I have successfully been in AA for four years and am very happy to talk about it. But it’s funny how people in my meetings come from all walks of life. And sometimes there’s a little tension because of it. We have this one guy from the western side of Rt. 59, in the new subdivisions, and the way that guy talks it’s like his problems are bigger than everyone elses’.  I just blurted out one day that I guess my inferiority complex is not as good as yours.

But he laughed. We all did.  And we all got to sharing our whole problem, the family tensions, of the economy. It seems like everyone’s either in trouble or worried about the trouble to come. And we talk it through. One trick I learned there was something that came in handy just a few weeks ago. I had to travel to South Dakota to take care of my mother who is very ill. I didn’t have the cash to buy a plane or even a bus ticket, and my car was not in great shape. But my friend from the meeting suggested I go to Streamwood Title Loans, a car title loans company that’s all online.  Sure enough, I was able to get about $800 to fix my car, and I got the money fast, in time to get that repair and drive out to Rapid City. I took car of mother for a week until my sister could get there. It was a very smart thing to do.

By the way Streamwood is near Bartlett, Elgin, Hanover Park, Poplar Creek, and Schaumburg.

Accept that some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re the statue.

I’m just old enough, a senior at Loyola, to know that one.  And that education started at Lake Park H.S. before that.  I know that money comes, money goes and you’re smart not to spend more than you have.

But at the same time, everyone I know from Roselle where I grew up agrees that you have to borrow money in this life. My tuition would be unaffordable if I had to pay for it now. That’s why I and everyone else takes out student loans. It’s an investment.

I had to take out as different kind of loan reacently, a car title loan. For reasons too complicated to go into, I had to hire a lawyer, and she wanted some money upfront, about $500.  I barely make enough money to buy my food, so that seemed like an impossible amount – but what choice did I have? That’s when car title loans started to make sense to me.  I went to Roselle Title Loans, where they got me money for my old 98 Volvo, and which I can pay back on my schedule.

It was a situation where I definitely was the statue, and I had to go after the pigeons.  The good news is I WON.

By the way Roselle is near Bloomingdale, Hanover Park, Itasca, Medinah, and Wood Dale.

What happens if you confuse your Valium with your birth control pills?
You have 12 kids, but you don’t really care.

I told that joke to my friend Sandeep’s mother, who is an OB-GYN. She didn’t really think it was so funny.

Irony is kinda lacking around here in Medinah. I don’t play golf, but I just don’t see any Caddyshack moments out there at the Medinah Country Club.

So I gotta find a way out of this place. I’ve been going to the College of DuPage for about four semesters, but ran up against certain financial difficulties over the last semester break that threatened even that ticket out of here. I was short $500 in tuition money and didn’t really have a way to find it anywhere. That is, until I looked at my car, a 10 year old beater (actually, it’s Sandeep’s mother’s old Saab that she practically gave me) and I remember hearing about car title loans. I went online to Medinah Title Loans, where I picked up that $500 just in time to enroll for the semester. With my parttime job in Roselle, I am paying off that car title loan in less than a month. No valium required!

By the way Medinah is near Bloomingdale, Roselle, Elk Grove, Itasca, and Hanover Park.

We have enough youth: how about a fountain of “smart”?

That thought struck me when I was breaking the news to my kids, both in their 20s, that it was time to move out or start paying rent. Both graduated from the College of DuPage with good grades. Both spend hours and hours on their computers. Both eat food like there isn’t an obesity crisis in this country. And neither of them has had a job other than as clerks in video stores.

Then my genius son managed to rack up a bunch of bills on my credit card buying some electronic Wii thing that I don’t really understand. And my brilliant daughter, his partner in crime, also bought some computer stuff that makes me wonder if she’s operating some international computer scam. I ask questions and they blizzard me with techno speak that completely baffles me.

So I presented them both with a total of $2300 in charges that I was not going to cover. I was trying to get them to get their keysters in gear and go find jobs. Guess what they did: they figured out the cars their father gave them when they graduated college (it was in the divorce settlement) could get them car title loans. They showed me how they did it. They went to Hoffman Estates Title Loans and were able to cover those debts with this loan.

I’m not a big one on borrowing money when you don’t have a plan to actually pay it back (to their credit, they’ve both gone back to working part time at Blockbuster while they look for full time work, just to pay off this loan). But I have to hand it to them, they do seem to understand assets and collateral. They should go to work as mortgage bankers.

By the way Hoffman Estates is near Streamwood, Hanover Park, Roselle, Schaumburg, and Bartlett.

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.