Busy as a bee

I don't know why I do this...I over commit. I can't really complain when I have too much to do, because most of the time, I've brought it all on myself. This weekend is a perfect example. At the beginning of the week, all I had to do was go to a friend's wedding at 2:00 on Saturday. The list just grows from there. Pick up dry cleaning, develop the honeymoon pictures, make four loaves of sandwiches for the homeless shelter, have my brother and a friend of his in for a concert, go to the wedding, go to the reception, make the sandwiches, go to the concert...That brings us to Sunday. I've got to fly to Florida on Sunday for an early Monday morning client meeting.

Really, I'm not dreading any of the things I have to do this weekend, except the flight out on Sunday. It just robs me of my weekend. And to be honest, traveling by air the week of Thanksgiving is just not my idea of a good trip. I'm bracing myself for the delays and company of frustrated travelers.

I am glad that Sam is coming in for the concert tonight, that will be a lot of fun. I'm just counting down the days until Thursday when I get to go home and spend some time off with my family, who I haven't seen in so long for longer than an hour or two each meeting. I think that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday - any excuse to over-indulge on some good home cooking is my kind of day. Plus, both my mother and sister have moved into new homes in the past couple of months. I'm overly anxious to see those. Then there's B, my precious nephew...can't wait to smother him with some kisses.

Why am I sitting here making a post on this blog when the minutes are ticking away? Because I am nothing if I am not procrastinating.

I owe, I owe, so it's off to work I go.

I am not a conspiracy theorist. I don't think everyone's out to get me. I don't think I'm owed anything. I don't cheat people out of things because I'm sure that I was owed that little perk somewhere along the way. I may have given away free candy to my friends while working at the video store in high school, but everyone was doing it, and I've confessed it and been washed clean of all my bad deeds.

Anyway.

I'm trying to consolidate mine and Todd's school loans. And it is a whip. I get mail piece after mail piece, indicating that consolidating is the best thing to do, there's "SMART LOAN" consolidation mail pieces in my mailbox every week. So I go online, spend 4 hours completing the application, and rather than just hitting "submit" I chose the option of having THEM print the application and mail it to me for review. So I've reviewed it.

I chose a company, Sallie Mae, that I've had loans with for the past seven years. They've always offered me a great interest rate - 3.85%. So when I was completing their application, I entered the 3.85% rate in the area next to my loans. When I get the printed version, it has those loans listed at 6.1%. How could this be wrong? I mean, I'm consolidating with this company, they've got to have it on file. If they'd gotten one of my other lenders wrong, I could start to understand that.

So I called them today...I explained to them they had it wrong. Turns out that if I consolidate (translation - bring more money to the table FOR THEM to earn interest on), then my rate goes up, and therefore increases the consolidated rate. There's absolutely no incentive to consolidate.

Speaking of the consolidated rate - it's nowhere on the application that I am required to sign and return. I asked the chick on the phone, "Do people normally sign and return these without being given a rate for their new consolidated loan?" She said, "Ma'am, customer service representatives are trained to tell people on the phone what their rate would be, and what their estimated monthly payment is." WTF? What if I hadn't called? They just let these things slip through in hopes that no one is reading the fine print.

So it got me thinking...how much paperwork have I signed in my lifetime (don't even get me started on car buying) where I've signed off on a few dollars here and there being taken from me without my complete knowledge and understanding? And how much has that added up to, in the last 30 years? And, who in the hell has time to read all the fine print with every business transaction you make?

My estimate is that the amount of money I've been screwed out of in my lifetime likely exceeds the amount I make in a year. I wish I had the time to do a study like this. Dateline, if you're reading the Luckey Girl blog, will you please get on this????

Nonetheless, again, I still don't feel like anyone owes me.

Click

I am in the middle of a travel nightmare. Much different than the nightmare that was Vegas. Travel booking nightmare. I'm trying to book a trip to Florida, since my last one was canceled due to hurricane Wilma...and I've been on and off the phone with travel agents all morning. This is where I messed up - I booked the initial trip through my travel agent here at work, the second trip I booked directly online myself. I also paid for the second ticket without asking for a credit to be applied - the reason I did not ask for this was because I wasn't actually talking to anyone and it wasn't an option.

The roadblocks: the name change to Luckey, AND, Hurricane Wilma - I can only use the $ for that flight that THEY canceled if I book travel before November 15. Doesn't help me.

But this isn't the real nightmare. Oh no. The nightmare is that I have a real problem with the typing that travel agents do as they're on the phone with you. It sounds like they are type, type, typing every word you say or they have to go through 56 screens to get to the information they're looking for to help you, I don't know there's just So. Much. Typing.

"One moment...click click clickity clickity click...and you said your name is?...click click clickity clickity click...and do you have that record locator number?...click click clickity clickity click...and how else can I help you today?...(still) click click clickity clickity click..."

It just sounds like their typing never stops. I am starting to wonder if they're instant messaging with each other, something like, "You ought to listen to this idiot I'm talking to now..." or "I'm going to stick her with a $50 change fee even though she doesn't deserve it...and I'm sending it right to my bank account so that I can get that great scarf I saw on QVC..."

I have no idea why I'm so upset about the typy-clicky-fingers today.
I think I have a case of the Monday's for sure.