I had 4 tasks today.

1.) Call my HELOC people and demand why I was told I could lock my interest rate twice for free but everytime I call, I’m either told I can’t lock it, or am given the runaround. I left messages with two employees of my bank and the one who’s new to me called back. He explained fixed rates vs. variable rates locks to me, and it’s all clear now. I’m happy with the information I received. Turned out the way the first guy explained it to me was misleading and I’d misunderstood the “rules.”

2.) Call the wedding catering company and demand why I was charged 18% as “service charge,” which I took as tip, and then was taxed the standard tax rate over the service charge, cuz last I checked it’s illegal to tax me on a service tip. The food coordinator explained that the service charge is taxable, because it’s actually a fee used to pay the worker’s wages, and not a tip. Darn.

3.) Call the bridal gown store and demand why I was charged so much for the gown alterations. I spoke to someone in the alterations department who was not there the day I did the alterations, and told her I had questions on my alterations order. She nicely got my ticket and answered each of my questions and concerns. She said my alterations lady marked “take in zipper” in error when it should’ve been “take in or let out sides”, but that it wouldn’t create a misunderstanding with the seamstresses because the point of alterations were clearly pinned and they could tell the zipper was not to be touched. $95 is the “standard fee” for this on bridal gowns, she explained, and especially because my bodice has pleating/ruching. So okay, fine. If it’s standard I’m okay with it, altho my opinion is still that it’s high. What about the hemming that they charged me $150 for? I told her my dress has no lace on the bottom, no multiple layers, no embroidery or beadwork that has to be redone. “I’m gonna have to talk to my manager about this charge,” the lady said, and put me on hold. She returned within minutes and said, “This is a mistake, the charge is supposed to be $120. Maybe she didn’t know. I’m going to write on this that you get $30 credit. When you come back to pick up the dress, make sure to tell them about your credit.” I knew that the register automatically printed out $120 and they had to add a separate transaction of $30 for a reason. And I knew that my alterations lady had written $120 and then got talked into changing it to $150. Scammers. So I asked whether the $30 credit would be paid to me in cash. She said no, it’s store credit. What am I going to do with store credit? I’ve purchased everything I was going to from that store! She said to talk to the front cashier when I got there and maybe they could do something, like credit my card since it’s already prepaid. Well, it’s better than nothing.

4.) Saved the best for last. I was to meet up with Mr. W’s daughter and go dress shopping with her since neither of us had anything to wear for Mr. W’s niece’s wedding this Saturday. Daughter finally decided last minute to come with us to Vegas to attend this event, so I invited her dress shopping with me. She met me at Mr. W’s house, we went to a new upscale shopping plaza where she not only scored a very pretty flirty sundress and belt on Mr. W’s dollar (he gave me $60 for her dress allowance, her total ended up with me pitching in another $2.50, so she did pretty good), but she scored a job interview at that store for tomorrow. Now that’s productive. I tried on a few things at various stores but couldn’t find anything that I thought looked good on me. We then gave up for the evening, I treated her to dinner at a place she recommended with good 1/2 pizza/salad/soup combos, and then we came back cuz she still had schoolwork to do. She came in, showed off her new dress to her dad, gave me a hug, offered to go back shopping with me anytime this week if I wanted to give dress hunting another shot, and was off.

#4 was my favorite task today.