to do today:

-email roachers
-get into GO, check invoices
-call more stables
-figure out guide accounts
-check that last tuition payment has been taken out
-call ipsos mori
-oh god stress stress stress
-figure out paper due dates
-talk to dr mason about long essay
-check with first choice about council tax band


I need to drop something. I really need to drop something. I shouldn't have gotten involved with guides again this year. argh.

So, I've had an interesting morning. Short story: me, my mom, RBS, and the uni each made minor mistakes. This has led to my needing considerably more money than we thought we did. Or rather - needing the same amount, but we thought I had it already. Gahhhh.

Long story:

This morning I was out with Sandy. We had an hour until we had to be somewhere. (A routine but undignified and generally irritating STD check, on top of everything else I've dealt with this morning...) Great, let's get some coffee and muffins, my treat. £7. Card declined. Try again. Card declined. Oh, the Starbucks card machine has been having some issues, doing this to tons of people, fine, I'll go outside and get some cash. At the cash machine - no, you can't have ten quid, you only have five in your account.

WHAT THE-

Cue lots of cursing and an hour of running around to various institutions. I think I've now mostly figured out what happened.

First, mom put a large chunk of money into my account. Enough to cover two tuition payments and some living expenses.

Next, the uni sent me an email letting me know that they would be taking my payments in October, December, and February, instead of September, November, and January. Except that in the letter itself they didn't mention that this was a change. So I get the email, think "great, fee confirmation, three dates at the bottom" and don't pay enough attention to what the dates actually are. The guy at Registry says they sent out a hard copy of this letter too - which I didn't get - and that my bank should have sent a notification of the change, which again, I did not receive, if they sent it.

November, mom visits, we talk about financial stuff, question is asked: "I think I've put enough in for your tuition - just need some more for living expenses, right?" I check my account. See enough money for one more tuition payment and a little bit of living expenses. I think that by this time both September and November's payments should have come out, so yes, that's right. Actually, October's payment has come out, and there's still December and February.

December, second tuition payment comes out unexpectedly, there's still one left, and I can't afford coffee. D'OH!

Now, I did still have £1500 in my savings account. I have transferred some of this to the checking account, so I'm okay for living expenses. One concern is that this resets the time of having £800 in my account for the visa stuff, but I've talked to the folks at Registry, and I don't think it will be a major problem; I should be able to show that I've always had at least 800 spread over multiple accounts, and the uni is going to write a letter for me saying that I dropped so low because of a change they made.

However, this means i need to get another £4,000 from my mom. Not too problematic hopefully, but still, fuck.

And can I just say - I really do feel sympathy for my friends, and everything that's going on with this tuition fees thing is pretty terrible. But - they might raise it to £9,000 a year for you, max? I'm already paying £11,800.... so there is a certain amount of "screw you, stop whining" in my head right now. I am aware that this makes me a terrible person, yes, and I hope that fees don't get raised too much. But yeah. Guh.

It'll be fine. I have a nice busy weekend of awesome play and fairly easy work planned out. This will make me feel better.

I am now confident that...
-guys really don't notice eyebrows unless you've only got one
-I care considerably more about what degree classification I get than my mother does
-it's not a list until it has at least three items

See? Totally did get a good start on this essay. Thanks for the motivation.

 

( 1008 words )

 

*sigh*

-get past 1000 words on metaphysics essay
-figure out an activity for guides tomorrow
-deal with Roachers stuff
-finish Young article
-read "Witches, Midwives, & Nurses"
-look into resources sent by whatsername the doula
-fill in shiny new planner

Just found my camera battery charger, whoo, suddenly I can put photos on the internet again.

Been getting into glass painting lately. We've got mice, so everything needs to go into jars, and why not make them pretty, right? But first, a ladybug!

This little guy was hanging out with me when I was in Didcot writing up a scenario for GEAS. Sweet, isn't he? I quite like this picture.




( Lots of pics, beware )

print out stuff from here for guides:

http://www.makingfriends.com/friendship.htm

http://www.girlguiding.org.uk/guides/gfibadge/badges/index.html