Taking the Scenic Route

Gonna vent a bit here.

Money sucks. We found out today that Zach’s dad will help us, but nothing even close to what we need.  It won’t even cover rent, much less living expenses.  I just find that so frustrating because we *know* he has more than enough, he is just never very willing to help us when we really need it.  I guess you have to have experienced hardship yourself to understand it.  We weren’t asking for handouts, we just wanted a loan because the money is coming, it just isn’t here right now.  Oh well.

Then we found out the paperwork for his pay was stuck in the Dean’s office until last Thursday, it is supposed to be in the budget office now, but nobody can find it.  After the budget office it goes through HR before finally being forwarded to payroll.  There is very little chance of getting  a paycheck on July 13th now, and we *might* get one on July 29th.  We have no idea how much of a paycheck that will be though…are they going to give us a typical paycheck amount, half the summer paycheck (was going to be given to us in two lump sums) or if we will get the entire lump sum at that point.   July 29th is a long ways away and it is possible it will get kicked into August at the rate this is going.   Zach has been on the phone all day trying to figure out where his paycheck is and it is really, really frustrating to try and even find out this much in such a bloated government system.

We are out of laundry detergent, hair conditioner, and low on a lot of other basic things, we have another car insurance (minimum liability only) payment due soon, and the bills like electricity, water, trash and internet service (which is vital to his job) are going to be coming due before the paycheck comes.  Oh, and therapy.  lol.  I hope they will just let us keep coming because I would just be so upset if we lost our slot because we can’t afford it right now.  We are behind on those bills right now, and one of them we got the other day was over $1K.  Zane absolutely needs that though.  We will find a way to catch up on that, so I hope they are willing to let us keep coming. 

Not to mention things like food.  My parents will make sure we don’t starve, but they aren’t exactly rolling in the dough either.  Harvest was a few steps beyond sucking this year.  The entire field yeilded less than a truck of animal food grade wheat.  (it was frozen, then snowed on, then flooded, then hailed on, then the bugs came and got what was left)  Plus, I hate, hate, hate having to ask my parents for anything.  They are willing to help, but they can’t afford to any more than we could afford to help somebody right now. 

Zach is still looking for another job.  He is also checking with people again that see if they have any more projects he can do to bring in some cash.  Something has to give soon.  This is just crazy. 

We finally left a message with the landlord.   We have been trying to get in touch with her in person, but since that is not working, we had to finally leave a message.  She was probably wondering what was going on because we usually pay about a month early for rent anyway, so it is late according to our pattern.  We don’t even know what to tell her, but I hope she is compassionate and doesn’t start eviction proceedings on us.  *sigh* 

This just sucks, sucks, sucks.

edited to add….

Heh…well, his paperwork grew wings.  I guess the barrage of emails to every person in the chain helped move it along a little faster.  It looks like we will get a paycheck on the 13th, and it will be half his salary for the summer.  Not a huge paycheck, granted, but at least enough to be able to negotiate a bit with the landlord and other bills. 

He also realized that he can probably reconsider the $6-8/hour part time jobs now that he has a job that covers rent and basics.  The co-op jobs pay horribly, but they might mean he can get his foot into the door at some of the companies that aren’t giving him a chance now because, evidently, teaching UNIX and programming and data structures and database doesn’t qualify as “experience” in those things to them.  ugh.   He just needs a foot in the door and the chance for them to see how good he is at what he does and it should translate into a better job for the future. 

It is a little frustrating to make the same wage as you did when you worked at Starbucks as a barista when you almost have your Master’s degree, but hey, at least it might lead to something better. 

edited to add again….

Well knock me over with a feather.  The landlord said “just get it to me when you can.  No big deal.  As long as I know what is going on, and I know you guys will get it to me when you can.”  *thunk* somebody call 911!  lol