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.

I am not afraid of heights, but I am afraid of widths.

Yup, this is a fat girl story.  I’ve been up and down in my weight, more up lately than down. And entering into a recession is not a good time to be fat. First, if you lose your job you’ll be home all day snacking. Then when you go on a job interview looking like Kirstie Alley (after she got fired by NutriSystems), it’s a ding against you.

So while I hold onto my job at Motorola by the skin of my teeth, I hope, I hired a trainer and went on a prepared meals diet program.  All told, it’s costing me $2000 per month.  Which is $1000 more than I can afford. But I think it’s an important investment. So I had to find a good source of the additional money – this is a three month program, and it’s already working – so I went on the Internet and found Vernon Hills Title Loans.  I’m borrowing against my Cherokee, which is paid off now, and I’ll pay it off by the time I’m down to 135 pounds.

And I promise not to celebrate by ordering a Deerfield cake.

By the way Vernon Hills is near Buffalo Grove, Indian Creek, Libertyville, Lincolnshire, and Mundelein.

My sister is into metaphysical things. Like feeling the planets lined up, and sleeping with a crystal under her pillow. She says she talks to her cats. Claims she saw the Tinley Park  UFOs in 2005. One day, she called all excited about having an out of body experience.

I’m a little more pragmatic. Right now, I’m having an out of money experience. And no crystals, talking cats, aliens or planets are going to solve it.

Given the current adverse circumstances of my life (no health insurance, crazy family, broke my ankle), I have to be resourceful. I use the internet when I have a problem, and it’s amazing how often I find a solution. Paying the doc-in-the-box bill for my ankle was looking like a grim task.  Should I just not eat food this month, or pay for the anaesthesia? Instead, I found out my Corolla could get me a loan from a car title loans company.  Found them online, Tinley Park Title Loans. It really helped me manage this situation so I could,literally, get back on my feet.

Notice I didn’t say it helped me float. That doesn’t seem like it would be a good idea.

By the way Tinley Park  is near Country Club Hills, Matteson, Mokena, Oak Forest, and Orland Park.

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.

My wife has her pretentious friend and her blowhard husband from Geneva come over for dinner about every six months. I tried to fake being sick the last time but she figured out my plan when she saw I was scheduled to play golf the next morning.

Anyway, the last time they were here they were using their French they were studying in preparation for a trip there. Like we didn’t all backpack through Paris when we were in college, looking for Jim Morrison’s grave? Since we were having a barbecue I casually mentioned “dijon vu – the same mustard as before,” and they totally bought it.  Idiots.

I also laughed when I heard they never took that trip to France.  Seems like a little layoff problem got in the way. Not like any of us are immune.  I’ve been consulting now for two years since I took my package from the bank. It’s a good life sometimes, but sometimes you’re waiting on an invoice and some bills come due and you’re not sure how to pull it off.  That’s why I am quite familiar with St. Charles Title Loans.  They spot me with cash against my Lexus just when I need it.  Last time I took $4000, the time before $5000. You get the money in a day, pay your bills, then pay off that one when your own money comes in.  I’ve kept a clean credit record despite all adverse circumstances.

Take that to France, losers.

By the way St Charles is near, Addison, Downers Grove, Naperville, Winfield, and York.

People will accept your ideas much more readily if you tell them that Benjamin Franklin said it first.

This is true.  I once was in a discussion with my baseball coach about failing to wash my uniform for a game. I said something like “The clothes most dirty are on the hardest worker,” attributing it to the old BF. He didn’t have the internet right there to check, and I think he bought into the idea.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to do the dance with just words when paying your bills.  I tried it a few times, but  you’re basically talking to a computer for all intents and purposes. So I really got caught short on some charges on my credit card last year – unexpected emergencies all summer long – and wasn’t sure how I could make the payments.  I didn’t want to screw up and miss a payment, because the card companies use that as an opportunity to jack up the interest charges for the next two years. So I did my research and found Springfield Car Title Loans. I used the collateral on my Jeep Cherokee to get a short term loan.  It was sweet – easy application, money in one day, bills got paid and now I’ve paid off that loan too.

