Sunday, rainy Sunday

Or the time it rained enough to make me sleep until 9:30 a.m.  To put that in perspective, during the week my alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m. I usually try to get a little bit more sleep on the weekends, but 9:30 is a bit late in my book.  I feel like I wasted my entire morning and it was time for lunch before I even digested my breakfast.  But I'm taking a page from Milli Vanilli and blaming it on the rain.
Obviously it's raining so that left no room for a run.  Alright, alright, I wouldn't have gone for a run even if it wasn't raining, but that's neither here nor there.  Technically it's taper time, even though I'm not following that rule.  I fully intend to keep running this week.  I know, I'm getting wild here, but relax, I'll only be running little 3 - 5 milers.  What I do need to remember is the stretching part.  I've noticed that I'm terrible at stretching after a run and I really need to work on getting better at that.  How can I be faster if my muscles are all wound up?  So my goal for this week is to stretch every day for at least 30 minutes.  Believe me, it's as boring as it sounds, but if it really works, I'll never complain about it again.  I've also decided that 7 days is close enough to start obsessively checking the forecast, which I've done about 5 times so far.  As of right now, the weather is sunny and 57, maybe even a little cloudy.  In short, perfect running weather.  The final debate for that is going to be, shorts or capris? That's always the hardest decision and it's usually a game time decision too.  Shorts are cooler and easier to deal with, but capris offer more compression should I need it.  Plus, 57 is borderline weather in that regard.  You could go either way with that temperature and probably be fine.
While I'm on the subject of race day gear, I've decided that the Nathan belt just isn't going to work for me.  It's just too uncomfortable.  Of course this raises the point that now I've spent money on an item I"m never going to use again, so that's cool.  Since I bought it at Dick's Sporting Goods, I've contacted their customer service to see if I can exchange it for a store credit, and I'm really hoping the answer is yes.  Look, I know that I used it once, but the belt itself is basically like new.  The only issue would be the two water bottles and I know from years of working in high-end retail that there's a 99% chance that they can contact the distributor of Nathan products and get two brand new replacement bottles free of charge, and then resell the belt at a discount rate.  My hopes aren't very high though because when I contacted customer service to inquire about the exchange, the response I got said that she couldn't find an order with my name on it in their system.  I'm not sure why she would be able to anyways, since I bought the product in the store, but maybe she just didn't realize that.  However, if I do get turned down for a store credit, I'd definitely think twice about going back there.  Most of what I want I can get on Amazon for the same or less price, so it's not like I'd be missing out.  But it would be nice to know that there are still places that care enough about the customer to take care of something like this. I know you'll all be waiting eagerly for my update when I finally get an answer though.
That's about all I have going on today, except for more laundry, because that never seems to end, and there's only two of us.  I made Oreo truffle balls for work tomorrow, to ease the pain of not winning the powerball like we planned.  Well, at least not winning anything substantial, we won about $25, which is still less than $1/person.   You know, I'm fine not winning $1.3 billion.  I don't even know what I would do with all that money. Take a few trips, pay off the house and Ryan's car, and then what? Even with that money, I'd still go to work everyday, so it would be wasted on me I suppose. I just want enough to pay off my student loans and to replace my car.  Really, $100,000 would be fine by me.  So if anyone has $100,000 that they don't want, you can just send that on over.  Or if you want to donate a car or pay off my loans for me, those are also options.  Until one of those magical things happens for me though, I'll still be here, writing away about anything I can think of.  Aren't you all just the lucky ones!

This is what happens when I try to stretch at home.  No wonder I always forget to do it.  

Oh yea, I finally labelled my baking jars, like I've been meaning to do since we got them last month, after I shattered the original sugar jar all over the floor.  Believe me, these labels are super important, because for a minute, the powdered sugar and the flour were next to each other.....

Sallie Mae, the Student Loan Monster

Excuse me while I rant for a moment.

