Bad News

So I am still waiting for the 15th and its glorious paycheck, and I was all excited about the big payment I'd be able to make toward my credit card debt, per The Capitalism Resolution of November 2007 (TM). However, I made two unfortunate discoveries yesterday.

One of them is that my car insurance payment will be due at the end of January. I hate car insurance. I may call them and tell them I don't use the car to commute anymore and see if they will reduce my rate some. It's just a tad over $500 for the six months so there probably isn't much more they can reduce it, but it's still irritating as hell to pay. I hate insurance. What a fucking scam.

Anyway, I have to pay it and I'll bite the bullet because then I won't have to pay for another six months and ya know that's just life, everyone pays for car insurance.

HOWEVER, the second and worse discovery was that I will have to register (and, more importantly, PAY) for my final procert class by January 31, as well. Of course this is shitty timing, since it will also be five-hundred-something dollars and I have to pay it at the same time as my car insurance. It's also five-hundred-something dollars for TOTAL BULLSHIT, as I have discussed before. I've paid a hefty lump sum for my dyslexia and autism classes in the last few months, but at least those have been interesting and have taught me something [1].

This "class," on the other hand, will basically be a monthly circle-jerk in which we have people "peer edit" our entries and the other bullshit writing tasks we have to do for our procert portfolio. It will doubtlessly go like every other education class I've ever taken has gone: if I actually get invested in it and want my work to be good, I will bring my written work to class for peer feedback, and will just be told how awesome I am and how I understand the class and the requirements and everything about education SO WELL that I should be teaching the class. Now that sounds really egotistical, but I swear that is not what it is--this has actually happened to me repeatedly.

Not only will the class be a total waste of time, but it happens on THURSDAYS. Granted, there are only seven class meetings, and they are from 4 to 7 pm. For a "regular" teacher, this would be just slightly possible, but not ideal: most teachers are required to stay at school until 4, and it's at this center south of downtown so you know traffic will be a clusterf*** if you don't actually leave for the 4pm class by like 2:30. Not ideal for any of them.

But for me, as you know, school does not end until 7:30 (technically 8:30!), so I could theoretically have six classes I have to pay a sub to teach for me so that I can attend this bullshit! And that affects my admin percentage, which affects my campus cash flow, which directly affects my take-home pay and, accordingly, further hinders my efforts at earning lots of money and paying off my credit card debt. And that is in addition to the five-hundred-something dollars I have to pay to take the frickin' class in the first place! (You can see how much this pisses me off, as it is forcing me to use bold and italics at the same time.)

In other professions, do you have to pay thousands of dollars to do completely useless, stupid bullshit that does not help you do your job (and, for a period of time, even hinders you from doing it)? Or just in underpaid, under-appreciated, continually-government-harassed ones, like teaching?!

So between now and January 31, I will have to pay over $1000 for these two demons and, because of the subbing situation, my 15th paychecks will be somewhat less stellar than they would have been had the State of Washington just STFU and let me do my god damned job in peace. In a positive note that I will surely take great pride in (once I have stopped being completely pissed off), I may be able to pay for both of them straight out of my bank account with no charges having to be made to a credit card. (Or, since the school fees are due on the 31st and my last check doesn't *come* til the 31st, I may have to put it on a card for like 2 days while I wait for payments to go through, but then will be able to immediately pay it off). I think being able to pay for $1000+ of expenses in one month is a Pretty Big Accomplishment, especially for me.

Of course, if I didn't have the damn expenses, that'd be another THOUSAND DOLLARS down on the credit card debt.

I seethe.

[1] Oh, and I got a 4.0 in my autism class! Hooray :) I love being a student!