Yesterday was awful. I thought I was doomed. It was shaping up to be more than a single a day of woe. I resigned to the blatant fact that my insurance broker Michelle was a Moron, after taking a week-long delay (we're talking 8 days here) in getting me a insurance-price quote on the car I've purchased, knowing full well I wanted to start my new job last Friday (yah, it's Thursday of the next week now). She didn't return my last four calls. She would say stupid things, like she needs the insurance record of the friend who referred me to them until she could continue with my insurance papers. Or, no, I shouldn't come down, not until she's reviewed my driving history (you can't do that while I'm there? it takes two minutes: clean record). She'd contradict herself, stating she was waiting for papers to be sent from the Mantioba Provincial government, pretend to be on my side by fighting for me to get these overdue papers, then saying she wasn't waiting for them any more and there was a different issue holding her back, to yesterday where she was saying yet again that she needed the MB papers. Then, oh get this, she quoted my insurance costs per month at just under $350.

Um, no. I'll pass on that insurance thank you very much. Might as well live in my car because I'm not paying much more for an appartment. Not even my friends with speeding tickets galore pay over $200, so what's wrong with my situation? I fall into the: You're Screwed category. You may fall into a different category if you:
Are Female (nope)
Are 25 years of age or older (nope)
Have a driving record of 3-5 years (nope)
Have a year's worth of previous insurance history (nope)

Well, seeing as you don't have that, it'll actually be about $280 a month. Still ouchy. But, since this other lady at the company is nice and smarter, and was bitched to by Thunderchicken (the friend who referred me to them in the first place), they're finding me some loopholes to get me started at $208 a month. After I'm 25, have the one year of insurance with these people, and my 3 years is also just around the corner, I'll be down to $120 a month. The initial $208 is still higher than my friends' who are all around $150, but that's because although I've been driving on and off since 1996, I managed to screw myself over in the driver system. I'll be honest, the blame there lies on me. I have a perfect driving record so how you may wonder I accomplished this. But this will remain my humiliating secret (for probably about two weeks or less).

Then life took a turn for the worse. It gets worse? Far worse. My new boss who wanted to hire me, and whom I knew was also interviewing someone else, gave me a call. The last call he'd give me, he said. He hired the other guy because he could start faster. At this point I reviewed my position in an instant. $1,000 on my credit card. $0 in the bank. Rent for Sept around the corner, thus eating my overdraft up completely, an uninsured car in Niagra Falls, and no job. Within a month, I could be forced to sell my body on the street.

However, there was still another position open with the gas meter company, he informed me. I had wondered why he was suddenly so anxious to hire me in the beginning after attempting to detrack my employment attempts. Looks like he was down more positions than he'd anticipated and his people may not have been coping well. Looks like he was delivered another blow too, and needed to know that I was in this for a few years. Good sign. He even talked to me about promotions into gas-meter installation as the digital age was erroding the job market of the gas-meter-reader. I insisted I was still very very interested and explained the plight of my insurance saga. He was shocked, never hearing of such outrageous service before, and understanding. I would talk with him tomrrow then. So, I talked with him this morning.

And thing have dramatically improved. There may be a position open in Hamilton! No serious commuting! And he still wants me! And I'm getting my car insured, today! Although I won't be able to start training until Monday due to his schedule, I can sign myself up on Friday for martial arts! I'm broke and in debt (all temporary things) and I know that: Life DID work out! Whew!