I haven’t been posting because I’ve been pretty sick with some crud. And now I’m ROYALLY pissed off.
You may remember this post and this post, where I wrote about Duke Hospitals fucking up, and not billing me for three months and then turning my account over to a collection agency, so the first I heard about the charges was from a collection agency? Remember that? And then I called, and talked to someone there who realized it was their fuckup, and he promised to fix it by taking the account back from the collection agency so I’d get bills from Duke and have three months to pay like I was supposed to have gotten in the first place?
Guess what didn’t happen.
Yeah. So, today, as I’m leaving work I notice a missed call on my phone – I don’t recognize the number, but I don’t really think anything of it. When I get home, there’s a letter from the collection agency waiting for me, “graciously” giving me another month to settle up with them before they take “further, more serious collection activity.” Apparently Duke authorized them to extend me this “courtesy.” At the bottom of the letter it says, “The law does not require us to wait until the end of the thirty-day period before taking action to collect this debt.” That missed phone call from around lunch? Was from the fucking collection agency. And I got the letter today, and this shit shouldn’t even be at a collection agency. You guys are beyond assholes.
Here’s the thing – I am not at all disputing this charge, I have no problem paying it, it’s just that it’s just large enough that I cannot easily come up with it over the course of two paychecks, which is what I have between now and the end of the “courtesy month.” My dispute is that it never should have gone to the collection agency in the first place, and that after it did and I talked to Duke and they told me they’d handle it and not to worry about sending payments into the collection agency but to wait for the bill from Duke, they didn’t do what they said, and now I’ve still got this collection agency looming over me, and they’ve already started harrassing me about this. This is jacked up. This is beyond jacked up. I cannot convey to you with words how mad I am about this. I fucked up my credit as a freshman in college (I mean, it’s a common mistake), and I have been working hard ever since to get my credit score back to a good and respectable level. And I’ve done well, and it’s not great but it’s pretty good, so this shit really pisses me off. If I’d fucked up and not paid that bill for three months, that’s one thing, and yeah I deserve to get a gnarly note on my credit report. But the original mistake was not mine, and when I found out about it I tried to handle it as best as I could – I was even ready to pay the collection agency if it came to that, but damn Duke told me not to, since it was clearly their mistake, and to wait and pay them when their bill came. And then it didn’t, because they didn’t do what they told me they were going to do, and didn’t tell me they weren’t going to do it. Like, if they had just said, “Sucks to be you, pay the agency,” I would be mad as hell, but I’d probably have paid the agency. If they had just said, “Well, we can’t get the account back at this point, sorry, so you better go ahead and pay the agency, and we’ll see if they’ll extend the time you have to repay,” I would have said thanks and started paying the agency. But no. They said, “Don’t pay the agency – we’ll have them transfer the account back to us, and we’ll bill you, and you’ll have three months to pay your balance.” So I’ve been sitting and waiting for the Duke bill, and actually wondering if I needed to call them and make sure THAT bill actually got mailed out, or if it had gotten fucked up in the system like the original three bills. And now there’s no way I can pay the balance in full to the agency over the next two paychecks, unless I don’t pay some other bills or bounce some checks, and that’s right back to bad credit – and even if I pay the agency, won’t they still show up on my credit report, that the account had to go to them before I would pay?
So, now I’m mad as shit, and I’m going to call Duke up tomorrow and explain that I need to come over there and talk to someone in person about this, and if that doesn’t clear it up, I’m seriously considering talking to a lawyer (like I need that) because this is all just bullshit. The money isn’t the issue – it’s Duke dicking me around and mistreating me, like my credit doesn’t matter, and shit, it probably doesn’t because I don’t have enough money or clout to be a real concern of theirs, but they’ve pissed me off so much I’m damned if I’m just going to sit here and take this. God help them and the collection agency if anyone starts calling me at work. Oh hell no. I’ve dealt with collection agencies before – and when I was a freshman and actually owed people money, I put up it with it, put up with them calling my boss (when I was a student assistant) and telling them all my business so they could leave me a message and embarrass the shit out of me in the hopes that I’d be shamed into paying (which would have worked, had I had the money). But I’m older and wiser and not in the wrong this time and fucking pissed off. So that shit is not going to play.
