when i was a junior in college, i received a student loan check that was way too substantial. i called the financial aid office and the bursar, and both assured me that the amount was accurate. two months later, a financial aid officer called to explain that i'd inadvertantly been given someone else's funds (in addition to what i'd been offered).
predictably, the financial aid officer asked whether or not i'd noticed anything amiss when the bigger-than-appropriate check showed up, and why i hadn't called to ask what had happened. never an apology for failing to notice their mistake when i had suggested that they might have made a mistake. in fact, they demanded that the excess amount be repaid by the end of the semester, terms they insisted were more than fair.
once, in grad school, i was promised summer work study, told i couldn't have summer work study, and then promised summer work study. etc.
one unit, for whom i taught, accidentally identified me as one sort of employee when i was actually another. as a result, i wasn't paid over three periods, as is customary, but instead with one lump-sum paycheck several weeks after the term had ended. of course, taxes were withheld at the rate that would be appropriate if i had made that lump sum every two weeks.
later, my benefits were cancelled because i moved from one office to another. same pay scale, same employer, same provider. no benefits.
the latest: somehow, my position (which is very much still my position) somehow was not renewed. no paycheck. after some panicked phone calls to a number of people, i'm "back in the system." little comfort, that. i'm assured i'll be paid as if no lapse ever happened.
and now... just got a letter saying my benefits will be cut if i don't pay the full premiums (not just the regular withholding amount, but the whole premium) for the pay period during which i wasn't paid because someone neglected to pay me for work i was supposed to be paid for doing.
there are other stories. details fade, though, so they'll just have to stay in the closed file cabinet of frustration-with-getting-screwed.
yes, yes. this is all pathetic self-pity. wah. bad things happen only to me, the world's martyr. at least i get a paycheck every once in a while.
thank goodness that commie durbin has apologized for saying that torture at the hands of u.s. soldiers is, you know, reminiscent of torture at the hands of other soldiers.
i hear limbaugh is selling t-shirts that say "what happens in gitmo stays in gitmo." gotta get one of those, since it's pretty funny that...
you know what? not even timeless sarcasm will do. this is sick sick sick. if insisting that torture is not acceptable, that torture has made the u.s. a worse nation, if that observation has somehow become a treasonous offense, we not only got off course, we are, literally, going to do ourselves in.
every time, i think it couldn't get any worse. and every time, it does.
At the moment, running is tough. It's hot. Folks are getting sore. Last weekend's run from Bethesda to Union Station was my first reminder of what running in D.C. summers means.
When I read the following suggestion for using ice immediately after runs to prevent soreness, which came in an email to my running club's listserv, I said to myself, "Hey! That's a good idea. Sounds easier than the bathtub of icewater we used last year."
We bought a trash can for icing and hop in it in the back yard after filling it with ice water after our long runs (the neighbors think we are insane). 10 minutes is about all I can stand, but I have found it has been helpful.
got a haircut today. that's good, as it's d.c. hot.
a week-and-a-half ago, on a morning run, i got the Big Idea that seriously ties the bow on my mostly-written dissertation. it's still clunky, so no way am i putting anything on stage yet, but it's terribly refreshing to go, "oh, yeah. that's it!". some revision towards coherence is necessary, but that was part of the plan anyway. grandiloquent public thoughts about the conditions of contemporary u.s. life writing are forthcoming. hint = the keyword for over-self conscious memoirists like dave eggers, edmund morris, and maxine hong kingston is "panic."
npr's turn for the worse continues. that story on friday's morning edition about a seattle army recruiter's difficulties? feeling sorry for that guy because the hippie youth of the pacific northwest won't sign up? yeah. they totally left out the story about the seattle-area marine recruiters who, for all intents and purposes, kidnapped a potential recruit. also, the p.o.s. diane rehm show needs to make its "friday news roundup" worthwhile again. honestly, listening to a "liberal" panel sound like ken mehlman's scratch paper just isn't cutting it.
folks need to lay off dr. dean. seriously. "how dare he call the republican party white and christian?!" happily, o'reilly, hannity, limbaugh, cheney, and sensesnbrenner have kept the discourse gentlemanly.
i'm not sure lentricchia's after the new criticism is what i ought to be reading on the bus these days. however, my copy was picked up at a book sale, and its previous owner was a faculty member in my department. the marginalia is a kick. she and frank seem not to have been down. like full-on kick-to-the-curb style.
whoo! old greenbelt. settlement on july 29. feverishly trying to ditch stuff we don't want to move.
neighbor-friends over for dinner tonight.
twelve mile run from bethesda to union station tomorrow morning. ssshhhhh. i'm going to have a beer at union station. ssshhhhh.