I still miss my ex-wife, but my aim is improving.

JUST KIDDING. Although when I saw that guy in Iraq throw a shoe at Bush, I felt I understood the sentiment. She took the house.  She took the fun car.  She even has a half share on the house up in Wisconsin, and forever forward I have to clear with her when I get to use it.

This whole divorce mess really set me back. And I’ve had problems covering my emergency expenses, including buying a new TV for my new bachelor pad. But in some ways, it’s good I kept the older, PAID FOR car. Because it’s eligible for a car title loan, which I needed badly and found on the internet at Villa Park Title Loans.  They are very responsive and make it an easy process. And you don’t feel like throwing a shoe at anyone.

By the way Villa Park  is near Addison, Elmhurst, Glendale Heights, Lombard, and Oakbrook Terrace.

Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly and for the same reason.

And we’ve seen our share of that here in Illinois. And what I hear is our property taxes and income taxes and sales taxes are all going up more in the future. Meanwhile, our home values are going down and jobs are disappearing. It’s hard to be mr. happy face about all this.

I think the best news is it’s making everyone a little more resourceful. We know we have to find a way to pay for everything, even while cutting back. There simply are some things you can’t cut back on, however. I live in South Holland but one of my jobs is in Naperville.  So I need my car to get to work.  When the transmission fell apart on it, I couldn’t afford a new car and I couldn’t afford to not have a car.  So I used the car to get a loan to pay for the transmission.  I went to South Holland Title Loans and found the money for the car repair there.  Simple, and I got the money in a day, early enough to fix the car and only miss a few days of work.

I want to change the whole economy.  But for now, this is how I make do, and there’s a certain pride that comes with figuring out how to do that.

By the way South Holland is near Berwyn, Chicago Heights, Country Club Hills, Elmhurst, and Oak Forest.

I think 42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.

See, I just did it.  And so too, I think, did my husband’s friend, who talked him into a dumb investment.  Two years ago, Lenny, the friend, had this idea of building little puppet trucks – I’m not making this up – that are little puppet theaters in a box, attached to the back of bicycles.  The puppeteers ride these bikes to any location where there is pedestrian traffic, do little shows (ha – they play music and the puppets basically dance to it, there’s no story line or talking or anything) and then people put money in the little jar that one of the puppets holds out. Lenny said he saw this in Europe and decided to franchise the idea. It was going to be the next McDonald’s, he said. He worked out some numbers that said we’d be millionaires in about six months.

They spent about $4000 on the bikes, the puppet boxes, puppets, music systems, and then ran ads on Craigslist trying to find employees.  No one applied.  OK, one strange little man did, but he was worried he might not be able to handle the bike.  He asked if we could do that for him.  Lenny thought maybe I, ME, would try it for a weekend.  At Oak Brook Center.  I’m so sure. The whole thing never took off.

Well, with the economic problems and a car repair, I wanted the $2000 back.  Too late — already spent.  So I went to Oak Brook Title Loans, a fast way to get cash when you need it.  A car title loans store works off the value of your car – not your puppet bikes – which can come in real handy. A car title loan is a sure thing, unlike other certain entrepreneurial concepts …

Anyone wanna buy a fleet of puppet theaters attached to bikes?

Oak Brook is also near, Hinsdale, Westmont, Downers Grove, Villa Park, and Elmhurst.

If you had to specify, in one word, why the human race has not, and will never achieve its full potential, that word would be meetings.

Yes, I work in corporate America. I catch the Metra to go downtown every day, work my tail off, then train it home at night. And it used to be the meetings were just in the office. But now we have these extended IMs on our blackberries that make that work day last even longer. Once I was so caught up in a text exchange I missed my stop and rode halfway out to Elburn.

None of that, all those meetings, all that hard work, mattered recently when I had to come up with extra cash to cover one of my kids’ tuition when her student loan program was suspended. It was either pay the tuition in cash, or she’d miss the semester entirely. I needed $5000 and, to my surprise, I found it in a car title loan.

Car title loans are a good source for emergency cash. I was able to work with Lombard Title Loans to get money fast, in time to get my daughter registered the next day. Their forms were simple, all online, easy to use — the process took less time than the typical meeting.

By the way Lombard is near Glen Ellyn, Elmhurst, Villa Park, Gledale Heights, and Carol Stream.

I’ve found there are some certainties in life: The colder the x-ray table the more of your body is required on it. The hardness of butter is directly proportional to the softness of the bread. The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the ability to reach it. And the worse financial problems come when you can least afford them.

The last one hit me like a semi rolling down the Eisenhower. My wife and I both lost our jobs since last summer, then our daughter got sick and was at Rush for two weeks. We had some uncertainty over insurance coverage, and at one point her care was not assured because we weren’t sure we were covered under my COBRA policy. I had to come up with $1500 for a diagnostic, with the possibility of another $10,000 in cost if they found what we were worried about.

