Loan Modification Schmoan Schmodification

Okay, stupid title but I'm not feeling overly creative at this moment.


As we all know, scrounging around the budget in an attempt to pull enough money together to get by month to month is part and parcel to the unemployed. So, like any responsible person-without-a-job, I made drastic cuts to our expenses - bye bye Starbucks, eating out, land line, cable television, weekend get aways, and pretty much most things that resemble fun. I had been told by many a friend that I should contact my mortgage company for a loan modification. Not really knowing what that meant (other than it was supposed to save me money) I followed their advice.


So, I called. The initial response was, "I'm not really sure that your loan qualifies. Yours is a private loan." I'm not quite sure what that means, but she paused, so I kept my mouth shut and listened for more. "I guess you could try, though I doubt you'll qualify since you are not behind in your mortgage. You want to go onto our website and locate the section for short sales and fax a letter explaining your hardship, proof that you have a hardship, paystubs for the other person on the loan, your budget showing your expenses, and your tax return for 2009." So, on June 8th I gathered all of this up (20 pages) and went to one of the two office supply kind of stores in town and faxed it all off ($20 and change).


After a month, I decided that my mortgage company had REALLY bad customer service because I had not received any confirmation whatsoever that they received my paperwork. Oh, and the attitude of the woman I had talked to on the phone in the previous paragraph. Close to a month later, I had pretty much forgotten about the whole matter.


August 1, a call from my mortgage company telling me that they are reviewing my packet (can we say hella big backlog - 2 months!!) and it was missing some necessary paperwork. Now they wanted two months of bank statements (or was it three?) from any bank accounts we have (combined, we have three) and another paystub for Sarita. 29 pages and 30 plus dollars later I'm thinking maybe we are on the path of progress. I really need to stop trying to be an optimist - it doesn't fit well.


It is now September 17, roughly 101 days later and I have heard nothing. Guess I'd better call. Hey, guess what, my mortgage company has lost the second set of paperwork - 29 pages of confidential information - and has sent my original paperwork "back." When I asked where "back" was, the drone on the phone denied having said that they sent it back. So I asked where my paperwork was then, he did not know. (Here is where I began counting to myself so as not to reach through the phone and rip his head off). He suggested I fax all 49 pages again. (Here is where I wanted to make a colorful suggestion to him). I wound up suggesting he allow me to speak with his supervisor. Go figure, Friday afternoon and not a supervisor in the house. I told him I would call back on Monday, thanks him for being so helpful and hung up the phone.


I'm so glad they have made the whole loan modification user friendly...


For more information on the loan modification program you might want to check out


http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/real-estate/articles/2009/03/04/obamas-loan-modification-plan-7-things-you-need-to-know.html


or


http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/nsc/faqlm.cfm

Things to do (and not do) with produce – Part one of three

Things to do (and not do) with produce – Part one of three

Jalapeno Jelly -September 17, 2010

            So, a friend made a suggestion regarding a topic I should write about which pretty much reminded me that I have actually done other things during the last 109 days, besides sit on my ass and watch television, play on Facebook, and get rejection letters from prospective employers. I have experimented with produce.

Heads out of gutters please, I’m serious. It started out this summer when we had a friend over (really can’t, for the life of me remember who, but feel free to post if you think it was you) and Sarita asked me to find something tasty to snack on. Always a challenge when I haven’t gone grocery shopping recently. I was pretty certain “something tasty” did not reside in the refrigerator, so I started rummaging through the cupboards and came upon an unmarked jar of something dark and green. Hmm, thought I, could this be the “something tasty” I was searching for? I’m not entirely sure what possessed me to open the mystery jar, stick my finger in it and taste it, but those who know me are not finding this to be odd behavior for me I’m sure. Turned out to be both hot and sweet – Jalapeno Jelly, or rather, jam, it had more texture than jelly. Sarita agreed that this qualified as “something tasty” if properly accompanied by cream cheese and crackers. Fortunately we had both of these items on hand and were able to indulge in this oh-so-something-tasty snack.

As we munched away, it occurred to us that we had no idea where the mysterious jar of dark green stuff came from. It had no label and we really had no recollection of receiving it. At first Sarita suggested that it might have come from one of my “crafty” friends I met while working my temporary job (Linda, Merrie, you were prime suspects). I was pretty sure I would remember one of my friends giving me mysterious jars of dark green stuff, so the mystery remained. We wanted to know who gave it to us for two reasons: 1) to offer thanks and 2) to ask for the recipe so that we might replicate it and have “something tasty” whenever we wanted it.

