Burnt Toast

Today was an interesting day, to say the least.  I woke up at 9am, after about five hours of sleep, cleaned up, threw on some clothes, and headed out the door.   I planned on leaving early so that I could be sure to make the buses I needed to catch, to head out to troy for the second day of Tenner and Pallagia’s weekend long mini-con.  Of course seeing as I am on the bus stop in 15 degree weather, the bus doesnt come for a half hour.  Luckily for me I managed to snag a coffee, red bull, and some pop-tarts to eat.  On the way to the con, I get a phone call from my mom telling me some horrible news.

As you all know I am a poor college student.  My financial situation is best described as living “loan to loan”.  Due to the current financial situation in the US right now, my school will only approve the loans needed to cover tuition, and not anything extra for say, books or housing.  (Who needs that stuff anyway?)  Therefore, I was forced to look elsewhere for the money I needed.  Jobs are horribly difficult to come by at the moment, due to a lot of older workers being laid off and taking all the part time jobs.  So, I decided to look for one of the few banks in the US not currently sinking like the titanic.  Chase bank was kind enough to approve my amount right away, and said they would sent details later.  The phone call from my mom was her calling to let me know that the loan I was pproved for was at, get this, 15% variable interest.  that would mean for my $9,000 loan, I would most likely be paying back well over $40,000.  This of course, is not really an option.  Therefore I have no idea where my next months rent will come from, let alone the rest of my lease.

Once I got to Tenner and Pallagia’s, i had plenty of opportunities to bitch about my situation, and luckily for me, got some helpful feedback and brainstorming from the other guests.  Some of these ideas include: Somehow getting on wellfare (which may involve doing some seedy things so the govt. thinks my parents have disowned me.  Any foreigners want a green card?), selling various bodily fluids, panhandling, and a few helpful tips as to what I could build a temporary structure out of if need be.  One of the guests said he may be able to get me a job at the Co-op where he works, and that would be absolutely amazing.  Another option is I may be able to move onto campus for the semester and get additional loans that way, although that would be a temporary fix.

Other than the horrendous news and such, today was actually a lot of fun.  It was a good chance to attempt to de-stress, and spend time with some old friends and a lot of new ones.  I even left everyone at the place with an open invitation to my Firefly marathon this February (assuming that is, that I have a home in which to host it).  So all in all, today has been an interesting day and I am a good bit worried about this whole thing, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will all turn out alright.  Wish me luck!