Mini Rant

yeah,

how does one go about finding a new job WITHOUT using their current boss as a reference.

backstory: i work as a receptionist/hall monitor for a not-busy-at-all national brokerage. i literally get paid to sit at a desk for 9 hours a day and read reddit, kr, cnn, whatever else it hasn't blocked that day, and answer the phone maybe 5 times all day. i'm not complaining, but dear jesus, i am bored. BORED. so bored.

ive applied for several jobs recently, even had a first/second interview with one but when it came time for the reference check, my current boss was on vacation that week, so she never returned their call. which in turn makes me look like an asshole. job 1. lost due to ineffectual manager.

ive applied for several positions with the company im currently working at (we are a contract position. i work for a staffing solutions at a large firm that does not handle their own office automation.) the problem here lies that the firm im applying with would be required to pay a "finders fee" for stealing me away from my current company.

well, i called my manager today to find out the logistics of that, specifics of my "contract situation" and whatnot. and was promptly told that "switching jobs like that just looks bad on your part. you havent even been here a year yet." so i told her that "yeah. i know. the last 3 jobs on my resume are all for less than a year" the response to this is "good to know"

DEAR manager, you hired me. you saw my resume previously. you made the decision to bring me on, knowing that i am highly overqualified for this position. i hold two bachelors degrees and am doing a job a retarded one armed monkey could do blindfolded. im over-fucking-qualified for this position. stop acting like a petulant child who was just told you cant have cookies for dessert and help me get the fuck out of here. i mean, you cant fault me for wanting to better myself, can you?

but, the real reason she's being this way is that it took a year to hire me. no one wants this job. its boring. she just doesnt want to be forced into find a replacement receptionist. one that everyone in the office will like. it's harder than it sounds. i work with a picky bunch of over-privileged insurance brokers. im the lowest paid person here and definitely not the least intelligent.

this just pisses me off. how can i get a job or even put in an application if i cant list my current manager as contactable? this looks AWFUL. and it is awful. i feel like im being forced to stay in a job im not happy at, that she's told me i seem unhappy in, because of sheer ineptitude. i dont make 25,000 a year in gross wages. i am disgusted with this entire situation right now.

i will clean up the formatting later. im about to leave work for the day. 

My Student Loans and I, Part 2: Why I Will Be Paying On Them Until I Die

I have student loans with 3 separate companies: Nelnet, Edfinancial and a private loan through my first liberal arts college.

The first two sets of loans are currently in forbearance/deferment until March 2013 because I do not make any money. Or, I don't make enough money under the income based repayment plan to actually qualify to make any payments. I should probably start paying something on the loans regardless, but I never do. Do you want to know why? Because they make it impossible for me to access my accounts to actually make payments.

Things Student Loan Providers Do To Make Actually Paying Them Impossible:

1. The website is impossible to navigate.
Nelnet is a classic example of this. The website is set up that once you login, after all your failed attempts and reset password tries, it takes you to your profile page. Now, that's fine. Except that it's the only page you will be able to see ever again. Any time I click a link about "loan deferment or repayment options", the link just reloads the profile page. Time and time again.
Edfinancial also just locked me out of my account because I had exceeded the number of login attempts, after one try. And now, I will attempt to deal with them via phone. Let's see how that goes.

2. When you call their hotline, you have to wait at least 30 minutes before you even get to the option to speak to a person.
I just sat through at least 15 minutes of unimportant jibber-jabber trying to call Edfinancial to reset my password because you cannot do it online. The fact that it's 8:00 in the morning apparently has no effect on the number of people they have actually answering the phones, but I eventually gave up on ever talking to a person. I hung up. On top of the terrible hold music and excessive waiting times, the very first thing I heard when I called was a message about the scheduled payments for April 28. Well, that's all fine and dandy but maybe I just need to reset my password. Oh, there's no option for that. Gotta click Zero. Gotta wait on hold for 8 million years. Where's my pen? I need to doodle some knives stabbing voraciously through the hearts of student loan providers everywhere. Ah. Now I feel better. Except nothing is resolved.

