[45]

Well, it’s been a couple of hectic weeks for me. Between work being a zoo (but a fun zoo) and meetings and school after work – I haven’t had time to blog much.

I seem to be waiting lots. It all began last Sunday when I tried to order pizza and they didn't have my street in their database. I was transferred to customer service, and then put on hold while they called the location closest to me to make sure they could deliver to the proper address. It took me almost ten minutes to order my pizza!

On Tuesday I went to the doctor's office to get a prescription renewed. I waited 45 minutes for the doctor to spend literally less than one minute with me.

My latest dilemma solved is that involving money. I am on contract and get paid per month. (Notice I didn’t say monthly, but per month.) The last day of the month I send an invoice with my hours for that month and then the accounts payable department can take up to 45 days to actually mail me a cheque. I began my contract four days before the end of August. So, at the beginning of October, I was paid for my first four days. This past Tuesday (November 7 for those of you keeping count) I was paid for the month of September. Yay! Money so I can pay the last two months worth of bills and rent etc., right? Wrong!

The bank decided that seeing as I hadn’t had such a large deposit at one time since I worked full-time last summer (as in 2005 – this past summer I was on a part-time internship), that they would hold it for a week and only give me access to $200.

Ummmm….problem! I owe my boyfriend nearly a $1000 in rent and car payments because he’s been covering my ass for the last two months. I called up the bank and after a few minutes of explaining my dilemma the nice man at the other end of the line kindly removed holds on anything under $3000 – in the future. “I’m sorry; you’ll have to go into the branch for this one.”

So, off I go to the bank yesterday after work. After explaining it to the clerk at the counter and muddling through misunderstandings (“Well, it says you have access to $200.” “Yes, but my rent is a little more than that and it is now November 9!” “Oh.”) she finally went to get a manager to clear it all up. I had to explain to the manager what the problem was and she says: “Well, according to our records XXXX is not your employer – YYYY is.” “Well, if you take a look at my bank account you will see I haven’t received a pay cheque from YYYY since May, and that I have been receiving cheques from XXXX since February. The only difference is now I am on contract with them, so it is no longer direct deposit.” “Do you have your pay stub?” “No. But if you look at my account again, you will see in fact that my deposit is coming from XXXX.” And so on and so forth until finally she removed the hold. I then rushed home and wrote out a cheque for the rent and then transferred the rest of what I owed by e-mail money transfer to Theo. I still have to pay off some of my credit card!

On Friday I went to get my prescription filled and had new insurance information to enter with the pharmacy. They couldn't find the company in their database and so it was back and forth and back and forth with phone calls, forms to fill out - at least my prescription was filled by the time we got through it all.

*Sigh. So complicated!

Wednesday night Bruce, Karl, Theo and I went to see Borat. Absolutely hilarious. And to all the naysayers, by making fun of stereotypes I believe he is helping to break them down. Go see it. Now!

Last night I attended a fundraiser for The Pediatric Liver Foundation at the Hunt and Golf Club. There were appetizers, desserts, drinks, a silent auction, a live auction and a fashion show put on by lululemon. It was a ladies night fundraiser, and one of the only men there was one of the models for lululemon. Women were going nuts for him! Taking pictures, touching him (not the clothing – him!), feeding him chocolate covered strawberries…. The folks at my table (all co-workers) were saying how those firefighter auctions must be insane!

There were some really nice silent auction items – Senators packages, tickets for the U-20 soccer next summer in Ottawa, gift certificates, jewelry, a beautiful photo of New York’s Broadway, gourmet chocolates, etc… Unfortunately I was outbid on everything I tried to get!

The live auction item was a wine tasting for 12 people at the LCBO or at your home. Sweet deal! It went for more than $400 I believe – all to a great cause!

That's it for now folks. Check out the interesting post over at Matthew Ingram’s blog on who broke the Rumsfeld news first.