laramie

Early in the evening I was feeling very anxious about the situation with the mortgage payments. When I got home from work there was a letter in the mail from RBMG, telling me that I was in default on the payment plan, having missed all three of the first three payments. This is particularly horrible since I made the first two payments right on time – as verified by the Post Office; I sent the payments by priority mail and the PO has a record of having delivered them right on schedule. Even more annoying: I have recently made numerous calls to RBMG to straighten this out, and they have in fact cashed one of those checks since my first call, but have not returned any of the three or four messages I left about the check delivered in May. Now, for the first time, I actually am delinquent with a check and having it count harder against me because of errors on their end. (Bang head against wall.)

I spent some time online, (where I put in an application for a likely sounding position I found on Monster.com) and played computer games, just to calm myself in the face of how anxious I was feeling. My pessimistic feelings had kicked in to convince me that there's no way I'd qualify for a refinancing, given how low my income has been this year, and I have to face selling the house, and going through the enormous upheaval of moving myself, tons of stuff and four cats into some inadequate space elsewhere.

I got an Instant Message from Carolyn, who had forgotten a couple packs of Aliera's cigarettes at my place when she was there for the filk on Saturday. (She'd been called away suddenly when the family car wouldn't start and they thought she was needed there to meet the tow truck.) We arranged that she'd stop by soon to pick them up. I'd hardly gotten offline when I got a phone call from Dale at Ameriquest. (I had put out an inquiry with an online service that refers one to several potential lenders.) I told him how doubtful I was about qualifying for a refinancing and he told me that they specialize in dealing with people in circumstances similar to mine, that they are not a brokerage but a primary lender and have access to programs and resources that a brokerage would not. I don't know how much of this was hype, but I agreed to let him look at the numbers and see what kind of terms they can come up with. If nothing else, if I can qualify at all, I may be able to skip at least a month of making payments, which would give me a chance to catch up on some other bills, and do some more job hunting.

As I explained to Carolyn, when she got there and sat down with me for a brief chat, my real problem is not the cost of keeping the house, but the fact that I am grievously underemployed.

Carolyn wasn't there long before she was called away home again, but it was long enough for her to reassure me that I was doing well in dealing with my situation. And I was able to sympathize with some of her frustrations and congratulate her on moving in to share the basement apartment at the Courts with Aliera.

Today Jill is due back from the wilds of Wisconsin. I washed the dishes and kitchen floor so that she will not feel like Aschen-Jill, coming in to confront only chores. Sadly, I wasn't able to get the lawn mowed myself, but at least with so little rain it hasn't grown terribly high.