3. You can only schedule your payments for 3 specific days a month.
I don't really have too much of a problem with that honestly, because I am a fan of having routine and structure. My problem lies with not being able to make extra payments. Let's say I was super frugal this month (use your imaginations hard here.) And let's say that I suddenly found myself with an extra 100 dollars I wanted to put towards one of my student loans. Well, I know myself pretty well at this point. The longer money sits in my bank account, the more likely I am to find something to spend it on. Something I don't need. Something shiny or boozy or full of words. Well, with Edfinancial, I have to choose one of three predetermined days to schedule my payment for. These are usually the 1st, 15th and 30th or something like that. What if it's the 22nd of the month? I have to sit on my money for 8 days and let it taunt me with it's ability to buy shiny boozy things? Yes, that is exactly what I have to do, which now means that my attempt at financial responsibility is ruined. Foiled again.

4. They don't send you emails, they send you an "online assistance alert."
Edfinancial just "emailed" me to let me know that I had a secure message waiting for me at Edfinancial's secure message center. This message is only available until 07/03/12. There was a "secure" link I had to click on to retrieve the message that my account is now locked due to one too many access attempts. The one that I attempted earlier. Essentially they send me an email to let me know that I have email. That I'm now locked out of my account. Awesome guys. Thanks so much. Cause I didn't know.

5. When you send any paperwork to them via fax you have to call back repeatedly to make sure they are doing their jobs.
I just sent my 1040 form for 2011 to Nelnet to confirm my underemployment. I had to call them to get a fax number. But, on top of having to call them to get a fax number, I now have to call them back in 2 days to confirm that they actually received the fax AND THEN, providing they have, I have to call them back 7 days after that to make sure that it was actually entered and everything is copacetic. Why you ask. Well, so do I. Yes, faxes are unreliable and yes, they are probably inundated with inefficient people and their shitty faxes, but really. I have to call you back twice, going through the whole automated phone system again so I can make sure that someone did their job properly. Another Awesome guys. And if it's not correct, then what. Do I have to call you back after I send you yet another fax and then cal you back again. Is this my life? Chasing down student loan providers for jollies. Because I really do have better things to do with my time.

Okay. The last 2 weren't really about paying them, per se; they were just minor grievances I have with my providers right now. I'll probably attempt to call Edfinancial again today, because I could really use the deferment again this year. I don't have an extra $400 lying around every month. I barely have an extra $100 some months. And then, there's the months that I eat a bunch of migraine medicines and go shopping, but those are few and far between and I'm trying to keep it that way.

Car Problems... The Broke Person's Nightmare

I drive a 2000 Oldsmobile Alero with approx. 110,000 miles on it. This is fairly average for the typical American driver these days.

What they don't tell you, when you buy a car, is that things will eventually need to be replaced. When I drove from Alabama to Nashville last year with my car completely loaded with all my things, my brakes were squealing and squeaking so badly that I was scared to drive back to Alabama to get the rest of my stuff. I didn't. I left my car at my Mom's house and my uncle actually drove me down in his SUV to pack up the last load of my things because he heard the noises my car was making and was scared for me. I had completely worn the right back brake pad down to the rotor and it needed replacing immediately.

This is where it pays to have a mechanic in the family. He bought me the brake pad and replaced it for me, letting me know that I would DEFINITELY need to replace the right back rotor and the back left brake pad and rotor eventually. I said okay and went on my merry way. This was in August of last year.

Well, my back left brakes are starting to make the same grinding noise, especially when I am reversing out of the parking garage. This noise is echoed in the dense garage and it is embarrassing. My car is not that old nor is it ugly. I don't drive a beater, but good lord, could it make a worse sound that signals "hey. my car is a piece of crap, stare at it."

