The dumdumdadedumdum

I've had a really bizarre day money-wise. (Also I need to stop blogging only about the weird things, and include the cheerful mundane things as well.) (Also, this will be one of those particularly long and rambly posts because I want to remember and be grateful.)

My day started with a phone call to the health centre about insurance: when I'd missed a step in March, campus security had called an ambulance for me, saying that insurance would cover it. The total bill for the ambulance + hospital + x-ray was terrifying, and insurance covered most of it. But the remaining charges, mostly a $200 co-pay for the ambulance, were still somewhat scary. And I'd gone back and forth for a really long time about whether I should just pay the charges, because financial aid had already been ridiculously generous to me, or whether I should ask for help, because my bank balance was not looking so hot. In the end I decided to call the health centre and clarify any possible misinformation. The director was very nice and suggested I call the hospital and ambulance service to see if they had any financial assistance.

What was really weird was that I got really teary on the phone. These are emotionally volatile days for sure -- tonnes of excitement and happy company, but also exhaustion and preemptive nostalgia -- but I hadn't been prepared to get so emotional about money. Because God's always provided more than enough, not least through Williams, and this last year I've finally been calm about the exorbitance that accompanies international travel, but evidently I'm still silly.

And then I met a friend for brunch. We both had delicious inexpensive cobb salad -- at the clubhouse of the plush local golf course.

Then a housemate helped me carry my two London boxes -- one of books and notes, one of winter wear -- to the post office, where I spent five minutes in distraught dithering about the $201 that it would cost to send the stuff to my aunt's place. Eventually I made myself afccept what I'd known all along, ie that it was cheaper to mail the stuff than to lug it on airplanes home --> Virginia --> London or to buy it again in England, even secondhand, so I mailed the boxes.

And I went home and called the hospital about their emergency room charge, and they said the assistance program probably didn't apply to foreign residents. But then I called the ambulance service, and was gingerly explaining things to the administrative person, when she stopped me. "We'll take care of the rest of the charges." "Wait. Really. Are you sure?" "Yup, we'll take care of it. No problem."

$200. It was all I could do to make sure I hung up first before actually bawling in relieved gratitude. I am way too good at building up overanalysed stress about situations that don't materialise.

And then my Kindle arrived. The only two gadgets I remember really really wanting over the last few years have been a DSLR -- which I decided was probably not a good idea -- and a Kindle -- which started to seem like a better and better idea given both the academic and travel patterns that circumscribe my life although I'm still squeamish about them. And so I gradually reconciled myself to the fact that really really wanting something could be a legitimate, rather than compromising, addition to the research utility and cost-effectiveness arguing in favor of purchase.

There had also been an extended deliberative sideshow that proceeded as follows. (a) If I am getting a Kindle out of book snobbery, it's definitely worth $25 to avoid the crass world of ads. (b) Oh darn I should get a case. (c) Hey look this case is super cool and pretty, especially because you can stand the Kindle up, just like how my bookstand has been super useful for working with texts for essays. (d) Oh darn the case is $25. Can I justify $25? Yes. No. Argh. (e) I'll swap transcending ads for a nice useful case.

Yeah, I'm silly. But the Kindle is a thing of beauty, and yay free books.

And yay friends. A bit after the Kindle came, two friends told me separately that they'd been planning to create a Kindle slush fund for me, to chip in to this purchase that I'd been verbally agonizing over for months. Whoops. But people are so kind. It's sort of ridiculous. And I am spoilt.

That's most of the money-related stuff that has happened today, so essentially I have a lot to be thankful for (and a Kindle) and hopefully will be less silly about resources in the future. Free as a bird of the air no?

But I seriously hope my next post will sound less barmy. Oh well. Haha.