more on things

finally finished my paper on tuesday night, just in time for nick’s major freak-out about having to fly out west on a quasi-forced visit to see his blood relatives. major freak-out. it took a solid two hours for his upsettedness to fully play out and for me to then calm him down. i barely got him packed up, in bed, and organized in time to catch his plane yesterday morning. luckily he had a very smooth trip out.

anyway. tuesday an ‘unknown number’ called me about a dozen times. of course i knew who it was. the number left a message, and then an ohio number tried me in the evening, then left a message. and because i was so stressed out on monday that i gave the lady at NES nick’s number, he received about the same number of calls i did that day. yesterday there were only a few calls, but maybe only one message (haven’t listened to any of them).

yesterday i sent off a validation letter, certified mail. today i actually received the letter they’re supposed to send stating the amount owed and all that stuff. it looks like an acquisition company may have taken them over, for there is something about HILCO. and for once they seem to be doing everything by the book.

letter still seems threatening, though. has a status of ‘prelegal,’ they also claim to be able to provide, upon request, the name and address of the original creditor. i am wondering, though, if they have a copy of the original card application. the bank that issued it no longer exists, having been taken over by wamu and then by chase. 

lord. that letter shook me up. and the entire business of dealing with nes so far (and mind you, we’re only talking about four days) is beginning to make me angry. i wish i had had the presence of mind to record the conversation on monday. it was a bit shady. one of nick’s unofficial projects over the next two weeks is to find a lawyer, just in case.

two of my projects next week are to return my many library books to school, and request a financial aid increase for next semester. this collections crap has sort of decided the course of next semester for me: settle this bit of credit card debt, continue working at starbucks (i had forgotten it’s not half as bad when i’m a student; also, my store is pretty great as far as that goes), get the financial aid increase, save my money like crazy (for me this works better when i start out with a large sum), and then, by may or so, begin paying down my student loans.

despite my presumably poor credit report (i’ll have to check into that soon), i’ll be in school for at least another four to six years. at the rate i’m going, i’ll need another five semesters (not including this spring) to get my second master’s, plus getting my doctorate, at which time i dearly hope i’ll be teaching, and/or getting a stipend of some kind. if i’m careful about managing my money the next few years, and put my tax returns (at least this year’s, anyway) towards student loans, i think i could almost get rid of my undergraduate loans by the time i get my PhD.

nick and lynn have a lot more experience with money than me. the plan is, once she moves down, she’s HFO (household financial officer), in charge of fairly collecting money for rent and utilities, which will mean the end of ‘pay what you feel like’ each month, which is kind of the current system. also, i have a small hunch she could probably keep me on a budget, as she is even more frugal than i am.

freed from the busywork of paying my own bills, and with mike’s willingness to help clean and cook, i have faith that our household will be fairly efficient most of the time, with everyone getting to do the domestic chores they like the most, and providing the students among us with the time and space and support to get our work done.

that is my hope anyway.

speaking of doing work we like-i am now off to start cooking some dinner for myself and cleaning my shower.