I think I'm going to have to suck it up and get the rotors and other brake pad replaced this weekend. But, seeing as how I AM a girl, most car repair/mechanics shops want to rip me off. I know this to be a fact. I once went into a Midas to get a $25 oil changed and walked out 1.5 hours later having spent over $80 on stuff they HAD to do that day that I was grossly overcharged for. Example: I had a screw in my tire. The cost: $25 to remove and repair. I also got a rotation with my oil change. They broke one of the lug nuts on my tire. Replacement fee: Another $25 that should have been on them, but somehow wound up on my bill.

I swore never to go back to a repair shop where I didn't personally know the employees after that.

This means that I will have to drive over an hour to go to my hometown where my uncle lives and my mom's friends have a repair/mechanic shop.

Although, if it saves me a few hundred dollars and lets me do laundry for free, I'm all for it.

More Health Details Than You Ever Wanted

Yesterday I took the day off work. Because I had a headache. Again.

And it pissed me off.

I finally hit my breaking point with all the migraines and stress headaches I have been suffering through lately. When I woke up yesterday morning with ANOTHER headache this month, I was angry. I called my doctor and made an appointment and then I drove for almost an hour to get there because my Primary Care Physician is 45 miles away and knows my history with headaches. If I had gone to see anyone else, they would have assumed that I was a drug seeking lunatic. Which I kind of was, admittedly. But dammit. I am so over this headache bullshit that is my life.

But the doctor told me to try 400 mg of Magnesium-0xide, once a day. Which I will. And he gave me a prescription for Lortab as well, for pain, to take as needed. Well, I took half of one this morning about 930 and another half at 1230. And they make me itchy. I feel like I have fleas. And the magnesium pills are making my stomach upset. And the vomiting. I don't know which one is responsible for that, but I am not a happy camper right now.

AND it's review day at work. Our yearly reviews are today, which no one told me about ahead of time. I came into work because I cannot afford to take another day off, ate my pills and was told that reviews begin at 230 pm. OH MY LORD. This is going to be the most awkward and uncomfortable review session for both me and my reviewer. I'm scratching like a junkie/fiend and I can barely sit still because I feel like vomiting every 3 minutes. Plus I'm pretty sure I'm about to start menstruating any second now.

But yesterday, despite going to the doctor and feeling like hell, was a good day overall.

I got an oil change for free. Well, my uncle did my oil change. All I had to buy was the oil & filter. I also picked up an air filter for my car since I needed one. I spent less than the cost of an oil change at a Jiffy Lube or Midas.
Total: 26.00

I got a free pedicure too. Which was awesome. My sister is a licensed manicurist and she gave me a pedicure for Christmas, which I hadn't redeemed yet. Since I was in town yesterday with some time to kill, waiting on prescriptions to be filled, I took advantage of that.
Total: 2.00 (I bought her cheap-o burger lunch)

Gas to drive there and back. I needed to fill up anyway.
Total 31.00

Also did laundry at my mom's house. While we waited on the oil change to happen.
Total: Free

Called my credit card settlement company today to make my monthly payment. Found out that the minimum they will settle for is right around 3200 total. I can try to save this up in the next few months and be finished with them completely. This would make me happy.

But until then, I think I'm going to throw up some more.

Tornado Watch

Well, Tennessee is under a tornado watch until 9 pm. We are supposed to have some pretty severe weather rolling through at any time now and this worries me a little. Normally, I am not the worrying type. I refuse to let things I have no control over bother me, but I am not going to lie, I am freaking out a bit. The weather outside this morning was disgustingly nice. 73 degrees, a little windy but warm.

WARM. This is what worries me.

I lived in Huntsville, AL, last April when the tornados came through there, bringing their destruction and their chaos. It was exactly like this outside before the wall cloud rolled through Madison, AL, and we all dived for shelter. My shelter here is a little bit different. At least I worked in a one story building in Alabama. I work on the 15th floor here. And there are A LOT of glass windows/entire walls made of glass in this building. And the elevators are being worked on and half of them are not working at all and the others that ARE working, don't work right half the time. Not a fun building on the best of days, but today. Minor freak out mode commence.

