Dateline 9-6-2016

What a shit day this has been so far but now that my obligations are almost over it seems to be getting better.

I pointed out yesterday that I woke up feeling a little blue for no particular reason, but I took the day off to celebrate Labor Day, and my family came over which worked in cheering me up by the end of the day. I went to bed nice and early in order to wake early as well so that I could venture out to cash my paycheck before hitting the high point in the day's heat index.

Somehow, in the middle of the night, I managed to turn off my media player and spent the night sleeping in silence. I don't know if it was the silence but I spent the night in a vivid dream world that swept away all my sorrows and left me feeling nice and refreshed when I woke up. 

So at this point, I was actually in a good mood, looking forward to my monthly trip to the mall to cash my paycheck and splurge on a frivolous treat or two for myself to reward myself for barely scraping by yet another month of low-income living. 

After finishing my morning ablutions, I made my way to the bank feeling fine with the world, well as fine as one can being during this shit show of an election cycle. My paycheck was a little more than usual so I had an extra pep in my step as I wondered.

I got to the bank only to find that my company's payroll had switched from Chase to Wells Fargo without any warning. Luckily, there is a Well Fargo right next door to the Chase branch that normally cashes my check, leading this to be a minor inconvenience that didn't even phase my mood.

Then it came time to deal with the teller and that's was when the day started to come off the rails. First off this is one of those bank branches that are inside a busy grocery store, so standing in line is a little anxiety inducing as no one seems to know how to navigate their carts upon first entering the store, leading to a lot of bobbing and weaving just to wait in one place.

The store branch also meant that there were six bank employees crammed into a tiny space with only two terminals for tellers. I handed over my check and said I just wanted it cashed. Every other bank I've been to has been perfectly fine with my use of my state ID as proof of identity but no, these assholes also needed a credit card. This really annoyed me because the teller used my PayPal debit card as a way try to talk me into switching over to banking with them.

I wasn't in the mood to be pitched on banking with Wells Fargo as I used to bank with them and left because of their shitty service, so I was extra annoyed when the guy informed me that was a fee for cashing the check. This fee is complete bullshit because I this was a payroll check that was cut by Wells Fargo, how do they ethically or legally have the right to charge extra to cash said check? 

I find this to be a predatory practice to profit off the poor because who else cashes a payroll check? I rolled my eyes and cursed under my breath as this fucker explained to me how I should sign up with them to avoid this charge in the future. Meanwhile, if I did sign up I would be charged every month maintaining a proper balance in my checking or savings account. This catch 22 of banking really pisses me off because as I said, it's doing nothing but profiting off of the poor. 

I cashed my check and went on my way. Though I was annoyed I got over it pretty quickly because there is nothing I can do about it. I went on about my business, buying treats and a meal to celebrate my monthly bout of having a bit of cash. I treated myself to lunch and started my return trip home to get to work. 

As I was walking, I reached an intersection and started to cross when a car came speeding up to the stop sign and I could see that they didn't even notice me making my way into the crosswalk. First off, they were driving so fast that I'm not sure if they would have been able to stop if I was further out in the crosswalk and second they stopped so that they were right in my way. This got me so pissed off that I walked right into their car.

This wasn't an accident and it's not the first time that I've done this. I get so angry about how people in cars interact with pedestrians that I'm willing to get hit just to prove a point. As a big guy, I can do some damage to a car and since I'm not off guard when this happens I can avoid getting hurt in the process.

I didn't do any damage this round but between the banking and the bad driving, any sense of ease that I had towards the day went right out the window. I spent the rest of the walk pissed off and cursing humanity in my head.

Once I got home I took a dip in the pool that worked to both cool me and calm me down. After that, I finished my daily obligations and now here I sit, over the annoyances from earlier in the day, getting ready to work on my current school assignment which I am very excited about. 

I don't think I'm going to be done for a couple days but as always I'll keep you posted on my progress. Thanks for letting me vent!

Talk to you tomorrow,

-The Wicker Breaker