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T h e A d v e n t u r e s o f C h i c a g o J o

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A Smattering of Things

2004-11-19� � 4:02 p.m.
Today is going to be one of those entries where I write a little throughout the day. Don�t mind all the topic skipping.


Last night I got a letter from my student loan people. I�ve got nothing against these folks. They were nice enough to loan me money so I could get a shiny-bling-bling job out of college and work my way up rather quickly to my current salary and position. Were it not for them illegally accepting an application from a 17-year-old asking for money, there�s no way I would be where I am now. But I digress...

So the folks I�ve been sending money to for the past several years don�t write me often. When I started paying them, they�d send me the occasional booklet of payment receipts to rip out and mail with a check.

(This was before online bill pay was the way to go, to indicate just how long ago I graduated college. These days I�m sure they send new graduates email notification that their payments are starting.)

Since they roped me into using the auto-deduct feature a couple years later by saying they�d cut a quarter of a percent off my bill, I rarely get anything from them. Perhaps once a year I get something saying that my interest rate or payment amount changed. No big deal.

So yesterday I got a letter from them. I recently got the one saying that my rates changed, blah, blah, blah, so I knew this wasn�t it. Upon opening the letter, I found quite a surprise:

Thanks for paying your bill on time each month and for so long! As a reward, we�re knocking your interest rates down even more so long as you continue to pay on-time.

Let me get this straight: I�m being rewarded for paying my bills on time??

Don�t get me wrong. I�ll take the 1.1% interest rate on my still-hefty loan amount. But a reward for doing something that everyone should be doing anyway??

Should I expect this treatment from the electric company if I ever live anywhere longer than a year? And what the hell has AT&T been holding back on for the past four years? Discover card... I�m looking at you...

Again, a deduction in my interest rate for paying my damn bill on time??

Amazing.

Trust me. I�ll just shut up and take it. 1.1% bay-bee. Sallie Mae rocks!


I had some other warm-on-the-inside story to tell, but I can�t remember it right now because I have a searing pain running through my back. I don�t know what caused this suddenly, but I�m now taking shallow breaths and trying not to move my arms, legs, or back.

I spent the evening on the floor, reading more class materials. That can�t be good for my back.

I haven�t slept for shit in the past week. Perhaps that�s adding to it too.

This morning I actually got up early and worked out. I blame the working out.

One of my perennially medicated friends who acts as my drug dealer gave me a few of these little yellow tabs the last time I couldn�t get to sleep. I think they�re some variety of anti-anxiety pill. My logic flows that if they�re supposed to help me sleep, they�ll relax me. If they�re relaxing me, they�ll also relax my back. And a relaxed back is a back that doesn�t make me wince when I move my arms too much while typing.

Argh.


Um, kids. Don�t take drugs that aren�t prescribed to you.


I thought of something good again.

This morning when I walked to work it had just stopped raining. I really, really enjoy breathing the just-stopped-raining air a lot.

I was able to avoid all but one smoker on my walk to work, so that was pleasant.


Something I�ve noticed lately: There are by far many more smokers outside the government buildings than outside the others. I work in a 49-floor office building, and we have fewer smokers than the 20-something-floor building across the street.


As evidenced by last night�s entry�s timestamp, I stayed at work late, working on some random stuff until I could get into this one program that was being restarted.

While waiting, I was noting how much I loved the pants I was wearing and decided to take the downtime to do some Internetting to find them.

I peeked at the tags in the bathroom and with the aid of google found that they were from some swanky store on Michigan Avenue. Scanning the online fashion collection, it seems that I am wearing $119 pants.

I got these pants at a crappy thrift store for $1. I�m $118 up on having some most-fantastic pants. For this, I�m quite pleased.

eBay has this option where you get set up search parameters and have new listings that fit emailed to you. I�m just waiting until I come across a pair in khaki.

Let�s cross our fingers. I have an item on my 101 in 1001 list about finding khaki pants.

All right. It�s 4 p.m. and I have a brother waiting for me. Have a great weekend, all. �



Miss something?

Moving Day - 2008-02-15
Working from Home is Glorious - 2008-02-13
Speaking in Tongues - 2008-02-07
I Have My Reasons - 2008-01-25
Got an Itch, Fix it, Shine it Up, Sing it Out - 2008-01-23

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