What, Again?

Last month you may recall that it took until the 8th or 9th for my rent check to clear the bank. Don't know why, couldn't tell you why, especially as the landlord usually cashes it (according to my bank, anyhow) around the 1st or 2nd of the month. I wrote about it here then, because I was slightly worried about it.

Today is the 12th, and now this month's rent check has not yet come out. I crossed the line of irritation and went headlong into worry about three days ago. The check was written and mailed on September 24th (because, as you know, I keep track of that sort of thing very closely). I always send them about a week prior to the end of the month if at all possible, so that it has time to arrive in case there's a holdup with the mail. September 24th was nineteen days ago. That's almost 2/3 of a month, folks. Nothing. And, as usual, everything else mailed out on that day got to their intended destinations normally, on time, with no problems. Bills I wrote out checks for after I mailed the rent arrived at their respective places and came out of my bank account days upon days ago.

Money is not an issue, obviously, or I'd be a lot more freaked out. I can afford to cancel the check if I have to (if it never arrived) and write another one. It's the principle of the matter, really -- as I said last month around this time, these are things I should not have to worry about. I have enough problems in my life right now to where I shouldn't even have to think about whether the postal service is doing its job. I have two major projects to complete this weekend, each of them worth 20% of my grade in their respective classes. I have two novels to read as well, and a laundry list of things to do around the house that I've been putting off. I simply don't have the time or patience to be worrying about whether or not my rent is considered paid almost three weeks after the fact. I have too much to take care of.

I am in the realm of cautious optimism, really -- as I've said before, my landlord is an awesome guy, and both he and his wife rather like me. Therefore, I'm pretty sure that by this point, if they hadn't received my check, they would've let me know somehow, either by phone, by mail, putting a notice on my door, etc. I am also aware that my bank has been incredibly slow as of late in reporting most transactions, as well -- debit card transactions (such as when I get gas or groceries) will say "pending" on them for three or four days sometimes. For example, I got gas on Thursday morning, and got groceries Thursday night on the way home from my night class. Both of them show up (they'll show up on my account activity almost immediately) but they say "pending," with the clear date of November 14. That's Monday. Why it takes five days to clear a simple debit transaction is beyond me, even if one of those days in between is a holiday (remember, yesterday was Veterans' Day). Still, today banks should've been open as per the usual on normal Saturday hours, unless I'm missing something.

It's stuff like that which frustrates me. I'll always have a rough idea when something is going to come out of my account (and all deposits are posted to my account usually within 24 hours) but I'll never know for sure when something is going to be debited from me, only that it will. Eventually.

Because I've been patient and will always give reasonable time to let processes go through, I will wait until Tuesday. Tuesday is the 15th. That's halfway through the month, and two more business days that my bank can process my check. If it's still not listed on my account by Tuesday afternoon when I return home from class, I will call my landlord and make sure that he actually got said check. If not, we'll go from there. If he did get it, I'll see what's up with either him or the bank, because waiting halfway through the month to get a check to clear is personally unacceptable to me, especially when I'm on a budget and need money to enter/exit my account on a rather set schedule that I can keep track of and balance all of it without confusion.

Not to mention that, hey, within the next two weeks or so I'll have to write yet another rent check to him for December. This shit needs to be resolved soon. Soon. Yes, I just got paid on Thursday. That doesn't really matter much in the long run; I will always have more money going out every month than I'll have coming in. Always. Because, in case you didn't know, GTAs are paid horribly. We're several thousand dollars a year below the poverty level, and I've got at least another eighteen months of living this way before anything will get better...if it ever will. It's absolutely appalling, but it's something we have to live with. This state -- hell, most of this country -- does not pay its educators well. As I've said before, I made more than twice the amount I'm making now when I was working in a fucking grocery store.

And people wonder why we need student loans to simply survive on. It's disgusting and disgraceful how little we get paid for what we do. I am definitely one of the 99%.

I've mentioned these facts because it comes on the heels of an announcement that our pay as GTAs will basically reset during the winter break. Usually our pay continues uninterrupted through December and into January, as we teach both months (just with a break in-between). Now we've been told that our last paycheck of the year will be at the end of December, which is as per the usual, but we won't be paid after that until the first week of February because of whatever fiscal year reset that Kansas does for people like us. This essentially means that all GTAs will have over a month without and between paychecks.

It also essentially feels like the state of Kansas is telling us "Hahahah, we've got you working for free until February, what are you gonna do about it, you poor fucking teachers? SUCK IT."

This would bother me a lot more (and I mean a lot more) if I didn't have the second half of my student loan, for spring semester, set to disburse shortly after the turn of the year. Without that, I would be completely unable to survive without a month's worth of paychecks. Completely unable. As it stands, I'm still completely livid, especially on the behalf of those of us who are really struggling right now money-wise and need those paychecks. The entire situation's fucked up, because, really, it's making us work for a month without pay. A month. How many of you have worked a job without being paid for a month? Yes, we'll get paid at the beginning of the next month, but as far as I know it's not like the pay is in arrears, it's just when paychecks resume as per the usual. I could be wrong, but either way, shit, is that wrong.

So yeah, anyway, that's how things are going right now. Could be better, could be worse. May have to deal with some rent-related bullshit this week in the midst of taking care of absolutely everything possible before the Thanksgiving break. This includes conferences with my students, finishing those two aforementioned projects, and doing a lot of other work. Yeah, I'll be lucky if I get any decent amount of sleep until the 18th or so.