Luck or Life?

Last night my mom watched Clara while Jason and I went to the Temple. Our Temple attendance as a couple has been few and far between over the last six months so it was quite nice to have him with me. How can you not love going to the Temple? Simply being in the Temple makes life better. Afterwards we went to Outback after the following persuasive conversation:

Jason: So, are we going to go eat somewhere?
Anna: Like where?
Jason: Outback
Anna: No, we don't have $50 to spend on dinner.
Jason: It won't be $50. Plus, I worked 80 hours this pay period.
Anna: Um, so, that just means we are going to be that much less negative this month. Plus, even when you graduate we wouldn't be able to do that.
Jason: Don't worry, I'll get a second job when I graduate so we can eat out.
Anna: I'd rather have you around than eat out.
Jason: I wouldn't.

He told me we needed to enjoy life while we still had money. We have a great financial balance in our marriage. PS I know it seems like I talk about money a lot, and I do. But it is just something I like to talk about and even if we weren't poor, I'd find plenty of other ways to incorporate money into my posts. And even if I had millions, I'd still be a bit tight. Ask Jason if you don't believe me. :) Besides, money and financial situations aren't really a private thing in my life and we kind of make fun of ourselves all the time for our situation which has created much laughter at our bank account's expense.

You might remember our last Outback experience... It was horrible as far as the food goes (which, I do believe that's why I eat out...). This time, everything was going pretty well until they brought my steak. I order my meat medium-well. But my steak came out pretty black on top. I cut into it and it didn't have the slightest hint of pink in it. I really don't like complaining and I wasn't looking for a free meal. I asked our waitress if the steak looked med-well to her and she said it didn't and she'd go talk to the manager. He came over to talk to us and I told him I didn't have time to wait for another steak and that I'd be happy to pay for my broccoli and salad. I told him we didn't need dessert, but he insisted. He was super nice, took my meal off the ticket and gave me a piece of cheesecake. He handled it very well but I still feel like a whiner, especially since a very similar thing just happened. I can think of three explanations for this frequent recurrence (not being happy with my meals when I eat out):
1. I'm a food snob. This is very likely. I have high expectations when I eat out. Obviously my expectations for Taco Bell aren't what they are at Outback, but I still have expectations. It just seems like in the last few years, I have eaten few meals out that were totally satisfactory.
2. I'm negative. I hope this isn't the problem. I tried to be nice and I was nice to my waitress and still left her a good tip. But I am not going to be quiet and pay for a steak I wouldn't eat. Oh, and trust me, I overcook all my meat, so for me to think this was overcooked is saying something.
3. I have bad luck and get in these types of situations far more often than the average person. Do things like this happen to anyone else every other time they go out to eat??

Speaking of bad luck... I have another issue that I wonder if it's just my luck or life. Almost every time I mail a rebate in, I get a card back saying I didn't submit everything. It angers me just thinking about it. The last one I did was for Microsoft. I got a letter saying that I failed to mail in a copy of the invoice for one of the products (you had to buy two different products to qualify for the rebate). They said they got one, but not the other. Funny that my invoice was an e-mail and BOTH products were on it. I called and the guy was like, "Oh, I'm not sure why they sent you that letter. We'll send your rebate out." Then, I just got another one from SanDisk saying I didn't mail in my original UPC and they need it. WHAT? I mailed it in and don't have it so now it will be seemingly impossible to get it. I copied everything I mailed in and the UPC is there. What am I supposed to do? I will try but why does it have to be pulling teeth to get anything right these days? So I wonder, does everyone else have these problems or is this just proof that my luck in these types of situations does not favor me? Or maybe I just pay more attention to things because I'm such an obnoxious scrooge. Who knows.