I was just awoken by a phone call...

...and the lady on the other end of the phone asked for Meg. I said, "This is she." Then she asked what I was doing. I told her the truth, "I was sleeping."

She responded sarcasticly, "Well, I'm about to wake you up! I'm calling about your account with Kennestone Hospital in the amount of $6,000! How are we going to handle that today?"

I said, "The 'This is going to wake you up.' comment didn't help."

She said, "Oh, it didn't? Why is that?"

So, I told her that, "Because..." and then she heard, "CLICK".

Sarcastic bill collectors the first thing in the morning aren't going to get too far with me. Had she been polite, I would have responded in kind and explained the situation to her. That wouldn't have paid the bills, but it would have at least gotten a conversation going.

So, guess what? I now have another project on my list of things to do...declare bankruptcy. Let her put that in her pipe and smoke it. I've been doing my best to pay off all of my bills since Rick left. The year that I was at my sickest, he handled the bills and unbeknownst to me, he stopped paying anything with my name on it. He didn't even pay the tiny minimum payments that would have kept my credit cards in good standing. He left on the tenth of the month...he knew in advance that he'd be leaving and I didn't. Naturally, I assumed that he had paid the bills, certainly he had paid the rent...right? Well, no, he hadn't. Not only didn't he pay bills with my name alone on them, he didn't even pay things that we owed jointly so our good car was repossessed. Now, I'm just telling you this to explain the situation, not to rag on Rick, he's been very kind to me during this entire legal ordeal.

The landlord called me around the middle of the month and we chatted for a few minutes before he asked where that months rent was. I was stunned. I had no idea that the rent hadn't been paid. I told the landlord that I would have the rent caught up by the first of the year (it was September's rent that he hadn't paid).

Well, somehow I did it. I paid $1,250 a month until the first of January, 2005 and had it caught up. After I finished paying bringing the rent up to date, Mr. Carroll, the landlord, sent me a very nice letter telling me how nice it was to know that I was a woman of my word and how much he appreciated the effort that I had put forth to honor my word and my obligation to him. Over the last year and a half, I've had a couple of other months that I was unable to pay the rent and I did the same thing, everytime paying off the rent for the month that I had missed in 3 larger monthly payments.

As a result, the man has bent over backwards to be patient with me. Once I called him to say that there wasn't a thing that I could do...I just wasn't able to honor my obligation to him and I would have to move out.

Well, he had more faith in me than I had in myself and he wouldn't accept my "notice". Since that time, I've always managed to pay the rent one way or another and because he knows my situation, he has been very lenient and has accepted the rent late quite often. He knows that I wouldn't screw him out of the rent so he's been more than willing to work with me. This time I'm a bit more screwed than usual and I just may not make it out of this mess.

My medical bills are in the tens of thousands of dollars and I can't see anyway that I can pay them off. So, bankruptcy court...here I come. I won't bankrupt everyone, my doctor has been as kind as the landlord so I wouldn't do that to him. Besides, I don't owe him a staggering amount of money so I should be able to continue making small payments to him.

But, the mammoth hospital bills are another situation altogether. I think that I'll put the bill that the bill collector nut called about on the top of the list. I've never been to bill collecting school so I don't know how they work, but there have been some kind ones who've been willing to work with me. Of course, there have been some rude ones as well. And then again, some are just downright stupid.

I spoke to one lady who asked me what I could afford to pay monthly. I told her that I could probably commit to $50 a month. She said that wouldn't do, that I would have to promise to pay at least $150 a month.

After some inane verbal volleyball, she asked, "Can we get a committment out of you for that $150?"

I told her that, "I could promise you that I would, but I can't. I CAN afford to pay $50 a month."

"Well," she began, "That just won't do."

I said, "Listen, I could tell you that I'll pay $150 a month and then NOT pay it...but if you want a committment from me that I can actually HONOR...we're going to have to go with the $50."

"That's unacceptable."

Rather than start the same idiotic conversation over again, I asked to speak to her supervisor who did accept my offer of $50 a month. I had that debt paid off in 9 months.

Well, unless Publisher's Clearinghouse knocks on my door with a gargantuan cardboard check for a million bucks within the next week or so, I'm going to have to declare bankruptcy. I have a friend, Anne, who has very kindly offered to come down from Kentucky to help me get my bills organized so that they could be paid in some type of orderly fashion. Well, Anne, how does this new twist strike you?

My pride has kept me from asking for help from the usual places that people in my situation go to for help but I don't see how I can avoid it now. At least temporarily.

It just occurred to me that I can't even get the old axiom, "Pride cometh before a fall." I fell before my pride even became a consideration.

Alrighty then...another day, another way to try to find a dollar.

See you guys later!

Meg