budgeting sucks, man.

so, it's loan season.  have been signing things and moving paperwork, and also the fees for next year were just approved by the college executive committee, so along with the university fees for next year and a few months' worth of credit card bills, i can more or less work out what next year should cost me.

[does math]

[looks at numbers]

[falls down dead]



okay.  okay.  well, in fairness, i did look at the figures in GBP and work out that i need to borrow enough in USD to make sure i'm still covered even if the dollar falls below 50p (god forbid).  but it hasn't been that bad, even at its worst, so, you know.  the.  not as bad as.  and.

oy.

writing cover letters brings out my inner snape

so we got this e-mail from the college office, saying the university card office needs people for data entry, both keyboarding and image capture -- they need people to run the scanner and type in names and departments and whatnot to make ID cards before the freshmen get here.  pays £6.30/hour for ten hours a week (for six weeks or so, i guess), and i say, bring it on!

the first paragraph of my cover letter says:

Dear Mrs. [Name]:

I write to express my interest in the position of Data Inputter at the University Card office.  My CV, enclosed, shows recent work experience; you will see that I am diligent and reliable, and have experience at management and supervisory positions as well as at the entry level.  With the possible exception of the time I spent as House Manager at [theatre], all of the positions described on my CV involved a great deal of data entry and quality control, as well as considerable deadline pressure and productivity quotas, in addition to the usual office work of filing and keeping documents in order.

i have chosen not to include the logical next sentence:  In fact, I am preposterously over-qualified for this job, but that can only be good for you, as I'll get it done twice as fast and thereby save you half the money.

have to see about getting the job even though i'll want to Not Be Working the week merrycontrary and juice817 are here, though ...

nuclear weapons in kyrgyzstan! opposition to secular programs that are publicly financed! WESBITES!

so, i spent a tense few minutes earlier today paralyzed with fear that i'd sent the cover letter in to the data-entry job -- for which i mentioned last night that i was preposterously overqualified, which continues to be true, but which will involve proofreading and accuracy checking and quality control and whatnot -- with a typo in it.  and not just a typo, but one of those wrong-word mixups that people make but (to be honest) i usually don't.  i was talking about the few days in september when i won't be able to work, and i said i hope this will not adversely affect my application, and then for some reason earlier tonight i thought i'd said effect -- or then i thought i should have said effect but had said affect instead -- or maybe i was -- see, and after a little bit of that i was so tsedreydt i didn't know which end was up anymore, and i swear i looked them both up in the damn dictionary.

not my proudest moment.

in other news, the sticker-shock continues, but based on my estimate for what next year should cost, if i'd worked out a by-the-numbers budget for this year i wouldn't be over it, which i suppose is good to know.  i seem to have maxed out my grants at the Bank of Grandparents (it was less about me than about them -- for a little while they were divesting themselves of some of their assets with an eye toward the eventual taxes on their estate, but i guess they're done doing that now, probably focusing on their medical expenses, as they should), but my federal loans obviously won't go the whole way toward the cost of next year (in fact they won't even go halfway, which is tragic), so i'll have to do some more borrowing.  i'll get a good interest rate at the Bank of Mom and Dad, though; not 0%, because although they might get behind that, i don't want it, but not [hand-wave] whatever.  the idea is, they'll charge a rate lower than what i'd pay if i borrowed from a bank, but higher than they'd earn if they deposited in a bank, so everybody wins.  (for values of "win" that involve being in debt up to who knows where -- it'll be six figures before i'm done.  somebody saaave me ...)

i did consolidate the existing loans, though, or at any rate i applied to consolidate them, and there's no real reason i shouldn't be allowed to do so -- so the present debt will accrue interest at the present low rate, rather than going up next month.  there's something good in that.

in other other news, although i complain about them sometimes when they really do get in my way, you know?, i do like my breasts, particularly once i wise up and dress them correctly.

i'm sorry, was that TMI?