It soon became clear that we were not going to be able to remember how the hell that jar came to be in our cupboard (we were too embarrassed to just send an email to every person in both of our address books and ask) so I did what anyone would do in this age of technology. I Googled “Jalapeno Jelly recipes.” Turns out there are several variations to the recipe: some have bell peppers (pick the color of your choice); others have you removing ALL of the seeds (why make Jalapeno Jelly if you are just going to take all the heat out); some had you straining the cooked product through cheesecloth to make it a true “jelly.” I decided to try the one with the bell pepper because it offered the most detail and neither I nor Sarita had made jelly before so I was flying blind.

Here is where I need to back up a bit in time. One of the stressors that accompanies unemployment is the fear that Christmas will happen as scheduled and you will still be jobless. Sarita suggested that we put together baskets of canned goods (sorry friends and family, just blew the surprise for you all, but I’ll preserve some of it by not telling you the identity of every food product you’ll get. And yes, the pun was intentional). I was a little confused when she pulled the “canning supplies” together from the garage and I saw that there was not a single can in the box. Just a bunch of jars and lids. Sarita explained that one uses jars to can. Yeah, right. I have subsequently referred to this process as “jarring.” Seems like a more accurate description of the  process and finished product.

So, back to the jalapeno jelly recipe: One of the other things I liked about the recipe is that it was so detailed as to include step by step in “jarring” the jalapeno jelly so that one does not have to eat the 6 half pint jars right away (though believe me, I can). We decided that if I actually found a recipe as good as the one in the mysterious jar of dark green stuff, we’d have another item for the Christmas baskets (we already had two items, which I must keep a secret until after Christmas).

Round 1: I followed the recipe to the letter. The result: Jalapeno Slushies.

Round 2: I modified the recipe a bit hoping to get the jelly to actually gel. The result: something so thick we couldn’t get it out of the jar without a chisel.

Round 3: I found another recipe and took the steps from the first recipe. The result: Texture passable (still a little more gelled than I wanted, the mysterious jar of dark green stuff kind of poured out), but not spicy enough and more on the sweet side.

Round 4: Modified the second recipe (more jalapenos, a tad less sugar). The result: came up with something relatively tasty that we felt okay about “jarring.”

We were mourning the emptiness of the mysterious jar of green stuff and the fact that we had not kept a sample to take to a lab for analysis so as to find out exactly what was in it. Somewhere in all of this our oldest son came over (it was a several day process). It came up in conversation that I was trying to come up with a good jalapeno jelly recipe. He mentioned offhandedly that he had made jalapeno jelly. We pounced on him!

“Really?”

“Well,” He equivocated, “Actually, I helped Kate make it.” (We later discovered that “helping” mostly means hovering around the kitchen.)

Sarita snatched up the empty jar and thrust it in his face, “Does she use this kind of jar?”

“Uh, yes.”

SUCCESS!!! We promptly got the jalapeno jelly recipe (and another full jar) from Kate and I commenced on round 6. I have discovered that powdered pectin yields a more pourable product than the liquid pectin for some reason. I’ve discovered that smaller jalapenos have more heat than larger ones, so being lazy and getting big ones so that you have to stem and cut fewer does not yield as hot a jelly as getting twice as many small ones. Finally, I have learned that, try as I may even WITH the recipe in hand, I will never exactly replicate the taste of the mysterious jar of green stuff I found in our cupboard this summer. But I’ve come close and it tastes good!

Jalapeno Pepper Jelly

¾ lb jalapeno chili peppers, seed some if you want it less hot.  (see Comment #1 & #2 below)
2 cups cider vinegar
6 cups granulated sugar
1 pouch powdered pectin if you want it pourable.
Food coloring (green or red), optional

COMMENTS:

#1 - Note: Jalapeno jelly can be pretty "hot" if you have included a lot of the seeds in your cooking. Smaller Jalapenos tend to be hotter than large ones. IMPORTANT: Wear rubber disposable gloves when you clean the jalapeno chilies! It's amazing how HOT the oil from the jalapenos is.  Don’t touch ANY parts of your body or it will burn!) 

