"A roll of duct tape, WD-40 / Ain't nothin' too loose or locked too tight for a man like me." -- wisdom from both Dierks Bentley and my childhood

...And we all know that whenever we hear the words "too loose," we think of my roommate... whose first name I will not use at any point during this entry. Don't pretend to understand, unless you read her comment on my last post, in which case I guess you can pretend, but you don't. Hah. Occasionally, I may refer to her as "that girl."

FINALLY I HAVE MY GRADES BACK. I did in fact pull off an A- in Spanish, which brings the WORST SEMESTER EVER to a pretty good close. But enough about happiness; I'd like to take this opportunity to rant about the evils of credit cards and lying saleswomen.

Maurice's is one of the few stores in our mall. I really do mean "few"; the only clothing stores in the Southgate Mall are JCPenney's, Belk's, Style Setter (the display window usually sports torn-up shirts with a Playboy logo), and this one. Over Thanksgiving, I was approved for a Maurice's credit card, and since I'm all about A) building my credit and B) Maurice's jeans, I spent about $175.

The woman who worked there (who is Satan, by the way) told me that I would not receive a bill for two billing cycles "because of Christmas"; she further clarified that two billing cycles translated into sixty days. I figured that I would pay it back after Christmas since I'd have a couple paychecks from my transcription, as well as Christmas money, as well as the money left over from my crazy semester of work.

At some point during exams, I called my parents, and they informed me that an envelope had arrived from Maurice's (a local clothing store). Keep in mind that it hasn't even been a MONTH since my shopping spree, let alone TWO. I figure that it's just my card arriving and tell my parents not to worry about it.

On the twenty-first, I finally got down to going through my mail... to discover that the envelope contained a BILL informing me that the twenty-second (i.e. the next day) was my last opportunity to pay the first installment.

Don't get credit cards, kids. Just don't.

A half an hour later I'd paid the whole thing off, and, much calmer, came back to check the rest of my mail... and found a bill from the only other store where I have a credit card, telling me that I owed about $10, which is crap, because the last time I was in the store I made a purchase, checked my balance, and paid everything off.

Conclusions: Credit cards spend themselves and salespeople are incompetent. If they explicity tell you that you have no balance, they're lying. Your card has gone to the store behind your back and bought itself a lovely pair of earrings.

Far be it from me, however, to leave you with the impression that my break has been sullied by these events; everything's paid off and my payments were on time, so it's all good. More to the point, I'm heading to Avon in a matter of days and going clubbing in Virginia on Friday night. Life is good.

My great-grandfather ran a general store in Avon for years. It's been closed since he went out of business. I'm thinking seriously about reopening it. Since Avon is, fortunately or unfortunately, a tourist town, most businesses are only open for the summer -- perfect for a college student's schedule. Crystal and I would split the work (and the profits) between us, and since we know a multitude of talented people who would be interested in selling their goods (everything from wicker chairs to paintings to jewelry to clothes), we have a variety of stock we could sell. And it's an excuse to live in Avon for a summer, working days and surfing mornings and, hell, probably working nights at the pizza joint just to stay afloat and living -- living a dream and knowing you're satisfied.

Spring in DC, summer in Avon, fall in Germany... it might shape up to be an interesting year.

Finally, because it deserves to be said: Secondhand Lions is one of the best movies I've ever seen.

(Okay, fine... The Roommate/That Girl is pretty cool. This may not be an entry "dedicated" to establishing her quantity of awesome, but it does in fact mention it, and you have to take what you get. So there.)