30 Days In, & Chance Cards SUCK

this is the harbor, as seen at about 730 am on my walk home from work.

I just realized that I've been here in Baltimore for 30 days.
I move again in 9 weeks! Holy mazola.

I went online to look at where contracts are available, and right now I'm not liking too much of what I see. Very few contracts at this moment.. it's kinda scary. Hospitals are tight-budget and travel/agency employees are easy to cut. (But for now, at least I'm working).

As for Baltimore-
I kinda like it so far.
Cold. Full of concrete.
But not too bad.


I feel like I'm starting to completely understand
the orange Monopoly cards all too well.

The county made an error and charged my property tax at the wrong rate. They sent me a tax bill for like $2400 or something. I went down to the assessor's office and got it all corrected (or so I thought) back in November. Afterward, it dropped to like under $700. Huge difference! Well my mortgage company paid the higher bill as soon as they got it. They sent me a letter a couple weeks ago stating that there was a deficit in my escrow account, and I needed to pay $1700 immediately. (Um HELL no, I'm not paying that!) So I called the Mortgage company, thought I got it all straightened out. I guess it didn't.. because on January 1, they raised my monthly mortgage bill by $300 "to cover expected escrow costs."

Really!? REALLY!? I should have an OVERAGE already in my escrow account, and you're charging me an additional $300/ month for the tax office error that was already fixed? The whole situation is pretty much fucked, to be honest. Um, dear credit card company.. I'll continue to make monthly payments, but paying off the thing probably won't happen right now- my money is kinda tied up. Maybe this is how the banks are saving themselves during this credit crisis? Do they hold on to ALL money they can?