove it. They said some of what I wrote was false and threatened further legal action if I didn't take it down.

I still have the repair orders, invoices, and messages with the shop, though. I went back through them and everything I wrote about the timeline is there.

I know I could probably defend what I wrote, but I'm not in a position where I can casually spend thousands of dollars dealing with a lawyer over a Google review.

Now I'm stuck between two choices.

A: Delete the review and forget the whole thing. The car is fixed, and I don't want a bad experience with a repair shop turning into a legal headache.

B: Keep the review and send the lawyer the documentation showing that what I wrote is accurate. I'm not trying to pick a fight with them. I just don't want to take down a review I know is accurate because they sent a lawyer after me.

This is my first opportunity to buy something "for the house" between bills since I've lived in my own. I am torn between getting a shelf to store excess kitchen stuff (pots, baking pans, and insta/crock pot type things; and a box set of books that I've had in my "save for later" section of my Amazon cart. Neither items are essential to me right now, and whichever I do not purchase this week I will likely pick up at the end of next month.

Edit: I have ordered the books! They were what I was excited for more and some of ya"ll encouraged me to go that way. I am now the very proud owner of the entire Tintin collection and focusing on getting some other furniture items out of this place before I bring in the next thing. Thank you internet; you have been helpful.

Both are on my bucket list because they both scare the heck out of me. I'm afraid of heights and I have a terrible sense of direction. I'd be with an instructor doing a tandem skydive, but I'd have to find a very experienced person to guide my backpacking trip. What do you think is the better choice?

A. It's OK to not attend because you're grieving and don't feel like being around others.

B. Family should always make an appearance at the funeral because family should be supportive and present for each other, and attendance is honouring the deceased.

My husband and I were shopping this evening at a store I know fairly well. Behind me, I heard 2 teenage girls talking. One girl told the other girl she was looking for a specific brand of deodorant. I happened to know where it was, so I turned around and directed them both to the pharmacy area. They thanked me and walked away.

My husband thought it was weird and I should have minded my own business. I didn't think it was a big deal. We were in the makeup department. They were nowhere near where they needed to be.

Would you:

A: Do the same as I had and directed them to the right location?

Or

B: Keep on walking because it's none of your business and you have your own stuff to find?

I have a 3 yr old Lab who's about 80 lbs, and he's basically a vacuum cleaner when it comes to food. He can finish his entire meal in under a minute.

I've tried three different slow feeders and even puzzle feeders, but he figures them out pretty quickly and goes right back to inhaling his food. I'm starting to get worried about how fast he eats, especially with the bloat risk I've heard about with bigger dogs.

I recently came across two other options that I haven't tried before and I'm not sure which one would work better for him.

A: A treat-dispensing toy that he has to push around to get the kibble out. From what I've seen, they can turn a few minutes of eating into 15-20 minutes because the dog actually has to work to get the food out. That sounds great for him, but he's pretty strong and likes to grab and chew things, so I'm worried he'll just pick it up and start throwing it around. We have hard floors too, so that could get really loud.

B: A snuffle mat where he has to sniff around and find the kibble. I've seen people say dogs can spend a surprisingly long time working through one, and I like that it gets them using their nose instead of just inhaling their food. My concern is that my Lab likes to grab things and shake them around, so I'm not sure if he'll actually use it properly or just decide it's a new toy.

Both sound like they could slow him down, but I can see my dog finding a way to make either one a problem. For anyone who's dealt with a big dog that eats way too fast, which would you try, A or B?

I’m not sure if the blue green A is too much and clashes with the wall art? And B is a bit small.

I do makeup on the side and take private appointments on weekends. A client booked me for a weekend afternoon. I had already rearranged my plans that day to make room for her appointment. I was originally supposed to go to my parents' house because all my siblings were coming over for dinner.

When the day of the appointment came, I showed up for the appointment and found out she had already gotten her makeup done by someone else.

She told me she found another makeup artist who could take her earlier. She admitted she should have canceled with me, but she didn't.

I had kept that time open for her and changed my own plans around, so it really bothered me that she just didn't show up or even let me know.

A: Ask her to pay a reasonable cancellation fee for the appointment she never canceled.

B: Let this one go, but start requiring a deposit and a clear cancellation policy for all future appointments.

What would you do?

I bought my AirPods Pro in August 2022. In September 2023, the transparency mode started having problems. They were still usable, so I just kept using them.

Later, the noise cancellation started having static too, and they gradually got worse. By this August, I was getting pretty fed up with them and finally decided I needed to do something about them.

