Year 7, Day 125: We’re still figuring out the rhythms of drop off and pick up. When PiC has an 8 am meeting, he can’t do drop off. Since we have an excessively narrow window for dropping off SmolAc, this gets extra complicated. We managed it this time by having SmolAc go early and get school breakfast. Their grade is escorted to class by teachers when it’s time. It’s not a great solution because SmolAc feels pressured by the very short block of eating time and don’t like it, but they also aren’t allowed to go to breakfast and NOT eat. I understand why but it’s a dilemma when we have multiple kids to get to different campuses. The next morning we have like this, we’ll ask the neighbors to drop JB with their kid. They leave much earlier but that’ll give JB time to hang out with their friend.
Year 7, Day 126: I’m so tickled about our creative reuse store visit.
We found all the notebooks ($2 new on sale) and poly folders ($23 new) for the kids for school. We found the big envelopes (~$12) and page protectors (~$20) I need for mailing things and saving their art. We found useful odds and ends in the free section and wrapping paper and a puzzle in the tubs. We walked out of there for $5! I only have to buy a calculator for JB new on sale now. They had used calculators for $1 but they didn’t meet PiC’s standards.
My body is far less tickled by the outing. Entirely too much walking and socializing for this bag o’ bones. The pain has been quite high this week even if the swelling has stayed under control. I’m hoping that we’re past the hump of this flare.
Year 7, Day 127: I’ve been craving brownies for ages. A slightly fudgy but also kind of cakey (but not too much because that’s dry) brownie chock full of walnuts. After a friend mentioned their kid loves the Ghirardelli brownie mix, it stuck in the card catalog of my cravings section of the brain and I finally grabbed a box recently. Mixing it up was incredibly fast, melting the butter is what took ages, and then it went into the toaster oven for an hour while I took myself off to bed. It was a really good treat for being in the middleish of a multi-day pain and fatigue flareup.
Year 7, Day 128: Alright after N months of NOT looking or finding a repair person, I texted a friend to confess my cowardice over the possibility of delving in and making things worse. We decided that I probably wouldn’t break it more and well, if it does, I needed a repairperson anyway. I took apart the oven, cleaned it because we’re already in here why not, replaced the battery and put it all back together minus that one screw that’s been put into timeout because there’s absolutely no way to put it back in flush and it’s not critical. I’m still not telling PiC where the screw should be though, the perfectionist.
Voila, I fixed it! I have saved myself at least a $100 callout fee and embarrassment over wasting that time on a callout for something so simple.
Year 7, Day 129: PiC is looking into aftercare programs since the most desirable one waitlisted us, again. I’m betting we never get off their waitlist. We never got off their preschool waitlist and had to pay for THAT privilege, too, blech. But he asked for some recs and checked out one of them. He came home bearing printouts and brochure type information and would you believe that for a 5 day program with pickup, they’re charging basically $10k and change per year? Probably that price lands differently when you have two full incomes, we certainly were paying twice that for daycare (for full days with 3 meals though), but with mine soon to end, that doesn’t sit comfortably. I need a happy medium between SmolAc being bored at home with me and paying through the nose for a few hours of care a day.
This school year feels like a more benign version of 2020 where it’s a whole lot harder and people are home a lot more. It’s a lot. It’s also temporary. Kindergarten can’t/won’t last forever. But I don’t love how tired I am every single day.
Year 7, Day 118: The first week of school, which was all of two days last week, trounced me. I was exhausted in body and spirit by the time retrieval of both children was accomplished. Taking to my bed was all I could think of by the time we fed everyone. JB was still fairly overwhelmed by Day 2, SmolAc was fine and jonesing for more. They’re going from a full day to a partial day so it’s a downward adjustment.
I’m a little bit better prepared for this week with my own schedule but have accepted the responsibility of on-call dog care for my friend who is going through family drama and managing an elder’s healthcare due to a massive sudden decline. Very much hoping the scheduled nurse visit for which they need the dogs out of the house happens at a manageable time for me and the kids.
I’m so glad I’ve been holding firm against bringing home a new dog before this period. I’m having enough trouble with the changes/transitions of 2 human dependent, a third might well have broken me.
