Texas Update

We're not going to Texas. Aforementioned company decided that D wasn't good enough to warrant a nice salary AND a place to live. Oh, and sponsorship. They DID, however, decide he was good enough to continue asking questions to though, regarding the aforementioned application he was going to design. That is, until he told them, "Sure I'll answer your questions; and bill you accordingly." Go baby! Of course that didn't sit well with the corporate bigwigs, and so they hastily retreated into silence.

Assholes.

This Is How To Make Me Love You

...Or Violently Kill You.

I was having such a good day, too. I'll begin at the beginning, cause that's a good place to start.

I went to the bank on Friday to do a wire transfer to my account in Connecticut, so I could pay off my American creditcard. The fee to send the wire was $30, from my bank here in Australia - yes, it's exorbitant. There are additional fees on top of that, for the Australian to American dollar exchange. Again, exorbitant, but what the hell, I'm going to pay for it cause I'm already two months behind on paying my creditcard. I asked for enough to be transferred that I would have plenty of money in my US account to cover the CC payment. Makes sense, right?

So everything's fine and dandy; I check my account on Saturday and it went through. Only... money is missing. $16 is missing, to be precise. My US bank, in all of it's FUCKED UP GLORY, decided they were going to charge me $10 for an incoming wire transfer. Did I know about this? No. Was I informed about this? No. Is it on their website? No. Was I given any information on this charge, when I opened my account and got all the fifty thousand pamphlets they give you? NO. No I was NOT.

Then. If THAT wasn't bad enough.. they have been charging me $6/month for a BILL PAYING SERVICE THAT I HAVE NOT BEEN USING!! This charge has been going on for MONTHS apparently, and I knew nothing about it. Even if you don't USE the service, they're going to charge you for it. Which bank, you ask? Essex Savings Bank. It's a small pissy little bank that isn't nationwide but if you know Connecticut at all, then you know the bank of which I speak. Feel free to call them up and harrass them for their stupid charges.

Anyway, so I email them. The email goes like this:

On 10/5 I have a fee of $5.95 for a bill payment charge? What is this for? I have not had you schedule any bill payments for MONTHS. And what is this $10 incoming wire charge for? The wire transfer already cost me an additional $30 plus the cost of exchange from Australian dollars into US dollars, so please explain to me why I have additional charges on my account.

Thank you,
e

Note that I only put in the date of the LAST bill payment charge I noticed. Because I emailed them on Saturday, I knew I wouldn't get a reply until today. And this was the reply I got back:


e,

When you set up bill pay, you recieve the first six months free. After the six months you are charged $5.95 a month wether you send anything that month or not. If you would like to cancel Bill pay you can come into the branch and sign a form to delete it. Essex Savings Bank charges $10.00 for all incoming wires. You may have had charges from the other bank, but there is a charge here as well. If you have any questions please contact me at (XXX)XXX-XXXX ext. 234.

Thank you
(name removed)

At this, my mind went a little bit blank and my eyes popped out of my head. Yes, yes of course! Yes just LET ME WALK INTO THE BRANCH AND CANCEL THAT SERVICE! Honestly, it's as if the dumb bitch didn't even READ my email, or even take a look at my account. The reply I sent back to her a few minutes ago:


(name removed),

This is ridiculous. If I am not using a bill paying service, then I should not be charged for it. If you can see there is an incoming wire transfer on my account, then you will ALSO see that it came from Australia, so it would be therefore IMPOSSIBLE for me to come into the branch to cancel it. I am not in the US at the present time - I am in Australia - and you should also see that on my account, since that's where you people are sending my statements.

Additionally, I have no documentation stating that you charge an extra $10 for an incoming wire transfer; and it is also not listed on your website.

I am very disappointed in this reply. I have had problems in the past with Essex Savings, including having had to call the bank in order to get things straightened out, only to find out nothing had been changed. I have wasted alot of money on faxes to your bank that were apparently "never received" in order to get these problems resolved, and emailing (Sr. Rep) back and forth, and now to find out that you are charging me fees that I was not informed about when I opened my account, is highly unacceptable to me.

I will be cancelling this account as soon as possible.

It will be interesting to see the reply I get. I am just so aggravated, annoyed, pissed off and mostly in disbelief that they state quite calmly I'm going to get charged for a service whether or not I use it; AND should I wish to cancel it, oh DO feel free to come into the branch!

Don't bank reps even LOOK at accounts anymore? It's not like it's a difficult thing to do. I email the bank directly from their website, so when they receive the email, I'm SURE it has more than just my name and email address on it. Evidently it's just the mentality of email the person back asap but don't bother checking their account at all unless they make a fuss about it.

My absolute favourite bumper sticker I have ever seen: Stupid People Shouldn't Breed

A Weekend Away, and a Visit to the Farm!

