Sweet victory! This morning I finally got my online student loan account to work. That is the good news. The bad news is that in order to do this I had to call their automated phone system, and when you enter your social insurance number (followed by the number sign), it tells you the exact amount of your loan--which is precisely what I wanted to know. Then it tells you that the interest rate you (/I) are paying is 6.5%, which is prime + 2%. THEN it tells you that you (me) are paying 2 DOLLARS AND FORTY THREE CENTS A DAY IN INTEREST.

Why would someone program their automated phone system to say something like that? Are they just trying to make me cry, or do they have some higher purpose? It seems like there should at least be an option, you know. As in, to hear the daily amount of interest you are being charged, press 1. To have the phone system tell you you are fat, press 2. To find out if your boyfriend is cheating on you (I'll give you a hint: the answer is yes!), press 3. To hear the symptoms of a variety of deadly diseases, press 4. That's my coffee money, GONE. I hope the National Student Loan Service Centre is happy that I'm going to spend the rest of the day crying into my gross (free) office coffee.

Boy, things started out so positive there and then took a turn for the worst. That always seems to happen, doesn't it?