I am ready to GTFO, but my boss, my ACTUAL boss, is located in Cleveland, OH. I am in Nashville, TN. Sort of inconvenient when you're talking incumbent weather. The office head is the only other person that can tell us to leave early. He's in his office, with his GIANT WALL OF GLASS, doing something office-y. And he'll probably leave early, not thinking at all about the hired help in the office, leaving us here until regular business hours are over. I do not want to drive in tornado weather. I've done that once in my life. I do NOT want to do it again. It is no fun. I live an hour from work on the best traffic days.

Needless to say, I'm kind of over today.

Stupid Things I've Done This Week

Well, since I don't really have any fiscal or financial updates to talk about AND I haven't read a book in far too long, I'm going to tell you all about the many stupid things I've managed to do this week. And they are quite dumb, I'm not going to lie.

Stupid Thing #1: Not eating breakfast before the dentist.

I had a dentist appointment scheduled for 9 am on Monday to get the first of my fillings. Not a big deal normally, but when you do not eat breakfast before the dentist and they give you a lidocaine injection, it might does not end well. What should have been a 20 minute procedure took almost an hour due to me breaking out in hives and almost passing out in the dental chair. Both the tech and the dentist were a little freaked out by how quickly I blotched up and got dizzy. They made me lean back with the little alien oxygen nose mask on for what felt like forever. I finally felt better and about the time for the fillings to be completed, I started almost having a panic attack. I could not breathe and started getting dizzy again. This is a very awkward feeling when there are two peoples hands in your mouth and it's full of cotton balls. They were finally able to finish the first two of my five fillings and I sat in the chair for another 10 minutes waiting for the wobbly woozy feelings to pass. Then I paid my bill and drove myself home. STUPID. I should have made someone come get me. I made it home okay, but it was not a good idea, at all.

Stupid Thing #2: Lost my lip balm.

This actually occurred earlier in the week than the dentist, but I didn't find out until I got home from the dentist. I lost my Burt's Bees lip balm at some point over the weekend. I think I may have left it sitting on my desk at work, where the night cleaners probably found it and then threw it away. This is not a big deal, I know, but it's still almost 3.00 worth of lip balm that I just lost. This irritates me. One tube of that stuff lasts me several months and it's not cheap. Ugh. Good thing I bought the four pack last month. Now only three left to go.

Stupid Thing #3: Ordered AT&T U-verse internet package.

I don't have internet at home. I have been "borrowing" it from a neighbor, (or the bar across the street, I'm honestly not quite sure), for quite some time. Well, this connection is no longer available and it has made me sad beyond belief. This is because I have managed to become a TV junkie this year. I watch about three shows regularly and will watch about a dozen more if given the chance. The Walking Dead is the TV show I would watch if I was trapped on a desert island and could only watch one show. I am fine with not watching something the very day it comes out, but I need to watch it within the next day or two; otherwise, the office chatter will ruin it for me. Plus, The Walking Dead is awesome. And I think I have a secret crush on Shane. He is my favorite. I also watch Grimm. This show has quite a few people from the Buffy-verse attached to it, namely David Greenwalt. I loved Buffy and I love this show. I also started my MA in English with an emphasis on children's literature quite some time ago, which I WILL finish someday, so this show is right up my proverbial TV alley.

And while I am proclaiming all the greatness of the TV shows I have gotten myself addicted to, the downside of this new-found internet connection is that AT&T uses a proprietary modem, which they charge $100 for. This seems like a bit much for something that doesn't cost that much in the stores. AND I already own 2 modems. One for DSL (from about 800 years ago) and one for cable internet connection. Neither of these will work, apparently. So, they get my $100 for another modem to add to my collection. But the internet itself is only $20 a month and it will be included with my cell phone bill. This will put my total AT&T monthly charges somewhere around $110 including taxes and fees. I can handle that. I may regret this decision in the near future when gas prices rise above 4.00/gal, but right now I am okay with it.

