Bank Frustration + NaNo Update

So I'm officially 1/5 of the way to 50K words on my NaNo story, guys. It's been kind of a struggle because the story is still kind of growing on me. I haven't gotten any feedback at all on it, even though I've got some new subscribers recently. I've been working on characterizing the lead characters, Tyler and Dustin, and it's gotten a bit easier the last couple of chapters.

My goal today is that, since I'm off for the next two days, to fully catch up to where I'm supposed to be at. That's 26,666 words by the end of tonight if I can swing it. I don't know if that's even feasible since I can't force creativity like that, but I am feeling pretty motivated and fairly inspired for the next couple chapters so we'll see what happens.

I also want to try to maybe update Ashes to Ashes since I really miss working on that story. I've been so focused on getting Gravity up and running that all of my other stories have taken a back seat to it. I've been so behind and wanted to catch up so badly that I wasn't paying attention to anything but Gravity, and I know that if I work on only it, I'll probably burn out and not want to work on it at all.

In other news, I'm finally starting to feel like I'm not sick. I had bronchitis for awhile there after catching the flu, but with some antibiotics and a ton of DayQuil and cough drops, I've pretty much got that kicked to the curb. I've been working a lot at the hotel and I've been making anywhere between $100 to $220 a day. It's been exhausting but honestly, it'll be worth it when I see that nice paycheck that's coming my way.

I still don't have the full amount of my paycheck from last week thanks to US Bank being ridiculous. Honestly, I got so angry with them that I almost switched to another bank. I went in on Halloween and opened up an account finally because my boyfriend was pressuring me to get an account. I don't trust banks at all after having been screwed by two of them, so it took a lot of convincing on his part. Finally, I decided and set up the account. Right off the bat, there were issues. I was told my card would come in the mail within 2-3 business days.

It was eight, Mibba. And for someone who needs to get cat food every couple of days, and other groceries, along with things like gas...you know, like everyone needs. It was a real hassle. Finally the card came in and I figured, great. Everything's set up, I'm good to go, it'll be great. So I got my paycheck that Friday and took it into one of the branches that's on our way home from my work.

Mibba, I have never felt so humiliated by a bank teller in my entire life. The teller treated me like I was a criminal right away and accused me of forging my signature...even though it's on my state issued I.D. and even though I had my social security card with me along with my bank card. All of which had the same name that matches my photograph on the I.D. It shouldn't have been a problem. I've never ever had a problem depositing a check. The longest I've ever had any bank (And I've had like, four or five different banks in my lifetime) was like, two days at the most.

So this teller, when he finally believed that I was the same person as in the photograph, made me rewrite my deposit slip three fucking times. Because the 'signature didn't add up.' He watched me. He then said it was suspicious that I don't sign my signature as my first name and my last name. I use my first name and middle initial. It's just how I've always done it. No one else has ever thought anything of it.

At this point, I'm really pissed off and I tell him that if he doesn't want to deposit it, that I want to see a manager. He simmers down immediately and ended up depositing the check for me after letting me keep $200 of it in cash for my boyfriend's dad for my rent. I made sure to ask him when my check would be available, and he said it would be available between 4 and 7 AM the next day.

That was seven days ago. I finally called the US Bank customer service line because at this point, I'm late on a loan payment that needed to be paid last Friday. The loan people understood and let me make a half payment until the bank releases the rest of my check, but that's still not acceptable. Especially when I know that the check is good, and that the money is there.

I was on the phone with customer service for thirty minutes while they tried to figure out why the hold is so long on my payroll check. Finally, the manager told me that the original teller had deposited the check, but made a note that it was a suspicious transaction. That meant that it would take way longer to get the money. So not only did he lie to me when he said my money would be available, he actually screwed me over by making that little note.

So I cleared it up with the customer service people, who put me back in contact with the original teller's branch. I spoke to the highest ranking manager at that bank and filed a complaint about the asshole. Apparently it's not the first time he's done something like this, so hopefully he gets fired because honestly, screwing with someone's financials is a really fucked up thing to do.