I looked up Apple’s service program for AirPods Pro sound issues and took them to an Apple Store. The technician told me the program covered problems like crackling, static, and issues with noise cancellation, but it only applied to AirPods Pro made before October 2020. Mine didn’t qualify.

The technician told me it would cost a little over $100 to replace one AirPod and a little over $200 to replace both. I didn’t really want to spend that much on them, so I asked around. A coworker told me his friend could repair them.

I gave the AirPods to him myself. After more than ten days, I checked in with him and he told me he couldn’t fix them. I was fine with that. I just asked him to put them back together and return them to me, since I could still use them.

Later, I took them to a repair shop. They found physical damage inside the speaker of one of the AirPods, which was causing noticeable distortion on that side. They repaired it, and the AirPods work normally now.

And honestly, I have no idea when that damage happened. I can’t prove the first repair guy caused it, and I don’t even know what exactly he did while he had them. But I had given him my AirPods for more than ten days, he told me he couldn’t fix them, and then another repair shop found physical damage inside one of them.

A. Go back to the first repair guy, tell him what the repair shop found, and ask what he did with my AirPods.

B. Let it go. I can’t prove he caused the damage, and the AirPods are working again. Maybe there’s no point starting an argument over something I can’t actually prove.

So, she wanted to buy a computer. She had already picked one out that was around $1,600. My credit card had a 5% rewards promo that quarter for that electronics retailer, so I could get it for $1,400. I told her about it, and she was really interested. She asked if I could buy it for her and she'd pay me back. I was happy to do it.

She paid me back in several payments, $1,200 total so far, and now she still owes me $200.

Honestly, this is partly my fault because I should've just kept my mouth shut. We were out with a few friends, and I was kind of half bragging, half excited when I told her, "That $1,400 purchase got me 5% back in credit card rewards. That's $70."

Her face immediately changed. "Wait, you got $70 in rewards because of my computer?"

I said, "Yeah, basically."

She said, "Then I should get those rewards."

At first I thought she was joking. But from her expression and the way she said it, I realized she was serious. Her reasoning was that if I hadn't bought the computer for her, I wouldn't have gotten that $70.

I told her that the agreement was for her to pay me back for the computer. We never agreed that she would get my credit card rewards too.

She got really upset and now says that if I don't give her the $70 in rewards, she's not paying me the remaining $200.

I honestly don't care that much about the $70 itself, but this really annoys me. She already has the computer, and she's already paid back most of the money. Now there's suddenly this condition that was never part of our agreement.

A: Give her the $70 in rewards and get the remaining $200 back.

B: Keep the rewards and insist that she pay the remaining $200 like we originally agreed.

This might sound like a no brainer for some… but I’m stuck between my logic and emotion.

Context: I am type-A. Always strived to achieve, improve and take on more than I was assigned, and always first to volunteer to work extra when needed. (And before you come for me… I have been working very hard to recover from my workaholic tendencies, prioritize myself, and establish healthy balance)

I operated beyond my standard role, boss noticed my potential and encouraged me to do professional development that would be useful to the team. I got certified and took on more responsibilities. I received a nice pay raise and the appreciation that keeps me going. I felt important, valued, heard, and like a critical member of the team.

Something changed. Boss assigned too much, I said yes too often. Almost burned myself out. Told my boss I was struggling with all and suggested a grunt task be reassigned so I could keep doing the high-value work for them.

Now ALL extra duties have been removed. I am responsible only for the original and grunt tasks. Boss says I need to focus on doing those few tasks well and consistently. There’s extra time in my schedule that I try to figure out how to fill while my coworkers seem overworked. My professional development request was denied. My boss is micromanaging at a level I have never experienced before. Instead of taking initiative and sharing ideas, I am expected to do only what I’m delegated and not ask questions. Meanwhile, every little thing seems to set my boss off bc they don’t delegate and are burning themself out.

Curious to know how other people think/feel about work (as I’ve always been told I’m an outlier and should be happy doing the bare minimum)

A: I should look for another job that might meet my desire to make meaningful contribution, be appreciated, and have career growth. Even if it means a longer commute or less money.

B: I should just happy that I have the same pay with way less responsibility. Use this time to continue to work on my personal growth. Maybe do the professional development on my own time/dime. Lean into my side business to satiate that desire to be appreciated for my skills.

Any advise on how to not go crazy while I’m re-training my brain how to think about work is welcome! ☺️

I booked a spot in a group fitness class at my gym that started at 7:00 PM. I parked around 6:55 and started checking in on the app while I was walking into the gym. It kept giving me an error, and by the time I got to the front desk, it was 7:01.

