In which I write a little update in an effort to be more personal than yesterday’s total geekfest post.
It’s getting cold. When I left work this evening, it was only 41 degrees. The streets and lawns are covered in leaves; people have their porches decorated for Halloween. It’s getting dark earlier and it’ll be DST soon enough. The fall weather is a little depressing to me and I’m chilly all the time, too.
Work was great again today; I like the work and the company. I’ve been sitting on a straight-backed chair for three days but this afternoon a leather executive chair showed up — dot-com bought me a kickass chair! — and it’ll be much better for my back.
AmmZon and I made dinner together tonight: black bean soup with cheese-and-broccoli quesadillas and corn bread. It was really good and the whole house smells like onions, garlic, and homemade corn bread. Yum. (I am a soup-making machine. Soup is my be-atch.)
Yesterday I had a feeding frenzy, though, OMG. I ate no fewer than four seperate times. I got up early and made myself a breakfast of scrambled eggs, hash browns, veggie sausage, and gravy. At lunch I made pasta pesto. For dinner I had Mexican. Twice. (Taco Bell drive-thru. Yes, I know I’m an idiot.) By the time I went to bed last night I felt like the Goodyear blimp.
Now that I’m employed I have to address my financial situation before some creditor learns I have a job and garnishes my wages. I’m totally overwhelmed and don’t know what to do… actually, I do know what to do first: I have to make a list of my debts. After that, though, I don’t know where to go for advice. Credit counseling? Bankruptcy lawyer? I don’t know which I should do. I’ve been in total denial about the whole thing and haven’t called anyone at all, nor have I been getting my mail from the farm, so I don’t even know which debts have gone to collections yet. Student loans, three credit cards, a bunch of utilities… Christ. It sucks. And if I’d just deal with it and make those phone calls, it’d probably be less horrible… but in my own defense I was depressed, phoneless, jobless, and being a fucking schmuck about it.
I need to go out to the farm and get some things. Warm clothes. Socks. Sweaters. A coat. My knitting, my guitar. Things like that. I’ve emailed Bread a couple of times but I don’t think he checks his mail very often, so he probably doesn’t even know I’m trying to get ahold of him. I could drive past BoSe’s house to see if he’s there, but I feel like a stalker doing that. He left me a note in my car the week before last inviting me out for coffee, but neither of us had phones then and I never got ahold of him. He may have thought I was ignoring him, but I was mostly just being my normal lazy self. I have a lot of stress about seeing him, but it’s probably pretty much in my own head. *bangs head on desk*
I think I’m gonna go read some of the info dog-com’s given to me and be productive, rather than sitting here typing about my problems and making myself feel all dejected. I mean, I’ve got a roof over my head, my dog’s cute, I love my job, and my belly’s full. Ain’t nothin’ here to complain about!
Big love, my babies. Stay warm!
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A simple way to deal with your creditors is to start with your lowest bill first, then pay it off. By the time you get around to your biggest bill, they will more than likely take a settlement for a small percentage of what you actually owe.
As for banging your head on the desk, you do that often enough lately that you might give yourself a concussion. You could ease out of that, as well.
Finally, your dog IS cute, your belly IS full, but know what? Those are wonderful things. But, most importantly, you are effing FANTASTIC!
You’re my baby, too. Smoochies.
You rock, Bwad. I wuv you. -m
Hey Mush,
Congrats on the job!
RE: Bankruptcy, sadly you actually have to have money to declare it. The fees are large and frankly I think you are past that. It also ruins your credit, more so than slow pay. They will also force you to sell your part in the farm ( which may not be a bad idea ) as it is equity
Watch out for scams in the Credit Counseling industry, you end up paying them more than you owed.
Work with the people you owe money to. All of them at the same time. Picking the smallest one, while finacially nice for you, pisses someone off.
Talk to them, be honest with them, tell them your living situation and how the debts got that high on your credit. And you may have to go after bread for some of them , if he assisted in racking up the bills.
Ending a marriage isn’t easy. It isn’t cheap. It’s expensive, heart wrenching, hostile and chaotic.
Think about what you can let go of as far as expenses. Parse down insurance on the vehicle to the lowest you can do legally. Learn to love being broke, cut out social stuff like drinking that is expensive, even when other people are buying, cause you spend money you don’t have.
Put together a strict budget and stick to it.
Remember, we are all here for you, but you are the only one who can get out of this.
Its gonna suck, but in the end, you will be much better off in all sorts of ways.
Thanks, hon. I did the research and am gonna do credit counselling. I found a national non-profit that’s registered blah blah blah and am going to start with them on Monday. My expenses are pretty pared down; I don’t have satellite TV or full coverage car insurance or anything like that, and I can’t get any broker than I am right now. -m
Agreed.
‘K. -m
it’s true, soup is your be-atch.
too bad i wasn’t walking by last night, could have gotten a taste!!!
Soup IS my bitch! 😉 -m