A timeline of my dealings with financial aid at CUA.

8/1 See financial aid statement.  Panic and start making contingency plans for payment of 2012 taxes.  Plans include getting a full-time job and keeping GRE prep job.  Start applying for jobs.  Consider asking parents for $, parents are retired, reject idea.  Consider taking out an additional loan.  Waffle, but eventually come down on options A and C.

8/6- Go in to FinAid Office to put myself even further underwater because the job I have doesn’t pay me enough to live on.  Fill out all govt paperwork online, get instantly approved for new massive loan. Turn in one piece of analogue paperwork to office.

8/13 Get worried because FinAid Office has said nothing about loan status, nor is info available online. Go in to FinAid Office.  Am informed that loan will be processed 8/14.

8/14. See amount of loan, it is a mixed blessing at best.  Disbursement date is 8/16.

8/16.  Stafford Loan disbursed, Grad Plus loan nowhere to be seen.  Take several screenshots proving existence of loan and loan amount.
Panic returns.

8/19  Call FinAid Office.  Am informed that while I can’t see it on my screen, they can see it on their screens and the Grad Plus loan has been disbursed. Wonder why the software is structured to cause maximum panic in student body, remember with whom I am dealing. Check FinAid account after phone call.  Tuition paid, remainder of Mandatory Health Insurance paid to School that is against Obamacare. See refund amount.  Choose to delay panic until loans come due.

8/22 Check FinAid Account.  Mandatory Health Insurance suddenly not paid.  Refund in processing.  Call FinAid Office for clarification.  Explain yo-yoing numbers.  Am told that Mandatory Health Insurance cannot be paid directly from loan, rather, I must receive refund and then pay insurance myself.  Am told Federal Loans not allowed to be used directly for insurance.  Grit teeth.  Insurance card has end coverage date of 8/14/13 on it.  Have appointments with doctors next week.  Wonder why system is designed to cause maximum frustration in students.  Remember with whom I am dealing.  Ask about expected arrival of funds in my bank account, am told I will need to speak with enrollment services.

Am connected to enrollment services.  Ask about money.  Am told it takes 48-72 hours for money to get to me.  Since process started Wednesday,should see the $ Friday or Monday. Am told about Mandatory Health Insurance.  Am asked if I am part-time.  Am dissertation.  Am told that I will need to get a waiver if I do not want to pay for insurance.  Know that such waivers require proof of other insurance.  Do not have other insurance.  Do not have access to other insurance.  Do not care about having to pay for insurance, am happy to pay for insurance, am sick of needless back and forth about paying for insurance.

End phone call with enrollment services. Wish for a time machine to convince past self to stay in workforce, dummy. Fret.

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Just So’s It’s Not All Depression and Complaints…

During last Saturday’s improv performance, I had to guess that one of the other players was looking for a newspaper printed on human skin.  When I’d gotten to that point, he then asked if the newspapers had headlines, to which I replied “Yes, right above the necklines!”

This would be unremarkable except that an audience member stood up, pumped his fist in the air and yelled “BAM!”

I mean, I get it, but I don’t really get it.

As those of you who read this are undoubtedly aware, I was issued a ticket by DC parking enforcement in April for “failing to register in DC”.  In order to fight the ticket, I had to supply them with a copy of my lease along with a utility bill and a copy of my registration.  Their need for that last document is puzzling, as one of the implications of the ticket is surely that I have valid registration in another state.  Mind you, I’m not sure why that’s surprising at this point as the entire premise of the ticket is absurd.  Yes,  I have out-of-state plates. The population of the District quadruples during business hours, so I doubt that DCPE finds out-of-state plates to be unusual. Yes, I do spend 3-4 hours a week in Petworth. By any reasonable metric a fraction of time that small doesn’t even approach proof of residency, but DCPE doesn’t care about reason, they care about revenue.

 

I might post more about that later. Well, I probably will post about it the next time I get a ticket. For now, let me return to the matter at hand.

I sent in all of the documentation that they requested, only to find out, four months later, that I also needed to provide my registration and that failure to do so would result in a demand for full payment of the $100 citation. The notice was dated 8/9/13 and it gave me 10 days to fulfill the above requirement, however, I didn’t find it in my mailbox until last Friday, the 16^th. I called their office to ask whether I needed to send everything and was told “No, just fax your registration, and be sure to reference the ticket number. When the fax line was busy both times I tried to send the fax, I called again and was told “The only way we can accept a fax is if you’re here to pick it up, but you can come in and bring your documents with you.”
I expressed concern about the 10-day time limit, given that I had only one business day left, or really, one business day total, in which to get them my registration. The person with whom I spoke told me that I’d be ok, unless I parked in DC and someone issued me a(nother) ticket.

After all of that, clearing this mess up was surprisingly painless. I walked in and handed a clerk a stack of paperwork. In return, he gave me a receipt for my paperwork, and confirmation that my car had a ROSA (registration of out-of-state automobiles) exemption, which means that they’ll assume I’m not a DC resident for a year, at which point I’m fair game again.

Now, it really isn’t much trouble to get the exemption, but the idea of having to do it at all is troubling. I’ve been under the assumption that someone couldn’t find a parking space in my friends’ neighborhood and called parking enforcement. It seems unlikely that DCPE actually bothers to keep track of when a given car with VA, or MD, or what-have-you registration parks in a given location, unless that car is parked illegally. I didn’t have this problem in my girlfriend’s neighborhood and I’ve parked there for days at a time. Furthermore, DCPE is much more visible in that area of DC than it is in the area in which I got the ticket. I would also like to point out that I’ve had a schedule that included 3-4 hours every Sunday in the same part of DC for a couple of years now, and this is the first ticket of its type I’ve seen. So great, I’m at the mercy of someone who’s had a bad day.

I suppose the most irritating aspect of this whole experience is that it’s cheaper and more convenient to register a car in DC, if one lives in DC, than it is to keep a Virginia registration. It costs $40.75 to register in VA, as opposed to $72 in DC, but VA levies a personal property tax on vehicles, which in my case is about $200 (I remember being upset about that when I moved out here from California, but as it turns out, the costs are about equal. California adds a vehicle licensing fee in lieu of personal property tax). In addition to the reduced costs, DC insists that cars be registered to a particular parking zone. If a car is parked in the wrong zone, it can only remain there for two hours, before it becomes ticketable. I used to get parking tickets all the time when I lived in DC, because I didn’t want to pay a special fee to park in front of the house I’d purchased, until I discovered that the fee is (or was) $15. So yeah, it’s about 1/3 as expensive to register in DC and not have to worry about exceeding parking time limits. Why would anyone, unless they didn’t have registration to begin with (which is an entirely different issue), go through the hassle of having out-of-state plates in DC?

A recipe I’d like to Save

Persian Rice

Cook rice and empty pot, clean for later.

Chop 4-5 carrots, 1 big onion, 1 potato (1/2 slices) , 4-5 chicken thighs/breasts

Fry in 1 tbsp turmeric
1/2 onions, chicken, add 1tbs cumin, 1/2 tbsp turmeric, saffron, seasoned salt, salt and pepper.

1/2 onions, carrots, slivered onions, currants

Line the bottom of the pan with

potatoes
rice
chicken
rice

Carrots/almonds/currants
rice

poke holes to bottom of rice for steam to rise

Steam on low heat for 30 min.