Elyse was taking me into The Room. My only experiences with The Room involved my boss -- being interviewed for hire, being scolded for supposedly yelling at children, being given The Talk. My eyes started tearing up in true Pavlovian fashion.
"It's nothing bad," she said, then after a moment, "well, not too bad."
We sat in the room for two minutes while she apologised profusely for messing up my paycheck this period.
"Oh, god." I said, fearing the worst. I didn't turn in my new direct deposit slip yet, did they cancel my direct deposit and I wasn't getting a check this week? It wasn't a good morning so far, so I was freaking out a little.
"You guys have three steps. I have seven. So I put you on the next step, the fourth step, even though you don't have a fourth step."
"What does that mean?" I moaned.
"Well, you'll be getting a little extra in your check this week."
"Do you want me to give it back?"
"No, no," she said. "Go buy a slice of pizza or something. It's not much. I just wanted to tell you in case you saw you got more than usual and then you got the regular amount next period."
"Oh," was all I said.
"So, it's just a fluke. You'll be getting slave wages again next pay period."
"Well isn't that a relief."
Later on, I was at Biotest and considering telling them I had no interest in a portable gas grill as a donation bonus so could I please have some more money instead, when Elizabeth, my favorite downstairs phleb, took me into a screening room and pulled out my thicker-than-usual file.
"Have you heard about the rabies thing?" she asked.
"What rabies thing?"
"You've been chosen," she began, and I was immediately happier because 'you have been chosen' is usually followed by something involving money and/or prizes, and not something like 'to be bitten by a rabid racoon.' "To participate in a vaccine trial."
"Oh. Okay?"
"It's completely voluntary, but it's extra cash every second donation, plus every time you get a shot." She handed me a sheet with things written on it like
ninety days,
loyal donor, and
$50.
"Okay," I said.
"You want to do it? I know you're in every week, but you have to be here twice a week every week, so you can get your shots on schedule."
"I'm pretty sure I've been here every Monday and Thursday since, uh, March."
"You're set, then," she said. "Talk to Lindsey soon, though, because there are only 75 slots available. We haven't sent out all the sheets yet, just to our preferred donors, but you want to jump on it by the end of the week, probably."
After my donation, in which we watched
Empire Falls, I barely felt Crystal's venipuncture, and I made Mitch faux-sob because I brushed off his billionth phlebotomy-pun-come-on, I talked to Lindsey, who said that my schedule for donating was perfect and that I would get my paperwork next week.
So next month I'll get an extra $5 on my Thursday donations ($20), and I'll get 5-5-10-5-50 ($75) for my shots. That's $95 on top of the $280 I pull in as it is. I can almost pay my rent with that. My savings account will be so happy.
It's all going into my savings. I have $95.95 in it right now. I might put in some more tomorrow since I got that extra $8 from ICPL, but I want to get bus coins, pay my electric bill, and buy my new glasses from Zenni tomorrow as well. I'll have about $150 left over, but I... well, I guess I don't have a reason to keep it in my account, since I want to curb my spending. I went a little overboard yesterday because Target had Lisa Frank swag in the dollar bins and Dr. Pepper on sale, and Liz and I went to Claire's and Best Buy (total spent today: I don't even want to think about it).
It's weird because I feel like I haven't changed my spending habits, but I have more money. I mean, $8 fluke at ICPL aside, I haven't been making any more. And I haven't bought anything outrageously expensive like a Sony Reader this month. Maybe it's just that I feel better because I have money in savings and I know I don't have to restrict myself as much -- I miscalculated how much I need to save for moving. The visa requires I come in with $4300NZD, which I thought was about $4000USD, when actually it's only $2700USD. And my visa isn't as expensive as I'd thought it would be; I read a blog where the girl was getting a residency and it was costing $3000, but my working permit will only be about $120.
This is not as nerve-wracking as I thought it'd be. With the exception of the weird government bullshit I have to put up with, this should be fairly easy on my part. :)
This has been a weird week for me, financially. I mean, no complaints, but still weird.
By the way, if you have prescription glasses but don't want to pay out the ass for replacements, Zenni Optical is
amazing. You think 39DollarGlasses is great? Zenni glasses start at
$8!
( Here are the ones I'm ordering tomorrow. )The only bad thing about today that I can think of is that I dyed my hair when I got home, using the leftover boxes of blonde (just to get rid of them), and I thought I could leave it in for 15 minutes and it wouldn't turn out as light as usual. Wrong. I'm a redhead again. Ah, well. Just means I'll have to re-dye again sooner rather than later. I was getting used to the chocolatey color I had. I liked it.
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