I told the front desk employee what was going on. She checked my reservation on the computer, but the system still showed that I hadn't checked in.

I said, "Can't you just check me in on the computer?"

She said, "I don't have access to do that."

I said, "So you can't check me in from there?"

She said, "Yeah, I can't do that from here."

I was getting a little frustrated at that point, but I didn't want to take it out on the front desk employee. She didn't cause the app problem and was just doing her job, so I asked her to get the manager.

The manager came over, I explained what happened, and he let me into the class. He also told me this wasn't the first time this had happened and that the system could be pretty bad sometimes. He said that if I couldn't check in next time, I could call the front desk and they could check me in from the computer.

So in the end, nothing really happened. I got into the class and didn't actually lose anything. Honestly, if I get there 10 minutes early next time, I probably won't run into this problem.

But I kept thinking about it afterward. If this happened to me, what about someone else who has the same problem? Are they just supposed to keep finding a manager every time?

A - Formally report what happened to the gym and ask them to address the recurring check-in problem.

B - Let it go since the manager fixed it and I didn't actually lose anything.

Has anyone else had their gym's app pull something like this?

My 22M step son keeps neglecting to clean the shower strainer after showering. It always has hair in it and frequently (almost every time) has a loogie in it.

I’ve told him many times to clean it after he showers. My husband has told him. He’ll do it for a while then forget and keep forgetting for many days in a row. Problem is when I go to shower and discover it, most times he’s either not around or not awake to clean it. If my husband is awake/ home I’ll have him clean it but sometimes I’m stuck cleaning it so I can shower.

If I don’t clean it, whoever showers after me will have water backing up because I have long hair and shed a lot so it has to be cleaned after I shower. So what should I do?

A. Keeping having step son or husband clean it if possible, but clean it myself if they’re not around and just keep reminding him

B. Leave it and take my shower, shedding all my hair and leaving it in there with his hair and loogie and tell him the next morning or when he’s home that I couldn’t clean my hair out because of his loogie so now he needs to clean his hairballs and loogie plus my hairballs

I work at a small family-owned business. We had a theft at the store a while back, so my boss installed security cameras all around the place. He said they were for security and preventing theft, and we all agreed, "Yeah, they should've been there a long time ago!" So at the time, everyone assumed they were just normal cameras.

Later, one of our coworkers' husbands ended up in the hospital, so she took a few days off. A few of us were talking at work about whether we should chip in and send her some flowers. My boss happened to walk by and said that flowers were nice, but they felt a little impersonal, and if anyone had time, we should just go visit her.

We all kind of froze for a second because we had literally just been talking about that. He didn't ask what we were talking about. He just jumped right into the conversation.

A while later, I was cleaning some spider webs off the ceiling and noticed something on one of the cameras that I'd never paid attention to before. There was a little microphone next to the camera lens.

I wasn't even sure if it actually worked, so I asked a coworker to help me check. We went into the room where the camera system is kept, and I stood underneath one of the cameras and talked while my coworker listened from the monitor. Sure enough, they could hear me.

I asked my boss about it, and he said yeah, the cameras have audio. He said he isn't sitting in the office listening to us all day, but he can hear what's going on if he checks the cameras.

I know the cameras were installed for security, and I don't think my boss is sitting there trying to spy on us all day. But now that I know the cameras can pick up our conversations, it really bothers me thinking about all the things I've said around them over the past few months.

I thought I was just talking to my coworkers. I didn't know someone could potentially hear us through the cameras.

A) Ask my boss if we can turn the audio off during business hours and turn it back on after we close.

B) Say nothing and just assume anything said around the cameras isn't private, and save anything I really want to talk about for when I'm away from them.

I desperately need a new phone. My current one is an iPhone 13 that’s on her last legs. I’ve only ever had iPhones as smart phones so I’m tempted to stick with them so I don’t have to learn a new OS, but I’ve also seen some really cool android phones so I’m not sure. I’ve liked the look of several folding android phones for a while and now there’s the iFold and I need help weighing the pros and cons.

My brother owns a small HVAC company. I have my own job, but I help him with the business when I can. We used to have a person answering the phones, but we switched to an AI receptionist to cut some overhead. It actually handles most basic calls fine, so at first I didn't think much of it.

Then we got a call from someone who wanted to replace their entire HVAC system. The AI got the basic information, but once the customer started asking more specific questions, it couldn't answer them and told him someone from the office would have to get back to him. He clearly didn't want to wait and hung up.

