crabby

So I've been kind of a grouch the last couple of days. Aaron can vouch for that. Yesterday, I wasn't entirely sure what was wrong with me, but today it was more dealing with my bank. You see, after I cancelled the check, they told me the money would be back in my account in two to three days. Well, it's day three, and there's still nothing in my account. Which officially makes this three weeks since my paycheck was issued to me. It also didn't help the other day that I looked at my bank account online and saw that instead of having a $.45 balance like I had before, I had a -$10.05 balance. They had told me they weren't going to charge me a stop payment fee, but here I am, looking at my checking account, and I've been charged 10 and a half bucks. I call the bank, ready to rip someone a new one. Turns out it was just the charge for the box of checks I ordered, and that I wasn't going to be charged a cancellation fee. Whew. That's the one good thing I've heard from this bank the whole time.

Then today I called the bank because there is still no money in my account. The girl who answers the phone gives me the phone number of someone else who can help out more, so I call the 800 number she gives me. The number was for the Copy Shop. I don't even know where that is. I call back, a new girl answers and gives me the right phone number. I call that, looking for Amber, but get Jill instead, and then get transfered to Theresa. And someone else, but I don't remember their name. She says she's going to do some research, and she'll call me back in 15 minutes. Which means she should have called me back before Aaron and I left for Rapid City, but I didn't hear back from the bank, even after we spent 2 hours in Rapid, so I had to call them back.

Now I'm talking to Maggie, who's manager is busy right now, and who says the woman who usually deals with this stuff is gone right now. She says there's a chance that it could come in later in the day, and she'd give me a call if that happened, or call me if she found anything out. I leave her my number and lay down for a nap. I wake up, two hours later, no call. It's 6pm, so they're all gone for the day.

Then on the way to Rapid, Aaron asked me why I'd been so crabby lately, and I didn't really have an answer. He started to pry, asking if it was school, money, or work related. He knew obviously how I felt about my money ordeal right now, so I just reiterated a few things about that, like how I can't just start screaming and yelling at the person on the phone, because they're trying to help me and it's not their fault. I don't really know who's fault it is, but I seem to have created just the right circumstances (money gets turned into a paper check, sent to my home address which has a forward on it that's expired, and sent back to Rapid City's bank), where I'm just not going to get my money for a very long time.

I explained to him about my classes, how they all seem like classes I should have taken back when I was a sophomore or a junior and they now seem so basic and boring. The computer class is the worst, as you all have heard about in previous posts, but I have three other classes, two of which are taught by the same teacher and have similar guidelines: no text books, read random things and do reports on them and turn those in, no finals, no note taking, group activities, 15 page papers for an A in the class. I know what you're saying - "No final? No notes? No tests? What are you complaining about??? That's awesome!" Yeah, it kinda is. But I don't remember things unless I write them down, unless I have things to study off of. It all just kind of falls out of my head at the end of the semester when I don't need or use it anymore. Just like Sign Language; I took that two years ago, and now that I don't use it anymore, I pretty much only remember the alphabet. Then there's my class that's for people who are going to teach in middle schools, not elementary. We're required to take it because there's a chance we might teach in a rural school and have to teach middle school. Or junior high. Supposedly there's a difference in the way middle schools and junior highs are set up, but I'm not entirely clear on what that is besides the grade level difference. Also, all we do is take notes off of Power Point presentations in that class and make lesson plans.

I'm just having a rough time of it all, and really hate going to classes and dealing with my bank and not being able to do anything about it. And everything I'm doing in school or work is so weirdly spaced apart that I only have between half an hour to two hours between classes/work that I can't really accomplish anything, so I spend my days off running around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to get laundry, groceries, cleaning, dishes, and homework done all in a span of two days, because I'm too tired to do it any other time.

Sorry for such a whiney post, but I don't really have anyone to talk to right now because Aaron's at work and I really should be doing homework (aka learning how to add a new Web page to a site on FrontPage). See ya.

Lotto

On Sunday when I got off work, on my way past the gas station, I saw that the Powerball jackpot was up to 148 million dollars. Why not? So I go in and buy one of each kind of lottery ticket (Powerball, Hot Lotto, Wild Card, and Dakota Cash), in hopes to win a cool 148 million dollars. Or $78,000 or really anything over $50 would be great. So we'll see how that goes tonight.

Also, new "Lost" is on tonight. So excited. I actually haven't made it through my DVDs of the first season 'cause I don't want to get too behind on sleep or school work, 'cause I know that's what would happen.

This is going to be an awesome season, I'm so excited.

In other news, I've been avidly tracking my tip dollars from work with Where's George? and have found quite a few Where's George? bills in the cashier's cage that I've entered into the system. Hopefully they travel long and far and someone enters them in. I guess it would help if I would spend them, first. I feel silly paying for $20 worth of stuff all in singles. All with purple www.WheresGeorge.com stamps on the front and back, too...I know, I know...NERD. But it's entertaining, and you learn lots of new things, like about serial numbers and series and stuff like that of bills. I'll post some currency facts here soon.

