He Giveth & Taketh Away

Whether the hand of God, karma or fate, life has an interesting way of dispersing resources.

This saga begins in the mid-20th century. I was very blessed to have grandparents & great-grandparents start a "future fund" for their grandchildren to help out with college expenses and such. They invested in varied stocks & mutual funds for all their offspring. For my fund, one of the chosen investments was Enron.

And then 2001 happened. CRASH!! Fortunately, I still got to go to college.

In the years since, various class-action lawsuits have taken place against Enron & every so often, a settlement check shows up in the mail. It's hardly recouping what was lost, but, hey, surprise money! Surprise money definitely comes in handy since every now & then, surprise expenses happen.

I believe myself to be a safe, conscientious driver; however, roughly once a year, law enforcement disagrees. Strangely enough, for the last three violations, the traffic ticket has arrived within mere days of receiving an Enron check.

My annual encounter with local law enforcement came again this last weekend. Following a friend's wedding in a rural town, I was pulled over for not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign. I guess the "hesitate-at-the-sign" technique doesn't fly in a small town when the cop sees you leaving the wedding venue in a sparkly dress and get into your car with out-of-county plates & is looking for any reason to see if you could be slapped with a DUI. Sorry to disappoint sir, I know how to enjoy myself responsibly, thank you very much.

Warning: complaining ahead- After the substantial time and financial investment of being a bridesmaid, I was none too happy to receive a $186 ticket for a moving traffic violation. To have the ticket transferred into a non-moving violation thus not affecting my insurance rates, it will cost $296. No point in trying to fight the ticket since especially in rural towns, the local cop always wins those "he said, she said" battles. ARG!!!

Sunday afternoon, my mom calls & says she has some mail to drop off. I tell her my sad, sad story then glance at my mail. And what do you know? Another Enron check showed up that covers the fine with a bit left over. Sigh, I can think of a lot better ways to spend $296, but at least it's not cutting into my normal budget! The money comes, the money goes.

However, I am now slightly paranoid if a check shows up. It's almost a guarantee that some sort of surprise expense will soon be happening. He giveth & taketh away...

But on another note, my friend's wedding was beautiful, I had a great time sharing the day with her, & I'm so happy she gets to skip this Midwestern snow to enjoy a week in Jamaica!