Something very cool happened yesterday

I was given some money!

I love getting given money*! It's one of my favourite things, and even though this money was originally my money, it wasn't money I ever expected to get back, so it was like getting entirely new, free money.

It's a bit of a long story, but last year I enrolled with Massey University to do an extramural paper. The paper started off really well ...I was loving it, working hard and getting good results, but then my endo started really kicking up and I started struggling with my studies. Once I'd had the surgery, it became pretty clear that I wasn't going to be able to hold enough ground to get me through the rest of the year and the exam the way I wanted to. Massey did offer to hold the exam over until this year for me (basically, I'd complete the course work in one year, and sit the exam the next year) if I completed the second assignment, but things really did just turn to custard.

Anyway, the final date for withdrawl from study with a refund of fees and without academic penalty was in the March. I withdrew in October, so I'd missed the cut off by a wee bit ...which was just one of those things. When push came to shove, I just really didn't want to have it all hanging over my head. I'd had a feeling that we might end up where we are this year, and studying on top of it all ...? Uhhh ...No thanks! So, no harm, no foul, I decided to cop the academic penalty and waved goodbye to my course fees.

But, when I phoned the University to withdraw, they queried why I was yanking the chain so late in the year. I told them that is was a combination of personal circumstances and medical reasons, and on that basis it was suggested that I apply for ‘consideration’ from the University.

So, I figured I had nothing to lose (and if I could get part of my fee back then great!), and I wrote them a letter with as much detail as I could about that had happened throughout the year.

A few weeks later they wrote back to me saying that they had my application and would I supply a letter from my doctor confirming certain things ...such as the date that my endo developed. Hello? It wasn't a stubbed toe. I wasn't going to get a medical certificate saying "I confirm that the patient developed endometriosis at 9.07am on Monday the bla bla of April 2006" or whatthehellever. Although, if they wanted confirmation of the miscarriage that is thought to have triggered it all, they were welcome to the positive pregnancy test with my wees all over it (which, incidentally, I do not have any more).

Anyway, they had their list of confirmation and evidence required, and gave me a date by which to send it all in after which time they'd bin the application. It all got a bit hard, so I just left it. I didn't see that I could give them what they wanted, and since I wasn't expecting anything when I pulled out of the paper, I just filed the letter and wrote it off.

Then about a month ago I got a call from a lady at the University saying that she had my file sitting on her desk and could I send the stuff in. I explained to her the difficulty in that, and referred her to my original letter, and then said to her that I was happy for them to close their file. She, it seems, wasn't so happy to do so, and asked me to just get a letter from my Dr simply confirming the date I had my surgery. That didn't seem so hard, so I got the letter and sent it in to her.

Yesterday, they sent me a letter to say that they had reversed my academic penalty, and that they had refunded my fees in full (well, for the paper - I lost a non-refundable enrolment fee ...a grand total of $40 out of about $530, so woop de doo!). Yay for me! I was beyond surprised. So ...what am I going to do with my free money ...? I'm going to be sensible. I’m going to put the money towards [the very cool scarf I saw at Moochi last weekend! It’s a scarf …with a hood! And the beanie to match. Well, it doesn’t exactly match per se, and don’t ask me why I’d need a beanie with a hooded scarf, it’s just one of those things! Sort of like collecting handbags. And probably another pair of ballet flats. I love ballet flats] my fertility treatment – my specialist's accounts and drugs.

And, on another note ...if getting that five hundred bucks back doesn't make my Moochi bag free, I don't know what does!


* It's 6.25am (we're having a power shut down at work today, so no internet ...hence why my dedicated self is posting at this ungodly hour of the morning) and I cannot think of the grammatically (is that even spelled right?!) correct expression ...no doubt it'll hit me in about an hour when I'll be unable to edit it, and then bug me for the entire day!