It's been a long and tumultuous two years here at our house. Somehow the red pants have done me justice and we are still hanging on to the giant's leg and begging for mercy.
The people that currently hold our loan are "Hells Fargo" and have been about as helpful as the the Black Panthers would be to the KKK.
We have six years til our house is paid off. It WAS four years but when my husband lost his job and then I lost mine we got behind for the first time in fourteen years. Then the Mort"gouge" vultures began circling and began screwing us to the wall. I even wrote our congressman "Do nothing Westmoreland" twice but never got any reply. We tried for over two years for a loan modification to no avail and finally had to declare bankruptcy so they couldn't take our house. Most houses they aren't really interested in taking...a house four years from pay off had their greedy mouths watering. I just pulled up my red shorts, sucked in my pride and declared bankruptcy.
The day after our bankruptcy hearing our mortgage company called to see if we were interested in starting over on a loan modification? I gave them a pretty severe verbal lashing and told them if I EVER bought a house again it sure as heck wouldn't be through them. We couldn't even catch up on our mortgage yet had to pay $300 to file chapter 13 to just keep it! After making on time mortgage payments for almost fourteen years we had been given the run around over and over again and received absolutely NO help at all from them to keep our house, yet OUR tax dollars had recently bailed ALL of them out ! I'll have to say I felt pretty good after that phone call and they have never once called us since...and if they did I can guarantee you they wouldn't make the mistake of asking for "MRS." Cotton again.
On to my next big battle. Once again it's me in the red shorts and my cell carrier with the red and black "V" logo with the check mark.
"Check this out" I'm sick of you TOO!
If it weren't 2012 (The Jetson Age) and I didn't have two teens driving I would probably get rid of the cell phones too, but in this day and age unfortunately cell phones have become a necessity rather than a luxury. What kills me is when they pester me to death because I am late on my payments. HELLO????
At least I am MAKING payments AND paying late fees. Hmmm, let's see who is getting the better end of THIS deal? I paid them fifty bucks on Friday and fifty more on Sunday. Today they call me and leave a voicemail that I still owe seventy five dollars or the phones will be cut off!
Tomorrow I am hiking up my red shorts once again and going to have a "Come to Jesus" meeting with them. I'm asking for the branch manager and don't care how long I have to wait. You can't tell me that my seventy five dollars is going to bankrupt THEM! They already have me on a terrible plan that includes WAY too many minutes since my teens and I usually text and Tim is the only one using any minutes and they are a bare minimum. They can change my plan, stop harassing me or I am DONE with them. Tim's cell phone is so old it is has a curly cord attached and is a rotary dial (not really but is an antique by today's standards.) Massey uses a Blackberry that my brother gave her and I use the phone SHE had.
I'm tired of being run over by the giants...heck, I'm just TIRED!
In the words of Howard Beale from the movie "Network"
"I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore."
Add insult to injury I just got home from work and had that shift that fortunately I only have once every blue moon. It was slow anyway but just had all the odds stacked against me. People preferred a booth over my table (guess the food tastes better when you can't scoot up a chair up) and my first table paid with a credit card and took their copy AND mine.
At least I stayed in a good mood and by seven was making jokes about my misfortune. When I finally got another table and they had the common sense to leave the charge slip they write the tip on I pranced back to the kitchen and announced "I'm on the board with $8.00!"
It was exhausting. I hung in there til the end and my last table left me a $22.00 tip which left me making $38.00 all night. That's just the life of a server...never count your eggs before they hatch!
So what? Tonight was a bust.
This past weekend I got my daughter, two friends and me into a sold out concert for free and my girl was on the front row and had her picture taken with a famous recording artist and had the night of her life.
I had yesterday off and took a fourteen hour nap that left me with bedsores that hurt so good!
I have a great job that only fails me once in a blue moon, and always has an extra shift to pick up if I really need to. I made enough money to buy gas for Tim to get to work in his "Tank" of a car and me to get Massey to school before I go back to work where I can almost bet I will bank big(er)!
You have to take good days with the bad.
I (mostly my daughter) had the greatest weekend and I was lucky enough to witness it first hand.
I had a day off that I maximized to the hilt... feel refreshed and ready to take on the world (and the giants) again!
For the first time in my adult life every person in my household is working...including all three kids. I wish every family in America was as lucky!
Doing it all again tomorrow and feel blessed to have the chance!
Til next time "Red Shorts" COTTON