I didn’t know what to do. So I did some research on loans that you can find on the Internet. The best deal I found enabled us to borrow against our cars, both of them, through car title loans. I had never considered going to one of their store front operations, but when I found Hillside Title Loans online, I realized I didn’t have to go anywhere. Through an all-online process, they assessed both cars’ values and determined within an HOUR that we were loan-worthy. The money arrived electronically the next day, which was a HUGE relief. I would recommend a car title loan to anyone in the same circumstances.

Our daughter is doing well, we’re hopeful about new job prospects, our insurance is now covering most expenses, and we have our cars that can take us to interviews and part time work in the interim.

By the way Hillside is near Berkeley, Bellwood, Melrose Park, Stone Park, and Elmhurst.

I’m one bad relationship away from having 30 cats.  My last boyfriend, Xavier, left me because he decided recently he should be dating latinas.  This just occurred to him?

That wasn’t the only thing he left me.  I got stuck paying for my apartment by myself, and in the three months it took for me to get a new roommate, I got behind by $900.  I don’t have credit cards anymore, so that meant I couldn’t pay rent one month and other bills too.  I didn’t know what to do, so I went on the Internet and looked for ways of getting loans.  My friend said it would be impossible in this economy, especially since I have bad credit.  But I found out about car title loans – loans you can get if your car is paid for.  That’s me! I bought my Saturn used, for cash, three years ago.

So I decided to go with Hanover Park Title Loans, a car title loan company that works online.  You just fill out the forms, get approved almost instantly, and the cash is sent electronically, so you don’t even have to wait for a check to clear.

Meanwhile, the new roommate and I are talking about getting a cat.  The first cat.

By the way Hanover Park is near Schaumburg, Bloomingdale, Addison, Elmhurst, and Hoffman Estates.

Answer me this: If nothing ever sticks to Teflon, how do they make Teflon stick to the pan? Why is it considered necessary to nail down the lid of a coffin? Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

Now tell me why old cars can be more valuable than new cars. Stumped? It can be old cars because they tend to be paid for while for most people new cars are likely under a payment plan or leased.

And here’s where that can be a benefit: when you need cash, a paid-for car is eligible for a car title loan. I hadn’t really thought about when I’d need such a thing until recently, when a medical bill socked me with $2500 in uncovered charges. That’s not the kind of money I have sitting around waiting for hospital charges, so where would I get it? I went on the Internet and found the answer: car title loans can be found right here, at Elmhurst Title Loans.

Because you transact the whole thing on the Internet, it’s also fast and easy. No going into some crappy neighborhood in Chicago, you just fill out the online forms and you learn in a half hour if you’re approved. Then they wire the money to your checking account by the next day (i.e., no waiting for a check to clear).

Yeah, it’s a mystery to me why more people don’t know about this. It’s a great back up to unforeseen situations. And it generally works better for people with older cars.

By the way Elmhurst is near Northlake, Melrose Park, Villa Park, Broadview, and Oak Brook.

My husband’s family is from Arkansas, which is a far distance up here to the Chicago area in Bensenville. They are such hillbillies, they spend more on their pickup trucks than on education. They drive around the country to deer with their cars … on purpose! You can tell how old his mother is by the number of rings in her bathtub. And speaking of his mother, she wanted to tell our kids how to sneak booze into sporting events. Ay carumba!

So when my husband told me he lent his brother $600 to buy an old boat for fishing, I went through the roof. I needed that money for some home improvements we planned on, literally, to fix the roof. So I insisted he come up with ideas on finding that money before winter came.

He found a company called Car Title Loans n Bensenville , where they lend you cash based on the value of your car title. We got a car title loan on his pickup truck for exactly $600 – so now when he pays that off he knows it’s all about him and his brother going fishing on the Fox River. As for me, I buy my fish in the groceria.

By the way Bensenville is near Wood Dale, Addison, Nothlake, Schiller Park, and Elmhurst.

My wife says that if it weren’t for marriage, men would go through life thinking they had no faults at all.

I’m your best example of that. I got a degree in accounting. I keep my car properly serviced and in good condition. I go to the gym and don’t eat hamburgers for lunch.

But apparently I don’t know how to save money. My wife, she’s always looking at ways to save money. Like the jacuzzi we installed off our back patio. We’ve used it twice since putting it in last fall. The first day and the second day it was there. We got it at 50% off. And if you go into the stores these days, it seems like everything’s 50% off. How about that?

Except, even 50% adds up in the debt column. So when we both lost our jobs (funny, but even with extra time on our hands, we’d rather my brother’s kids play sports at Addison Trail High School than soak ourselves outdoors where the neighbors might see us), when we both lost our jobs we had a hard time paying the bills.

That’s when I looked at some assets, our cars, both paid for, as a way to get some emergency cash. I went to Addison Title Loans for a cash advance on both vehicles. It was easy, the online application has changed the car title loan world, and we got money in a day.

So my wife actually acknowledged this solution was a winner. Whew, I’m so relieved to hear that.

By the way Addison is near Villa Park, Lombard, Elmhurst, Wood Dale, and Bensenville.