So, it's coming to the end of them month; that lovely time of bills due etc... AND I STILL HAVENT RECIEVED MY UNEMPLOYMENT.
At this point I should have been recieving my gubment cheez since the week beginning February 13th, so they are almost $3000 behind.
Paperwork delays.
See I filed my claim and then submitted updates for two weeks, but for some reason my record was purged. They made me refile and on March second my new claim was processed, pending re-interview etc...
So I continued filing my weekly updates, and for three weeks did so, when again the computer system said there was a problem with my record.
So on March 23rd I finally got through to them, and they said I hadnt returned my paperwork; except I had. After an hour on the phone they noted that I had, and reinstated my claim and put me in the queue for scheduling an interview, again. They also told me that I would get a letter telling me when my interview would be, and that it could take up to three weeks to be scheduled for an interview. I noted that I was supposed to be scheduled as of March second, but they said the paperwork problem had put my claim on hold since then and that it hadnt been done. Go to the back of the three week long line.
Ok so I keep filing my paperwork every week, and again the computer says there is a problem. Plus it's been three weeks and no letter, so I call again; This time I get someone who runs me through the standard bullshit I've already been through three times. I till them in detail what I've already been through and they tell me that my claim was put on hold from missed paperwork again. I make it clear AGAIN that I have returned all my paperwork. She looks AGAIN, and says oh ok I see that, let me clear this up for you, and I'll just approve the claim you wont have to go through the re-interview and the checks will be out to you today.
Hurray happy day. Of course I don't particularly trust them all that much anymore (as if I ever did), but I'm hopeful.
This coincidentally is about the time my bank starts charging me overdraft fees for little $5 and $10 automatic electronic transactions. I have a bunch of them, dont know exactly when they come out of my account, and can't easily cancel them all. Of course the bank pays them and then charges me $27 each for them. I call them and tell them not to do that. If I'm at zero, why would you pay a debit card transaction? If I was at a store with the debit card you would decline it, but because it came electronically you dont? What the hell is that? Oh if it was over $100 you would, but since they are so small you'll gladly take the opportunity to charge me 3 to 5 times what my actual overdraft was in fees arent you?
$452 dollars in fees later I finally get them to stop with the electronic pre-auth debits. Only two of them were for more than the fee they charged me.
Oh and I keep mentioning calling unemployment right? Well let me tell you how that goes. The unemployment help line is open from 8am to 4pm monday through friday. They have a single phone bank, with what seems to be a single phone line. Actually I think that it's 4 lines from the conversation I had last time. Four phone lines, for a state of 4 million with 160,000 recieving unemployment benefits.... no I exaggerate, thats only the line for the Phoenix Metro area, which has 2+ million of that 4 million.
Even better, you can ONLY get help on the telephone for these issues, you can't go in to the office. I know, I've tried.
So what you do is you redial the same busy number all day for days until you get an answer. The shortest time I've spent continuously redialing (thank god for auto redial) is 4 hours, the longest is 8 days. That is redialing constantly from 8am to 4pm for all of one week, not getting through, and then three days into the next week.
Anyway, to continue the saga...
When we last got through to the help line, the oh so helpful rep at the other end had said that my checks would be issued and out to me that day.
That was Monday; around Wednesday I figured they werent coming so I started dialing.
Friday the 14th, I got through to someone. That someone told me the person on monday had lied, and that she had cleared the pending issues, but that I would still need to be reinterviewed. I explained that I had been waiting for reinterview since February 14th, and she said that I was put in the queue on March 23rd and that it had been three weeks so I should be getting the letter telling me when my interview was going to be any day now but that they had a huge backlog and it could be three more weeks.
So I keep filing my weekly claims until monday when the computer says it cant find any record of my social security number in the system.
So I've been redialing all day since monday morning.
I kinda need the 3 grand.
Now even better, I have over $6000 owed me by various folks, $4000 alone from my best friend, who has supposed to have been paying me $500 a month since he got this new job almost 4 months ago. So far he's payed a total of $500, knowcking his $4500 to $4000 actually.
He's supposed to sell his car, buy a cheaper one, and pay me off with the balance. That isn't going to happen before my bills come due.
I have another friend who had $6000 worth of my guns stored in his range; and they seem to have gone walkies. Of course I kind of need those guns, to sell if nothing else. The sum total of his response so far? "Well, what am I supposed to do about it?".
This includes my varmint AR, my Smith EBR M14, and another AR upper, all with high end optics and accessories, drag bags, and about 20 mags each (hell that's like $600 in M14 mags alone). Also John OC's AR lower is missing. Shit you can't even replace the Smith anymore, they've stopped celling to civvies because they are months behind ofn their navy and marine contracts.
I've got $3500 or so worth of bills and expenses I have to pay off in the next week or two. I've got about 1/6th that to work with at the moment.
Oh yes, in theory I have a new gig starting in (I hope) a week or so, but I still won't get paid for at least a week after that, and as much as 4 weeks after that.
Not that I don't have the money coming to me, I've got PLENTY of money coming to me; I just can't get my damn hands on it.
See ever since I met Mel, I've been waiting for the bad to happen. If y'all know anything about my life, it's that I'm not allowed to have anything good happen without crushing bad happening to compensate for it.
Well, I'm surely hoping the last few weeks qualifies. The only thing left that could be worse is my mom dying, and even that would be half a blessing.
Funny enough, it was almost exactly one year ago that I was in a similar situation. The previous two years of supporting my mother, travelling 4 and 5 days a week, and getting screwed over at work had completely drained me by last March. Thankfully, I ended up starting a new job on my birthday (which is tomorrow), and things were going pretty well from then up until this March.
Yeah I mean the expenses of the last year were higher, and I still havent paid everybody back from LAST year (absent mindedness and circumstances on my part. I had the money set aside I just either forgot about things, or I got a bunch of big bills whenever I got above a couple months savings, or my mom hit a bad patch, or in one case I lost the guys contact info).
Then we go into this house with enough money for a comfortable cushion through to when I was supposed to be working again, and the expenses end up being twice what we budgeted for; my ex landlady steals our deposit, and the job gets put off for a couple months, and now six weeks later it's crunch time.
I say again AAAARGH. Please, let this be enough payback for the good that is Mel and the kids Ok. Yeah I can take more, but it's killing Mel, and I'd REALLY like to avoid having my life destroyed by circumstance again thanks...
Time to take out a title loan on my car and sell some more guns. Of course the most valuable ones to sell are MISSING, and lord knows I hate doing that, but it's just stuff, and just money.
Besides, half the fun is in the acquisition.