Year 7, Day 119:Ā It is a dark day today, losing Dolly Parton. So few people could measure up to the example she set, much less people in the public eye. She was always so genuine, and she cared enough about people she’d never meet to do all kinds of good for them from the Imagination Library, to Dollywood, to the Moderna vaccine, to the direct aid she did for schools and marching bands, to helping out the folks affected by the fires in Tennessee. That’s probably just scratching the surface of the list of all the good she’s done over the years. What a loss for the world. I hope that everyone whose lives she ever touched is moved to do as she did in whatever way that they can. I’ve always tried to follow her example in my own small ways.
Year 7, Day 120: I’ve been diligently digging out roly polies of all sizes from the potato bag and watering with the cold shower water catch buckets. The potato plants are coming up strong and the one green bean plant that survived the isopod depredations seems hidden among them. I’ve got another green bean seedling sheltering in a tiny pot, waiting for the right time to transplant it. If I transfer it too early, the isopod families will converge on the weak baby and devour it. They’ve wiped out two seedlings and four germinating seeds already and I refuse to sacrifice any more to them.
The blackberry bush came back strong with branches and leaves after being cut down to the ground, but only produced one flower that just withered away. I suppose they’re all primocanes this year. Both that and the blueberry bush seem to be responding a little bit to the acid amendments added to the soil a couple months ago but it’s too early to anticipate fruit, that’s for sure.
The sole sugar snap pea plant that managed to germinate seems pretty happy among the other potato plants, grabbing hold of its neighbors and growing a bit more sideways than vertically. But so far it seems free of the powdery mildew blight, crossing my fingers that it continues to stay healthy. Might I risk germinating another few? Maybe in a week or two. This week I’m full to the brim with responsibilities, and I’m dropping the ball on something if I add more to my plate.
Year 7, Day 121: Human guinea pig time? I’m exploring the possibility that a GLP-1 med might possibly help reduce my inflammation (which is at an all time long term high) and immune system failure (which is also high despite my diligently taking antivirals). It might not be a HIGH chance of success but any hope is better than nothing.
Update: Nope, Kaiser won’t dispense tirzepatide off-label and it’s apparently VERY expensive. I’ve checked Costco Pharmacy and Cost Plus Drugs and they don’t carry it at all. Rats. I’m pondering whether I should continue digging for other pharmacy options.
Year 7, Day 122: Doing my usual clear my public data off the internet dance. Going through and removing my data scraped from public records is tedious but I feel better for having done it. This week’s targets were Radaris and Truthfinder.
One of them lists an address that I have never been at — my brother and dad’s address since their last residence. I don’t know if they associated it just because I’m related to them OR if it’s because my dad used my personal information to apply for housing behind my back. š My credit reports have been locked down for several years to prevent his using them, though, so I hope this is inaccurate data scraping and linking.
Year 7, Day 111: Not to be all about the confirmation bias but I’ve been harboring a not-at-all-secret fear that this layoff will be as bad or worse than the last one. In length at least if not misery. My therapist is being all hope and sunshine about how this represents an opportunity. I’m not denying that it could be that, eventually. I’m not denying that I needed to leave this job and that it would have been unbelievably hard for me to leave to take a real break like I needed to without a layoff. I’m even doing my best to consciously be open to optimism and to making the most of this time so that it’s not all stress and doom. But it’s way too soon to feel hopeful – especially now before a job search begins in earnest. Mostly the open mind and keeping busy, between kids scheduling, chores and new crafts, has been working to keep me out of the dumps this month. And it’s been nice to discover new things while the clock ticks down on the “I still have an income” status.
The worry is still ever-presently lurking in my daily subconsciousness, though, and a recent discussion of how long some folks have been job-hunting (several months to a year and still counting) brought it bubbling back up to the surface. I know we can hang for a year, I’ve been doing the more detailed math, but then what? What’s my Phase 2 plan if this goes longer than a year? 18 months? 24 months??