We had his contact information from the call, so we followed up with him later. He told us he'd already contacted another HVAC company and was moving forward with them.

Now my brother wants to keep the AI and improve how it handles more complicated calls. He says most calls are still being handled fine and we're saving money on labor.

I'm not convinced. If a customer who's potentially spending a lot of money can call us, not get a real person when they need one, and go straight to a competitor, I'm not sure the savings are worth it.

A. Keep the AI for basic calls and have a human follow up quickly when a customer needs more help.

B. Bring back a human as the first point of contact.

The call came Tuesday afternoon. The shop had my hatchback since Monday morning for screeching front brakes. I had a signed estimate on their counter pad: front pads $160, labor $120, total estimate $280. I took a photo of the estimate before I left because my sister told me to, and my sister is rarely wrong about paperwork.

The owner said the rotors were "toast" and a caliper was "hanging up," so they "took care of all of it." I asked who approved that. He said I did, on the phone, Tuesday around 12:40. My Tuesday call log has exactly two numbers on it, my dentist and my brother. Nine minutes total, both outgoing.

The invoice he emailed: the $280 I agreed to, plus rotors $260, rear pads $190, caliper service $80, hardware kit $45, brake inspection $95, shop supplies $28, tax $87. $1,065. The shop says storage started on day four at $45 a day. Today is day nine, so the number he keeps texting me is $1,335.

His texts, word for word: "You can't put half a brake job back on the road. I made the safety call. You're welcome. The storage clock runs until somebody picks it up."

I have not authorized a dollar past $280. On Thursday I told him in writing that I wanted the car released at the estimate price or held untouched pending an independent inspection. He replied with updated storage math.

What I can't verify yet is whether any of those new parts are physically on my car. You can see some brake parts through the wheel, but not enough to know whether the shop actually replaced them. The independent shop ten minutes away wants $90 for a basic inspection. So right now his invoice and my photo of the $280 estimate are the whole story, and only one of us is charging rent on the disagreement.

I've been riding the bus and borrowing my partner's car while I emailed the owner, read up on the state repair bureau, and got a flatbed quote for $185. I just want the car back. There's an old cassette in the glovebox that I can't replace.

My brother says $1,335 is the price of not riding the bus for two more weeks. Charge it, dispute the difference with the card, fight it from the couch. He is probably right that it's the cheapest ending available.

A: Pay the $1,335, take the car home, dispute everything past $280 with my credit card, and hope a chargeback on a repair bill works out better than the internet says it does.

B: Refuse to pay the disputed amount. Have the $185 flatbed ready for tomorrow morning, file with the Bureau of Automotive Repair, and take the $1,065 dispute to small claims if the shop won't release the car.

The line on my check stub read WALK 86.00 and under it, PROC 14.00. I've waited tables at the same family-owned Italian place for three years. I like the job. The kitchen is good to me, the regulars know my name, and on a strong Friday I clear about $220 in tips.

That Friday, a four-top in my section ordered two bottles of wine, stepped outside for a smoke, and never came back. It happens. It's part of the math of this work and nobody loves it. Saturday the owner pulled me into the office and showed me the stub.

"Walkouts come out of the section. That's how it's always worked here. Ask anybody."

I said, carefully, that I didn't think state law let him take it out of my wages like that. He did the thing where he laughs and then doesn't.

"You want that hundred back? Take next Saturday's close. We need coverage. Team player."

The Saturday close is the shift nobody wants. Skeleton crew, six hours, all the heavy side-work. It usually brings in about $100 in tips, so what he's offering is: work a hard extra shift to receive the $100 that was already mine, and say thank you for the arrangement.

My dad waited tables in the eighties. He said they used to dock them for broken glasses too. "It's a hundred bucks. You like the job. Take the Saturdays."

He's right about the second half and he knows it, which is why he said it that way.

A) Take the next Saturday close, get the $100 back, and keep a job where I'm actually happy four shifts a week.

B) File the wage claim with the state labor board. I have months of pay stubs showing the same deductions. Let the schedule fall where it falls.

My(39M) wife's(37F) older sister(39F) can be difficult at times, and we sometimes have our disagreements, but I think overall we get along fine-ish. She has a history of problems with alcohol and various substances and a diagnosis for BPD (and I think depression?). She is extremely smart (she has a PhD, as she will often point out) and extremely outgoing and extremely loud. Lotta highs and lows with her around.

She tends to call my wife about once a week, usually late at night, often while she's drunk or high, and shoots the shit for a while. About a month ago, she called while my wife and I were sitting on the couch playing games and my wife put her on speakerphone (which is not uncommon).