OMFG

Alrighty. Remember the whole paycheck ordeal with the online SmartPay system? Well, I've since gotten paid on the 22nd, and still haven't recieved my paycheck back from the 8th. I took my paycheck from the 22nd and PERSONALLY took it down to my bank in Gillette and deposited it, so I at least have THAT money. But, I still don't have my money from the 8th. Why? I'll tell you why.

The first time you use SmartPay, they turn your electronic money into paper money and send it to Virginia (from South Dakota) for shits and giggles. Then that takes seven to 10 business days, which in real days, turns into 2 weeks, by which time I had recieved my next paycheck. Well, for whatever reasoning of mine, I sent the money to me at my home address in Gillette. Big mistake, because two years ago when I lived in the dorms, I had all my mail forwarded from Gillette to Spearfish. Great idea at the time. Apparently that forwarding service has been canceled, so the check ALMOST made it to Gillette, but not quite, because it got sent back to South Dakota. Not sure WHERE in South Dakota, but somewhere.

So, I can either change the address and try to send it to the bank's address, which will take five to seven business days (ie: another week), or I can cancel it and have the money put back in my Spearfish account, which will only take one or two days, which is what I did, as it was the fastest way to get my money back.

It took them two weeks to tell me all this information! Nobody told me that the first time I would do the SmartPay system it would be turned into a paper check and take 2 weeks to show up at my house. No one let me know that my mail had been returned because of an expired forwarding account, which shouldn't matter anyway, because my parents are still recieving a piece or two of mail for me at my permanent address!

I'm so freakin' mad. When people ask me, "Well, why don't you just close your account in Gillette and do all your banking here in Spearfish?" I know exactly why I'm not doing that. STUPID!

toothpaste & sweaters

For some reason, when Aaron moved in, he didn't bring his toothpaste with him, so he started using mine. No big deal, until he starts leaving the lid open by not flipping down the cap. So for a bit, I start just closing it for him, but it keeps happening, and the cap is getting all gross and crusty. How can boys live like that?? So I confront him and ask if he could please start closing the cap when he's done brushing his teeth. "Sure," he says, and that's that. Two days later, cap is open. I bring it to him, and he closes it. Again, the next day, the cap is flipped open. I bring it to him again, he rolls his eyes, and flips is closed.

This incident doesn't happen again for another week or so. Then it's open. I don't even remember him brushing his teeth, to be honest, but I take the toothpaste to him again, and he closes the lid. Then I said, "Sometimes I swear you don't close the lid just to destroy my mind." To which he replies, "Sometimes, I swear I just flip the cap open, even when I'm not using the toothpaste."

OMG. I almost killed him, but it was kinda too funny to actually kill him, so I just called him names instead. He claims he only did it at the beginning, when I first started asking him. Mmmm hmmm...

So that's my mean boyfriend story. Wonderful, eh?

Not to mention the fact that shortly after this happened we were getting ready to go to Wal*Mart to pick up some food (it was too late to go to Kmart...drats), and he's putting on a sweater 'cause it's cool outside, and I look at him, and stop, mid-sentence, mid-word, even, to see him in the most hideous sweater that even Bill Cosby wouldn't be caught dead in. Hand knitted, bright red with a huge yellow stripe across the upper stomach region, line with thin, blue stripes. After making sure he never wore that in public again, we were off.

Twice in one night, trying to destroy my brain.

People Bag

No, it's not as creepy as you're thinking. I'm not stuffing dead bodies in a bag or something. It's a project we had to do for my Human Relations class. We had to take a bag or box and fill it with things that represented our life. Last week the first half of the alphabet presented theirs, and this week, the second half presented, and my presentation was this week (thank goodness, or I probably would have forgotten about it last week).

In my bag I brought my iPod, because my music goes with me wherever I am. I bought my Jalan Crossland CD from the last concert of his I was at, along with the guitar tuner I won at the concert. I brought license plates from New York and an old golden/brown colored plate from Wyoming, along with my license plate purse, which everyone thought was pretty cool. Then I showed my "I love NY" shirt, and explained how I'd scoured New York trying to find it, two months before the attacks on September 11th, but then how the next summer we were there, those were the only shirts you could find. There was also my skydiving certificate from my first tandem jump when I was 16 years old (18 years old for the day), and some pictures that I passed around the classroom of my first jump. There were some books and movies, as well, and my digital camera, even though I haven't taken a lot of pictures of anything lately.

I was shaking like a leaf when I went up to present. I've always hated giving presentations or speeches, but after taking a Communications class and having a couple other classes where I have given presentations, I've gotten a lot better. I thought it was going to be easier this time around, but I'm pretty sure everyone could hear it in my voice and see it in my motions when I was holding things up. I think that the fact that nothing I had to say was pre-thought out had a lot to do with it, really, because I didn't know exactly what I was going to say, so I was kinda winging it and grasping for words. By the time the professor asked me about the skydiving, I loosened up a little bit and was more calm, 'cause someone was interested in what I was talking about, so that made it a lot easier.

