It has been one of those extreme weekends and yet my house doesn’t look much different than it did on Friday other than I managed to get the new top down/bottom up shades up in the four windows in the living room. (Very cool!) Still looks like a tornado ripped through the house. And now I feel like I’m spinning in a tilt-o-whirl — one minute I’m on the verge of a full-scale panic attack and the next I’m very excited somewhat enthused (possibly terrified) about all the big changes that occurred yesterday and all the travel I’ll be doing in the future.
O.K. First of all, one of my credit card banks did a balance transfer of a heck of a lot of money, which was supposed to free up a lot of credit from the credit card I used every day and pay my bills with. I kind of assumed (my mistake, I know) when I got the e-mail indicating that it had been done, that it had been done correctly. Saturday, a week or so later, I discovered that someone else must be looking at his or her credit card balance and thinking, “Wow! Santa came early this year!” O.K. So, it turns out, they were missing a number when they didn’t the balance transfer. You would think that someone along the way would realize that the wrong number of digits had been entered because the number of digits is kind of standard. Most web entry forms won’t let you get past them if you don’t enter the right ones so what idiot designed a banking balance transfer function that didn’t check the digit length? Duh!
And even though I wanted to cancel the whole thing and put everyone’s owed credit back where it belongs and forget the whole thing, I was bullied into letting them fix it and continuing on. Of course, by that time, I had already panicked because the bill paying card had maxed out and had charges pending and had been denied in the store, so I made an early payment and started another balance transfer on another card, which apparently I also can’t cancel once it’s started.
The next 7 days should play out interesting. I guess one of them will end up with most of the money and the other will end up with the balance.
So while I was panicking about that I got a call about being a finalist in some sort of drawing, but the catch was that I had to drive to Rockland to draw from a hat or something to find out which of the 4 prizes I won. Now, I’ve looked up this group online and there are a lot of folks who talk about it being a scam and it is kind of, but most of the people who are typing the loudest are the people who don’t follow up on the call on the answering machine to find out what it’s about and they make the wrong assumptions from the beginning. Plus, the people — “the Prize Center” — making the initial calls about the prizes are in Illinios and they are contacting folks all over the country. ”The Prize Center” is just like an answering service; they know what they prizes are but they don’t always know what the business is that’s giving them away, just that there’s going to be some sort of presentation that you have to sit through in order to receive your prize — ah, which is what the catch is. You don’t have to buy anything, but you do have to sit through the presentation. It’s a gimmick.
Now, I went because I remember actually entering a drawing around Christmas just like the man on the phone said. I specifically remember because at the time I really wanted the flat screen t.v., which was the 4th prize, and not the ugly car, which was the 1rst prize. 
Whether that’s the same drawing or not, I don’t know, but I still wanted the flat screen t.v. I didn’t get it. I ended up with a card to send in to get a $300 gas card and a vacation for 2 — I just have to pick one of the options, which I haven’t decided yet.
Now I did listen to the presentation and I did decide to but into it, which I know was probably a bad idea considering the trouble with the credit cards. So, thinking about my CPA Dad’s recent advice that I should invest in real estate, I bought a timeshare and membership in a travel club. I can hear my mother scolding that I don’t like to travel, which is true. I’m fine once I get places, but the airplane, the train, the car, I can do without. I kind of like the idea of going somewhere and staying for a whole week and with condo timeshares you have a kitchen and furniture. It’s a great idea.
So of course, that loan was at 15% which is way to high. Now I’m trying to get it refinanced and rolled together with my loan for my wood pellet furnace that I put in last Winter and perhaps roll in the credit card(s), pay it all off in 60 months.
And I hate waiting for things to settle, waiting to find out about the loan, the credit card balance transfer war…
And I hate that the cleaning fairies never visit my house in my sleep.
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