Sigh. As I half-joked to my coworker, I have until PiC gets laid off, then I REALLY have to get a job. That’s not a time so much as a floating limit. I continue to hope that sometime in Months 6-10, I discover a hidden talent of something I actually want to do, physically CAN do and do well, and is lucrative. Go on universe, show me what good stuff you can come up with.
Year 7, Day 112: Hm. PiC’s employer is changing retirement plan providers from Fidelity to Empower. I’ve never heard of Empower before but they claim to be the second largest retirement plan recordkeeper in the US. Materially, we’ll see a decrease in the annual admin fee from $36 to $19. I don’t see any other differences that matter to us – the plans and funds available to us all remain the same. I won’t expend more brainpower on this until I really have nothing better to do since there’s nothing I can do about it but have an opinion (or not).
A funny coincidence: I have been on a cleaning binge and, last night, found one of the kids’ old sports uniforms that was never worn tucked in a tote bag. That made me sigh. It’s been listed on Poshmark for weeks without any interest, I wonder if I need to do something to bump it a little… then I forgot all about it. Today, I got a notification that there was a counteroffer on that very listed item. Counter? Where was the first offer? I opened the app to see that the little automation they had that sends an offer to anyone who likes an item had been triggered by a like, the buyer immediately countered the lower offer, and then accepted the app’s counter offer. Sold! That’s a pretty easy automation (if I were coding it with my dev, I’d describe it as: if an item is liked, send an offer with Price-$3) and effective too, it seems. I’ve packaged it up and it’s ready to go.
Year 7, Day 113: After four weeks of positively dismal workouts or weeks without working out at all for various reasons, I’m finally doing my workouts this week as written and may actually (knock salt, throw salt, all the things) get through more than half of them for the first time in over a month. It’s been demoralizing how many weeks I’d missed because I couldn’t squeeze it in and it’s clear that stamina has gone walkabout without me. But back on the metaphorical horse I go. I’d be more enthused if it was a real horse.
I’ve mostly got a pharmacy organization system down for travel but Hawaii Planner had me contemplating if it’s the best that it could be. I have a set of meds that I have to take daily – that’s easy and goes in the 7-day am/pm medication organizer. But there’s also a set of meds that I take as needed in the evenings and those are dependent on how I feel so the fixed week organizer doesn’t work for that.
Year 7, Day 114: Ooh I’m mad at Kobo. I have spent hours painstakingly organizing my Seanan McGuire short stories that I’d uploaded manually to the app into the right collections. Today, I opened the app and it ambushed me with an update and migration that I didn’t agree to and in doing so, it changed the author name for all the manually uploaded stories to Unread and deleted all the collection tags. WTAF!! I don’t have the mental energy to fix this right now.
Year 7, Day 115: We’ve tried really hard to get the kids back on an early rising schedule before school starts. It’s painful and largely unsuccessful. They will get up early on the day of, there’s no way to fake the adrenaline from when school actually starts ahead of The Day. Admittedly I’m also dragging from fatigue so much that without the true pressure, the dry runs have been dry fumble stumbles. It’s very irritating because best intentions! But no, says the body.
All that to say, they did finally get up early as needed, just in time. And now we have to be really strict about bedtimes because their bodies need a lot of sleep normally, which is why they tend to sleep in (mostly JB but SmolAc’s also been laying abed a little later than their norm) and if they’re cutting it short at the morning end, we have to make it up at the night end.
Year 7, Day 104: I’m doing the math for next week and with the kindergarten class letting out at 12:30 for a month, I’m only going to have roughly 4 hours of kid-free time per weekday once school starts. After that month, they add one hour.
That’s a mere half of the solo silent hours I need to stay sane generally. š
And if PiC chooses to flex work more, to help out with kid stuff, that further cuts down on my solo silent time. It’ll help with the kid errands but I’m going to struggle with so little quiet time to recharge.
(Cautiously) I think I’ve finally kicked the most recent set of viruses and my mouth has also healed from the three canker sores that sprouted around the same time (could have been related). Rude, body, very rude. But finally I can take a bite of food and not be in pain all the way until the food gets past the esophagus! š
Year 7, Day 105: Both in an attempt to keep my mind busy, and to stack a few more bricks of cash against the rapidly approaching last day, I’ve been working a number of deals these past few weeks.