A penny saved might be a penny earned, but a car title loan is a boatload of pennies for 21st century emergencies.

By the way Springfield is near Auburn, Buffalo Hart, Cartwright, Chatham, Clear Lake, and Springfield.

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.

We seem to have entered into one very bad economy. I think stupidity got us into this mess – why can’t it get us out?

Seems like the boys in Washington and Wall Street are trying their best. They say they’re working for us, the little people in the heartland who toil away for years, following the rules. And then we read about billions in bonuses to bankers who screwed up royally, and the congress people don’t exactly look like they’re going hungry either.

We’ve had our own money problems here in Kane County. My wife lost her banking job and my days at the plant were over in 2006 already. We’re working part time jobs here and there, piecing it together because we really don’t have much of a choice. We’re too young to retire, but too old for some of the salaries we see in the advertising. But we’re making do and there’s nothing stupid about that.

I found a new trick, car title loans.  It’s the kind of loan you can get when no one else has money for you.  With us, it was when the old stove gave out. We can pay it in installments, but just try getting a loan with part time work only.  The great thing is South Elgin Title Loans didn’t care about our employment status. They just needed to see we hold title on our cars.  We got that money in two days, just in time to go to Glenview and get a deal at Abt appliances. And I’ll do it again if I have to.

By the way South Elgin is near Batavia, Aurora, Geneva, Huntley, and St Charles.

I have a theory that made my Catholic girlfriend blow a gasket: God did not create the world in 7 days; he messed around for 6 days and then pulled an all-nighter.

I should know.  I used to pull all nighters all the time at Northwestern and … well, my grades showed it.  And when I look at the messed up stuff in this world, I gotta wonder.

Take for example the economy. I got my degree in social psychology, and went to work for the state as a social worker. Golly, that was so not fun. Everyday, something depressing and the pay sucked. So next I got a job in HR at an investment bank that shall remain nameless. We spent weeks working on a layoff plan, super hush hush. I practically pulled an all-nighter working on that one. So Big Announcement day rolls around, and guess whose name is on the axe-me list?  Mine, of course. The worst part is I knew all the dirt in the deal, how the execs all had their bonuses protected while the little people were sent home with boxes of personal affects.

My girlfriend and I had just rented a bigger apartment, so this was not good.  Then I needed a dental procedure that cost $2300.  So where was the money going to come from?  My severance would just cover rent and food for a few months, but a guy can’t go on job interviews missing a tooth.  So I stayed up all night (just like always) and found on the internet Skokie Title Loans, a car title loan store.  Fortunately, my car payments were done and it allowed me about $2500 in collateral.  The loan process was very easy, and I got the money very quickly, in time to schedule my tooth implant for interviewing.  Now, if I can just get enough sleep the night before and don’t screw those up …

By the way Skokie is near Evanston, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, and Wilmette.

Carelessly planned projects take three times longer to complete than expected. Carefully planned projects take four times longer to complete than expected, mostly because the planners expect their planning to reduce the time it takes. And sometimes your plan is about as useful as toilet paper.

I should know, I’m a planner.  And the best laid plans … well, you know. I had our family finances all planned out. My husband works full time, I work part time since the kids are in school.  We take two vacations a year.  We would replace our old 1970s kitchen within five years of buying our house.

What screwed that up was this Bush economy. My husband lost his job at Motorola. I had trouble finding work at the payscale I was used to. Our daughter is a prodigy and they tell us she needs to go to a special “genius camp” in North Carolina next summer that costs $8000 for a month ($5000 after a scholarship).

So the question is, can I forget the kitchen until things turn around, and send my daughter to this camp? Her heart is set on it, so we looked into borrowing the $5000.  Forget banks, they’ll take your home away from you if you’re not careful. I found a car title loan company online, Schaumburg Title Loans, that valued our Escalade at worth $7000 in a loan. OK, not in the plan, but we did it. And I’ll do it again if the “plan” calls for it.

By the way Schaumburg is near Des Plaines, Elgin, Hoffman Estates, Rolling Meadows, and Roselle.