a Moment in the Growth of a Fox

scenario:  someone may or may not be Flirty.

old fox:  is he or isn't he?  what should i (not) do|say|think?  [angst]⁺ (i realize, having typed this, that the notation is borrowed from Lexical Functional Grammar. sorry about that.)

new fox:  if he wants me?  let him come and get me.

i am very pleased, at the moment, with this attitude.

(no subject)

Oh, now this is just cute.

From: College Accounts Manager
To: me
Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2005 7:05 AM
Subject: Rent Overdue

Dear Fox

May I remind you that your rental is due to be paid one month in advance.  Your rental for March was due on 1 Feb. Please call into the bursary on Monday to pay.

Best wishes

[random person]

On behalf of:
Accounts Manager
[contact information]

Two things to keep in mind:

1.  My rent is paid by direct debit.  Not automatic debit, you understand -- there's no computer that says Oh, first of the month, time to collect rent -- but the college office has my account information and raids my account for rent money on a monthly basis.  There's a document in their file bearing my signature and giving them the right to do this.  My rent-paying responsibility therefore extends to making sure there are funds in my account to cover the debit.  This can get tricky; I get money into my account by using my ATM card for my bank at home, where my money lives in dollars, and withdrawing pounds at this end, which I immediately deposit pay in using the ATM card for this bank here.  Because there is a limit on how many dollars per day I can withdraw from the US account, I can only get £150 at a time from the machine here.  Because the rent is just over £350, this means that if I'm down below £50 i have to do this money-shuffling three days in a row, and by "days" I mean M-F during business hours, because the machine where I can pay in is inside the bank.  In short:  making sure there's enough money in the account to pay the rent on the first is something of a drag, and in fact this month I put the last of it in on the first, which could mean it hadn't cleared (cash deposits have to clear, ARGH) by the time the bursary wanted to do their thing.

2.  I was in the office this past monday, the 7th, to pay my fees, which were overdue and I admitted it.  While I was there, I asked about the rent -- I hadn't heard that they'd run into insufficient funds the previous week, but I knew there was that possibility, so I wanted to be sure it was okay.  Assistant Bursar tells me they've been running behind with their paperwork (inner monologue:  there's a shock), and haven't done the rent debits yet, but she'll be doing them that afternoon.  (So "due on the first of the month" means "due on the first of the month in case we actually get to it on time.")  And sure enough, that afternoon I'm £350.51 lighter in the bank account, and the next day an envelope appears in my mailbox pigeonhole with a receipt in it, and all is well.

And then this morning I get the above e-mail.  Dudes.  But given all the above, it has utterly failed to make me panic.

My response:

Hi [random] and Manager --

I've set it up where the bursary, usually Assistant Bursar I believe, automatically deducts my rent from my bank account on the first of each month even if I am not present. In fact I have a receipt in my hand, which was placed in my pigeonhole some time this week, reflecting that my rent was paid on 7th February. Please make sure your records are up to date.

Thanks
Fox

For "Please make sure your records are up to date", of course, read "Look in the bloody spreadsheet before nagging me, dammit", and also "Intra-Office Communication: What It Can Do For You".

Rar.  I'm not upset or concerned about my rent, but I'm all annoyed now and have a headache.