Wednesday, August 09, 2006
This is your brain on meltdown....
If this post rambles more than usual, please forgive me. I'm exhausted, my brain is fried, and I'm not sleeping well. When I do sleep, I have nightmares about plane crashes, going bankrupt because the house didn't sell, etc. I must be stressed, ya think?
Got an e-mail from the webmistress of But You Don't Look Sick yesterday requesting weekly submissions of articles. I originally volunteered to be contributing writer a year and a half ago because she only asked for monthy contributions, which I felt I could handle. But committing to weekly....um, wouldn't that be similar to having a job? If I was confident I could write well every week, I would look into freelancing for pay instead of being on SSDI. But to be fair, I do put something in this blog almost every day, and no one's paying me for that. And there is a new section on the site for TV/movie reviews, which is something I already do right here. So maybe I'll just copy some of my blog entries and submit them as reviews for But You Don't Look Sick. I mean, I am already the cut and paste queen. Many of my posts here are actually reprints of e-mails I have sent to friends and family, or else I compose the entry during the day when I have to be offline and post it at night when I can be online. A lot of that stems not from laziness, but from limited use of my hands to type and limited time I can sit at a computer desk. So maybe it wouldn't be such a stretch to just spread my words around a little more. Let the whole world know what I thought of "Pirates of the Caribbean" instead of limiting it to readers of this blog. It's just the committment part that makes me hesitate. I would rather seem callous and not commit than make a promise that there's a chance I can't keep.
Found the form I needed to get reimbursement for my flexible spending account expenses I incurred in June and July. Problem is, even though the required documentation is here with me, the form must be signed by Dan! So I filled out eight forms (one for each provider of service) except for the required signature, attached the necessary receipts, and mailed them to Dan so he can in turn mail them to the flexible spending account company after he's signed off on them. A rather pain in the ass way to get back $900, but sometimes, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
But I will admit that the knowledge of money (eventually) coming my way can be dangerous. I managed to rationalize a trip to Archiver's, the local scrapbooking store. Now, I DID need page covers for my recently completed album, and I DID have a 25 percent off coupon, but just setting foot in that store is akin to handing a stoner a joint and asking them not to inhale. When I was working, I could go in there and spend $100 and not bat an eyelash. So there I am surrounded by adorable stickers, beautiful background paper, themed album packs....you get the idea. I made a beeline for the page covers, but couldn't bring myself to just tiptoe to the cash register with them, not yet. The clearance bins were beckoning. I managed to escape temptation there. But then I saw a whole rack of new kinds of adhesives, and I found myself browsing and making the circuit around the store. I oooh'd and aaaah'd over the purple background paper with butterflies on it, almost talked myself into buying a wedding themed packet (for my sister's wedding photos last year), then saw stickers for announcing a baby girl. I decided I did need the stickers for my niece's birth announcement. Then I found a really enticing packet of all occasion background paper, stickers and lettering, but I made myself put it away. I realized that a simple packet of non-patterned paper would be both cheaper and would have many more uses, especially since I had almost no non-patterned paper left at home. I picked that up and was distracted by something else, but then I started getting really awful back spasms and realized I had probably been in that store for half an hour! I marched myself over to the checkout so there would still be a chance of me being able to get back to the car without collapsing. With the coupon, I spent less than $20 total for the cover sheets, stickers and background paper. Just buying a single album costs more than that. So I'm vacillating between feeling guilty that I went and proud that I spent so little.
Thought I had my problems solved with the company that is storing my belongings, but apparently not. In June, I was charged for five storage units when I was only using two. Through a major brain fart on my part, perhaps thinking I was paying for multiple months of service, I paid the full bill. Then when I got the bill for July for five units, I realized they were expecting me to pay two and a half times the proper amount every month. I called the billing office, which was in Texas, and they didn't have a clue, but they connnected me to someone local, and she apologized for the error and said she would credit my account for what I had overpaid. Then this month, not only did I get a bill for two storage units when I should have credit for half this month's bill already, I got ANOTHER statement saying I was overdue on the previous month! So, in essence, they are STILL charging me for the amount five units would have cost, when all I owe them is half the monthly charge for August. I don't think it's the local lady's fault; I'm pretty sure it's the Texas billing office that doesn't have its shit together.
