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Just in time for school, which starts Wednesday. And I CANNOT wait. I cannot even put into words how excited I am to start school... and finish it too. I have all but one of my english books now, I have my internet service up, I have my Governor's Fee Waiver turned in, I have my notebook and folders in my desk, So this was the week from Hell. This was supposed to be the week-that-I-took-care-of-everything, but at the end of the week I am probably $2000 poorer AND on the verge of losing my job. This week's goals were: 1. Get the computer and internet up and working. And we all know how my life goes, so do I even need to mention how all that spiraled out of control in 5 short days? 1. Got the computer up and running, that was a good thing, and I think Patrick-the-computer-god was just as excited if not MORE excited than I was when it finally connected with the internet, after working on it for a month. Not to mention I had to stay on the phone with SBC for 2-1/2 hours trying to fix the problem only to be told, AFTER all that, that I need to call Compaq because they couldn't help me. Anyway, Patrick fixed it. It's done, computer works, I can now go to school. 2. That damn Jeep. Granted, this is all my fault, but I claim ignorance for the beginnings of the problems. Scott gave me the money to get the insurance and register the car. I called the insurance place, well there's that tiny little problem of my expired license. As soon as I take care of that they will insure me. The reason I haven't renewed the license is because there was some sort of ticket on it that I needed to take care of and never had time nor money to do so. But I made a dmv appointment for the next afternoon (which started the ball rolling for me getting fired) and went down to take care of it. Turns out the ticket was for a Failure to Appear, after getting a No Registration ticket, in the year 2000. I remember getting that ticket, and I remember registering the car (this was the old blue Hyundai which I no longer have), but I guess I didn't realize that after registering it I had to do something with the ticket. So even though the dmv knew the car was registered, the dmv didn't know I had actually registered the car. Yeah, that's logic for you. Whatever, I know basically that this is my fault, but the point is that I had to leave the dmv to drive to the other side of town to Traffic Court, stand in another 30 minute line, and be told that I can make a court appointment (in December) to get it waived, or I can pay the $396 Abstract fee and get my license now, then go to court (in December) to get it waived and get my money back. I knew Scott would give me the money for that but I couldn't just write the check without asking him first, so I had to leave and go home. Scott of course said he would pay for it, launching a discussion of my bills again, and when was I going to just let him get me out of trouble so there won't be any more trouble like this, and finally I relented and said OKAY, after my CCCS appointment I would go to his house and we could discuss the bills. 3. I made the appointment with CCCS after receiving this surprise notice about the Visa bill. I initially thought it was a mistake, but they explained to me that it was mine, from 1998, and that Providian had sold the debt to a collection agency who then neglected to send me any bill for FOUR YEARS and would I like to pay the $5,700 debt in 3 monthly payments? Uh, yeah, right. So I went to CCCS with all my bills, presented them the new Visa bill, gave them Buffy's thumb-stitching bill and the shut-off cable bill, and told them to pull a credit report on me because I wanted to make sure there were no more surprise bills headed my way. You see, I remember getting a letter about the "charge-off" for the Visa years and years ago, but I misunderstood what that meant. I did know they were "writing off" the debt, and I knew it was going to be a big black mark on my record, but I wasn't in any position to do anything about it at the time. However, the last few years living with Joe I had plenty of money and could have been making payments on that bill if I had known they could still come back and collect on it. I mistakenly believed it was actually "written off" and I was done. So folks, remember, it's never done. Anyway, turns out there was one more bill on the record (although she said everything else was all paid off, in full, and that I'd done "very well" - again, Yeah, Right). The other bill was $1008, so I told her to add it to my list of bills and start paying it off. It's going to suck paying on bills from five years ago, but I don't want anything else heading to my mailbox, I want to be done and free and clear and be debt-free!!!!!!!! So she worked it out and my new monthly payments for those bills are $166/month for the next 4-1/2 years. NOT good news, but I *have* to take care of this, so I have to figure out a way. So anyway, on top of all this, Supervisor flipped her lid Thursday morning, and I flipped my lid back at her, and then decided to ask Mr.BigBoss for a transfer, Pronto, before Supervisor pulled out the pink slip papers, or I pulled out a club and bludgeoned her to death, whichever came first. What set her off was me telling her I had gotten a 3pm appointment at the dmv. She