THIS is What a Tax Refund is For???

I have a pattern to my life. There are certain things I do at certain times on certain days. One of those things is to pay my bills between the 21st and 27th of every month. I have had all of the due dates on my bills changed to fall in the first week of the month, so that every bill will arrive on time even though I pay them all on the same day. I also take each bill as it comes in and stack them, unopened, neatly in my kitchen by the garage door. This is for two reasons really. First, it looks neater, and second, I don’t freak out each day I receive a bill. I only have to freak out one day a month this way. Much better. If it is an odd bill, I will usually open it but the general bills like electric, gas, credit card, cell phone, mortgage, car…those all remain unopened until the last week of the month.

Then one day, I sit down with my stack, hop online and pay everything on my bank’s bill pay system, secretly excited that I am effectively stiffing the USPS for approximately $60 each year in stamp sales.

I do this every month. It works for me. I am never late with bills, I can see exactly what damage I am doing to my bank account. If the electric bill is particularly high one month, I can compensate by paying $50 less on the credit card bill…It works…

Or so I thought. My gas was turned off. My God. How embarrassing is that statement? I cannot believe it. I have paid on time and in full for every month since I moved to my house…Until last month, apparently. I missed a bill. Honest to goodness missed a bill. And apparently, Atmos sent me a termination notice 10 days after the bill was due. TEN DAYS. I didn’t open it, because I just figured it was the next bill. I didn’t even think about the timing when it arrived. Why would I? I always pay my bills. So it sat there, neatly stacked, until the 26th. On the 26th, I paid my bills. I found the notice, freaked, and subsequently called Atmos. The automated system told me my account was paid in full. Ok, good. No problem then right? Uh, no. This morning, the water ran cold. Not a drop of hot left. Remember how I said the water was unusually chilly yesterday? Yeah, this is apparently why. I don’t understand why the automated system thought I was paid up, though.

I called this morning and was told my gas was turned off on the 25th. ONE day before I called. Unbelievable. But ok, just get it back on. I expected to pay the overdue bill, and a fee. Yup, I was right. PLUS a deposit and taxes, making my $123 late bill a whopping $404. For a bill that was ONE MONTH LATE. On an account that has never been late. I cannot believe how much they are charging. It’s ludicrous. And didn’t I pay a deposit way back when I opened the account???? Isn’t that what a deposit is for?? To cover instances just like this??? So my next step is to contact my bank and see if I can get a copy of my statements for the first two months I was in my house to see if in fact I did pay a deposit. Because you know if I did, then all holy hell is about to break loose…

Estro-powers

The past two weeks I have been an emotional wreck. From job interviews to job offers; weddings, to engagements; volleyball to dodgeball, bizarre power failures to oddly cold water…It has been one thing after another, in seemingly small pieces that have left me in a constant state of maniacal happiness or utter loneliness, fear, and anger. My strange-to-me mood swings are reminiscent of when I started taking the birth control pill, Yasmin. Up down, up down, all the time. It took 6 months for me to realize that I was not in fact mildly Manic Depressive, but that the pill was creating the rollercoaster. I switched to the Ortho Evra Patch and felt fine. But now, due to a series of unexplainable, yet relatively minor ailments, and the fact that I have been on one form of BC or another for 8 years, my doc took me off of it for the next two months to see if the Ortho Evra (and its extra high levels of Estrogen) was contributing to the problem. Apparently though, when you go off birth control, people often have a variation of withdrawal. Your body adjusts to the new (natural) hormone levels, and you can have all sorts of interesting results, ranging from headaches to mood swings. I am starting to think I fall into the mood swing category. My body hasn’t known its own hormones for 8 years! It is probably all confused about things.

In the meantime, my emotions are hyper-inflated for the good and the bad, and I when my rational mind tells me not to be upset or scared, my emotional response doesn’t listen. It is a strange limbo I am walking right now, but hopefully, it will soon even itself out and I will be back to normal.