We opened Wells Fargo accounts for the bonus and reaped $800 for both. I’m working the Chase Ink Business card bonus now that all the approval rigamarole is done with. I saved T-Mobile Tuesday deals four weeks in a row on both our phones to earn a $5 gift card for each of us.
I’ve submitted all FSA receipts to date and my reimbursements for work expenses have been paid so I’m very nearly done with all the work related things I’ll need to wrap up.
I’m kinda drawing a blank on what I can be doing next so best to focus on hitting the minimum on the Chase card in a smart way before picking up another money project.
Year 7, Day 106: I’m using the library’s MakerSpace a lot this month: learning how to use the 3D printer, using their sewing machine while mine is in the shop, etc. I’m hoping to learn how to use their Cricut soon but that has to wait until my hands are under control. They’ve been so swollen this week that I’m up a full ring size and it’s been hard to do basic things like bend my fingers. This is like a reversion to my hands 30 years ago when my fibro first started.
We’re borrowing a lot more books and DVDs these days. Well, I am. PiC has always kept the kids stocked to the borrowing limit but we’ve only just started finding shows that we can all enjoy that isn’t just Bluey. Right now, it’s Robotech which I spotted fortuitously. We’ve finished the Mscross Saga, and have the Masters Saga and The New Generation (10? Discs). Then we’ll be on the hunt for something else. Remember a few months or so ago, SmolAc hated everything we screened because they decided all antagonists were bad and made the show bad. It’s made finding something to watch a lot more challenging.
I’d like to try Doctor Who but maybe that’s only possible if we can get the really old doctors. My theory is that the fighting in Robotech is only acceptable (to SmolAc) because it’s robots and very old graphics/ technology. Perhaps very old Doctor Who might maybe slide under their radar? If not, maybe it’s time for anime – One Piece might be acceptable. Open to suggestions for favorite anime appropriate for a 5+ year old and the rest of us!
Year 7, Day 107: My little Janome is home! It’s been serviced for $150 and is home home home. I’m hoping that the service means I won’t run into tension issues with the thread seizing up under the sewing plate again any time soon. I’ve got several bags in various stages of completion, I’d love to finish them off.
Today is a SmolAc and me day so we’ve planned for them to do some coloring, some drawing, and then we’re going to pick up our neighbor and their two big dogs for a session of ball throwing. It’ll be good for everyone. I desperately need dog time, SmolAc has been more and more interested in dogs, the dogs need the exercise, and our neighbor kid is bored so we’ll be rescuing them for a little while.
Year 7, Day 108: A discussion about blood donations in a Discord led to a mention of plasma donations (paid) and that roused my curiosity so I did a bit of searching. It looks like you can make a decent amount of money a month doing 5-8 donations but none of the many locations they have in California, across three companies, are anywhere near us. Darn. Not that I know if I COULD donate plasma but September is for learning new things!
Had an online chat with Comcast because they are no longer showing the relevant details of the promotional rate I wangled out of their last chat agent AND they double charged me. It looks like the double charge will be offset by next month’s billing negative $1 but I still don’t like how the site no longer shows the correct promotional rate with discount AND when the discount ends. It SHOULD be $50/month for 60 months, but their site is just blithely showing a $100 monthly rate. The chat agent kept telling me to “trust me”, that the rate is correct in the system but a) I don’t and b) there’s no reason Comcast itself would ever take “trust me” instead of cold hard proof of the agreement. So for now, I have to settle for screenshots of the chat agent assuring me that my monthly rate is $50. Doesn’t leave a good taste in my mouth but if this buys me peace for another 4.5 years on the internet front, that is good enough.
Year 7, Day 97: It’s possible that mistakes were made. There was a free Gundum build and take workshop. I power walked the kids to it and we each received kits. Now they are really enjoying building little Gundam robots. SmolAc is fairly well obsessed. This is an expensive hobby! Perhaps we don’t need additional expensive hobbies right now? Buuuuut, counterpoint, despite the occasional frustrating bits where they give you microscopic stickers or plastic bits to attach to other bits, it IS a lot of fun. Which is why I wanted to go in the first place. It’s not as straightforward as LEGO, but it’s fun to have a little robot model at the end. I’ll look into getting a few more inexpensive sets. For motivation.
