$2033.00

You know, I could REALLY use two grand right now. I haven’t made a regular living wage in nearly a decade, and I just missed a week’s paycheck to go traipsing around on tour photographing my boyfriend’s band. I’m behind on my student loans and I have to pay more than double the rent next week because the last remaining original roommate moved out and now we have to pay the deposit and get the lease in our names. I mean, things are okay, my current job pays well and I’m catching up, I work 6 days a week (still hanging on to that old job, I’ll quit any day now) I’m just not there yet. I’ve been living inches away from poverty with a smile on my face and wrinkles gathering by the sides of my mouth for idontknowhowlong. If it comes down to it I can still sell my records, my $600 Honda, my old Nikon. (Can’t sell the laptop from Yale though, I’m still under obligation to make some decent art with it. All other computers in the house we’d have to pay someone to take from us!) I’m not complaining.

Still, when I checked my bank balance online today to see if I could make that student loan payment, that shiny deposit of $2033.oo looked like a straigh-up family-television-style miracle.

For a second.

Then of course, I had to admit there was no way it’d be for me, so I clicked on the link to view the details. Seeing a deposit slip meant for a man whose account was 1 digit away from mine, I called customer service to give it back.

Now do you think that customer service thanked me for this? No. This pinched-voiced lady put me on hold for ages and then said they’d look into it and try to correct it. The conversation ended, not with a thank you for being honest and saving them hours of trying to track it down and mail me nsf after nsf post-mad shopping spree., but with this: “THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING ___ BANK ___” Now, I love my bank, more or less, they’ve treated me fairly well over the years, and I’m not interested in trash-talking them here so I’ll leave out the name. But the whole thing was just so unfriendly and brusque that I googled the Deposit Guy’s name and there was his phone number - I called and told him to follow up if it didn’t hit his account soon, trying as hard as possible to not creep him totally out by knowing his account number and cold-calling. At least HE said thanks.

Dude. $2033 is nearly a quarter of what I still owe on my student loans. 25%!!!

Sigh.

Well, had to post it here so that my whining could cancel out my nobility and even stuff out again.