I've had student loans since I graduated from Framingham State College in 2006, and along with those student loans I've had countless problems from Sallie Mae, the loan company.  All my life I was told to go to college and get a job, it's what you're supposed to do.  So, I did it.  I went to college and got a job, eventually getting the job I wanted, which was to be a teacher.  But then it wasn't enough.  The state of Massachusetts says you have to go back to school to be a teacher.  A bachelor's degree won't cut it, you need a Masters.  So, I got one.  Even though it's a requirement in the state of Massachusetts though, they don't necessarily help you pay for it.  So, I had to take out another student loan, because I couldn't afford to pay the cost of graduate school on my own and my job didn't offer tuition reimbursement.  (Here's a fun surprise, a lot of places don't!) It was either take out the loans and get the degree, or find a job that you don't want to do, because you can't afford the state requirements.  All the while though, is there any hope that the loans will be forgiven or spread out over a certain amount of years so that you're not loaded down with payments every month? Not a chance.  Apparently, you can try to get up to $15,000 worth of loans forgiven, IF you work in the inner city schools, IF you teach ELL or STEM, and only IF you teach for at least 5 years.  Even then, you can only APPLY after 5 years, that guarantees nothing.  Forget the fact that most loans are way over $15,000 anyways.   If you can't meet two of these requirements, 5 years and one of the others, you're S.O.L.  Way to set a great precedent Massachusetts.  Require teachers to work like Doctors to achieve their goals, but refuse to pay them anywhere near enough to afford the bills that come with it, or offer any sort of plan that will help hard working teachers out.
But enough about Massachusetts, let's discuss Sallie Mae, the bane of my existence.  I'm fairly certain that there's a department in the Sallie Mae offices, whose job is solely to hide people's records and send their customers into a tailspin every year.  Seriously, it's the only logical explanation at this point.  You see, two years ago I applied for an income based repayment plan, which makes your monthly payments lower, based on your income.  Oh, don't worry, the full loan is still due, it just takes a bit longer to pay it off.  For the first year, the plan worked and it was easy enough.  Then it came time to renew, so I sent in my paperwork and never heard anything back.  Suddenly my loans went up to $700 a month.  Fantastic.  Having no idea what just happened, I called up Sallie Mae only to find out that they had been missing some piece of paper from my renewal application, so they hadn't processed my request.  Because it was after the time period, I had to pay the full amount of the loan for the next two months while they processed everything.  While I was on the phone with an employee, I asked about different repayment plans, ones I wouldn't have to renew yearly.  The woman was very nice and told me that I could extend my loans to pay them out over longer periods of times.  For instance, I have a ten year loan payment period, but I could change that to a thirty year, making my payments smaller.  "Great plan!" I thought, let's do it.  So the woman tells me she will update my account to reflect that and I'll see the changes in two weeks.  I let the two weeks go by and no changes, so I called back to find out what exactly was happening.  After all, I just don't have $700 a month to drop on loans, when I have other bills to pay too.  This time though, I got a different customer service rep.  I re-explained the whole situation to him and he looked up my information.  Then he went on to explain that I actually CAN'T extend my loan re-payment plan into thirty years, because even though my loans COLLECTIVELY are more than $50,000, there is not one INDIVIDUAL loan that is that high, and that's the criteria they use to decide on how many years you get to repay your loans.  (WTF??? HOW DOES THAT EVEN MAKE ANY SENSE???) He goes on to tell me that my only options are: repay in full each month, re-apply for the income based repayment plan, or request a forbearance due to hardships.  Seriously, those were the ONLY three options I had.  Well, I'm certainly not getting a forbearance, and I can't afford to pay the whole payment each month, so I re-applied.  When that finally went through, everything was fine for a bit.  Until September.  Once again, I got the renewal packet.  This time, I even faxed it in, making sure it got delivered exactly where it needed to be, in a timely manner.  I got the emails stating that my request had been received and then another that my request had been approved.  Fantastic! Everything worked out and there's no hassle this year.  WRONG.
Today, I got a bill from Sallie Mae, once again stating that my loan is due for next month.  Which is understandable, they almost always send the new statement the day after the bill is due.  My loans for this month were paid, so I was just waiting for the new statement anyways.  Here's the fun part.  My statement for next month says I owe them $900 in loans.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME SALLIE MAE? After everything I went through with them last year, all the idiotic rules they have about income based repayment, even after I got the confirmation email that my request was APPROVED, they still managed to f* it up and screw me over.  Apparently, Sallie Mae and the Department of Ed think that people who take out loans take them out for fun, not because they can't afford to pay college tuition.  They also seem to think that their loans are the only place people are spending money.  Let me break this down for you, Sallie Mae.  I'm a TEACHER.  I only get paid the months that I work, due to the way my city pays us.  So, instead of getting paid 12 months out of the year, I get paid September through June and then have to hope that money will last me through July and August, or get a second job to pay the bills. On top of that, not only do I have student loans to pay, I also have; rent, car insurance, car payment, utilities, and health insurance, not to mention everyday needs like gas for the car and groceries for the house.  In short, there is no way I could afford your $900 all year long, even if I wanted too.  Which believe me, I do. There is nothing I want more than to have my stupid loans paid off, but guess what, that's just not a feasible option for me at the moment.
And so, once again, like clockwork, I'll be on the phone with Sallie Mae tomorrow morning, probably being told that sure, we can fix this, only to have it not be fixed two weeks later.  Then I'll have to call back, only to have them tell me I have to resend the application, which will take two months to process.  Did I mention the best part? Today, even though all my loans have been paid up to date, they all say past due.  Awesome.  Thanks for everything Sallie Mae.