Year 7, Day 98: I’m resenting the hell out of the physical experience of being a woman in her mid-40s. I’m constantly sweating in temps that used to be perfectly fine, literally dripping sweat and doing that cliched mopping of my forehead. I’m a lumpy potato and despite my best efforts, nothing is comfortable. Pants, tees, skirts, nothing. Grumpy.
Also, it’s come to my attention that my older rings cannot fit my super swollen fingers anymore. They used to go through semi-regular swelling / not-swelling cycles. They’re now stuck in the swollen state.
I now have more rings I can’t wear than I can: my pretty little ring from my teen years (I only had the one), engagement ring, and two hand me down / heirloom (? I can’t tell what it’s called when an elder friend gives me stuff from their collection that they don’t use anymore). I don’t own a lot of rings but the ones I do are precious to me and this makes me sad.
Year 7, Day 99: Suddenly I have three families in my life expecting all at the same time. It’ll be their, third, second, and first, respectively, which makes part of my brain chuckle. I am a little overwhelmed thinking of all the (book and clothes) gifts I’ll need to prep. But I got to cuddle a newborn this week and omigosh that was so healing. I adore babies. Fresh little baby loaves, so tiny and squishy and cuddly and, in this case, hardly screamy at all.
I’m mentally putting together a list of all the remaining baby stuff that I should send to the expecting mothers. I’ve sent the (hopefully effective anti-nausea) ginger beer out to one of them.
SmolAc took ill this week again and I’m nursing them along again. Feels like we just did this cycle. (We did.)
Year 7, Day 100: I HAVE FINALLY DONE IT. I’ve found a shampoo and conditioner that doesn’t set off my brain’s ick! I’m putting it away for now, I’ll need to use up the other experiments first (unless I give them to everyone else whose noses are not at all sensitive) and then I can settle into using the inoffensive Dove pairing. šš
Also my sewing machine has gone into the shop for a tuneup and diagnostic ($150+). It’s started doing that KERTHUNK and then buzzzzzz instead of sewing again. The good thing is they’re not nearly as far away from us as the shop that it came from, so I won’t have to drive 100 miles round trip to get it back. I will have to drive 60 instead. šµāš« Well outside my usual acceptable distance for errands but we’re familiar with the shop for other appliance work and they’re good. Luckily, since I’m on a bit of a sewing deadline, I should be able to book time on the library’s sewing machines and keep working on my little projects. I’m also exploring the 3D printer and Cura and Thingiverse (we have about 6 print jobs I want to try already). And I’m learning how to use a Cricut. Welcome to a month of learning too many new things.
Year 7, Day 101: Well, this is crap. I’m still taking my antivirals diligently but SmolAc’s germs still got me. The throat pain is so bad that it’s referring pain right into my ear, and neither set of painkillers is doing a whole lot to reduce it. For once the acetaminophen is a little more effective at blunting the pain than the ibuprofen but that’s not saying a whole lot. Doing my best to rest between creative projects.
Sigh.
Also it’s time to start creeping up bedtimes and waking times because getting these kids up and out the door on time is going to be PAINFUL. (ESPECIALLY when I don’t want to be up myself.)
Year 7, Day 90: Hm. It’s possible the depression-like feeling of the past weeks was the physical and emotional fatigue. I’ve had both kids sick, one after the other. I’m trying to fight off some virus myself, anxiety nightmares have been coming back. Particularly with the relatives we’re going to be seeing soon, I had a night of remembering all the mean petty things they said that stuck in my craw over the years and that sucked.
I’ve been worn down to a nub and it took a while to realize it.
I’m spending a few days with Mama and it’s starting to heal me inside and out. The exhaustion sore throat finally resolved after being with her two days and my pain levels plummeted after that.