became ENRAGED that I was leaving early, started ranting and raving about how she doesn't have anyone to cover the accounting office from 4:30 - 5:00, and NOW what was she going to do, and she's going to have to pay Corina 1/2 hour OVERTIME now, blah blah blah, and I interrupted her to remind her of four things she already knew: 1. I have no drivers license, 2. I have no insurance, 3. I have no registration, and 4. I have to drive around every week on company business, during company time, in a jeep that still has my company name on the side of it. I would THINK that this would be an important issue for my company that I take care of all this. She wanted me to make a different appointment, a month from now. Well Fuck NO I'm not going to wait another month when I'm driving on borrowed luck as it is, and I finally have the money to take care of this! So then she says, and I quote: "You already are taking off 2 afternoons next week [for my school orientations] and you can't take afternoons off because I have to pay Corina to stay and you need to make morning appointments from now on, I don't want you gone during the afternoons ever again." I blew my top. This woman is 40 hours in the hole for vacation time (due to her getting big fake hanging-to-her-belly-button boobs), and I have 51 hours in the bank. "I have over 50 hours of vacation, I asked for those afternoons off TWO MONTHS AGO, and YOU SIGNED for them, and I have EVERY right to take off any afternoon that I want, so DON'T you bring up stuff that has NOTHING to do with this particular problem!!!" I knew my time was limited at that point, but I just cannot spend my life walking on egg-shells around her for 8 hours of my day, every day, and then take 12 units of school AND raise 2 teenagers too. BigBoss thought I was joking at first, about the transfer, but when he realized I was serious he said he would talk to BigBoss#2 about it. Friday I came in and Supervisor asked if I would like to go to Customer Service. "YES," I said. At this point, I don't care, just get me out of there. She said we would have a meeting with the BigBosses on Tuesday, "when they're in a good mood." "I already talked to him and said it was fine," I told her. "Well, I think it will be good for you up there, you won't have to stress about any more deadlines," she had the nerve to say (I've come to hear that that's her excuse, that I can't meet deadlines, which is bullshit and she knows it and so does everyone else, so I'm not worried about that). "I'm not worried about any deadlines," I told her, "I just don't want to work for You anymore. If I get out of this office THAT will make me less stressed." In a nutshell, that is what happened there. Corina is SO MAD that I'm leaving, and that they may transfer one of the CS girls back to my job, and Corina told Supervisor to stop blaming the problems on me because "you are not the easiest person to work for, and I can name off ten people right now who would rather quit than come back here and work for you." I may have to take a pay cut, because face it, the girls in Customer Service are nimrods and make about half of what I make now. I'm going to talk like I've never talked before to try to keep as much of my pay rate as possible, but I won't know about that until Tuesday. Meanwhile that brings us to... Scott, and my finances. As soon as I arrived Friday we had a big talk about what I need to get on my feet. We added up my bills, and on paper I have just enough to get by, not really enough to live on, but enough to pay bills, buy food, AND make that new monthly payment. The problem is that some bills are always behind, so I always have to pay more than the regular amount. Scott has convinced me that I need to tell him what it will take to catch me up, to let him pay for it, and to tell him every month if I need money, whether it's $50 or $200, and to stop making him feel bad about it. I've told him I feel very child-like when I let him take care of me, and that it no longer feels like an equal partnership but a father/daughter deal instead. But he's convinced me that he really wants to do this, that I really need his help, and that I really need to let him. So. I guess I will. I guess I have to trust that he's not doing this because he feels he has to, but because he loves me and wants to help me take care of myself. He has the ability to do so, so as much as it hurts me, I have to suck it up and just let him. So Tuesday I go to work and hope I really can be transferred somewhere, ANYwhere, for as much pay as possible. Then Wednesday I have my first class orientation and then go pay for the Abstract and get my license renewed and insurance paid for, then go to school and apply for a student loan. Wednesday I have my second class orientation, then go get the tags for my car. Saturday I go to my final two class orientations, and by the 15th tell Scott how much I need to catch up completely on the bills. The broken computer was the source of much stress, as school approached, but now it's fixed and I can concentrate on my classes. The whole car/license thing has been major stress, but that will be relieved this week. And the job stress has just been almost enough to break me, I hope I can solve that problem too. And then... Then I'll be almost a Grown Up.
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