Dealing With Scavenger Debt Collectors

I have been getting phone calls from what I believe to be a scavenger debt collector. It's no secret that I have not been the best with money in the past. I also didn't open my mail or answer the phone for about three years. During this period, I didn't answer the phone because I didn't have a phone. Now I am getting calls multiple times a day from a business called RPM. This business is known as being a scavenger debt collector. I have found multiple complaints online citing their predatory and borderline harassing debt collection practices. They do not comply with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, nor do they listen when simple requests are made.

They have called me multiple times a day for the past few weeks and even called me right at 9 pm one night, not completely illegal but so close that if I were in a different time zone they would have been in non-compliance.

At this point, I am almost 100 percent sure that they are continuing to call me about a debt they have no legal right to collect on. The only thing I can think of is past the statute of limitations for collection. This is pure conjecture on my part, given their record of purchasing up old cell phone bills and harassing consumers into payment, long past the time of legal collection.

In the state of Tennessee, the statute of limitations on open accounts, including credit cards, is 6 years.

As a consumer, I like to know my rights. As a renter, I feel the same sense of responsibility.

The first thing on my checklist for dealing with these bottom-feeders is:

1. If they actually get to talk to me, which they won't, I will request a letter stating the validity of the debt.

This is a good sample letter to send to a collection agency that will not get the hint. If they refuse to comply with this, or fail to do so within the allotted 30 days, on to step 2!

PS. The collection agency cannot charge you for digging up your old records.

2. If the collection agency fails to deliver the letter of the debts validity, or if the letter does not include one of three important bits of information:
a. proof that they actually own or have been assigned the debt
b. original statement or copies of from the original creditor
c. original signed loan agreement or copy of
AND if they are still reporting to credit bureaus, this step involves sending ANOTHER letter to the creditor.
The second letter includes: A copy of the certified letter receipt, a copy of the original letter sent to them, and a statement letting them know they are not in compliance with the FDCPA.

If they do not respond to this letter and do not remove the blemish from my credit report, I will proceed from there. But until then, I will keep avoiding them. Since I am almost positive they have no legal grounds to collect anything from me, it never hurts to put a little bit more time behind us. Plus, I can't afford to pay anything right now anyway. Not that I owe any money, but still.

Monday Morning Doppelgangers

A typical title for a typical day, I know.

And my thoughts were so rudely interrupted by the delivery person from Jason's Deli bringing catered lunch for a small group of employees here. That I won't get to eat. Sadface.

But anyways...

Celebrity doppelgangers? Do you have one?

Is there one celebrity that people randomly insist you look like? Do strangers like to tell you that you bear a remarkable resemblance to Catherine Deneuve?

We've all been there and yes, I have a celebrity doppelganger.

One I'm not sure quite sure about.

Apparently, I bear a remarkable resemblance to Sara Gilbert.

[Image from TV Fanatic]

I maintain that it is the hair. Anyone with long curly brown hair is going to look like someone else with long curly brown hair to people who are more used to looking at identifiable features than faces. We both have wild manes of curly brown hair.

I am still not sure how I feel about this comparison honestly.

Tax Time!

I was supposed to do yoga last night. I started out the month quite well, doing yoga twice this week already. My goal is to do some form of exercise three times a week. I just so happen to enjoy yoga and it is a simple routine I can fall into quite easily. BUT...

Yoga did not happen last night because I was too busy filing my taxes.

The last of my four W2's showed up in the mail yesterday and after I did my happy, I-can-finally-file-my-taxes dance, I sat down in front of the computer.

I lived in Alabama for part of the year last year. From January to half-way through August, I was staying in the armpit of America. My feelings towards the state haven't changed much since I lived there. I still loathe it. One of the reasons is because Alabama has a state income tax. Tennessee does not. I am legally a Tennessee resident and have been since I was born. This is where the problems started.

I filled out my federal return online. I do my own taxes every year since it's really not that difficult. My deductions are never more than the federal allotment, so it doesn't make sense for me to itemize things that will cause me to receive LESS money than the government would give me otherwise. And yes, I do know that I shouldn't be getting any money back, AT ALL, at the end of the year, but I know myself. I can use the money more efficiently by getting it back in a lump sum rather than making an extra 6.00 every week or whatever it ends up being.

