Hec, I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow. Just thought I should let you know.

You are so thoughtful.

Also, I'm going to pick up some copper blond [link] to dye my hair.

Good choice.

I'm all excited.

What a coincidence...

I haven't had reddish hair for a while. It'll be fun!

Yay! Fun! (msbelle TM)

But the 3% is annual, not monthly, PC. Or at least I hope to dog it is or you're getting seriously screwed.

Well, and as you pay, some of your payment is applied to the principle, so the amount that accrues interest is decreasing.

You pay the (average daily balance of what you owe)

I don't understand this part. Unless it's the loan amount divided by the days I'm in school, and this number remains fixed.

(days between payments).

What about while I'm in school, not making payments?

But the 3% is annual, not monthly, PC. Or at least I hope to dog it is or you're getting seriously screwed.

I thought it was per year, but I think the financial aid counselor said per month. Maybe I misunderstood her because yeah. Per year sounds more reasonable.

Unless it's the loan amount divided by the days I'm in school, and this number remains fixed.

See what Cindy said:

some of your payment is applied to the principle, so the amount that accrues interest is decreasing.

What about while I'm in school, not making payments?

Depends on the terms of your loan, and when the interest begins to accrue. Some of them start when the money was disbursed, some have a grace period.

It is an annual interest rate.

Glad other people are here to explain the loan thing. I understand, but I'm not sure I could explain.

PC, I'll drop you an e-mail or something, and we can try to make plans.

Is your loan through a private lender or is it a Stafford Loan, P-C? Subsidized Stafford Loans are deferred until 6 months after you complete your schooling. Unsubsidized Stafford Loans, you can choose to pay the interest while you're in school, but you don't have to pay the principal. You can also choose not to pay the interest, but then it is added to the principal balance and inceases the overall amount of your loan. A lot of options there.

I'm going to murder someone.

Supposed to be a meeting at 2- I was asked to clear time for it. I do. I don't take my lunch (in which I should have gotten the car inspected and oil changed). Meeting kept being pushed back until just now, when it's been cancelled, and I can go home, less than an hour before I'm supposed to anyway. Grrr.

Thanks for the loan info, guys. I think I'll figure it out eventually. It's all making my head hurt right now, though, so I'm going to post the first India entry. Although it's more of a pre-India entry. But it sure was an interesting beginning to the trip.

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12/18/04

Now let us christen this new journal with a story of Just How Weird Sunil's Life Can Be.

Our route to India is thus: Dallas -> New York -> Paris -> Mumbai. We had a couple hours of layover in JFK, so we ate some pizza from Sbarro. After we ate, my brother went wandering around.

He returned and motioned urgently to me. I could tell he meant business, so I got up and followed him. The only thing I could think that would require such urgency in an airport was that he wanted to show me a really hot girl. And sure enough, there seemed to be an attractive female in white standing by Sbarro.

Huh. She looked like Mischa Barton.

Whoa. She sounded like Mischa Barton. Mischa Barton has a very distinctive voice.

"Excuse me," said my brother, "are you Mischa Barton?"

"Yeah," she said.

I said something like "How weird" or "How absolutely bizarre."

And then she walked away as if we weren't even there.

No chance for us to save how much we loved The O.C. while skirting around the fact that we didn't care so much about Marissa. This was my brother's first celebrity encounter (and my first completely unexpected one), and we totally got the brush-off. I mean, I get that she's a regular person too and we were total strangers getting in the way of her monthly meal, but I thought she'd be used to this sort of thing and be a little more gracious. It's a good thing neither one of us were, like, totally dying to meet her cause OMG we're ur #1 fanz!

Some supplemental information. My brother had seen her and her mother (and, I'm pretty sure, her sister, as the girl I saw with her bore a striking resemblance) at the gate for Venice. He had casually followed her when he saw she was heading for the food area, so he decided to get me. After our sole interaction, we saw the two of them in the Burger King line, and I later saw her with a BK bag in hand. So, rest assured, Mischa Barton is eating. Be proud. And finally, we noticed there had been a gate change for the Venice flight. It had used to be a hundred gates away. So clearly, we were meant to meet Mischa Barton.

For the record, she does look pretty good in person. And she's kind of tall, too, about as tall as I am.

When I was in NYC a few months ago, I thought I passed Chris Carmack (Luke) on the sidewalk one night. Maybe it really was him. My brother figures we're going to run into Ben McKenzie in Paris and Adam Brody in Mumbai.

But Mischa Barton's on our Bitch List now. We would have given good conversation, dammit! All we asked for was, perhaps, an acknowledgement of our existence. I think we're going to spend the entire trip making fun of her. I never got on the Mischa Barton hate train before; I had little problem with her or her acting. Now I have a personal vendetta!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I'd expect as much from her seeing how she's a buddy of P. Hil's and is dating that yucky Brandon Davis. How does it feel taking Shannen Doherty's left-overs, Mischa? Huh? HUH??

t /Gloomy!Gossip