The familiar things around me are so strange.
Yep yep... I'm once again avoiding the things I am supposed to be
doing by updating the ol' LJ... It's 11:22 on this cold Sunday
night and I actually finished my Sunday night discussion board post for
my online class... I should be reading the million and a half
pages that I have to read by tomorrow at 3pm, but live journal seems
like a much better idea right now. Plus, it seems like years have
past since my last update, and i'm sure you all want to know how i've
been passing the time... Right?
Right now, all I can think about is how expensive these past couple weeks have been for me. First off, it turns out that the folks who broke into my apartment over the holidays did get more than my DVD player... Ya see, I recently recieved 3 letters from a collection agency informing me that I had written 3 bad checks at a Winn-Dixie... a store that I haven't been to in years. So the collection agency wants me to pay them the amounts that the checks were written for, plus a $25 dollar fee for each check, which comes to like $250 or so... Then, I checked with my bank and it turns out that they took an additional $140 dollars from me in NSF fees. That's a whole lot of money, if you ask me. I contacted the police, as instructed, to have this information added to the already-filed police report so that I could get the money back from the bank, and get the collection agency jerks off my back... All I got was a runaround, which resulted in me leaving a message at what I was told was the right department... It's been nearly a week and they have yet to return the phone call. Also, I had the collection agency send me copies of the bad checks. Funny shit, I tell ya... The person who forged my name, didn't even spell it right... and it was printed at the top of the check. Idiots.
In other financial news, I did get the van back from Gainesville... It started, but the brakes were totally fucked, and of course, it rained the entire drive back to Tallahassee. Once I got it home, I had it towed to Bob's Auto, my favorite place in the world. I knew it was gonna be pricey when the AAA tow guy said, "Damn, these brakes are totally destroyed!" My friends over at Bob's took 2 days to fix the brakes, which cost me $600... Then, they called me to let me know about a problem that I previously thought was the transmission on its way out. Boy was I wrong... Apparently, my engine was rocking back and forth and was about to fall out of the van (which would most like cause quite an explosion), as it was missing some sort of bracket that holds an engine inside the car. This took them 2 more days and cost another $200. So if you're not keeping score here, that's a whopping $800, which is about half of what I paid for the piece of shit van. And to top it off, there are even more problems that I didn't have fixed. Nice.
I have an appointment with a surgeon in Miami this Wednesday, and I had planned on renting a car... But of course I ran into troubles with that. I don't have that much remaining credit on my credit card, and all the rental places require that you have enough on your credit card to pay. My mom agreed to put it on her card and let me pay her in cash... but the car rental place wouldn't allow that. So this afternoon, I paid off the credit card that I have, which was $345 and made a $900 payment on one of my other cards (that was lost with my wallet) that is maxed out. Then I realized that the payments will take up to 5 days to clear and that I won't be able to rent a car. I decided that I'd risk taking the van, but that would require me getting insurance since it had been cancelled a month ago... I think I got the least amount of coverage legally possible and that cost me $99 up front. So this whole thing is another $1345 of my loan money, which when added to the car repair expenses totals $2145 (if my calculations are correct). There is also the $350 check I wrote a couple days ago for rent, which brings the total up to $2495. And when I get to south FL, I have to pay my mom back ($300) and Matt ($600) for borrowed money. I think that brings us to $3695. Good times, great fuckin oldies, I tell ya...
So I think i'm gonna leave here tomorrow night after my class, so I can drive part of the way and get there earlier on Tuesday. I really hope my car makes it this time... Anyways, i'll be down there and at least that's a good thing... even though i'm getting sick again...
Here's the picture update of how i've been wasting my life in recent days...
This picture about sums it up... Various sleep aids, whiskey, adderall, cold medicine, pain medicine and the $40 worth of herbal remedies I purchased in Gainesville in an effort to relieve my recent gout attack.
The shoes I call my gout shoes...
Trip to Gainesville...
I did get to see Toys That Kill, which was awesome.
Lastly, my first attempt at using photoshop...
Could someone teach me how to properly use this program?