Have more to say, but my hands and exhausted body insist that it's bedtime.
Got an e-mail from the webmistress of But You Don't Look Sick yesterday requesting weekly submissions of articles. I originally volunteered to be contributing writer a year and a half ago because she only asked for monthy contributions, which I felt I could handle. But committing to weekly....um, wouldn't that be similar to having a job? If I was confident I could write well every week, I would look into freelancing for pay instead of being on SSDI. But to be fair, I do put something in this blog almost every day, and no one's paying me for that. And there is a new section on the site for TV/movie reviews, which is something I already do right here. So maybe I'll just copy some of my blog entries and submit them as reviews for But You Don't Look Sick. I mean, I am already the cut and paste queen. Many of my posts here are actually reprints of e-mails I have sent to friends and family, or else I compose the entry during the day when I have to be offline and post it at night when I can be online. A lot of that stems not from laziness, but from limited use of my hands to type and limited time I can sit at a computer desk. So maybe it wouldn't be such a stretch to just spread my words around a little more. Let the whole world know what I thought of "Pirates of the Caribbean" instead of limiting it to readers of this blog. It's just the committment part that makes me hesitate. I would rather seem callous and not commit than make a promise that there's a chance I can't keep.
Found the form I needed to get reimbursement for my flexible spending account expenses I incurred in June and July. Problem is, even though the required documentation is here with me, the form must be signed by Dan! So I filled out eight forms (one for each provider of service) except for the required signature, attached the necessary receipts, and mailed them to Dan so he can in turn mail them to the flexible spending account company after he's signed off on them. A rather pain in the ass way to get back $900, but sometimes, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
But I will admit that the knowledge of money (eventually) coming my way can be dangerous. I managed to rationalize a trip to Archiver's, the local scrapbooking store. Now, I DID need page covers for my recently completed album, and I DID have a 25 percent off coupon, but just setting foot in that store is akin to handing a stoner a joint and asking them not to inhale. When I was working, I could go in there and spend $100 and not bat an eyelash. So there I am surrounded by adorable stickers, beautiful background paper, themed album packs....you get the idea. I made a beeline for the page covers, but couldn't bring myself to just tiptoe to the cash register with them, not yet. The clearance bins were beckoning. I managed to escape temptation there. But then I saw a whole rack of new kinds of adhesives, and I found myself browsing and making the circuit around the store. I oooh'd and aaaah'd over the purple background paper with butterflies on it, almost talked myself into buying a wedding themed packet (for my sister's wedding photos last year), then saw stickers for announcing a baby girl. I decided I did need the stickers for my niece's birth announcement. Then I found a really enticing packet of all occasion background paper, stickers and lettering, but I made myself put it away. I realized that a simple packet of non-patterned paper would be both cheaper and would have many more uses, especially since I had almost no non-patterned paper left at home. I picked that up and was distracted by something else, but then I started getting really awful back spasms and realized I had probably been in that store for half an hour! I marched myself over to the checkout so there would still be a chance of me being able to get back to the car without collapsing. With the coupon, I spent less than $20 total for the cover sheets, stickers and background paper. Just buying a single album costs more than that. So I'm vacillating between feeling guilty that I went and proud that I spent so little.
Thought I had my problems solved with the company that is storing my belongings, but apparently not. In June, I was charged for five storage units when I was only using two. Through a major brain fart on my part, perhaps thinking I was paying for multiple months of service, I paid the full bill. Then when I got the bill for July for five units, I realized they were expecting me to pay two and a half times the proper amount every month. I called the billing office, which was in Texas, and they didn't have a clue, but they connnected me to someone local, and she apologized for the error and said she would credit my account for what I had overpaid. Then this month, not only did I get a bill for two storage units when I should have credit for half this month's bill already, I got ANOTHER statement saying I was overdue on the previous month! So, in essence, they are STILL charging me for the amount five units would have cost, when all I owe them is half the monthly charge for August. I don't think it's the local lady's fault; I'm pretty sure it's the Texas billing office that doesn't have its shit together.
Have more to say, but my hands and exhausted body insist that it's bedtime.
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