The Cat Has Returned...

So things were crazy for a while there, but I was able to go on my trip.

I left on Sunday after work with $400 in my bank account. I had a wonderful time. I almost didn't want to come home. (If it weren't for Zy I might not have XD) Michigan is beautiful!!! It dwarfed the pride I hold for my local area... Humboldt County has a beautiful setting, but the actual cities here are ugly... everything is rural, old and in poor repair. Michigan may be flat land, but the trees and lakes and Gothic architecture every where you look made it one of the most breath taking places I've ever seen.

I wish Eureka and Arcata would plant maples, or something similar like this... it was just so stunning to look at. The hotel was gorgious too. I had the prettiest pool view, and each of the beds had giant body pillows as well as feather pillows.



(That's my stuffed cat, Pixipoo, on the pillow there. Zy gave her too me for Christmas 2 years ago and I take her everywhere with me when I travel without him. She's from the anime FLCL :3)

I did lots of site seeing with Tyler and Nichole (the dorks I went to visit in the first place). Although we didn't end up getting to see the castle museum - which as a drafting major I'd really wanted to visit - we did go mall hopping, see Hancock again, and visit the Saginaw Zoo. I adore animals, and since our crappy local zoo -aside from peacocks and some primates - is mostly limited to animals that live in my back yard anyway (ground hogs, brown bears, ravens and owls) I was really exited to see the animals they had up close: a pack of wolfs, a bald eagle, a serval, some macaws, a pair of aligators and a "waddle" of penquins!

I was so sad when it was time to go home... this was my first vacation in about 4 years where I actually went anywhere (Ozzfest 2004/5?)... and the first since I was 12 in which we flew (Disneyland 1997). As an adult, it was my very first Me-Trip and my first irl meeting of those two *points at the photo above*. I've known Tyler for about 10 years (since 1999 or so) as part of my online nerd circle (anime, rpg, random dorkness). It didn't feel like it was enough time, but I did miss my Zy, and the obligations of school and work can only be postponed for so long after all.

Speaking of finances, I was very pleased with Priceline. I work at ACV Eureka Airport and when I very first decided to take this trip, I just walked over to United and asked "How much, destination/duration/date?" and got quoted about $1500 round trip... 4 months in advance! Wtf, screw that! So I went online and did a shit-ton of shopping around. Priceline was about $100 cheaper then anyone else, so I went with them.

I was relieved that I was actually able to get a package (round trip flight + hotel) for only $850... but I was downright impressed that said hotel was a Sheraton and I had window seats on each of the 6 jets I was on. Not to sound like a walking advertisement, but holy... I got constant emails letting me know if anything changed in the slightest, and was able to just print out my tickets without having to wait in line the day I left. The only lines I had to deal with were security and since I was never seated lower then "Seating 2" (which is the first people they let on after 1st class and business) those lines were relatively short. Best Service Ever!

(My flight from SanFran had this neat little personalized in-flight movie and navigation system that I could flip between at whim. So Cool!)

There was a gigantic thunder storm Wednesday evening. It was just the icing on the cake as far as first time experiences went; I'd never been close enough to a storm to actually see the lightening streaks and I was in awe... until Tyler pointed out my flight might be affected by it considering that it was in all of 6 hours. Then they issues a "Severe Thunder Storm Warning." Crap...

It passed a few hours before my flight though, and I hung out at Nicholes house until about 3 am (I had to be through security screening by 4:30). By around 5am I was in the air on my way home. The flight from Chicago to San Fran was 4.5 hours. I'd slept through it on the way in, but going home I stayed up and watched the view. America is pretty freaky looking from 38,000 feet.

Actually, it's kind of strange how vast and unpopulated most of the Midwest is. I think I saw maybe 6 cities big enough to be visible in the whole 2000 mile flight. Other then that it was a bunch of mountains and desert. Considering how many people are all panicked about overpopulation, it was kind of comforting to see so much raw terrain.

I got home around 1:30pm on Thursday, but as far as my body was concerned it was 4:30 and I'd been in transit for 13 hours. I guess that's what jet-lag means? Reguardless, I hit the pillow as soon as I was home and had finished emailing people to let them know I was home safe. My bed had been made before I left, but Zy had slept in it since so it had that perfect, gently tumbled feeling comfort too it. Either that or I was just really, really tired.