Ok, its after midnight and I have a fuckload of reading to do before tomorrow... It has been fun killing time with you again. Hope to you south Floridians this week(end). I just hope I make it there alive... cross your fingers... you got em crossed, Matty? Humph... fuck.
Right now, all I can think about is how expensive these past couple weeks have been for me. First off, it turns out that the folks who broke into my apartment over the holidays did get more than my DVD player... Ya see, I recently recieved 3 letters from a collection agency informing me that I had written 3 bad checks at a Winn-Dixie... a store that I haven't been to in years. So the collection agency wants me to pay them the amounts that the checks were written for, plus a $25 dollar fee for each check, which comes to like $250 or so... Then, I checked with my bank and it turns out that they took an additional $140 dollars from me in NSF fees. That's a whole lot of money, if you ask me. I contacted the police, as instructed, to have this information added to the already-filed police report so that I could get the money back from the bank, and get the collection agency jerks off my back... All I got was a runaround, which resulted in me leaving a message at what I was told was the right department... It's been nearly a week and they have yet to return the phone call. Also, I had the collection agency send me copies of the bad checks. Funny shit, I tell ya... The person who forged my name, didn't even spell it right... and it was printed at the top of the check. Idiots.
In other financial news, I did get the van back from Gainesville... It started, but the brakes were totally fucked, and of course, it rained the entire drive back to Tallahassee. Once I got it home, I had it towed to Bob's Auto, my favorite place in the world. I knew it was gonna be pricey when the AAA tow guy said, "Damn, these brakes are totally destroyed!" My friends over at Bob's took 2 days to fix the brakes, which cost me $600... Then, they called me to let me know about a problem that I previously thought was the transmission on its way out. Boy was I wrong... Apparently, my engine was rocking back and forth and was about to fall out of the van (which would most like cause quite an explosion), as it was missing some sort of bracket that holds an engine inside the car. This took them 2 more days and cost another $200. So if you're not keeping score here, that's a whopping $800, which is about half of what I paid for the piece of shit van. And to top it off, there are even more problems that I didn't have fixed. Nice.
I have an appointment with a surgeon in Miami this Wednesday, and I had planned on renting a car... But of course I ran into troubles with that. I don't have that much remaining credit on my credit card, and all the rental places require that you have enough on your credit card to pay. My mom agreed to put it on her card and let me pay her in cash... but the car rental place wouldn't allow that. So this afternoon, I paid off the credit card that I have, which was $345 and made a $900 payment on one of my other cards (that was lost with my wallet) that is maxed out. Then I realized that the payments will take up to 5 days to clear and that I won't be able to rent a car. I decided that I'd risk taking the van, but that would require me getting insurance since it had been cancelled a month ago... I think I got the least amount of coverage legally possible and that cost me $99 up front. So this whole thing is another $1345 of my loan money, which when added to the car repair expenses totals $2145 (if my calculations are correct). There is also the $350 check I wrote a couple days ago for rent, which brings the total up to $2495. And when I get to south FL, I have to pay my mom back ($300) and Matt ($600) for borrowed money. I think that brings us to $3695. Good times, great fuckin oldies, I tell ya...
So I think i'm gonna leave here tomorrow night after my class, so I can drive part of the way and get there earlier on Tuesday. I really hope my car makes it this time... Anyways, i'll be down there and at least that's a good thing... even though i'm getting sick again...
Here's the picture update of how i've been wasting my life in recent days...
This picture about sums it up... Various sleep aids, whiskey, adderall, cold medicine, pain medicine and the $40 worth of herbal remedies I purchased in Gainesville in an effort to relieve my recent gout attack.
The shoes I call my gout shoes...
Trip to Gainesville...
I did get to see Toys That Kill, which was awesome.
Lastly, my first attempt at using photoshop...
Could someone teach me how to properly use this program?
Ok, its after midnight and I have a fuckload of reading to do before tomorrow... It has been fun killing time with you again. Hope to you south Floridians this week(end). I just hope I make it there alive... cross your fingers... you got em crossed, Matty? Humph... fuck.