The final sum that I should receive back this year is $1123! Very exciting.

Now what to do with the money.

And also, filing my Alabama state return is going to be painful. Even though Alabama's revenue website has all this flashy crap all over it about "filing your taxes for free through one of these websites," as a nonresident, I have to print a specific form, fill it out, mail it to Montgomery and wait for the illiterate masses in the office down there to get around to sending my refund check of 25 dollars. Yes. That's it. 25 whole dollars. Despite the fact that I am not, nor have I been a legal resident of the state of Alabama. And they withheld much much more than that from me in taxes last year. First world problems, I know. But dang. It hurts the soul to know that some place so freaking backwards can continue to cause me so much rage. Alabama is continuing to find ways to make me want to napalm it. It is the bane of my existence.

In Which I Talk About 401K's

I am older than I feel most days and one day I will be even older still.

I am 27 years old. I will be 28 this year. Somehow this does not feel true. I don't feel like it's been 10 years since I graduated from high school, or 2 years since I left college (I graduated in 2009 with 2 BA's after 6 years of school with a year off in the middle).

I do know that I am not going to get any younger and that time machines probably won't be invented in my lifetime, so I should start planning for my retirement now.

Actually, according to the financial blogs and advice columns I read almost daily, I probably should have started planning for it 10 years ago when I got my first job. But I didn't.

The earlier you start, the better off you will be. They all like to harp on this idea. It really boils down to the magic of compound interest. And I get it. I really do. I may be an English kid and not have a math friendly brain, but I get it.

The job I have now offers 401K contributions with a limited matching plan. They will do a full match of the first 2 percent of my contributions and half of the next 3 percent I contribute. Confused yet? It's not too hard.

They will put money equaling the first 2 percent of my pay into my account, as long as I put it into a company 401k. They will then give me half of the next 3 percent of my pay. It's like free money. My contributions are also pre-tax income, so they lower my taxable wages, saving me money every pay period as well.

Anything after that first 5 percent match is at my own discretion. They will not match anything above that, but I am free to contribute up to 50 percent of my entire pre-tax pay. Which still wouldn't net me the yearly limit on 401k contributions, but it's a nice thought. I don't make that much money. Nor could I live on only 50 percent of my paychecks. They are small enough as it is.

This is why changing my contributions from 5 percent (where I had been since December) to 6 percent only raises my biweekly contribution a whole 9 dollars. I can live without an extra 9.00 every two weeks. I probably waste more than that on fast food or spilling it out the side of my car when I failed to notice the auto shut-off on the gas pump had not shut off (much like I did Tuesday morning before work).

I think by taking out 10.00 (okay, so I'm rounding up here. It'll probably only be like 9.60 every 2 weeks but whatev) every 2 weeks and investing in my ability to age and not die before I hit the preferred retirement age, I am doing myself a favor. I am also not allowing myself to spend that 10.00 on things I don't need, like lunch at Arby's or more books for my vast and constantly expanding library.

I am already used to making a certain amount of money every two weeks anyway. My paychecks don't deviate too much. A few dollars here and there but nothing to really fret over. When the new year rolled over, my health insurance deductions went down because I switched to a lower cost, higher deductible plan. I never get sick and I hardly go to the doctor. It makes more sense for me to pay 10.00 biweekly than 46.00 biweekly. The benefits are practically the same too, just more deductible and I think a minor coverage difference of 10 percent. With a little as I get sick, this makes the most financial sense to me. Now I can only hope that I don't suddenly need a new spleen because damn. That would suck. AND cost me a fortune.

WageWorks: Can we still be friends?

I work for a company that has it's Nashville office located inside an office building that we do not own. There is a parking garage attached to this office building that we park in everyday. This is not a free service that the owners of the building provide to their tenants. The parking garage is maintained by Central Parking, a parking corporation with offices and lots located pretty much anywhere there are cars. They are one of the largest parking providers in Nashville. For the privilege of parking in the garage at my place of employment every day, I have to pay a monthly parking fee of 35 dollars. This is not much compared to the 8.00 a day parking fee they charge other drivers. I have a card that scans me in and out of the garage whenever I come and go.

