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Thursday, January 20, 2005 

One of your friends may already be this fucked

As most people who read this probably know, due to the pay structure where K and I work this has been a very tough January. Today was it, the first pay day, the day the sweet cash started flowing. Just a partial paycheck and (due to illness) just mine, but still it should have been around $100, enough to pay for some necessities (i.e. cat food, human food) until the first big paycheck, which would be February's rent.

Only I didn't get paid today. Because, see, the pay period doesn't come in on the 20th. It comes in a week from now. What we were told a few weeks ago was incorrect.

[NB. I feel compelled to point out here that work wasn't fucking with us - we were told that the 20th was "probably" the day, but then were told it would be checked into. In the absence of a correction, we just assumed it remained that day. So there's fault on this side too. Doesn't make the situation any better, though.]

A week. My main bank balance is at -$8, thanks to Greenpeace. And Scotia will probably start kicking in fees any day now. My other accounts are all overdrawn to their limits. There is very little food in the house. The paycheck on the 27th will be decent for me, but very little for K (who is only back for half shifts right now). So our plans for paying rent are shot. New ones will have to be made.

And once again, the irony that kills me is that once our cashflow gets going, in early February, this should be one of the most prosperous semesters K and I have had recently, since we're both at the maximum pay rate for the job and are both working almost all the hours anyone is allowed to. It's just that the job starts late, and gets paid for even later.

If I had some sort of fanbase, this would be when I'd start trying to auction off... something. I don't know what. Oh, except every spare second of my time right now belongs to Spinoza and Merleau-Ponty (hence why my thoughts on Mclusky will appear when they appear). As it is, I'm rather self-mockingly considering going to the food bank, or taking up a collection, or something.

Fuck.

Dude... sell some CD's on Ebay. Of course make copies before you do, but I'm sure you've got an army's worth. Don't forget to charge $5 shipping then ship them for $2. Guaranteed $3 profit each.

Honestly, I'd make more (and quicker) just selling them in town. Plus I've never used eBay in my life. Plus I sold around $160 worth of the suckers just before Christmas.

Thanks for the advice, Gord, but really I'm was just freaking out a little (I posted this roughly 90 seconds after discovering the pay thing). Nothing to see here.

Although this does reinforce my desire to get a real goddamned job after school is done...

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Ian Mathers is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Stylus, the Village Voice, Resident Advisor, PopMatters, and elsewhere. He does stuff and it magically appears here.

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