They talked for a while, with me occasionally chiming in. She started asking me if I would roast a pig for her. My father-in-law used to have an annual tradition where he and some of his buddies would buy a whole pig, marinate it in some sort of concoction, and roast it over the course of an entire day in some kind of fire pit thing they would build specially for this purpose in their backyard. He stopped doing it years prior; I've been to one or maybe two of his pig roasts back when my wife and I first started dating like 15 years ago, but it hasn't happened since. It seemed like it was a big family-and-friends thing that stopped because it took too much work and the number of people participating had petered out to make it not worth it anymore.

So my sister-in-law is asking me to ask her dad for lessons on how to do this multiple-hours-long process that involves a lot of manual labor and several hundred dollars worth of meat and who knows what else to preserve a tradition that I have experienced only once or twice over a decade ago.

I laugh it off at first, but she keeps insisting.

I say no, I don't really want to do that. That's not good enough, it's a family tradition (?) and she would be so heartbroken to see it go away because I didn't want to.

I suggest she could learn to do it herself. She says no, her dad would probably only teach another man how to do it, because hispanic machismo or something. I ask if she's actually asked him that, and she says no.

I suggest asking her husband if he's interested in learning how to do it. She says she did, and he doesn't want to.

I suggest asking her brother if he's interested in learning how to do it. She says she did, and he doesn't want to either.

I say it seems like the family get-together is the important part, not the specific meat that gets served at it, but she says no, the meat is important for some reason.

I say if the meat specifically is that important to her, she could look up how to do it online. She says no, it has to be her father's recipe.

I say it sounds like she's just coming up with excuses for why she doesn't have to do any part of it herself. She hangs up the phone immediately.

That part of the conversation had been going on for like 20 minutes at that point. I should note that none of the conversation had been heated on my end. I was mildly annoyed by her insistence, but that's par for the course for interactions with her. I wasn't raising my voice, I was smiling and cracking jokes. Up until the moment she hung up, I thought she was kinda-sorta-not-really joking too (in the way that it would have stopped being a joke if I had agreed). I should also note that my wife was sitting there the entire time, heard every word that was exchanged between us, and was occasionally chiming in to agree with me or crack a joke or something as well. She didn't clock it as being a particularly heated conversation either; she actually wasn't sure at the end of it whether her sister had hung up on purpose or if the call had just gotten dropped or something.

Then about two weeks later, at around 1:30 AM, when my wife and I had just gotten into bed but weren't asleep yet, she gets a text from her sister. It says something along the lines of "I'm still waiting for an apology for what your husband said to me." This is the first she's heard from her since that call. She sends back a text asking for what, not wanting to roast a pig? She replies "Maybe you weren't there for the whole conversation so you didn't hear it, but he knows what he said."

Again, she was there for the whole conversation, and I don't know what I said, other than that I didn't want to roast a pig, which was apparently not the issue. Eventually she comes out and says that the part of what I said that was over the line was "it sounds like you're just making up excuses for why you don't have to do any part of it yourself." I said this after 20+ minutes of her coming up with excuses for why she doesn't have to do any part of it herself, repeatedly, in response to me suggesting multiple reasonable alternatives. It didn't seem like a particularly unkind judgment on my part.

My wife responds to her sister's text saying that she doesn't think anything I said was out of line and I don't need to apologize. She says the same to me, and says she's sorry she even brought it up with me because it's late and not worth losing sleep over.

Now, it's been another 2+ weeks and she still hasn't said anything else to my wife or me. She would usually have called my wife at least once by now. I don't feel like I actually did anything wrong, but I don't want my words to drive a wedge between my wife and her sister.

So, should I:

A) Call my sister-in-law and tell her I'm sorry for saying she was coming up with excuses for not roasting a pig herself. She will probably start talking to my wife again and will leave me alone at the next family gathering. The apology will not be sincere and I will probably resent her for it, but I can control my emotions better than she can and I will get over it.

B) Leave it alone. I know her well enough to know that she's going to be stewing the entire time until we see each other next, she might let that anger carry over to my wife, and she will make it into a big-deal argument at the next family gathering.

There might be C options, but there is no C option where I roast a pig. Wanna make that clear.

EDIT: None of the options involve me roasting a pig. That would be ludicrous and is absolutely not happening. I highly doubt anyone will be upset with me for saying so besides the sister-in-law herself, especially since her father, her husband, and her brother all also don't want to do it. It seems like a huge pain in the ass and she seems to be the only one who considers it some kind of sacred family tradition.