Parking payments are due, well.. yesterday. I forgot about the monthly switchover since I was not at my usual desk for 2 days this week. I was downstairs taking part in e-learning courses about such awesome topics as "Learning" and "Stress Management" and "Customer Service Confrontation and Conflict." They were excellent. Let me tell you. I have 8 years in customer service and I couldn't get half the questions correct on the tests for the conflict course because they wanted things in a certain order. I call cockamamie.

But yeah, parking payments are due like now. I am responsible for collecting the payments for the employees in our company. The building usually wants the payments by the 5th of every month, at the latest. Since that falls on a Sunday, the 6th will be sufficient. I am actually taking a half day off on Monday the 6th to go BACK to the dentist, but that is another entry entirely.

Some of the colleagues here, the ones that are actually employed by a different branch of the company than most, get their monthly parking payments paid by a company called WageWorks. It is a nice service. They send a check every month for the amount of the parking payment and it is all taken directly from their pre-tax income. Now, the company I ACTUALLY work for, also offers WageWorks enrollment. I decided to take advantage of this, you know, since it is offered to me as one of the perks of my employment. I am all for pre-tax deductions. Anything that can lower my taxable income is golden in my book. So I went online, to their fancy website and enrolled myself using the guidelines set forth by my company. I clicked on the link to enroll as a new commuter needing parking payments set up. I didn't find my building listed within the payment options, so I clicked the happy button to add my building manually. I typed everything in. I made sure all the information was correct, double checked it against the WageWorks checks I have sitting here, on my desk, that were sent for this months parking for about half the employees at the office. The website refused to let me go any further than the "add your parking information" page. So I tried changing some things, using every line, putting the Suite information on that second line in the address section that no one ever uses. Nothing would satisfy this infernal website. So I did what every good customer does when something pisses me off. I called the customer service hotline.

I went through all the options in the automated calling system. I clicked the button for English. I punched the buttons for my birthdate, zip code, and social security number. I spelled out my name and address (because both of those things are not spelled correctly according to 98 percent of the world. THANKS MOM.)

The customer service lady asked me if I had tried to use the website. Well, yes, actually. ABOUT 12 TIMES. Which is why I called you.

So she manually added the parking garage and building address to their system, with me spelling out every single word because my fast talking and my southern accent make me hard to understand when I'm frustrated. I get it. I obliged. I have been there, lady on the other end of the phone. I feel your pain. But I just want to use your service like I was told I could 6 months ago when I started this job but I haven't needed to until now because I was carpooling until last week and then my carpool moved an hour away to an entirely different side of town and now I have to drive myself into work everyday BY MYSELF and dude, I just want to get this done now so I don't have to write a check every month because I know myself and I will forget and my checks still have my Alabama address on them and I haven't lived THERE since August of last year. Phew.

We get through all the address typing and double checking and I think we are good when she asks me if I know the account number for my building. No. I don't. Let me check the other WageWorks checks I have sitting right here. There isn't one listed.
Well, it must not exist in our system if there is no account number. There's nothing I can do.
I have checks sitting right here from your company. I know you can send them to me because you already have. See the conundrum here? So do I.
They insisted that they couldn't sign me up for the service since there was no account number and I'm obviously making this all up. Yes. Please take my 35.00 out of my paycheck for some imaginary parking privilege. That's EXACTLY what I want.

They finally figured out how to get the checks sent to my building and all is well in the land of parking. Except that it won't start until March. I still have to write a check for this month. I mean, I should have expected that. Parking was due yesterday and I am a bit forgetful when I'm off doing other stuff, but man. All that trouble for a single check.

I wonder how much money it's going to save me in taxes.

Pizza Hut Complaint

Well, if this isn't a lesson in frugality, I don't know what is.

