OK, so here is
Episode II of this saga.
First a short recap:
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They want to take me BACK to legal services on Wednesday (2 days from now), to talk about selling my house.
Impossible to have my mail opened and ready by then, so I get them to postpone it for
next Wednesday. I give them the number of the lawyer that saw me there, and they will set everything up for next Wednesday.
They confirm that the other caseworker is available for that next Wednesday by contacting him on his cellphone, and they are talking for awhile, and at one point the worker in the office, after some back-and-forth on the phone, turns to ME and says "Do you have an appointment for Legal Services for next Wednesday?"
WTF!!!??? Until 5 minutes ago I didn't even know I was going back to legal services ever again in my life. How would I have an appointment set already.
So now I am stressed out about having to rush to decide if I have to sell my house, and about the idea of having to FINISH sorting through all of my mail and bills... a big depression issue for me, which I was just beginning to make small steps of progress on, now I have to have it FINISHED by next Wednesday.
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OK... so I DID finish the paperwork, by the weekend!!! Got ALL of the bills sorted and entered into my computer. Now I know what my real balances are, how much is due, how much is past due, etc. I have all the bills sorted and stapled and filed, and a copy of the most recent bill pulled out ready to take to legal. I have them all separated into three folders... utility bills (some are current, some are past due), credit cards (these are terribly behind and several are in collection) and medical bills. I have each bill paperclipped to any related paperwork, like letters from collection agencies for that account. I am in sort-heaven.
I manage to print out balances of my accounts to take along, and work out a rough budget. I put together a better budget using Excel separately, trying to pad the expenses upward to give myself a real sense of whether this is possible. I print out these additional items, balance sheet, budget sheet, expense spending... and have them in a fourth folder to bring along. These folders are all gathered and in my tote bag to bring with me. Everything else is put away in the drawer. No more mess lying around.
PLUS if you'll notice ladies and gentleman... I completed this even though MY COMPUTER DIED right in the middle of all of this. I didn't loose any of my entries, I did lose two of the manual spread-sheets I made and had to recreate them from scratch... but mostly I had to deal with the stress of loosing and fixing my computer without panicking about being ready for legal services!
Hurray for me!!!
But you know that traditionally Act II of a three act play is the part of the show where they introduce the conflict, the problem, the trouble.
So...
After my group sessions today I go down to the program that is taking me to legal. I am on the road with them in their van, and one of them says something, I can't remember what, but it prompted a question in me... "Did you set up an
appointment for me at legal services today?"
Caseworker 1(CW1) tells me that Caseworker 2(CW2) told her that no appointment is necessary. That is not true, you need an appointment with one of the lawyers there. I know this because the first time I was there, CW2 took me without an appointment, I had a brief meeting with one of the lawyers that happened to be available, they took copies of my paperwork, and I set up an appointment for another day. CS2 took me again to that appointment. He dropped me off there and I called when I was finished and ready to be picked up.
So if ANYTHING, CS2 should know
from direct experience that you need an appt. So I suggest calling their offices before we waste the time going there. She instead calls CS2. CS2 explains that it wasn't that he said "no appointment necessary" it was that he thought that I had set up an appointment for
this date when I saw the lawyer previously. Huh? Whaaaa??? If I
had set up an appt, he wouldn't have known the details, he was not in the office with me for that trip! (He just dropped me off and picked me up).
So we are close there by this time anyway... we go upstairs and ask if their is an appointment for me there today. Nope. I see the lawyer... she says she has free time tomorrow in the morning, but CS1 can't commit to that until she sees if her or CS2's schedule is free to take me. She calls her home office, they say no, everyone is tied up in a meeting tomorrow morning. So it has to be next week. Well I am supposed to be back to work next week. I just flat out said no... because to tell the truth, I am
still not 100% sure
why I am going back to legal services in the first place. This was
their idea! I mean, to tell me if I can afford my house? For that we need an accountant or credit counselor... not wasting a lawyer's time.
So anyway we have to leave a future appointment up in the air until I find out what my work schedule is going to be. She is back on the phone with CS1 and he is saying that he thought that
I had set up an appointment for today. May I refer you back to last week's episode:
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"Do you have an appointment for Legal Services for next Wednesday?"
WTF!!!??? Until 5 minutes ago I didn't even know I was going back to legal services ever again in my life.
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What a circus.
We pick up CS2 at his location with another client. He says he just assumed I had an appointment because it was written up on the schedule board. I think it was written up on the schedule board back when I said that "2 days was unreasonable for me to have my stuff ready". I think when I said "What about next Wednesday?" I think they put it up on the schedule board for that time, but no one followed through to make an appointment, and then everyone saw the board and assumed the appointment had been made. So now both of them are in trouble with their boss.
So what is the name of the guy playing first base? No, Who's on first! What? Thhhiiiiiiiirrrddd BASE!!!