Year 7, Day 91: We took the kids for a pool day that ran a bit long. As we get older I’m much more mindful of sun damage and skin cancer risks for all so I’ve been putting the kids in long sleeve rash guards for an extra layer of protection. No one is good at reapplying sunblock after the initial round, sometimes we lose track of time. I’d bought my first UPF long sleeve rash guard on clearance last year when I needed to hit a free shipping minimum at Lands End and quietly wondered if I was wasting my $20.
SmolAc was unexpectedly enthusiastic about “swimming” (paddling in a life vest) laps so we let them go til we needed to stop them before they crashed. They’ve never done this much in the water and tend to run until all steam is gone and then have an emotional crash. After the few extra hours, the kids are fine and not burned. My neck and legs are a little bit burned and PiC’s torso is lobster red. I didn’t sunbathe, I only laid in the sun for a bit to dry off after toweling off but that was enough to toast my legs. Rash guard – definitely not a waste of money.
Year 7, Day 92: It’s been months plural since I slammed on the brakes at work, giving it my least effort for weeks. I’m just now starting to feel what might be little bits of my brain come back.
A couple months ago, I started trying to learn Morse code to make my brain do something fun and interesting but there simply wasn’t enough operating power left. I never got past learning E / I / S / H. I didn’t want to move to the next set of letters until I could successfully record a full lesson without mistakes. But today I’ve picked out a few letters to memorize and it’s feeling like they’re sticking in a way that I could not force before. I won’t say my brain is back but I’d forgotten what it felt like to encode and access new information. This much (little) is a win.
Year 7, Day 93: I only became aware of Descendants in the past 3 years but it baffles me. It’s massively overwrought, the costuming, the characters, the make up, but it’s very popular with a lot of kids and adults. Meanwhile dozens of genuinely good shows (like Julie and the Phantoms for that age group) are cancelled after one season. Netflix frustrates me!
Ok in hindsight I think it’s because I missed the obsession with High School Musical and the like back in the 2010s that I don’t get it.
And I had given up on the Chase Ink Business card so of course it’s NOW been approved (after far too much time and energy and after I needed it for large purchases) š¤¦š»āāļø. They are so annoying.
Year 7, Day 94: Here’s me up at 2 am needing to strategize whether we may have enough stock to offer in our craft fair application and needing to make a spreadsheet about it.
Out of the 11 different craft categories I’m envisioning, we have some stock for 5. The other 6 are question marks whether we’ll be able to make them in time and in sufficient quantities to sell for a 6 hour show. We’ve only ever tabled at small 2 hour community affairs. This is much bigger and if we don’t have enough to offer, our application won’t be approved.
I’m also considering inviting a friend to join us, in inventory if not in person, they could supply one of the 11 crafts that we don’t have time to master and make ourselves.
This could be fun if I wasn’t so stressed about all the moving parts and the application and running out of time to get the pieces together for the moving parts!
Year 7, Day 83: Some stranger on LinkedIn asked my laid off friend for a meeting about their former role ahead of their interview with former bosses. For the job they were laid off from. That struck me as weird but I can’t tell if it feels weird because I know their company and about the layoff or if it really is weird. Probably it just feels weird because from the perspective of knowing why so many roles are open these days. It’s fraught and people have non-disparagement clause to worry about.
I suppose they could be clueless or so centered on their own needs and wants they aren’t thinking about that. Or they could be smart enough to try sussing out if this is a red flag situation by seeing if the former employee had anything good to say about the company. Since they “couldn’t” speak about the company, that could point the applicant to this being a red flag situation. Or, it could be something entirely unrelated. You can’t really pull a lot of info from that short an interaction from the outside looking in. Ah well.
Year 7, Day 84: Every few weeks, Walgreens runs a loss leader on small Arm & Hammer laundry detergents: 3 for $7.50. I did the math and the per ounce price on the sale is better than the Costco price by just a smidge. Usually I wouldn’t bother with it on that basis alone but since it does beat the Costco price, I need saline solution, and I could also combine them with another BOGO50% off and a $4 off coupon on pads, they all added up to an order just big enough to qualify for $10 Walgreens cash back. I’ve got the $10 WG cash from the last one of those, so I’m out of pocket $30 for a $54 order with another $10 WG cash. That reward may have to be manually applied, for some reason their system is bad at applying all rewards, but luckily chat takes care of it so it hasn’t been a big time sink. We won’t need to buy more detergent for a good stretch after this so I can go back to ignoring the loss leaders for now unless I decide to add some of these to the donations box.