#2 – I suggest serving the finished product with cream cheese. The fat molecules in the cream cheese absorb the hot capsaicin of the jalapenos, reducing the heat, but leaving the flavor of the chilies.

---

DIRECTIONS:

Remove stems from the jalapenos. Put the jalapenos in a food processor or blender with 1 cup of the cider and process until finely chopped (not pureed though).

In a large non-aluminum pot over medium-high heat, add blended pepper mixture, and the rest of the vinegar; bring to a hard boil.  Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add pectin and bring back to a hard boil stirring constantly until the boil can’t be stirred down.

Add Sugar and food coloring (optional) and bring back to a hard boil that can’t be stirred down for exactly one minute, stirring constantly. Skim off any foam (scum) that develops with a spoon. Remove from heat.

Have hot sterile 1/2-pint jars and lids ready.

Carefully and quickly pour hot jelly into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. 

Wipe any spilled jelly from jar rims. Center lids on top of jars and tighten screw bands securely, but not as tightly as possible. Process for ten minutes. Test seal, after cooling, with finger. If middle pops up when pressed, jar is not sealed.

Yields approximately 6 each 1/2-pint jars.

Prepare only one recipe at a time because double batches may not gel properly. Use 1/2-pint jars to avoid a weak gel that may result with larger jars due to residual heat during cooling

How to gain 7 pounds in 108 days

September 16, 2010
Day 108 started with a change in my normal routine. Firstly, I was out of bed by 7:15 (as opposed to 8:30) and secondly, I was showered and dressed before 7:45 (as opposed to noon). And no, I did not have an interview. One advantage to being unemployed is that you can have mimosas with breakfast during the week. I headed over to have breakfast with a friend of mine who is also a member of the professionals-who-have-been-sacked club. The menu: homemade waffles with pecans, kielbasa, home-grown apples cooked with butter, cinnamon and sugar, and – of course – mimosas. As we chatted about our frustrations with our previous shared employer and our current shared cash flow problems because of said employer, I started talking about Facebook (she is one of the 5 people in the United States who are not on Facebook) and how I had followed the suggestions made by some of my friends that I keep all the rejection letters and write a book about my experiences. She suggested that I title it “Trials and Tribulations for the Unemployed Professional.” I kind of liked it.

            After breakfast it was time to get into my regular routine of oh-so-non-productive activities: check my email to see if any of the applications I sent in resulted in an interview (none); check Facebook to see what my friends have been doing since I last logged on (not much); play a game or two of Bejeweled Blitz (pretty crappy scores today); check to see if there are any new jobs I can apply for (there are a few, so I need to eventually go to the copy store and make more copies of the state application and my exam scores and get them in the mail); watch the season/series finale of Heroes (did that at the same time as the other daily routine things – I can add multi-tasking to my resume in the skills section); and check the snail mail box – I was pleased to find no rejection letters, not many bills, and, thankfully, my unemployment check. So, off to the bank I went to make a deposit to make sure the bills that are on auto-pay don’t bounce (haven’t had to worry about that for a very long time), and then a little splurge of a hot pastrami and Swiss cheese sandwich. Hmm, I think I’ve found the source of the 7 pound weight gain. On a positive note, I’ve cleared the laundry off of the exercise bike and am up to 20 minutes a day.

Trials and Tribulations of an Unemployed Professional

September 15, 2010

For 107 days I’ve been saying that, “Tomorrow I will – fill in oh-so-productive-task here –. “  The list of things I planned to included: deep clean the house (including purging drawers and closets of the miscellaneous crap that one tosses into these black holes over time); get the yard in order (it’s somewhat of a jungle out there right now); finish the dry walling the loft; clean and organize the garage; finish re-facing the kitchen cabinets; get back into my family tree research; find all of the geocaches in Yolo County (there are 667 in Davis and Woodland alone); and lose the 23 pounds I gained while on the road with my temporary job.

Instead, what I’ve accomplished in the three plus months that I have been unemployed is adding 7 more pounds to the weight I’d gained by sitting on my ass watching Netflix® movies on my Wii™ (the complete series of Pushing Daisies, Heroes, My Name is Earl, multiple seasons of Dexter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, and countless movies), playing Words With Friends™, and spending countless hours on Facebook (I still can’t get the top score in Bejeweled Blitz, damn it, and I’ve become one of those annoying people who update their status every 15 minutes). Actually, I guess I shouldn’t bag on Facebook. If it wasn’t for that venue I would not have had the opportunity to share my oh-so-non-productive-life with everyone I know and, in turn, they would not have had the opportunity to invite me to get off my pity-pot and write a book. I’m not so sure this will in fact grow up to be a book, but who knows; I’ll bet Julie Powell never thought her little blog would grow up to be a book either.