The next day, I checked the mail. The $830 check was here, thank whoever, but the one that was supposedly mailed on the 1st is still MIA. It's been more then 10 days though, so I can put a tracking number on it Monday. I think, since this trip was supposed to be celebrating my getting 100% out of debt, I'll take the bastards advice and stop depending on that... try to live off the $600 a month I make at my after school job and anything extra will be just that... extra. That'll be nice.

Anyway... TL;DR - I'm home, I'm safe, I'm not completely broke, I made memories and took a ton of photos... I had fun and it was just about everything I'd hoped for.

My Head Hurts... (Day of Shittiness Part 2)

My trip is on Sunday. I've never been to Michigan before, but according to the research I did for my trip, and the people I know there, it's defiantly one of those places you only want to visit.

It's a conservationist state with a sucky public school system, an overly strict college system, and a staunch view on most liberal things such as free reproductive care.

I know someone who was expelled for failing 2 classes, (Expelled... as in he has to move to a different county to go back to classes!) and Planned Parenthood over there gets almost no public funding. :( I was going to stop by while I was over there for, well... stuff, and I called ahead. The first lady I spoke to took the tone of "Omg you want free reproductive care?! What a slut!" when I asked her about the funding *It's all FREE in California o.O* and the second lady I spoke too simply said "The state doesn't give us any funding."

What's cool about Michigan (especially the Saginaw/Bay City area I'm visiting) is that it's a very historical / artsy community; they have several museums, including an interactive science museum, a castle - which is open to tours and houses it's own exhibits on the time period in which it was built - and a ZOO complete with penguins!!!

I can't wait to see the penguins! It's $7 to get in, but meh... that's manageable.

But, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to go...

I was so scared my trip was going to get ruined earlier this week! I'm a Chapter 35 VA Dependant college student. (For those of you who aren't nerdy enough to either know, or google it, that means my father is a fully disabled vet and so the state will not only pay for me to go to college, but also pay me to go to college.) I usually get $882 a month to live off of but the guy that is currently serving my school as the VA Representative is... grr... he doesn't know enough about the program to be advising people - and yet that's his job!?

The details are in my last post.

TL/DR Version; My VA representative at school is incompetent and tends to mess up my paperwork at every turn, but currently he's made it so I haven't gotten paid for 1.5 months - with my vacation just days away!

I called him repeatedly and he kept telling me it should be here any day... any day... any day < / broken record >

So I waited... and waited... check never came.

2 days before yesterday, he still hadn't called back, so I called him. Found out he'd re-issued my request for break pay, and now instead of just the $441 it was going to be $700 to make up for the smaller check I was getting for July. So now apparently I was supposed to be getting 2 checks - one for $441 and one for $700-ish. That was good but it didn't help me right now and I was still pretty pissed about the whole thing. Itold him that I'd been overdrawn because I had some of my bills set to auto-pay on July 3rd, as my check had NEVER been so much as a day late before. I also laid on the guilt about how I had no money for gas to get to school, or the vacation I was going on in week.

His response? "The system is really unreliable... you shouldn't ever depend on it."

Um... no... YOU are unreliable. When YOU file the paperwork correctly my check arrives promptly on the first of every month, EARLIER if the first falls on a Sunday! It's not the system - it's you. I'll bet that vacation you and your whole office went on, you let some of your paperwork sit on your desk; mine included and didn't even file it until the first... because if my CHECK had been MAILED on the first, holiday or not I'm sure it would have been here before the god damned 11th. ITS THE 11TH OF JULY. Seven Eleven, jackass, go buy a slurpie!State mail (the kind in orange envelopes) does not take 7 business days to travel across 2 states!!!

I told him as much (In Much More Polite, Professional Terms... I promise.) and the next day he called me while I was in class to tell me my "break pay" was now going to be $830 or so. Well... that makes me a tiny bit less pissed, I guess.

But yeah... my trip is in 2 days and I swear to [diety] if the fucking check is not in my box when I get home, someone is going to DIE!

Update: Omg, I am so fucking lucky - My sister and boss have provided me with a safety net ($) so that even if it's not here on time I will still be able to enjoy my trip. (Between the two of them I have $400 for food, gas, rental car and tourist stuff/entertainment) <3

Day of Shittiness

Today fucking sucked.

