Tuesday 15 July 2003

Summer 2001 was unremarkable, though time with Cathy was good. We spent some time on a road trip to visit my dad and his wife down in Arkansas. Lack o' funds was starting to catch up with me in August, though, and I did something smart and something stupid. The something smart was getting a night job. I worked 11pm to 7am at a factory in Holmen. Three weeks later I found a better paying gig taking calls for The Company Store in La Crosse... taking incoming calls for catalog orders for comforters and such. Nice stuff, and decent people with whom to work.

The something stupid was getting through August by taking out a loan at one of those payday loan places. If you've never done this before, don't! They take the amount you're borrowing and charge 22% every two weeks. At the time it helped me get through the month, but if you can only pay the interest each pay period, you're screwed.

When I started the 2001-2002 school year, I was would teach full-time days, go home to sleep for a few hours, work full-time nights. I had no time for anything. On the weekends I didn't spend with Cathy all I did was sleep. I made arrangements around work schedules for Algebra Parties. There were two occasions over the first few months that I'd slept through an alarm and was late to school. Working over 80 hours a week was starting to become a problem.

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