Productivity....Undating....and Other Stuff
Today was quite productive. On the suggestion of my travel partner, I went and checked out the credit union for teachers. What I discovered? I can get all my checking, savings, online banking...for free! I also learned that Bank of America was charging me for things I never noticed. When I worked for Kinko's there were no additional fees, I didn't realize some details had changed since I began teaching. Another thing, one of the reasons I wanted to check the credit union was because when I'm in Europe I intend on using ATM machines and/or my ATM Debit card for transactions. Bank of America will charge me $5.00 per ATM withdrawl. Additionally, every purchase I make on the debit or credit card is charged a 3% of the amount of purchase fee. That's absurd! I'm already losing about 25% with the value of the Euro. With the credit union, I get ten ATM withdrawls for FREE!! AND, there is no fee to use the debit card like credit (Visa). So, I'm doing that for sure! I'll still have to pay that stupid 3% fee when I use my regular credit card for hotels and such. Sigh...
Other news? I'm still in this BTSA program (pain in the butt new teacher induction program). I went to another workshop today. 2 hours. I discovered I forgot to do a big homework assignment, I enrolled in an all day conference Saturday that I forgot about, I have yet more classes that I need to register for and go to. UGH. Not to mention some assignments I've yet to complete. So much for a real vacation! Oh wait, it's on 14 DAYS TILL THE REAL VACATION!!!
Other stuff? I got some good news about my health. :) I'm still single. Speaking of which, I was emailing a few times with a guy. He didn't have his photo posted. This is always something of concern. I made it clear that I was not open to meeting someone without seeing a photo first. A few more emails entailed. Still no photo. A couple of weeks of dull emails ensued: Dear Tamara-How is your week? Mine is fine? What are you up to? Take Care, Good Shabbos. Signed_____. Yeah, ummmm, b-o-r-i-n-g. The real kicker was when he told me (to make a long story short) that he lives with his mom because neither of them like coming home to an empty house. He's "looking" for work in childcare and is therefore working "food service" in the meantime. Oh, and he says I shouldn't have a problem not seeing his pic, we should simply meet to see if we are compatible and can be friends, a couple, or marriage material. OY VEY!!! I never ever meet men! When I do...I get this??!!?? Is there no love out there for me?
posted by Tamara @ 12:18 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
So glad you got good news from the doctor - I've been wondering but didn't want to pry.
There are a lot of weird men out there...but like Mia said, maybe you'll be swept off your feet by a charming European man with a gorgeous accent.
Good luck with the school stuff! Hope I get to see you next week...
The banks have gotten way too mercurial on the European travel deal with the money changing. It used to be so much easier. The credit cards could be done w/o any extra charges, ditto with ATM machines. For them it's just pure profit, they really don't incur all that much in the way of expenses, and they sure don't provide the top flight services they used to. This is a pet peeve of one of our consumer watchdog radio jocks down here in Atlanta: [http://clarkhoward.com/] [Click on Travel Tips in the menu on the top search menu]. Clark's famous for being a tight wad, but it made him a well known millionaire by 40, and yes, he's still a nice jewish boy. (He got married fairly late too).
But the Credit Union is the way to go, it's always been a real good deal for everyone. They do loans too, BTW. TIAA Cref also does a really good & credible job with retirement funds for teachers. You should be in with them as soon as you can.
Sorry about the guys. For lots of them, if you don't have a digital camera or a simple web cam and are technology challenged, it might be a bit beyond them to supply a picture. Which begs the question, why would you willing meet such a guy? Ditto for the 'living in mom's basement' deal. It happens, and it's happening more now than almost ever before. (I blame the economy). So a fair amount of men under the age of 30 still do live at home. I think the Census figures I last saw were creeping up around 20%, which is astounding.
And I know some of these guys, and some of them are sweet, hard working blokes who just were unable to save for a house or apartment while doing regular 'work a day' jobs, which again is getting increasingly common. {For the long version of this see some of the back topics here: [http://www.epinet.org/]}.
So I think they'd be 'projects' of a certain sort for certain, so everyone needs to go into these things with their eyes wide open. But count on it: 1 out of 5 guys (or better) under the age of 30 still lives at home with a parent or guardian.
Good Luck with all your classes. I guess folks still wake up with nightmares about missing classes/exams/reports/assignments from schools long distant in time and geography!
And this was supposed to be a short post too... Cheers & Good Luck! 'VJ'
Since you are getting plenty of linkage in the above post, I'll give you my 'Blues 7+' Guys much worse than you've ever encountered, and all of them single and available somewhere in the darkest depths of the midewst:
Karlababble for February 28, 2006: [Fun stuff]
[http://karlababble.blogspot.com/2006/02/im-like-matchcom-for-felons.html]
Just trying to be helpful here. Cheers, 'VJ'
I suspect the credit union will impose a 2-3% charge on your withdrawal cause of the foreign exchange element. Please double check about ATM withdrawals while outside the US.