I never eat out in restaurants, or order pizza or chinese or any of those things. I might have one meal a month that's from a restaurant. And I never pay for delivery. Well, last Friday, I was feeling rather lazy. So I ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut for 10.00 and added an order of boneless wings for 6.00. I chose the delivery option and like most people, I paid with my debit card since I never have cash on me. The total, including the 2.50 delivery fee, was 19.94. I tipped 3.00. Now this is where the whole incident gets tricky.

The total amount I found on my bank statement was 29.94. That's a tip of 10.00.

I am a nice person, yes. And I admit, that the 3.00 tip was less than 20 percent, but if you consider that 3.00 plus 2.50 equals 5.50 on a 20.00 bill, that's more than 20 percent. But there is no way in hell I would tip FIFTY FREAKING PERCENT on a large thin crust pepperoni pizza and honey bbq boneless wings. No delivery driver, excepting maybe Apollo, providing he brought me the food on a flaming chariot of delivery love, is that awesome.

I didn't see this little tidbit of information until I checked my bank account yesterday with the tip fully posted. So, I called Pizza Hut. They refused to believe that I only tipped 3.00 and "couldn't deal with the issue because they were really busy right then." By the way, I called them at 330 pm on a Tuesday afternoon. No Pizza Hut is ever too busy to deal with customer service. As a former retail worker, I know that the customer may not be your favorite thing to deal with, but one angry customer equals a lot of bad publicity you do not want, especially if they have friends they talk to AND SHARE THESE THINGS WITH.

So, I called them back today. And guess what they said...

The receipt clearly stated a tip of 10.00 with a smiley face. WHAT THE FUCK?

He had scribbled over my 3.00 tip, changed it to 10.00 total and added a smiley face. I DO NOT ADD SMILEY FACES TO RECEIPTS. I am not a smiley person. AND: The audacity of this driver is impressive. But that's beyond the original point.

So, Pizza Hut, where it the phone number for complaints. Oh wait, there isn't one. BECAUSE YOU SUCK and you don't want your customers telling you this.

I have called the store in question, yes. The best they can do is offer me a 7.00 credit on my account, to the store that originally thieved from me. Now, I am less than inclined to want to order food from there again, so this does me no good. At all.

If you have any other ideas, let me know. I am all for them.

I destroyed Christmas!

Yes, I did. We finally took down the office Christmas tree. And by we, I mean, the people who originally put it up. I sat at my desk, reading food blogs and laughing at their frustrations. Then they threw the tree away. A perfectly good, 2 year old, pre-lit Christmas tree that probably cost more than I make in a week.

And once again, I am flabbergasted at the sheer ability of this company to just throw insane amounts of money away BECAUSE THEY CAN.

And I present you with a terrible iPhone photo of said Christmas tree. There is nothing wrong with this. I work with lazy people who have too much money.

/sigh.

On a completely unrelated note: my savings account is not looking so pathetically small anymore. I have it set up to autodraft 50.00 every paycheck. Today I noticed that the amount was sitting at 124 dollars. That's an uneven amount. The OCD in my brain did not like it. So I transferred 6.00 over into my savings account, just to make it even.

I've also screwed up my checkbook system this year already. I cannot do math apparently. This is also made harder when I can't read my own handwriting. At some point in the last month I not only FORGOT to log an entire transaction, I somehow made 40.00 subtracted from 240.00 become 280.00. And then I kept up the subtractions from this snafu. Do not ask me how I did this. I have been sick since Christmas, but this was long before that.

It makes my brain hurt still.

So I wiped my entire check register clean and just started over from today, hoping that the mess will fix itself when everything clears my account in a few days.

This leaves me no money for the next 2 weeks.

Which I can deal with. I do need to put gas in my car, but I have enough for that. I also paid my utility bill today and rent, so I'm good on those for another month.

This weekend my plan is to read another book or two for the 50 book challenge.

I also want to go through my closet and get rid of all the clothes I know I will never wear. I have a goodwill pile started already, I just need to actually try things on and get rid of the things I will never wear.

Alright, goals for the weekend:
1. Read 1 maybe 2 books
2. Go through closet
3. Try new recipe (as yet determined)