There’s a meme floating around and I’d be quite remiss by not taking advantage of it.
Take note, however, that this assessment is based on my extremely limited capacity as a proofreader in my current position for a company that will remain nameless.
Click on the image for a larger version.
You like? Make your own at uthinkido.com but you might want to screengrab your image (like I did above) before you save it. Both of my copies were pixelated after downloading so I had to do them again. Lame!
We woke up to a pleasant surprise this morning: our tax monies were in our checking account! We had gotten them done last Saturday and we were told that the deposits would be made in 7-14 days with the State check being the first.
The real surprise was that both checks were in this morning.
We got a decent sum from both of our returns mainly because I worked all of 2011, when compared to 2010 when I only worked the last three months of the year and had to claim nine months of unemployment checks.
The difference was such that we planned to do the only reasonable thing with our return: pay off our credit cards.
During my time of unemployment, we had to make some sacrifices and skipping credit card payments was the norm. We paid what we could, when we could but the calls kept coming.
Naturally, fees got tacked on and before we knew it, the monthly payments were out of control and then the letters, calls, and emails starting arriving.
We put a sudden end to all of that today.
Aside from Ann’s Visa card, all of the others were specialty cards for places like Dell and whatnot. Ann called to take care of her cards while I was at work and I handled mine when I got home.
HSN stuck to their settlement of 60% of the balance, Old Navy was happy with the amount I offered to settle, and I talked Dell down from $1,500 to $900. Yes, I know our credit will take a hit but with all of these being paid, we have no more credit card debt.
Zip. None. The only thing we have are car payments, utilities, and a few other things like car insurance and our TV/Internet bundle. But as long as we don’t dig ourselves into another hole, we’re good as gold and will take some time to get rebuild our credit scores.
Part of the fun of paying off bills is calling and trying to get the issue resolved. Most of the time, the person who answers has no clue and will either transfer you to the appropriate department, where you will have to enter all of your information again – via voice or keypad – and be put on hold again. It’s frustrating.
This was the case with Old Navy. Ann had already called to explain everything and all they needed was my approval to settle. There was such a delay in the connection (to India) that I had to repeat almost everything I said and using Skype, the delay was even worse.
I had to repeat my name twice. When asked a third time, I sighed and with voice that resembled a radio personality, I proudly proclaimed, “Yes! This is David Moreno, the one and only.” The Old Navy rep laughed, even though I wanted to continue with “Every knee shall bow to his magnificence!”
Done and done. Paid. Then I called Dell.
Their original offer was a bit much so I countered with my own, which they accepted. During the process, as the rep was asking for my checking account information he asked, “Could you repeat your routing number, sir? My monitor just went blank.”
“Is it a Dell,” I sarcastically asked. I was met with a 10-second silence and I’m pretty sure I saw those daggers starting to come through my Skype line. I muted the line and turned to Ann, laughing.
“I really don’t think he liked that one.”
Meh. At the end of the day, everything is paid off.
And I’m sure the credit card companies will miss my sarcasm.
As I mentioned in my last post, I left the office early last Friday at the urging of my supervisor and boss. I decided to pack things in around 11:00 am so I could get at least complete a half-shift.
It’s a good thing I did.
Since working at our last building a few miles from our current location, I had gotten into the habit spending my 30-minute lunch in my car just to relax and get some peace and quiet. Originally, however, I started doing this in order to escape the awful stench of microwaved seafood items that many at the office had a tendency to warm up in the employee lounge.
And for the most part, peace and quite is exactly what I get.
But if I had stayed my full shift on Friday, the solitude may have been shattered by the wailing of sirens and I could have been witness to a tragedy that was discussed today during our Monday meeting.
Law professor Katherine Darmer, 47, fell to her death from the parking structure where I spend my lunch in my car. Granted, the time of her fall – at 11:30 am and not yet determined an accident or suicide – is before my scheduled lunch time but the just the thought of it is upsetting. I had heard that some co-workers witnessed the crime scene as they left the building for their lunches and I’m quite sure it was traumatic for them.
I can’t speculate what may or may not have been going through Darmer’s mind before the incident occurred not do I want to pontificate my personal thoughts on suicide. I don’t want to pretend I know it all and think of ways how it could have been an accident instead. This isn’t the time or place for that.
After reading a few articles, it became apparent to me that Darmer was an incredibly smart, passionate, caring mother and wife and will be greatly missed by all those who knew, worked with, or had the pleasure of being under her tutelage. Anybody who is a staunch advocate for marriage equality definitely has a big heart – and is alright in my book.
If her death is ruled an accident, then a tragedy has taken place. And if a suicide, I can only hope that Darmer has somehow found peace.
My thoughts and condolences go out to her family.
UPDATE 2/21/12: The Orange County Coroner’s Office has officially ruled it a suicide.
