SUB+AUX 'BE'+'always'+~ing VERB! (1st Wrld Annoyances)

[Em]

Letter from the US Department of Education: "Because of the type of repayment plan you're on, you haven't paid enough interest on your student loans. Please send us $X by July 30 or your monthly payments will increase."

Phone call to the loan servicing center: "Hey, just wanted to make sure y'all got my check; I know it might take awhile to process but I sent it in as soon as I got your letter and I really don't want my monthly payments to increase."

Loan servicing center woman: "Oh. Yeah. That letter was a mistake. It was meant for people on a different plan. You should stop payment on that check."

Me: "Okay. Just wondering, were you planning on telling me about the mistake at some point? Because you realize that given the plan I AM on it is actually to my detriment to give you extra money right now, and I have to pay my bank to cancel the check."

[Crickets.]

[milesofsparks]

oh geez.  student loans are stressful enough as it is!

current status of my upstairs neighbors:  stomping, hooting.
conjectured activity:  hootenany

[heather marie]

I have been watching my soon-to-be-ex-roomate's dog for the past month while she moved out and it has been the most frustrating experience ever. he is generally a pretty good dog but I am usually gone for 11 hours a day and so he pees all over the place. I send her passive aggressive texts with photographs of what he destroys, and all she sends me back is a 'sorry' or something equally pathetic. I am hoping that she brings me back a gigantic bottle of booze or something as a token of her appreciation, but I doubt it. this is why I am a cat person cause they're all self-sufficient and shit.

[dumbfish]

HM, sounds like an unfair situation. 11 hours is a long time, too long for this dog, and your roommate should know that.

[Bernard]

In all fairness, cats peeing on/destroying stuff is not exactly unheard of.

[Em]

That sucks hm. And is totally unfair to you AND the dog (not that it's in any way your fault).

Feeling very lucky right now to have pups who, if given a nice long walk to start with, can easily go 12 hours (although obviously I try to avoid that!).

[jebreject]

I think I need to take a break from the internet.

[davy]

Letter from the US Department of Education: "Because of the type of repayment plan you're on, you haven't paid enough interest on your student loans. Please send us $X by July 30 or your monthly payments will increase."

I got that same letter! I ignored it.

[peacocks]

In all fairness, cats peeing on/destroying stuff is not exactly unheard of.

yeah mine recently went through a thing where they needed to diarrhea everywhere except the litter boxes, especially in my dirty clothes pile...and clean clothes pile :/ (my sloppy clothes situation has since been somewhat taken care of). It turned out they were sick and I got them medicine and the pooping mostly stopped except at least once a day, at the same time every day- about when I get up and am getting ready for work- one of them poops (solid thank goodness) in my closet. I moved one of the litter boxes there to appease them so we will see if they take a hint or just poop next to the litter box.

They both know how to use the litter boxes and where they are, but man. It's really annoying.

[Em]

Letter from the US Department of Education: "Because of the type of repayment plan you're on, you haven't paid enough interest on your student loans. Please send us $X by July 30 or your monthly payments will increase."

I got that same letter! I ignored it.

You are a lot smarter than me! I paid a stop payment fee, but too late, so then paid an overdraft fee, because I had written the check out of an account I don't usually use that didn't have a lot of extra $$ in it. Go me. Today, I got an e-mail saying, "Hey, you know that letter we sent you about needing your money by the end of July? Sorry, our bad."

[davy]

Letter from the US Department of Education: "Because of the type of repayment plan you're on, you haven't paid enough interest on your student loans. Please send us $X by July 30 or your monthly payments will increase."

I got that same letter! I ignored it.

You are a lot smarter than me! I paid a stop payment fee, but too late, so then paid an overdraft fee, because I had written the check out of an account I don't usually use that didn't have a lot of extra $$ in it. Go me. Today, I got an e-mail saying, "Hey, you know that letter we sent you about needing your money by the end of July? Sorry, our bad."

Bummer! I got the same apology email today as well.

[jebreject]

Em, talk to your bank! That seems like the exact sort of situation where they will wave overdraft fees! I mean, if you are no longer overdrawn on that account.

[hannah]

I am a day late on this mere trifle (1200 words) of a book review.  I guess that makes me a real live academic now!

[dumbfish]

Psshaw. Call me when it's a month late.

[Good Intentions]

Pffft. Small change. An article of mine has been under review for a year (well, 362 days).