            Listening to the radio the other day, I heard that the term “unemployed” does not necessarily limit itself to people who are “involuntarily out of work” but rather can be expanded to include people who have involuntarily left their regular career without having a new career (it would be so nice if I could remember where I heard this, so I could provide a citation, or some sort of proof that I haven’t made this up. But, really, it does make sense, right?) So, following this line of thought (my book, my logic) the temporary job I had as a trainer for the Sacramento based consulting firm doesn’t really count. This means that I’ve actually been unemployed for 446 days.

            In addition to the oh-so-non-productive activities I’ve engaged in since I became one of the doesn’t-have-any-paying-job-at-all group, I have been dutifully job-hunting, filling out applications and going to interviews. The results of my efforts have been multiple rejections from prospective employers via telephone, email and snail mail. The following is a sampling, showing the range of responses I’ve received:

“Dear Kimberly:

Thank you for taking the time to interview for the position of Staff Development Officer. . . You were among a very qualified pool of applicants and the selection process was a difficult one. Regrettably, we are unable to extend a job offer to you at this time.”

This one inspires hope in the rejected job seeker (that would be me).  The way I read this is letter is that I made it into an elite pool of applicants and they agonized over the decision, hoping that they were making the correct choice. Kind of like one of those, “Gee, there were so many choice candidates and we wish we could have hired all of you” warm and fuzzy type of letters. The result was that I felt hope; it was just a matter of time until someone scooped me up.

“Dear Ms. Byrd:

Thank you for your interest in the Associate Governmental Program Analyst position. The applications received resulted in a high number of candidates with extensive job related experiences and backgrounds. While you were not selected for an interview, we thank you for your interest and the time and effort you spent in submitting an application.”

            What this one says to me is, “Thanks for your interest but, really, you don’t even meet the minimum qualifications for the position so we aren’t going to waste our time interviewing you” (okay, maybe that’s a little harsh, but it kind of felt that way.) In actuality, we are in a job market where there are so many more applicants than there are jobs. If we were talking real estate, we’d call it a seller’s market.

I have had a plethora of well-meaning friends suggest that I broaden my job search outside of my usual search parameters (which have thus far been State and County positions in the Social Services field). Once upon a time, the experience of having been a manager was enough to open many doors. I have roughly ten years of experience in grant writing, developing and monitoring budgets and contracts, and all of the other duties that come with being in middle management in the Child Welfare Services field. Unfortunately, that’s a pretty narrow field, and I’m now finding that employers are also looking for people with direct experience in the specific job.

Dear Ms. Byrd:

Thank you for your time to interview. However, I regret to inform you that we have selected another individual to fill the position of Social Worker III.

            That one didn’t mince any words – short and to the point. I really don’t have any commentary on this letter, other than I don’t believe that they really “regret” to inform me. However, it is nice to actually get a letter; I’ve had some interviews where I still have not heard anything. I can only assume that they did not select me. Either that, or they did and I’ve subsequently been fired for not showing up for my first day of work.

“Dear Kimberly:

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest and participation in the interview process for the Social Worker IV temporary position.

While we regard you as well-qualified for this position, we have selected another candidate whose background and experience more closely meets the needs of the department at this time. “

I think this one probably was the hardest to for me to deal with. This letter basically says, “Hey, you were totally qualified for this position, but we liked someone else for the position better.” Well I would hope I was well-qualified for the job; I was a Social Worker for 4 years and then supervised and managed Social Workers for nearly a decade. So, in looking at the part of the letter where it says they selected a candidate whose “background and experience more closely meets the needs of the department at this time” I can only conclude that they were afraid I’d either be hard to supervise/manage or that I would move on the second the opportunity arose. Which might be true, but in this economy, it could be five years or so before I heard that knock of opportunity at my door. So, basically, what these letters have shown me is that I’m either overqualified or under qualified, but never “just right.”  Feeling a little “Goldilocks-ish” right now.