Paid off a credit card

On Friday, I paid off a credit card that I've had for over a decade. It felt good.

I actually had to call customer service to get the final payoff balance. I had to wait another seven minutes on hold to have the woman calculate it.

I was on hold for nearly half an hour. At least I got the payoff total that I needed.

That's one problem about Canadian banks. They aren't upfront with your final balance. You are expected to pay what you owe on your statement. You then wait for another statement that calculates the interest.

I like how my bank in the US does it. There's the payoff balance and your statement balance for credit cards and lines of credit. You know exactly how much to pay off. You don't need to call customer service to have someone calculate the payoff balance for you.

Weird, Canada.

I'm happy that I have got rid of a loan and a credit card so far this year. My financial situation is looking better.

Work,working from home, and balance

I am working from home today. I have a dentist's appointment in a few hours. Here's hoping that all is well.

Currently, I'm doing a bit of work. I normally don't log on at this hour. However, this work requires that my colleagues are off our authoring tool.

I like that things are quiet. I don't have any interruptions to deal with right now. It's nice.

I haven't worked from home for over a week. It feels odd. Yet, it's precious time.

Sadly, I have to go to work on Wednesday. Next week will be back to my regular work-home balance.

I'm a winner!

Little things that brighten my day and even month balance out the craziness at work these days. They are definitely encouraged!

There was a contest over a week ago to win tickets to a craft beer and food truck festival. Why not enter it? It was hosted on Instagram, which required reposting the image, tagging a couple of places, and mentioning the festival.

The good news is that I won a pair of tickets! So, I am going to this festival with a dear friend of mine this weekend.

It's funny, but my friend saw my repost and asked whether we could get together that very day. She wasn't sure if I had completely planned to go, regardless of the contest.

Perhaps I am more optimistic than she is. She said that, "If you don't win, we can go someplace else."

When I won, I tagged her and said, "We're going to the festival!"

Most of the time, I won't put my heart into the whole winning thing. When you don't win, the disappointment hurts less that way. For some reason, I had a good feeling about winning these tickets. Luck was on my side.

Being contacted by my manager while on vacation... really?

My manager is in worry mode, as my guy had predicted.

I received a long e-mail message from my boss, asking me to prepare a list of who, out of my three students, will be handling a number of tasks while I am away.

I dislike when my manager gets in this mode. He only asks this task from me. It does not happen to anyone else on the team.

The kicker is this last request:

In case of emergency, how to contact you with a minimum (not maximum) 24-hour response time.

What? I am on vacation. There is a reason why I am on vacation. I am not doing work.

I don't think that the mandatory course that we all took about work-life balance has properly register in his head. As someone who has worked from home for years, I am pretty good at distinguishing between doing work and then stopping to focus on my life.

How would you handle such a request? I am inclined to say that I am on vacation. I need to de-stress and recharge. Being contacted by my manager on vacation is not ideal. I should not be checking work e-mail or picking up work calls.

Last September, I took a Friday off as a vacation day. A contractor had quit after three days. My manager sent me two e-mails about this contractor's departure and then left me a voice message on my home phone. To me, this situation is not an emergency that warrants contacting me at home. I foresee a repeat, but amplified in a negative way.