[dumbfish]

Wow. I've heard of it taking a while, and I'm personally guilty of not reading an article for review until after the review was due, but a year is above and beyond. Is that unusual in your field?

[elpollodiablo]

I just wrote an email to the guy editing this collection I'm included in that said essentially "You can have this ten days late or not at all"

GANGSTER

[Good Intentions]

Wow. I've heard of it taking a while, and I'm personally guilty of not reading an article for review until after the review was due, but a year is above and beyond. Is that unusual in your field?

Unusual, but sadly not unheard of. The editor hasn't responded to me either, though the journal keeps publishing articles (including ones on this relatively specialised topic). I've started contacting the publisher, who has responded, but nothing afterwards.

It's a small but highly regarded journal which is the site for the particular debate I'm trying to contribute to. There's not really anything I can do, except either stick it out or throw a huff and withdraw the article (which means waiting for a confirmation that it has been withdrawn, and god knows how long that will take).

[Em]

Em, talk to your bank! That seems like the exact sort of situation where they will wave overdraft fees! I mean, if you are no longer overdrawn on that account.

I did talk to my bank! Although my account is no longer overdrawn, they will not refund the overdraft fee because they feel the stop payment might have gone through on time if I had been able to tell them the exact date the check was written (I'm a bit lax with my check register on account of I do virtually all my banking online, so while I was able to tell them the check number and the exact amount, I could only remember well enough to narrow the date to one of two possible days--my bad).

This sort of seems like bullshit to me so I am switching banks. No branch or ATM near my new apartment/work anyway.

[jess]

We sort of figure that a month late for book chapters is basically on time.

That seems really bad that the editor isn't responding (bad as in the reflection on him, not on you). A year seems like a long time for review at one journal, although perhaps not ridiculous if it included multiple R&Rs going to reviewers. On the other hand, I have an article in press that it took over a year after it was accepted for me to get the proofs (I had started wondering if they were ever going to do it, but then heard other people were waiting similar amounts for this one journal), and now it's been a over a month more, still waiting on the online first version. In many other journals, that whole process takes maybe a couple months it seems? This is kind of ridiculous. Not that it really matters, but still.

Trying to get my thesis out the door next week before I leave on my trip, and two other pubs close to done by the end of the month. Crunch to finish half the stuff I wanted to over summer time!

[Good Intentions]

Not that it really matters, but still.

It does, though. In this time I've been trying every which way for funding, and having a publication to my name would make all the difference. It's not that this is sure to be accepted, but this piece has the best chance of anything I have out there, and I'm at a stage where nobody is expected to have anything in print.

Best of luck with your thesis! That's a big, big deal.

[jess]

Oh, I meant re: my thing, not yours. I assume yours matters quite a lot!

Thanks—to be clear, I've defended it, but this is the publication version. Then I want to not look at it again for a very long time (well, really, for 3ish months, when I hope I get an R&R). Am excited and nervous though since this is the first first authored pub of mine that I actually think is pretty cool (the others are ok, but nothing special).

[Em]

Today my super informed me that in order to fix the lining of my bathtub--which has begun to peel away in large chunks in a pretty gross, probably short-term dangerous and definitely long-term dangerous manner--someone will have to come in and replace it, and then I won't be able to use my shower for at least four full days while it sets! Four days might not sound like that long, but the thought of going to sleep in a non-air-conditioned apartment on a muggy night and then waking up and putting on business clothes without showering for more than two days in a row grosses me right out.

Seeing as next week and the week following are like the only weeks in the universe when I can't just solve the problem by working from home and being smelly all by myself (deadlines+supervisor's vacation schedule=need for a lot of actual face time), I am in something of an annoying situation. My neighborhood friends are in Europe and have sublet their place while they're away and nobody else lives close enough for "borrowing" their shower to be practical.

Current plan: there's a gym right next door to my office and I'm thinking I can find a way to score a guest pass or two so I can sneak in before work. It's been awhile since I belonged to a gym but it's a major chain and if I remember correctly, they give these things out like candy if you act like you're interested in joining, no?

[Greg Nog]

I pulled something in my neck!  It's a bit better today, but yesterday I felt like I was moving like an iguana on a cool rock.

[Bernard]

Em, yes, definitely. That's exactly what I'd do. Might as well pick one of those really nice gyms with the gorgeous showers and lots of free toiletries, fluffy towels, etc. You could probably sneak in a steam/sauna while you were at it, if you liked!

Greg, that is a very evocative image.