Whew! Glad that's over with!

Notes

So both of my classes so far today lasted only about 10 minutes each, and were called "work periods" in which we only turned in an assignment or learned of a new assignment. That was it. What a waste.

Then when Aaron and I got back from Kmart from buying some things, I went to the fridge to open a 12-pack of Pepsi, which was on the top shelf instead of the bottom shelf...and you know how when you open the 12-packs, the first can falls out, since it has nothing to hold it back anymore? Yeah, well, imagine it falling about 3 and a half feet and hitting the linoleum, opening from the tiniest hole, and spraying all over the kitchen. Yeah, that was fun. Good times, good times.

Well, it's now official that I will not recieve my paycheck from two weeks ago until after I've recieved my paycheck that I will be getting tomorrow. Fantabulous.

Also, for my parents who read this, I'm coming home on Friday because my new box o' checks came in the mail today, so I need to give those to Mom, and Aaron's going to be busy at work all night, and I don't have anything to do except maybe some homework. So I'll see ya then.

finally figuring stuff out!

Well, we finally found out what happened to my check; the first time you use the electronic payment plan, they convert your money into a paper check, which then gets sent to Virginia for whatever reason, which takes seven to ten business days to process, even though the lady at the bank told me it would only take five days (today is day six, so hopefully something happens tomorrow). Also, for whatever reason, I put down my home address instead of my bank address, so the check is going to be sent to the house, which will only delay the process another day (you check the mail at the end of the day when you get home from work, and have to wait 'til the next day to do anything with it, unless of course it comes in the mail on Friday or Saturday, then you're just straight screwed).

We've started building web pages on Front Page for my computer class. It's horrifying. It's got the same templates as Power Point. The agony! It's so dumbed down that I just go into the HTML area of it and do most of my editing there because that makes more sense to me for some reason. Especially with links and pictures.

Anywho, that's my ramble for the day, I gotta leave for work in 45 minutes, so we'll see what I can non-accomplish in that time.

the itsy bitsy spider...

The stupid spider is gone. After sitting in the exact same place for an entire day, it's gone. You'd think that would make me feel better, but it really doesn't, because now I don't know where the thing is. I liked it better when I could see it, just sitting there idley, not when its spindley legged little self wandered off into the night.

My paycheck is still lost. Fan-friggin'-tastic. This is the most retarded thing on Earth.

Peat, Jill, and I spent probably an hour last night looking at Google Earth or Google Maps trying to locate the Great Wall of China. Peat found out that despite common belief, the Great Wall is not visible from outerspace, which made it very hard to find on the satellite picture program. We never did find it, and then trivia started, anyway.

Well, I guess it's another day at work. Bye!

Why the hell are there always spiders in the bathroom when I'm trying to gete ready for my day?!?!?!

checking, schmecking.

Two posts in one day! Amazing, I know!

When I got hired on at the casino, I wasn't aware they didn't have a direct deposit system set up for paychecks. This isn't a problem normally, except that my bank is in Gillette, not in Spearfish or Deadwood. What about branches of the bank, you say? No, this bank has no branches, "only roots." I have no way of getting my money to my bank account in Gillette without setting up some pretty elaborate systems. So here's what I did:

Set up a checking account in the Spearfish bank where I already have a savings account (I only made the account so I could cash checks without being charged a fee).

Set up a SmartPay plan where I make my bank account in Gillette the payee, and all I have to do is enter how much money from my account in Spearfish that I want to send to my bank in Gillette. Seems pretty simple, right? Especially because it's online.

Well folks, it's really not that simple. It takes an additional WEEK for the "electronic" money to be sent to Gillette, which is only an hour and fifteen minutes away on the Interstate. Now, that just doesn't seem logical, does it? Well, it's not.

I called my bank/my mom to ask if my paycheck had been wired in yet. Nope, not yet. Well, that's funny, because the money has been taken out of my checking account in Spearfish. So I guess it's just floating around in space somewhere. Fantastic.

Called the Spearfish bank to see what's going on. They said it takes 5 business days to go through, and it's only been 4, and I need to be patient. I told the lady on the phone that it was rather silly to have to wait around an additional week to get my paycheck that I deposited in their bank on payday.

So what do I do? Order a box of checks from the Spearfish bank. When they come in, I will sign an entire book of checks, and send it in the mail to my mom (praying that it's not intercepted somewhere...oh jeez, that could be bad), and just call her up every payday and say, "My paycheck for $xxx is in, could you please write a check from my Spearfish account and deposit it in my Gillette account? Thank you."

Now, how much of a pain in the arse is this? It's quite a lot of work, I think. Some people say, "Just keep your checking account in Spearfish, that way you don't have to worry about all this." Well, that would be fine and dandy, especially since they have online checking and whatnot, but then I wouldn't have as much of a reason to call my mom and talk with her.

"Just cash the check when you get it." Well, then I couldn't pay my credit card bill, cell phone bill, electricity bill, or cable/internet bill, as those are all either taken out of my checking account either automatically, or they don't accept cash through the mail.

What a royal pain.