Wondrous Apparitions, Provided by Magicians.

And I thought spending my money on whisky would be frivolous...

Just goes to show there are some markets that trade on something other than fear... the desire to get blitzed so that you feel no fear! *grin* Happy Friday.

Last week was the Week of Being Stupid About Money. I had to have a drumming track for Sunday's ritual (Shamanic Dumpster Diving), and discovered that I could get something pretty kick-ass from PayPlay, allegedly in a quick and painless manner. All I had to do was drop some money in my account and get the track. (Yes, I am aware that one can download absolutely anything for free somewhere on the internet. No, I'm not morally opposed to data piracy. Sometimes, though, when you need a particular thing on a very short timeline, it's easier to just pay for it.) So I drop $20 through paypal to this site. Paypal chokes on it and tells me the transaction didn't happen. I think I screwed up something in the process, so I go back and do it again. Same deal. Paypal chokes, no transaction happened. I give up in disgust, and drop $20 on the site specifically. Money goes through, I can buy the song I need, and have credit for other stuff. I get other stuff. I am happy.

However, when I went back to update my ledger, I discover that both $20 payments through paypal have indeed been debited from my account. I go to paypal to dispute the transaction. It is 'pending', so I can't dispute it. I sigh. By Monday, both $20 payments hit PayPlay, and I have vast amounts of credit on the site, but am $40 poorer than I expected to be.

Also, my mother sent me a check for $100. I put the check in my pocket. Later, when I was thinking of going to the bank, surprise, the check was gone. I look all over for it, nothing. Crap. I call Mom to thank her for the money, but tell her that I lost it. Ha! She says she'll just send it to me by Paypal. I think, Ha!. That was two days ago. Last night, triadruid found the check. My Paypal account shows nothing. Does this mean that she sent the money and it hasn't gone through, so I shouldn't cash the check? Or does it mean that she hasn't sent the money, and I should cash the check? Better call.

In other news, I'm totally envious of kittenpants' iPod. I have, up until this point, avoided interaction with large-capacity mp3 players, so have also avoided temptation. Alas. And they're not terribly expensive, either. I could have an 80-gig iPod for $249. Ludicrous. I don't even have 80 gig of storage on my entire PC. I mean, it's time to upgrade that, too, but still...

I actually sold a piece of jewelry today, and have a commission to make a companion piece. The piece I sold today was a peridot and pearl choker with sterling accents, and she wants an anklet to go with. So that's nice.

Apparently, though, I'm pricing too low -- today's sale continues a trend of people offering me more than I'm asking for, which is also nice. My usual heuristic is 3x materials costs, but this one went for more like 5x materials. I wonder if I can get that on a regular basis?

Yesterday, I had my court-appointed meeting with the Federal Bankruptcy Trustee. Or rather, I didn't, really.
( In which I go to Federal Court and am vastly underwhelmed )

Had a terribly productive day yesterday, in spite of it all.
- Went to the attorney's office, and filed my CH7 paperwork. Have resolved to spend some of the money that I will not be bleeding out to the creditors (to all of whom I've paid my principal several times over) on exotic lingerie. Felt better about that. Also felt better about the fact that rude people will not be calling EHQ and abusing kittenpants about my financial situation any more. Felt *much* better about that. triadruid says I worry about it more than kittenpants does, but then, I suspect I worry more about a lot of things than she does.

- While waiting to see the attorney, drafted outline for next month's Intro to Paganism class. Now, I just have to clean it up and send it to my co-teacher before, oh, the weekend before the class. The title of this session is "Oh My Gods! (How Pagans Relate to Deity)". It's gonna be exciting.

- Argued with druids about druidry, and did not come out significantly behind. Go me!

- Talked to saffronhare about where we were at in our Pillar Working. Figured out a little more about holding up my end of the work, and where we're going with this. Perversely delighted to find that my level of discomfort about this year of the working is reflected in her -- everybody hates to play against type. We clear things up for each other though, so I think that the experience is progressing well.

- Had a long, uncomfortable moment of confusing the map with the territory. Was clingy and obnoxious. Gave self a stern talking-to. Feel better now.

I went to see the lawyer about filing my Chapter 7 yesterday. As I expected, he gave me a sheaf of paper several inches thick, which I am to fill out before Monday. Most of this paper is an inventory of personal property, which is where it all goes weird. I haven't any idea who owns a lot of the stuff in the house. And I'm not sure how to list some of the things I'm pretty sure are mine. I mean, bed, sofa, that's pretty self-explanatory. Viking defense pans, large glass heads, reproduction edged weapons, disreputable santa suit, that stuff's a little harder to deal with. And that's not even getting into items like "handcrafted leather collar and restraints set" and other related items.
The next fun bit is that you have to assign a value to everything. Here again, no clue. Most of everything that I am sure is mine was given to me, bought at a thrift store, or somehow similarly acquired in a manner that has little to do with retail value. So I am just sort of roundly making it up. "Sofa, $50. Shoe rack, $2. 4 pairs Dr. Martens boots, $40. Craft supplies, $50. Costumery, $150.", etc.
Also, there's a line on the papers for "Animals, please specify if animal is pet or breeding stock". So I mark down "mixed-breed dog (pet)". They want a value for this, too. My paperwork says (seriously) "I'd have to pay someone to take him."
I think I'm going to need some help with this process.

Go to the Marriage Amendment Forum, or stay home and sleep?

Life is full of tough choices. I'd rather sleep, all things considered, but what I'd rather do isn't always as important as it might be.

In other news, first appointment with the attorney this afternoon. I can't find all of the things I was supposed to bring in. Not that this shocks me. I've been in collections my entire adult life, so throwing away the collections notices has become an ingrained practice. It's a thing that I am looking forward to, the absence of people calling and mailing demanding money. We might even start answering the phone again. Maybe.