On top of all that, I found some brass, printed up a new design to etch, and it occurred to me tonight that the brass plate might be too big for the etching vat I have – and, yes, it is. Son of a bitch. Not really a big problem, but it means that I’ll need to print up another image (because the image for the brass is too big for the copper blanks I have) and etch the copper. Now I meant to etch tonight, and be done etching tonight, so I could get some last few sewing supplies and finish the big project tomorrow night, and I’d have Friday, Saturday, Sunday night, and Monday night as a buffer in case I needed to tweak a little something at the last minute, before mailing off on Tuesday. When I realized the brass was too big, I thought, “Well, that sucks, but I’ll just etch some copper tomorrow night, and finish the large project Friday, and I’ll still have the weekend to tweak, tidy, and package shit, and mail it out Monday or Tuesday.” (Tuesday’s the deadline.) Now it looks like I’ll have to go to Duke in person tomorrow afternoon or Friday, so that’s going to cut into my crafting/etching plans, and that’s pissing me off, too.
Goddammit. Godmotherfuckingdammit.
Pretty sure I have an ear infection. It came on fast (like, over the course of yesterday evening to now, 1:44am). Can’t remember the last time I’ve felt so obviously holy-shit-I-need-to-go-to-the-doctor ill. (As compared to just need-to-stay-home ill.)
And I forgot one of Greg’s presents to me: He took me to see Sweeney Todd, and it was fucking fantastic!
Today is wonderful – all grey and rainy.
GAGG: 79.06 miles More treadmill today. I was actually rather stressed out, and it seems to have helped. It’s not that I’m really surprised – just that I hate admitting it since I’m still not crazy about exercise. But it does have its perks, I guess.
Here are some of the awesome things I got over the holidays:
Greg’s sister, Jen, and his nephew, Logan, gave us a new boardgame: Quelf. It’s very random, but that’s pretty much the point. (Although to be honest, every time I look at the name, I think “queef.”)
Greg gave me an awesome (and much-needed) new pair of jeans; a wicked barometer; and a sweet, sweet, steamy pocket watch. He got the barometer from an antique shop where we also got some pink Depression glass for Tiffianna and Dara. We saw a beautiful yellow Depression glass bowl, and decided to start collecting yellow Depression glass, so he picked that up, too, but I guess it’s really a present for both of us. I’m not sure if the barometer works, exactly – the needle does seem to move, but I haven’t managed to pay close attention to where it starts in the mornings, to compare with where it is at the end of the day. Regardless of whether it works or not, it looks fucking awesome. And I love the pocket watch!
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Susan and Shane went to Germany over part of their break, before we saw them, so some of the presents they gave us came from Germany. They were very generous – my gifts were: a copy of The Kite Runner; a bottle of Duplin Scuppernong Blush (it had been given to them as a joke, but they knew I like it, so they passed it on to me); an IU mug (that’s sitting on my desk right now, perfect for when I brew tea at work); and a ball of Regia that Susan picked up at a market in Germany! It’s lovely, and I can’t quite decide what to make with it, but I’m leaning towards a lacy scarf. (I don’t have pictures of the mug, since it’s on my desk at work, and my camera’s been at home. Sorry.)
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Tiffianna and Dara gave us an incredible yellow Depression glass tiered server. It’s gorgeous, it’s in great condition, and I can’t wait to throw some sort of tea party so I can put little petit fours and napoleons and tea sandwiches on it. It’s beautiful. (Although I could have done a better job of picking out a background that would let you see the color better.)
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P.s. Don’t forget I’m relocating Friday: kathyfuckingjacobs.blogspot.com!
Thank you, Brent. This is brilliant.
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Oh, jeez. This cracked my shit up when Greg sent it to me: Top 100 Fundie Quotes. I should probably warn you that some of the quotes are INCREDIBLY offensive. But you probably knew that even without me telling you, right? (And I mean INCREDIBLY offensive.) (But kind of funny, too. Who thinks like this? Really.)
GAGG: 77.99 miles
I got on the treadmill again today, and it kind of sucked. I mean, not terribly, which is good, and was a little surprising to me (in a I-can’t-believe-I’m-not-fucking-hating-this kind of way). But it sucked because I forgot to grab my ipod on the way out this morning, and the music piped into the gym was…not music that I like, much less like to work out to. Oh well. I had a book to read, but while I could hold the book steady, the brisk walking made my eyes move up and down, and skip up and down lines so that I couldn’t keep my place on the page. Tomorrow I will definitely have my ipod with me, and it will be awesome.
