Sean and I call this “$50 doughnuts” based on the fact that whenever one or the other of us has screwed up and allowed a checking account to go negative it seems like the item that actually pushes it over the edge is always something jackass like stopping at the 7-11 for a $2 drink or picking up $6 worth of doughnuts on Saturday morning. You get the idea.
Thanks to the magic of online banking, I’ve actually watched my checking account get overdrawn in real time. It was at 2 AM (presumably midnight wherever their servers are actually located) on the day that I get paid. I watched one check/debit after another get taken from my account, with the last one putting me in the red. Immediately thereafter, my direct deposit was processed, leaving ample money to cover that already withdrawn. So $50+ in fees, all because of processing order. I was not a happy camper. :mad:
About five years ago we went through a two or three week period in which, due to our bank’s policy of never disallowing a debit card transaction to go through in order to “spare our clients the embarassment,” we ended up about $1,000 in the red when all was said and done. It didn’t matter how many deposits we made, something ALWAYS managed to get through before we made the deposit. So we’d end up with an overdraft charge TWICE because, say, we’d deposited enough money to cover the bill we knew was coming, but the bank didn’t process that transaction on time so it took three tries for the bill to be paid, etc. Not only that, but what little we had in the savings account got eaten up by the automatic withdrawal to cover these expenses, which overdrafted our savings account and instituted an under the minimum balance fee on that account. All because of a policy that didn’t even show up on the bank’s fine print.
I tell you, that was a fun month! The best part may have been when the Mrs. or I would talk to the bank and they’d go out of their way to make US feel like scum for mishandling our account, rather than doing as we asked and discontinuing the “anti-embarassment” clause on our debit account.
Needless to say, we took our money to a different financial institution after that. Solved the problem too.
Not been on the thread for awhile. Various sucky things happened to me, mostly being unwell, but sorry to hear about all the craaaap you guys have had to go through recently
I am working in a group project for History, and we meant yesterday. We were figureing out our next meeting for today. I told them I could not do Sunday at five because of church. Then, I was going to go out with some friends and get some free spaghetti. Free spaghetti! i’ve been looking forward to this free spaghetti for a month!
Then I get a text from someone in my group asking if we could push it back to five. I said I thought we agreed on three…because we did aggree on three, and that I really can’t do five. He texted me that he talked the other two in our group who said they can push it back to five, and if I couldn’t come, that was okay.
Of course, I have to come. I have to pull my own weight So, I write him back and reminded him that I said already I could not do five, but said I would be there at five and just cancall my plans. He said “oh thanks I appropriate it!”
So now, I have to go to Church at 9, and I don’t get to eat my free [/b]Spaghetti. 
If it’s wacky family stories you want, I got a million of those as well. But I’ve also got thots and prayers, which are probably more useful. It’s good to hear you’re still sticking by your family on this one, AT.
It good to know I’m not the only one swimming in the red, either. My landlord typically takes way too long to deposit our rent checks, and I forgot to check to see if he’d done it before I paid some bills last week. So now I’m in the negative, and this week’s paycheck might bring me up to zero.
Fortunately, I picked up extra hours at my PBS station–doing grunt cleaning work around the studio, but it’s made the scheduler so happy that she’s determined to shower me with more work in the near future. I’ve got a few other lines in the water, job wise, too, and I just heard from someone this morning who might hire me to run the front desk at his gym (new, steady job + free gym membership, who can argue?). We’ll see how it plays out.
Again, Thanks to everyone for your words.
Glimfeather, I’ll be glad to trade wacky family stories with you. Next time I’m out in the midwest (Maybe in 2010, budget willling) we’ll get together for a long week and trade stories.
Em, if you ever come to Australia I will cook you all the spaghetti you can eat. I could try to courier some to you but it might be cold by the time it gets to Ohio
I was playing and finding homes for dogs.The door din not latch and it hit me in the head.
One more rejection letter. This year’s turning out to be a mirror image of my job search last year. I didn’t get a full time gig at the end of last year, but at least I was getting phone calls which told me people were interested. This year? NOTHING. BUPKIS. ZILCH.
I was going to compose, but now I wonder if I should bother.
It’s insanely tough out there.
I was going to compose, but now I wonder if I should bother.
Well, composition doesn’t cost anything. Do it.
It’s tough, sure, but ten years on a job search really gets old. I really, REALLY empathize with Laura Roslin this week.
Composition doesn’t cost anything, sure, but the hit to the ego takes a lot out of me in that area, especially when I’m working on a piece that, to me, now represents the past, but which I need to finish because I’ve made a commitment to two groups and a soloist to do it, a commitment that’s been in place for three years. Thanks for the pep talk, though. I’ll get over it, I’m sure.
Now, to add insult to injury, I seem to be picking up a stomach bug that’s been bouncing around my household for three or four days. I’m told it’s going to be a long night. Oy!
I definitely got a stomach bug. It’s knocked me way the hell out. Been sleeping off and on most of the day and feeling like craaaaaap, although I think I’m a little better. While my tummy’s still a bit rumbly, it’s holding the little bit of food I’ve had today down and the chills appear to be gone, at least for now.
Ugh!
I think i’ll have to choose who in my department gets laid off soon. Not my choice for the layoffs but corporate life can suck. I got them bypassed for the first two rounds of layoffs. but there’s no way around it this time.
I feel like a complete douche
I feel so bad for them
The Chicago Tribune article about the “Sometimes a Great Notion” episode had the BSG writer talking about the book Sometimes a Great Notion, which is about a guy, Hank, suffering a parade of terrible losses from the river he lives next to. He talked about author Ken Kesey’s notes on the early manuscript: “Try to make Hank quit.”
Anyhow, it feels like someone is trying to Make Armando Quit. Don’t quit.
Boomer, don’t quit either. Nice new avatar; is it inspired by the post?
ps. Re: the sickness…
Both the nieces are in the hospital. Sam has RSV and Elizabeth has RSV and pneumonia. They’re on IV’s, oxygen, and hopefully, antibiotics.
What’s RSV?
I hope they get better soon.
Respiratory Syncytial Virus (http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/lung/rsv.html) most likely. Nasty stuff, I hope they are better soon.
My day went south, but in an odd way. The last contract I had expired and I have been looking for a new job. I am doing some independant work for my wife’s company and I get a phone call offering a job… but it is a call center job. I have been working hard for several years to keep out of call centers because if I don’t keep gaining infrastructure experience I have a good chance of not being able to get non-call center jobs in the future.
I have to take the job to put food on the table, but it is almost exactly the job I have trying to avoid. I can only hope to find something better quickly.
Sigh…