Year 7, Day 85: Something (viral) got both me and JB. It’s feeling cold-like since there’s no fever, just a sore throat and congestion for them and a sore throat and massive aches for me. More massive than the usual anyway. I am quietly resenting this. Every week I try so hard to get back on the fitness horse and I manage about three days worth of workout and then bam! Something like this derails me again. It’s so frustrating! But for once I made the smart call and put myself back to bed once I’d gotten everyone out the door.
Year 7, Day 86: Another day of enforced rest in hopes that this won’t get much worse. It’s messed up my sleep though. Resting during the day mostly means working from bed but there’s always a point where I feel like I’m too tired to live. Usually I force myself through but these past two days, I’ve curled up into a ball instead. Probably contributing to recovery but almost definitely contributing to unrestful sleep later.
I saved enough energy to try my chef friend’s suggestion for pork chops for dinner and they weren’t quite right but we’re getting closer to the juicy and not bone dry pork chop. Not quite there. Need to cut them thinner (from the Costco log) and try cooking through pan frying next time. These were thick chunks because I was exhausted when cutting up the log.
Year 7, Day 87: Frustration with my alternate income efforts. I applied to the Chase Ink Business card – Chase has been flashing signs at me that I’m preapproved! for this card! for months.
Ok fine, I have some brain available to do this. I did all my math, confirmed that I could hit the required spend for the bonus and thawed all my credit card freezes for the day to apply. Only to get the “thanks for applying we’ll be in touch” message. WHAT. I’ve been a Chase customer for … so many years. Have a Chase checking account and actively use my Chase Freedom card all the damn time. What’s the problem? If the bonus weren’t so good and we didn’t have such a big lump of expenses on the horizon, I’d have taken the hint and moved on. I really wish I had abandoned it. But no, I’ve been stupidly stubbornly trying to follow this through and so far this is what I’ve achieved with my efforts:
1) A secure letter stating “they are worried this application was fraudulent so call us”;
2) I’ve called them, had an automated message ask did you make this application? Yes? Ok then all set! You’ll hear from us in 7-10 business days!
3) But I don’t.
4) So called them again to get a status update to which Chase said what? what status? what application??
5) ARGH.
6) Got transferred to an agent to find out what the heck, and they told me I had to provide identification information – as if I haven’t been paying you people every month for the past 20 years and you don’t know where to find me or how to bill me – through the secure system by clicking on the link in the email.
7) The link in the email triggered a slow creeping feeling of “is this a long con of some kind”. Think about this one a lot. Reviewed my security measures: I logged into my Chase site using my password keeper, so I wasn’t going from a search site to a fake site (I’ve caught that a few times so I’m much more careful now about what sites I click on from a search page). I found the phone number to call from that site so I was talking to someone from Chase – unless they managed to steal and redirect the calls going to that number. I have no way to defeat that. My credit reports are all locked down again. I guess it’s not a scam? There hasn’t been any weird activity on our accounts.
8) Went to the email and supplied my DL which includes my DOB and address. But again, I reason, all my accounts are locked down. Am told to call back 24 hours later to finalize the application.
9) Call 24 hours later, they verify my identity again, and ok “you’ll hear back in 7-10 business days”.
10) 3 hours later, I get the SAME secure letter stating “they are worried this application was fraudulent so call us” again! WHAT. THE. FUCK.
11) I wait a day to call back and ask what in the name of this cursed reality is going on, please, what is the problem? They insist there is no problem, it’s just standard processing. Y’all are wasting my time because nothing is wrong??? I assured her that I know it’s not her fault and I’m not mad at her but if I have to spin around this vortex again, you can forget the application, I will be moving all my accounts somewhere else because I have Had It.
“I totally understand,” she says, “you can check your email every couple of days for an answer, but it should be complete now and the secondary team is processing it so you will receive a card in the mail in 1-2 weeks.”
The card that you still can’t tell me is approved or not. That card.