A little better but not much. I had to cut back my pain meds.

Got through to my brother, who let me know that Mom's landline got cut off for non-payment, so she got herself a cell phone. Mom said she is sure she was only a few days late in paying and they never punished her before, so she doesn't understand why they had to punish her now. AND looking back over her bills from the last couple years, AT&T did nothing but raise her rates.

I am so glad I do not have to deal with this stuff on a daily basis.

Also glad that she is more or less ok.

ericaj, don't settle.

askye, I wish you were close enough to hug. I felt much the same way when I lived in San Francisco. It was a lovely city but I was so lonely. I was lucky to have friends in KC who helped me move back there. Weirdly, I'm kind of in the same situation now. I moved to Iowa to be near family, but the family doesn't want me around much, so I'm lonely again.

wow, that was not good advise or cheery or anything! But, I don understand and wish you support~ma!

billytea, Ryan continues to be awesome!

I'm having the "not enough money" blues again. I just checked my bank account and found that I was overdrawn. Yikes! I thought I was doing better than that.

I have to hang on until at least December. that's when one of the monthly bills goes away. and then shortly thereafter another will be gone, but having to pay these two on top of everything else has been very hard. One is the last of my hospital bills, the other is the tail end of my student loan. I will be better off when they are done, but trying to budget this year has been very difficult.

My health insurance has been more expensive than I expected. I had to pay $1500 out or pocket before the deductible was satisfied. Another expense I didn't expect.

I am depleting my savings and not making it up right now. I hope next year to fix that but it's white-knuckling until then.

Money scares me. Until the magical mythical day when I have so much money I can't possibly spend it all and I'll never need to worry about it again, I'll always have a dread of looking at my bank account.

I tend to make a bet with myself on what the balance will be when I check the account, and if I come in above my bet, I'm happy--and tell myself not ot spend it.

WS, I'm glad your mother is okay and it was just a non-payment thing.

quester, I'm sorry about the money woes. Your post made me realize it was nearing the end of the month, and I hadn't checked my balance since the baby was born. I have a positive balance and apparently didn't have enough energy to buy things on the internet while I was on the good painkillers.

sj, I call that a win!

Connie, I kind of do the same thing. It always comes as a shock when I find that I've gotten way low or over spent.

I do not understand money, I just feel oppressed by it.

I heard an A-1 piece of mansplaining last night. Went with my friend Heather to see "Diary of A Teenage Girl" (which I really REALLY liked). It is based on an autobiographical graphic novel by a woman and directed by another woman. When the film was over, an older man at the end of the row was complaining loudly to his wife, "Another Hollywood phony" he said. "No 15-year-old girl has those feelings." Heather looked at me and said "Huh, I wonder when he was a 15-year-old girl?"

"No 15-year-old girl has those feelings."

15-year-old girls are of course well-known for their austere and minimalist emotional lives.

15-year-old girls are of course well-known for their austere and minimalist emotional lives.

I know, right?!

waves Long weekend. Tired now.