Glad this week is over

Last weekend was my "girls weekend" with the old high school best friends. So much fun!! The place we stayed at was super nice and a very relaxing atmosphere. We all met there around 3pm (though two got caught in traffic from their direction and were a half hour late). One of the rooms was ready so we just dropped our bags in there and then went down to sit in the outside seating area near the bar/restaurant. It was a gorgeous sunny day. We just sat and talked, with some drinks (lemonades for me and another that doesn't drink alcohol). So many memories and things long forgotten about, but remembered by one or the others and then the memory would come back. We sure did a lot of stupid things in high school! LOL.  I had seen 3 of the ladies a couple of years ago but the other one I had not seen in 30 years. Everyone looks exactly the same. We were mentioning how all the men seem to change so much you hardly recognize them, but most all the women look the same after all these years.  We had a light dinner, while sitting out there. One of my friends and I shared a sandwich, so my dinner only cost $13. My share of the 2 rooms we got was $73, so a pretty darn cheap weekend.

After we ate we went upstairs and got situated in our rooms. A couple had brought photo albums and yearbooks. Again we were reminded of what silly things we did back then, who we dated, etc. We decided to take advantage of the "great room" in the hotel/lodge and hung out there for the rest of the evening. A nice area to sit and be comfortable and lots of complimentary snacks. I think I finally got to bed around 1:30 am. WAY past my bedtime. We got down to have breakfast around 9:30 am and then all parted ways and headed home at 11:30. So much fun and laughs. So glad I got a chance to do that. It was great to get a break from home and all the stresses we've been dealing with.

Because the stress didn't lessen any throughout this week. I've felt crummy (stomach) and tired all week. I got a call from our BK attorney on Monday that she doesn't file lien avoidances, so she had to refer me to another attorney. She wanted to call him first, to give him our info, so he'd know why I was calling. She didn't connect with him until late Tuesday afternoon. I called his office first thing Wednesday morning and left my info and no return call. So, I called again this morning. Of course when he tried calling me back an hour or so later, my dang cell phone wasn't working for some reason. it would ring, but I couldn't answer. DH was on the house phone (with Bank of America about this same issue) so I grabbed his cell phone and called back.

The good news is it pretty much sounds like we have a cut and dried case. While, yes the lien is valid because it was filed prior to our filing date, because it is a judgement loan and because we were considered $45,000 underwater with our secured mortgages, this lien will hold no water to stay. Apparently a lien isn't allowed to put us even more underwater.

In the meantime, while DH was trying yet again with BoA he asked to speak to a supervisor and apparently got one. He gave DH an "escalation case number". Mr Supervisor then asked for us to fax him something showing the debt was included in our bankruptcy. The only thing I have is the actual discharge piece of paper, as well as a file folder, but it's just all the stuff we gave our attorney. So, I called our original BK attorney, but of course got her voice mail. Then I got online to see if there was any way to access BK documents. Yes, there is. I was able to create an account, put in our case # and see all the documents related to the filing our of bankruptcy. That was kind of interesting to see, but not the most user friendly website. It cost me about $3 of fees to "print" the copies, but worth the time savings of waiting on our attorney. I printed out our discharge and the list of creditors that got the notice. I also printed out the page from our filing that listed the debt and amount as well as the pages that showed what we owed and what our home was valued at at the time, well underwater.  Ok, but I'm working from home today and we don't have a fax machine anymore. (does anyone besides banks even use those anymore?). So I typed out a cover page, highlighted the parts of the documents that referenced BoA and scanned it all in my scanner. Then I found a free fax service online. In the meantime DH called back BoA - letting them know what the attorney had just told us and and got another fax # - why I don't know, but I tried to send the fax to both faxes. The first one didn't go through, the second one did. I tried just dialing the first number with our home phone, to make sure it was a fax # signal and just kept getting a busy signal. Finally it wasn't busy so I tried resending the fax again, but the free fax service only allows 2 faxes per day (even though the first fax didn't go through) so then I had to sign up for their free trial so I could try to send it again. Good Grief! But it finally went through.  Now we will keep our fingers crossed that BofA will not keep wasting everyone's time and just release the lien. I'm certainly not holding my breath though. Most likely we'll have to spend the $1800 for the attorney but dang, it's pretty much a given that the court will order it removed (and the attorney said he's only had 1 that didn't in the last 8 years).  And I need to remember to cancel the free 30 day trial of the fax service, so I don't get charged $10 next month.

DD just called me. She just finished her job interview and she felt like it went really well. They didn't really interview her with many questions (they had already done a phone interview) but mostly spent quite a bit of time telling her about the job.  Then had her meet with with a couple of others from the department and she said one of them told her she interviews really well. Then she was walked to the front desk as as she was going out the security guard said "well, that was a really long interview (she was there an hour and a half) - I'll bet you get the job". All good signs. I told her if they take her for a tour or have her meet any of the other employees, that is always a good sign they like you.  So, we are all keeping our fingers crossed she has a job waiting for her when she graduates next month.

She will be coming home tomorrow morning for Mother's Day weekend, so I'll get to spend some time with her for a couple of days, which will be really nice.