Dump

I'm feeling kinda crappy about things right now and just needed to unload a bit. So if you're not interested in reading my sob story...keep scrolling.

I'm the only one employed at the moment. My wages are being garnished. I'm trying to support a family of 3 (soon to be 4) on $760 a month. Any savings we had are gone. In the last 3.5 months my husband has had 2 job interviews. One at the place where he was hired and promptly screwed over. One was almost 3 weeks ago, and I've almost given up hope on that.

I looked into filing bankruptcy to get a fresh start and discovered I couldn't even afford that. The least expensive lawyer I found was $800, $400 up front and $400 at the time you go to court. Does the joy ever stop?

My dream of moving to Buenos Aires this year has been dashed. And I don't know if we'll even be able to do it next year.

I was at the point that I owed the daycare for a month's worth of services so I pulled Enzo out and put him on "drop-in" status, meaning the regular weekly charge is suspended, but I can still take him as needed and pay by the day or hour. I got not one but two calls from the daycare centre today reminding me to come pay and threatening a possible civil lawsuit if I don't pay. Geez, people. I'm gonna pay. It's just that right now I could sign over one of my paychecks and still owe you money.

My brakes in my car are basically shot. They're making this awful grinding noise, and I know that's not a good thing and I need to get them fixed. But...I can't afford to. I have a friend from work who has a friend who's a mechanic and is willing to do the work and at a reasonable price. He doesn't take credit cards though and is hesitant to take checks from anyone he doesn't know well. So that leaves me cash as my payment option. And again we have the issue that getting my brakes repaired is going to take half my monthly salary. So it's either fix the brakes or pay the rent. Not a pleasant decision to have to make. I asked my sister for help. She's in a little better position financially than my mother and I feel bad about having to ask for money to begin with, but my mom has been doing as much as she can to help us these last few months. So I called my sister. It was on the day of the last interview Julian had. I was actually sitting outside the business talking on my cellphone to my sister. She told me that she'd have to think about it and that if she did, she couldn't tell her husband that she did. She also said that she'd call me back to let me know. I'm still waiting for her to call. I've called her a couple of times and left voicemails for her to call me. But I found out from my mom the other day that I've apparently been wasting my time. My sister told my mom that she decided not to do it because of something that happened several years ago regarding a monetary transaction between me and my sister. She said that she didn't want to risk making her husband mad. That just frustrates me. She's in a position that she could let me have the money and it would barely make a dent in their finances, but chooses not to because of something from the past. Of course, this is the same person who in January 2002 gave me the following things for my birthday: (keep in mind that at this time I was pregnant with Enzo) Winnie the Pooh photo album(not wrapped in any type of plastic, so I'm pretty sure I got re-gifted) and a used, broken camcorder. Ooh thanks. It stopped working, so she went and bought a new digital camcorder for their family. She didn't even offer to pay to have the old one fixed or anything. Just told me that I might want to check into repairing it to use for the baby. I took it in to a shop and the guy looked at me and laughed. He told me that for the cost of repairing it, I could buy a new one and would actually come out ahead. I wonder if she knew that when she gave it to me. So, yeah, my relationship with my sister and her family is strained. And that's an understatement. She's the one who told me that Julian was only using me to get into the US, that he didn't really love me, and that any children we had wouldn't be white. I feel like since I've been married that I'm being judged by her because of who I chose to marry. I have enough crap to deal with without worrying about that. Bleh. So much for family always looking out for you.

Another fabulous thing has been the pregnancy/medical bill issues. My company stopped using the HMO I had for 4 years effective 1 January 2005. I had to choose new insurance. Perhaps I didn't ask the right questions when I made my decision. Or perhaps I just had no idea in November when I made the choice that I would become pregnant the following month. Either way, I feel like I'm getting screwed by the system. My old insurance covered 2 ultrasounds during pregnancy. I didn't know to expect otherwise. It's nowhere in the evidence of coverage, benefits information, anywhere. But my current HMO covers one ultrasound. I found out of course after the second ultrasound was performed, when it was rejected for payment when it was billed to insurance. So now I'm responsible for the payment of that second, medically necessary, diagnostic ultrasound. I talked to the insurance about it and was told that if my doctor had asked for pre-authorisation that they would have covered it. But since he didn't, then I'm somehow at fault. I talked to them about it and they reduced the charge from $215 to $75, which I suppose is better than nothing, but still...to be told by the insurance that it's the fault of the doctor's office that it wasn't covered and to be told by the doctor that I'm just going to have to eat the charge. And then on top of that...I got a notice that the first two trips I made to the hospital in June weren't paid by the insurance either. Because of incorrect billing codes or something. And each of those bills is over $400. I hope that gets straightened out. I haven't received a bill from the hospital yet. I hope I don't. If they tell me that I have to eat $800, I'm going to tell them what they can do. And it's not gonna be pretty. I had issues with the hospital balance-billing me when Enzo was born and it actually got reported to a collection agency and was on my credit report. I just got that straightened out last month and it only took me 3 years. I really don't want to go through that again.

And then the more recent icing on the cake. The theft of my purse. Whomever took it has been taking advantage of the situation. In the first few days after it was stolen, they went on a shopping spree. At this moment, I know of 3 checks that they wrote. And all of them were written to businesses within 2 blocks of my OB/GYN's office. I'd like to think that's a coincidence, but I know that there was at least one appointment card in my purse when it was stolen, along with some paperwork from when I went to the hospital, which is also in that same neighbourhood. I know of 3 checks now that were written. Two were to Wal-Mart and were made into electronic checks, meaning that whoever wrote them got the paper checks back. So I have nothing there to point to, saying "That's not my signature," or whatever. Those Wal Mart checks were for $158.68 and $154.93. Then I got a notice from Lowe's that they had received a check that was not honoured and that one is for a little over $200.00. I called them to find out what they needed and where to send information on stolen checks. And then a day later, they turned around and called me telling me I needed to pay in 5 days or they would prosecute. I lost my cool on the phone with the lady who called. I know it's not her fault. She didn't take my purse. She didn't know that the check was forged. But I think I caught her off-guard when I told her the person that needed to be prosecuted wasn't me, nor my husband, but the bastard who took my purse out of my car from in front of a daycare. This is a PITA, but dealing with the checks is manageable. What I'm still really pissed off about is that my camera was in my purse. The only camera I had. And here I am, a little more than a month before giving birth with no way to document it for my husband's parents in Argentina. And because we have no money, I can't just go to the store to buy another one.

I've always heard it said that when it rains it pours. And after this year, I definitely believe it. I'm afraid to ask what else is going to come up.