For those of you who have to deal with me in person, I apologize in advance for any idiocies that may come out of my mouth for the next few weeks…

This is too good…

The sign in the window is priceless…

Ty, Copywriter Extraordinaire

Looks like the interview was, as suggested, mostly a formality. The Creative Director was a bit skeptical about hiring me from a “you haven’t worked in an agency in years” standpoint, but he likes my work, and everyone else likes it, and I think the “everyone else” may have swayed his reservations because they offered me a job! Unfortunately, I couldn’t accept on the spot because I needed to check onthe immediacy of my availability to leave this place (which according to boss/Dad is whenever I need to go), and I couldn’t do the salary negotiations. Because I have been freelancing through a recruiting agency, I couldn’t talk about salary, so when they asked me about it, I had to politely decline to discuss it and direct the topic to my recruiter. Which to be quite honest, is great if you ask me. I don’t have to deal with it, and I don’t have to have the akwardness of having discussed that with my boss when I start. Unfortunately, this is the one thing that could break the deal. In my favor though, is that they need someone immediately for this client, and they sound a touch desperate. They have had the account for two or three months and haven’t really developed a rapport with the client yet (according to them). So, I might be able to negotiate a little bit better.

They also have not hired an art director yet. Can anyone say, awesome?? That means I would get to be involved in picking my partner! Very cool.

Such an interesting turn of events…It’s amazing what can happen when you ignore what you know, and try for something anyway.

Nerves of Spaghetti…

I have an interview today. With an advertising agency, for a copywriting position. The agency I have been freelancing for…getting a little nervous…cross your fingers and toes for me…

So true…

I’m really starting to like Tom Toles…

Ms. Fix It Strikes Again

Do you know how many calories you burn per hour for painting and plastering during home renovations? 367. Not too shabby…Particularly when you work for say, 6 hours a day on said renovations…A nice little 2200 calorie burn is always a good thing…

Oh yes, I am going somewhere with this, I promise.

This weekend, I undertook the big one. The project I have been talking about since I bought my house. The removal of the ugliest wallpaper I have ever lived with–scratch that…the pink wallpaper that used to be in my parents’ house was worse…but this was pretty bad…

I hate wallpaper. It just causes problems. It is too specific, and too hard to change. So, I have now removed all of it from my home.

My master bathroom is a lovely room. It is a generous 10′x10′ and has marble countertops and a marble garden tub, and huge mirror, but it also came with striped wallpaper, and those strip lights that remind me of a Vaudeville dressing room–but somehow, they don’t capture the romance and charm of those lights.

In addition to the lovely forest green vertical stripes, was a floral border. FLORAL. Nothing in my life or personality could be described as floral. But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was that most of the border was held in place by clear thumbtacks that the previous owners had apparently deemed acceptable.

Would you like to see? I’ll show you…This is a picture from the sellers’ sheet from when I was looking at the house. This is how they had it decorated…I really should show you the rest of the pictures because apparently someone liked purple. The bedspread, couches and even the placemats were all purple…but that’s another story…

See what I mean? Now just imagine that behind those purple towels is a tear in the wallpaper, and that the border is also loose…It’s obviously a room with potential, no?

Sooo, Saturday, I decided to see if that border around the tub would come off. Sure enough, it came off beautifully, So I decided to try the ceiling one. It came off neatly in one long strip three quarters of the way around the room, then RRRIIIPPP…the wallpaper came with it…Ah, the deciding factor governing my weekend warrior chores…Since I had a gaping tear in the wallpaper, I decided it was time to go for it. I pulled down about 75% of the paper in a half hour, until all that was left was well-stuck wallpaper and thin backing. Then I went to Sherwin Williams for some primer and sealed the rest of the paper and leftover backing in, so I didn’t have to remove it all. After that dried, I replastered the walls using the same technique I used in my guest bathroom, to texturize the walls (did I ever show you finished pictures of the bathroom?? It looks so good…I will do that soon…).

Sunday, I painted and hung new lights over the sink. It’s looking good, and is almost done. The only problem I have had is the latex paint isn’t sticking properly, and is peeling off in a rubbery way. Maybe I will take a picture of that…it’s really strange. It is peeling off where I had taped and when I pull of the tape, the paint is coming off too. So I a lot of edge work to redo. But it definitely is showing its potential…

I love doing this stuff. It is such a visible accomplishment. And to top it off, I even taught myself how to install new lighting. And I did it correctly, and wasn’t electricuted, and the lights even work!

What Big Feet You Have!

These are the things that make women happy…

It’s THAT Day.

I have the dreaded visit today…Girls, you know the one I’m talking about. The one where I wonder about the opacity of the window blinds. The one where I wonder why any doctor ever would have an office with exam rooms that have windows. The one where I swear the scale MUST be miscalibrated. The one where I leave my socks on because somehow it makes me feel more clothed while surrounded by russling paper. The one where I am supposed to pretend small talk with a metal crank in between my legs is a routine part of my day.

Real Sushi

This is the closest I have ever come to rethinking my love of sushi…