The Twilight Bandwagon, Rip-Offs, and Drunk Turkeys

I have a confession to make: 12YO and I checked out the first two books in the 'Twilight Series'...okay, so they were the audio books, but still.

I'M HOOKED. I listened to the first one last night and today and I truly believe that Edward is just another character that is cocky, yet awesome and makes us a little sad that men aren't really like that. For example, I can't read a Nicholas Sparks books without getting just a leeeeetle bit irritated at my husband. You know, because he's not THAT GUY. The hero in the book who says all the right things and...

I know it's not real. I know that I have a good husband. I guess I just get so absorbed in the stories (the ones that are well-written, anyway!) that I temporarily lose touch a bit. Plus, a good book can take over my life. Everything else goes to the back burner until the book is finished. Needless to say, I don't read too many books! Audio books, on the other hand, allow me to live my ordinary life and still get the story. I still like to read, but don't have the time that I wish I did. Who does?

I'm a little proud of myself right now. I just paid a credit card off (which is good, but not what I'm actually bragging about!) and the finance charges they tried to charge me after the payment had gone through didn't make any sense. True, the payment posted the day after the due date. I had already made my regular payment for that billing schedule, so I wasn't worried so much about the day. But, apparently, there is a window of time you can make a payment and it won't apply to the previous month OR the new billing schedule.

Does that make any sense?

Basically, the bill was due on the 13th. I made my regular payment on the 4th, so all was well and good with them anyway. Then I made another payment of the entire remaining balance a little more than a week later, but it didn't post until the 14th. Since it wasn't applied to the balance for the previous billing period, I'd expected that there would be a little interest to pay this month. What I didn't expect was that, while the balance on my statement DID reflect both payments, I still had a minimum payment due for the next month. I called them and talked to some guy SOMEWHERE who told me that, while the payment was accepted and the balance reflected it, that payment didn't apply to the last billing period OR to the current one. For one day, they charged me a whole month's worth of interest.

I'd sort of expected that, since most credit card companies are usually jerks anyway but are now more desperate than ever. I was just wondering why, if I had to pay more interest because the payment didn't apply to the previous billing cycle, then why did my payoff amount not apply to the following one?

Does this even make sense enough to not make sense? I'm really tired...

Anyhow, I called and some guy from some country other than the one I'm from and I talked circles around each other. I finally asked to speak to someone else. I was on hold for a few minutes, but I was then greeted by his supervisor who told me that she'd taken the finance charges off as a 'one-time courtesy' thing.

YEAH, THANKS A LOT! The card is paid off now and we have no intentions of using it anyway. And, if we do grab a card later to use, it will NOT be this one! 12YO had David on the cell phone (he had called and was waiting to see what would happen with me and the credit card people!) and he tried to give me a high-five through the phone for my effort. It's not often that I don't back down for people like that. Normally, I'm more worried about being nice. I never like to go into any situation as if I've been 'wronged' somehow or trying to get something for nothing. I think there's a certain karma that comes along with people like that and I want no part of it.

Well, I need to give my turkey a sip of wine and get it back into the outside fridge. That bird won't feel ANYTHING by the time I put him in the roaster! Just the same, I hope he saves some of that wine for me...I could use a sip (or six) myself!

Have a great night!