It's my first summer as a Chapter 35 VA Dependant and the VA Counselor seems to have the bare minimum training needed to keep his job. Every single time I have a question or need something filled out, he is completely CLUELESS and has to make phone calls to supervisors and other offices to figure it out... so I don't know why the fuck I trusted his wishy-washy assurance that my summer hours were all worked out... especially since he kept using phrases like "I think..." and "I'm pretty sure..."

Now every thing's ALL fucked up!!!

I have to be a full time student year 'round in order to get paid. During the fall, 12 units per semester is standard full time and is pretty damn strait forward. However, in the summer shit gets weird; I'm still not sure what's going on.

He told me that "full time" was counted by actually how many weeks out of each month the class meets, not just the units. He indicated that I had to go to school 3/4 weeks each month, and "have" 6 units. He used phrases such as "pretty sure".

So, last month I only got paid half of what I normally do, even though I was still full time. Apparently there was a form I was supposed to renew to "formally remind him" to process me... because my education$ plan I submitted to the special counselor upstairs wasn't a que or anything... so I had to come in and fill out a simple, one page purple bit of paper that seriously had 2 questions on it:

What's semester is it ... and... how many units.

Seriously, they couldn't gather that information from the EDUCATION PLAN I HAD TO MAKE A SPECIAL APPOINTMENT TO GET!? He couldn't fill in the damn blanks himself with the 4 page document outlining all my classes for the next 4 months that I'd completed, had signed, and given too him over a month before hand?

Nooope. Instead, that education plan sat somewhere in their office collecting dust instead of being sent off to the people who write my checks like it was supposed to... because it's stupid fucking coversheet (that I hadn't been told I needed) was missing, with it's 2 oh-so-vital little questions!

When I only got paid half of what I was supposed too last month, I called omgrightnoaw and was told to come in and fill out the purple form. I was told it would take 3-4 weeks to process. That was 5 weeks ago. No check for vacation pay ever came. I called back to ask WTF, only to find out the ENTIRE office had taken the whole month off for summer vacation and wouldn't be back until the 30th.

I called on the 1st, royally freaked out because now my check for July wasn't here either... again he had no idea what was going on and told me he'd make some phone calls and get back to me.

He called me back early this morning, while I was on my way to school, and told me that because of the little vacation his entire department (not just his office) apparently took, my check was mailed on the 1st and that I "shouldn't ever depend on them being on time".

According to his computer, I am getting a $441 check for June within the next 5 business days, and my break pay (now $700 because it was late) will be here "at some point this month". To top that fucking off, next month I am still only entitled to $441 again! (I usually get paid $881)

Seriously?!? I had some post dated checks out, because it had never been late before!

Sooo... now I'm fucking broke, Wells Fargo graciously accepted my underfunded checks and helped themselfs to 4 (Yes, I said FOUR) overdraft fees of $35 each, overdrawing me by $291 dollars. I went and took out a $255 cash advance, because that's the max they'll give you, and practically begged the lady manager at my local branch to work with me... because I am very much a poor starving college student. She was surprisingly awesome (Wells Fargo is usually evil)... and let me slide on one overdraft fee, waived the one that was still pending, and cut another in half so that my account would balance by about $3 once everything I showed her in my balance book came in.

I swear to fucking [deity] she gave me a cookie after... not joking... She literally gave me a chocolate chip cookie... I must have really looked pathetic.

I needed it though; I was shaking and cookies are a rather generic but effective comfort food.

Soo... the advance was $45, which means I now owe Advance America $300. My check that will be here eventually is only $441... Rent is $234. So to further fuck my mood over I had to ask Zy for money... again. I swear he must think I am just the most deadbeat thing to sleep in his bed. Ever.

I called Priceline to see if it was possible to push my trip back again, because as things are I won't have enough money to even EAT over there, much less enjoy the stay. They said no, because it's all paid for and reserved and alterations can't be made once things are finalized unless it's the airports making the changes and being bastards. Great... so I'm going on my very first real vacation, flying 2528.53 miles, and seeing friends I haven't seen since ever with no cash to speak of. That's just gonna be a BLAST...

I am so angry and disappointed and panicked. This month was supposed to be mine and Zy's celebration month... Our 2 year anniversary was yesterday, and we were officially 100% out of debt this month. If I'd made what I was supposed too, or at least gotten what I was owed on time, we'd be living good with cash to spare... but now everything's all fucked up, again!

What is wrong with my life? Why does this shit always happen!?