I had an amazing weekend that started on Friday night, when I headed down to Mamalas to go out to the Club with her. While there, we had dinner - I had lasagne which was watered down so not terribly delicious - and then headed into the Casino part of the club and played around on the poker machines. Well, she did the playing, I sat and watched and chatted.

Until some dude came past and started hitting on me. Me. A pregnant lady. Though to his own credit, he was rather drunk and so probably did not notice. Moron. I describe him as a tomato with legs, being that he was very short and round, and rather red-faced from the alcohol he'd consumed. Needless to say, I was rather short tempered with him and had no interest in making the conversation he so desperately tried to make.

"How's it going?" he cries, slapping me on the back. I half turn to face him as he's walking around to face me.

"Sorry?" I ask, glaring at him for even thinking it was okay to touch me.

"Oh..." He stutters, clearly not expecting my reaction. "Oh, sorry... Sorry you look like someone I know... With your hair. Sorry."

I nod and he shuffles away, and I hope that's the end of it. Unfortunately, it is not. He ambles around the area through the evening, constantly looking at me and smilng and/or grinning like a freaking moron. Perhaps he was trying to entice me with his yellow tooth stained grin, I have no idea. In any case, it wasn't even remotely attractive and quite frankly I was dreading the next time he spoke to me.

Thankfully it wasn't until we were leaving. On the way over to the cash-out area so Mamala could get her coins magically transformed into notes, he says to me,

"Hey sorry about before! You just remind me of someone!" (he was half shouting, because you know, I'm deaf)

I nod in his general direction.

"I was just being nice!" he continues. "Is that okay?"

"It really doesn't bother me," I said, pretty much looking at him like he was something stuck on the bottom of my shoe.

"Is that okay?!" he asks again in his loud voice. "I was just being friendly!"

"It's fine."

"You remind me of someone.. Do you have a sister? I think you have a twin."

"No." I sigh and roll my eyes.

"Are you sure? I think you have a twin sister. I know someone who looks like you. With the long beautiful hair."

"No," I say, rather impatiently.

At this point, one of the guys who work at the Club comes up to both cash Mamala out, and to rescue me from "Max's niceness". They then proceed to have a conversation about me, because evidently I really DO look like someone else and it wasn't just the drunk guy's imagination. Apparently I resemble some girl who used to work at the Club, and this is who the drunk guy was remembering. This information was not new to me though; both Mamala and my sister Tia told me repeatedly there was my "twin" at the Club and that I should go meet her before she headed off to Darwin. I didn't get to meet her before she left.

So that was my exciting Friday night. D thought it hysterical - of course he would; he gets hit on by the hotties and I get hit on by the tomato-resembling drunks. At least I get to come home and blog about it though; he doesn't have a blog. Ha!

Saturday saw my sister heading to work for the first time in about a year or so. Because she's the new girl at the cafe, she got stuck in the kitchen doing dishes for her entire shift. Apparently that's the way it works for the first week of any newbie's "training". Despite that, she enjoyed it and has decided she'll go back next week.

Beyond that, Mamala and I wandered around the Mall for abit and I picked up a couple of baby clothes - pink singlets actually, one with piglet, pooh and eeyore on the front with the words Best Friends painted on it. Of course I went absolutely gaga over it and had to buy it, so it's now with my ever growing pile of baby girl clothes. (Now watch fate kick my ass by giving me a boy)

Today we spent the day in beautiful Murwillumbah at the Crystal Creek Miniature Farm. This was our first time going, and it was Mamala's idea so her and Nanna, and D and I headed down there. It was amazing, and I have heaps of photos up on FlickR to show you - lots of miniature horses and cows and donkeys... They're SO SMALL! It was almost spooky. But it was an awesome day, and we even picked up some terribly delicious Passionfruit Butter they had on sale. Can't wait to have that tomorrow morning on toast!

Now we're back at home, where it's ever so slightly cooler. Much as I love Mamala's house, it's just too damned hot for me because she's right on the water and therefore it's VERY HUMID. However will I survive when summer actually arrives? Argh.

Conversationally...

"Did you just fart?"

"No."

Pause. "What's that smell?"

"I don't smell anything."

"You don't smell that?"

"You're having a stroke honey, just go with it."

It's a Threesome Alright!

Lots of people believe things happen in threes - I'm one of them. I'm not sure why they actually DO happen in that numerical order, but when it's a string of GOOD luck or good fortune, then I love it dearly.

We were lucky to have it the good way. Firstly, D was granted his 4yr sponsorship through the recruitment agency he's currently with. At first we thought we were going to have to pay out a lump sum which included the sponsorship fees (and even then the sponsorship wasn't guarranteed from Australian Immigration), as well as the necessary physical and overall health checkup. Now it seems we don't have to pay ALL of it; all we are up for is the medical bills, which should not be anywhere near as expensive as the whole sponsorship thing. So, that's the first piece of good news.