Susan suggested I try to snag spinsterintraining.blogspot.com. Unfortunately for me, someone else already has it, even though they’re apparently not using it. (Or haven’t since 2005.) But that’s cool – I like kathyfuckingjacobs. It’s got a ring to it, you know.
Bleah. I’ve been kinda ill all weekend – headaches, nausea, stomach ache that’s actually been pretty bad (to the point of keeping me up at night), worse than usual stomach “upset” (by which I mean diarrhea). I thought I was finally getting over it, but, nope, still here.
I’ve sort of worked out the brass issues. Steampunk Magazine (issue 1 for the etching tute) suggested you could get brass plates from your local hardware store. Maybe you can some places, but I had no luck. Or maybe it was just my fault for calling the big box places – neither Lowe’s nor Home Depot had just regular old brass plates, brass blanks, sheets of brass that maybe I could convince someone in a machine shop to cut up for me, nothing. Well, that’s not entirely true – I found some plain, pure brass wall plates at Home Depot, like the kind that you use to cover up a socket when you’re not using it anymore, I guess. Like a socket cover without holes for the socket. (I’ll put pictures up later.) They also had a long-ish, thin-ish piece of brass in the forms of kickplates and pushplates for doors, but they were too big and too pricey. And not very mail-able, since this is for a swap. I grabbed a pair of wall plates just to cover my bets for Monday. AC Moore also had a neat clock kit with a fucking brass pendulum that would have been badass, except it needed to be mounted to something that you stuck a clockface on. The adhesive clockfaces were kind of neat, but the only things that were pre-drilled for the clockworks and whatnot were fucking ugly and huge-ass wood. I mean, I guess I could have varnished it or some shit, but the size was just way out of proportion with the pendulum. But how cool would an etched brass pendulum be? On a fucking pendulum clock? That’s probably a project for the future, assuming I can work out an acceptable clockface mount. (There are probably proper words for all this shit, clock-related no doubt, but I don’t know them, so you don’t get them. Sorry.)
Thanks to some Craftster threads, I found ArtChix Studio, which has some fucking neat metal bits and charms and stuff. I also found Kit Kraft thanks to Craftster peeps, and after realizing that the Steampunk Magazine tute said I could use copper instead of brass without changing anything else (so I don’t have to figure out what to use instead of Root Kill), I placed an order with them. Hopefully, it’ll get here in time to be used on Monday. But if not, I got those wall plates. (Dara also recommended Rio Grande to me, and lent me one of her catalogs. They don’t have brass rounds, but I didn’t think to look for copper. Hmm.) Sweet.
And here’s a head’s-up: I’ve been thinking for a while about changing my main email address, as well as the url for this blog, because, while I didn’t pick it intending to be offensive, it’s based on a racist performance, and it bothers me. I’ve actually been dragging my heels for a while, because it’s going to be a hassle to change my main email address and make sure I tell everyone I need to that it’s changed – not just my friends but like, the bank and shit, I guess. Paypal or something. But I’ve been thinking alot about racism lately, thanks to great posts at La Chola, and this Creek Running North thread on being an antiracist ally, and honestly I’m disgusted with myself for dragging my feet just because it’s a “hassle” to change that shit when it’s based on a racist performance*. Fucking gross behavior, Kathy, stop it. But for the few of you that read this blog, I’m waiting until the end of the week so you can update your blogroll, or learn the new url, or whatever. So starting Friday, you’ll find me posting here.
*If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s the story. Way back when, I can’t even really remember, whenever I first signed up with Yahoo!Mail, I really wanted my handle to be “msgolightly” because Breakfast at Tiffany’s was my favoritest fucking movie. But that was taken, so I went with “mzgorightry” which was based on Mr. Yunioshi’s pronunciation of her name. Mr. Yunioshi being played by Andy Rooney, in a performance so offensively and blatantly racist all I can say is, I was way dumber then, pretty much totally clueless about my privilege and whether/why Rooney’s performance was offensive, and I’m sorry. I understand at least a little more clearly now, I “get it” a little better at least, and I’m trying to understand and “get it” more every day. Although I still like Breakfast at Tiffany’s for Audrey Hepburn, and the costumes, dear lord, I love the costumes. Was Yunioshi even in the book? I don’t remember him. They should just release a new edit with him cut out, actually, because aside from being racist, Rooney’s a fucking ridiculous ham. But I digress. See you at the new digs on Friday. Now I’ve got to go through my Yahoo!Mail address book and start emailing peeps about a new address.
