I would like to wish all the readers a happy and safe Fourth of July. If you are not from the United States, then I would like to wish you a happy and safe Wednesday. OK, I got that out of the way. Now on to the real stuff.
The lack of action this past week (or the increase of work) has not generated anything worth writing about. I have decided to write about the trials I had to go through to receive my check mentioned in The Check Adventure. It adds to the overall frustration of that adventure. And now I present: Receiving My Pay.
The date was June 7th, 2001. I'm at work, spending time at Webmonkey when I decide to check my AOL e-mail. I usually never do that at work because the computer would say "You've got mail!" and everyone would know what I am up to. Also, someone keeps spamming me mail to those porn sites and the computer I'm using is being monitored. The warning message when the computer starts up even says "Don't expect any privacy!"
Anyway, there was an e-mail from the director of the internship program I participate in. It was quite important, but was only sent to this e-mail account. By the way, I have four accounts. One is for work, one is personal, one I give out to companies and never check, and a Yahoo! one which I just remembered I had. The e-mail contained my pay scheduele and the first date was listed as June 8th. I thought, "Cool! I'm getting paid tomorrow."
That was a wrong asumption. As I read on, the e-mail explained that my college had not sent the checks out yet and the earliest she will receive them would be on the 9th, which is a Saturday. She suggested meeting on a central location over the weekend or picking it up from her office on Monday. Having no car, option 2 was the only perogative. It sucks not having a car.
So I wait. On Monday, my ride takes me to work. I check in at my office, and call a site taxi to take me to the building where the director's office is. I arrive in her office to find out that the checks never came on Saturday and the are expecting them after noon. So I go back to my office and return after lunch. Finally I receive my pay. I ended up riding the taxi four times that day. Now all I have to do is cash it.
Note:The paycheck in this story wasn't the first check. As mentioned from the sequel, I received one before that. It was the first day of work and I wasn't expecting it because there was no scheduele yet. My director explained that the scheduele had not been set yet and she will e-mail us as soon as it's set. Hence the e-mail from the internship director. Also, the taxis I mention are not regular taxis, but private cars that run within the installation where I work. They don't cost anything.
Written 7/2/2001 by Chris Taylor