The second piece came about a few days ago when my brother was offered a full time position in the company he currently works for. He was originally only doing casual time (less than 25 hours a week) so when they bumped him to full, he now gets anywhere between 30-40 hours a week.

The third fantastic thing that happened, came about today. My sister, who is now on the FULL road to recovery with her illness, landed a waitressing job at a little cafe in town that my family almost always eats at. I could not be more thrilled for her!!! This is so awesome, and I know she must be feeling on top of the world about it.

Now add to that a fourth snippet of interest, which I'm not sure I will consider good news, so therefore I won't include it in my three-good-things-that-have-happened. Well, that and the fact that it would make number four, even if I did.

Anyway. D was offered a job in Texas. I'm torn about this. This was a company he's been trying to land a contract with for a few months now, but they always had this way of brushing him off, or not contacting him when they said they would, and making up excuses. He may argue that point, but this is how I see it to be. The contract he was trying to land, would have netted him quite a profit in the year to come, because of the nature of it (I'm sorry I can't be more specific) and would have seen that income double or triple in subsequent years. Now it appears that the owner of said contract/project doesn't want him to partner up, as was the original plan. I can only guess because he's realized what a moneymaker this project potentially is, and has decided to remain completely greedy and rather than ask D to be a partner, now wants him working for the company full time, with a set wage. In short: MUCH LESS MONEY.

I'm torn because on one hand I can see that D really would like the opportunity I think, and on the other hand, I have little to no interest in moving to Texas. I don't know much about the state, granted, but I still don't want to move there. And I especially don't want to move back to the States in the coming year anyway, because that means my family misses out on my daughters first year or so of life. They've missed on the last TEN YEARS of mine, and I don't want to go through all of that again anytime soon. See my conundrum?

So. I'm not really sure what to do or how to react. As we talked about it last night, it's entirely possible I didn't react the way he would have liked me to, but I can't hide how I'm feeling about it. I know he's more secure in the States and/or Canada because he's familiar with it and it's more like home than Australia is - nevermind that we've only been here for five and a half months, and it took me about a year to a year and a half before I got fully comfortable living in America.

I said to him last night to make sure that when he makes his decision, it's not based on the US being more familiar to him, and thus running away from all the hardships and unfamiliarity here. He said the same thing back to me, asking me if the reason I wanted to stay here was because I was familiar with it. I then told him that that wasn't the reason at all; I had been away from my family for 10 years, and I didn't want to go through it again. The conversation pretty well died at that point and I was left feeling confused and upset.

I'm still not entirely sure what's going to be done, or which way he's leaning, but I know the pressure from his mother can't be helping matters. And I know he misses his friends; that never goes away. When you're living in a different country, you always miss your friends and family. But it's also a learning curve, isn't it? An adventure? Somewhere along the way you find out you have the strength to do it (essentially) on your own, and you ARE capable of making new friends (which he's done already) and starting your life over again. Or maybe this is just me being selfish, I don't know.

I Finally Did It

I upgraded to a FlickR Pro account. It's awesome, now almost every single picture is accounted for it's own category. Too exciting. Now of course I have to take ALOT more photos to make it worth the $35AUD I had to pay. :|

I have already uploaded a bunch of new ones, including a couple of me showing off the giant bump. I'll get some better ones soon hopefully.

I've discovered the Art and Love of Blinkies. Dear, dear me. It figures I'd have to clutter up my brand new design with blinkie crap and slow down the loading of the page, eh? Ah well, something has to fill the white space, it might as well be that.

Nothing new to report today so far... I'm having a nice relaxing day which is about to be interrupted by going to do some laundry. There's alot to be said for having your own washing machine where you CAN do your own laundry whenever you want to!

I Think She's Going to be More Active Than Any of us Realized

And of course by this, I do mean the parasite. She's been moving around a whole lot today, poking and prodding and tumbling and fumbling and god knows what else. I know she was kicking, actually physically KICKING me since I actually saw the skin of my stomache pop out a couple of times. If I hadn't been so swoony over the fact that my daughter just made her first physical kicks, I would have sworn I was impregnated by an alien, and this alien child now wanted out of its cocoon to let leash its fury on the world.

And quite possibly, that could still be my daughter wanting out already. I don't rightly know. But I'm absolutely thrilled that I got to see my tummy jump with her movements today, and I can't stop talking about it. It's the next best thing to having a constant sonogram. Without the goo.

I had remarked to Mamala I thought this was odd because I'm about 5.5 months along and I didn't think it would be this early I would start to see physical movement. I mused that perhaps she's bigger than we all thought, but according to all my tests and all the sonograms, she's perfectly healthy and at her correct weight for her age so far. This then, leads me to think she's going to be extremely active and energetic. Or violent.

Who knows, I could be at this very moment, carrying the next generation's leader of the trenchcoat mafia. What a proud parent I shall be!