Consumer Marty
Mia: The guy is wierd or just socially inept. The guy is 29 since you asked. I ain't moving to Europe, but if he's willing to move here, then there is hope :)
Annabel: You are a friend (even if we don't hang out too often) so asking and checking in is most DEFINITELY NOT prying. It is appreciated if anything. I hope I don't come off that unapproachable that friends are not sure whether or not to call.
Nani: Out of respect for the guy who shared his mental issues with me; I was refraining from sharing that with the world. Wouldn't want them to get a warped view here ;) When you lived in Prague? I'm sure times have changed since then.
VJ: Thank you as always for not only commenting but for providing humor and laughs :) Who are you anyway, you're like my mysterious commentor. Are you man? woman? old? young? career? do you have a blog? :)
Marty: I did double check with the credit union. They told me absolutely no fees using the check card in Europe. :)
Thanks Tamara, I'm anonymous and blogless, and not exactly sexless, but I usually prefer to write that way. It's the way I was trained. I got here by doing a search for some version of 'Jewish dating in NYC', (for a sibling) and I found Esther's wonderful blogs that way, and have been reading her & friends ever since. It's been enlightening, and Esther's gotten quite a few of my longer comments on her Jdatersanon Blog too.
I live in Ga., am happily married (the later description used to be one the rarest representations on the early net), and no one can prove that I'm not already 109. I regularly hang with 80 year olds and find much entertainment in them. So like Marty, I'm very familiar with vaudeville acts.
I don't have a blog, because strangely enough, I don't think it's worth the time to set down my many and myriad opinions on such and sundry. (Does anyone care to hear a rant on tempo markings in scores or how most modern 'pop' musicians just are not all that, well musical?) So, I usually have an opinion on most things, and much of the time this might not sound awfully diplomatic to many. That's some of the secret to the nickname BTW.
And the last decent picture someone took of me was with one of our recent former Governor's at a function I helped to set up. It was so silly and over the top that even the local newspaper refused to print it. I'm with the Resistance to the current administration and almost all that they do. Which of course is something I rarely talk about here.
I take my model for commentary from an old job that Garrison Keillor had for Salon before the blog days.
Cheers & Good Luck! 'VJ'
VJ, thanks for that cryptic and almost still useless hint about who you are :) I gather you're male, a member of the tribe,into politics, maybe my age or a few years older. And if you're an 85 year old granny with a hot red harley...well, not like I'd know so it's all good, just glad you post intriguing comments. :)
Tamara, I'll just leave it at 'I am what I write', any other reality is merely superfluous. As I've written elsewhere, I'm just overly educated crank mostly. But I'm always willing to help the mysteries some:
Some things around the house:
1.) A blessing by the door. Inside the door.
2.) A famous Wm. Hogarth print is on the opposite wall.
3.) Largest 'painting' in the house: A Fitz Hugh Lane print that I bought at the Harvard Co-Op for about $25.
4.) 2 Number of TV's in the house. None downstairs. One working, one not so much, both upstairs.
5.) Oldest piece of working technology in the house? I think it's the 30 year old radio I'm listening to now. It was right about that time I mostly gave up on commerical radio too.
6.) Number of radios in current room? It's my office, and there's now 3 shortwave radios other than the above one I mentioned. And no, this is not in the basement, and I don't talk back on the others either.
7.) Number of fictional CSI characters I've known in real life? Too many to count.
8.) Oldest recordings in the house? Date slightly prior to 1920. We also have the complete Bristol sessions, and a good sampling of almost everything Louie Armstrong ever did prior to 1955. Ditto for Bessie Smith. We've got 78's too, but currently that turntable is broken and we need to hack into the other one to see if we can make it happen. Most frustrating experience is playing good classical music on 78's. You just stand there and change the stack slowly.
9.) Number of books in the house? About 5-6K, and the library only holds about 1/2 of them.
10.) Oldest continuing subscriptions: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Harpers, NYRB.
[http://www.thebulletin.org/index.htm]
11.) Other magazines that you've probably never heard of that I used to have stacks of? Punch. But I gave most of them away. That was a poor decision. They went of business shortly thereafter, after 150 years of publication.
12.) Number of diplomas signed by a sitting US Senator? 1
13.) Number of arguments I had with a prior US Senator (of that same state) where he got so peeved at me that he heatedly poked me in the chest, repeatedly? 1
14.) Number of votes by which this candidate went on to win the popular vote for President in 2000? 500K, but for the first time in our history we got a President picked by the USSC. Illegally of course.
15.) Back to art. The single artist most represented in your home? Canaidans Emily Carr & Bill Reid (about 4 each).
Recent formal events attended:
Canadian event put on by the local consulate.
That should suffice for the moment Tamara. I think Hilary and the rest of the crew have some other details I've left behind. Cheers & Good Luck! 'VJ'
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