go with the flow?

for a guy who slings ink, harold can be quite the philisophical type…

…which can make for some fun conversations.

a girl i was “dating” (used in quotes, ’cause i don’t know if that really fits, but kristen, call it what you wish, you are just TOO damn fun to hang out with and i miss you…) once called shane “the thinking man’s redneck”. i wish i had had her qualify that phrase a bit more, ’cause i don’t know how much that REALLY fits…but that would just make harold “the thinking man”.

earlier i was lamenting about undoing my workout at the irish pub across the street via wings and ritas. when the ticket came it was only seven bucks and some change, and i had eighteen on me – three fives and three singles. since the service deserved more than pocket change as a tip i just handed the waitress (after a lengthy discussion on the ins and outs of the radio world – she’s a mass comm major, as was i) the two fives. the ticket was one of those wonderful ones that told you your tip if you left fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five percent – the last of which would have rounded up to around nine bucks.

being unemployed i was gonna ask for a buck back, but even with funds tight i saw that as splitting hairs and just waved her off when she went to make change with that universal “keep it” gesture. harold theorized that money is actually liquid capital in the sense that there is ebb and flow and that giving that waitress the extra dollar meant that an extra dollar might flow my way in return.

moments later fifty of his dollars had to flow to dickhead ernest the towtruck driver as i got schooled that where i was parked was NOT a visitor’s space and that the complex did in fact have them, even though they weren’t that clearly marked. my car was dropped off the truck and moved and now i owe harold money…or do i? how does the flow go?

let’s move on – i’m still pretty pissed about all that…

other financial moral to the story – DON’T get laid off owing one of those high interest payday loans. not happy i had to do one, but when i first called to explain things to them they were very courteous, saying they would give me a two week extension while i was waiting for unemployment to kick in, and “that these things happen” and it was “no trouble, and no interest” and to call them back in two weeks “to let them know what was up…”.

i thought, “what sweet people when they’re not charging you twice what the mob does to loan money”

so, around the tenth i called them since all this was “no problem”. i was told the only way they would work out a payment plan was if my bank bounced the charge back, which of course would incur a bank fee for me in addition to the double italian finance fee i had with them. and that if the payment cleared, then we’d have to circle up in two weeks and see if the next one bounced…

…to my surprise my bank cleared the charge, even though i had a balance of only one dollar. so, i figured i had another couple weeks to get this settled up. i also had an extra $35 i now owed in overdraft fees.

but then only a week later they hit me with the full princible, PLUS another full interest payment (what happened to that “no interest” shit?). my bank bounced that one back to them.

i was livid they had even tried it – what the fuck? plus, i now owed yet ANOTHER $35 overdraft fee.

i was even more so when, in an obvious attempt to see how much they could get out of me, the little bastards then tried to put throuth TWO identical charges that added up to the full princible, plus the interest, PLUS an extra $30 which i can only assume is the charge on THEIR end for my bank bouncing it back even though they said that’s what i had to do…

…my bank has now bounced those two back, charging me ANOTHER $70 in overdraft fees since it was two seperate unauthorized charges. and what happened to that “no interest, no problem, we’ll work with your unemployed ass” attitude i’d recieved before? guess that girl got fired for being too nice?

speaking of nice, enter into the picture the wonderful girl i dealt with over the phone with my bank. she looked over all this and smelled the bullshit through the screen. she talked to a manager and figured out if we filed a dispute on the ORIGINAL charge i might could re-coup all the bank charges as this was all third-party negligance, esentually, since i hadn’t even authorized the first interest payment – i was just supposed to call back and “check in with them, let them know how things were going” and was, at that time, TOLD i was getting hit with that one. and even though it was paid, i was then hit again and again with no warning or reason…

…so we’ll see how the investigation goes. i’m thinking i might seek legal action against the payday loan fucks. and so far i think my bank rocks – but again, we’ll see how that investigation goes. at least the girl i dealt with rocked…and i’m not just sayin’ that ’cause she’s probably reading this.

and as for harold’s “flow theory” i wonder when it flows back my way – looks like a desert around here lately…in more ways than one.