[Mis]adventures in credit scores, Adventures in advocacy!

The past week has been an absolute emotional roller coaster.

Three years ago I worked for a boarding school as their medical coordinator - basically, I performed mini-triage on the students, took them to doctor's appointments, coordinated their medical care with parents, teachers, doctors, etc., and all around made sure they were taken care of. Easy enough, right? Long story short, because I followed protocol and signed my students' releases and such for their appointments, I've gotten "stuck" with 2 VERY delinquent collections on my credit report. YIKES! After a nearly-major freak out, I've been able to contact the debt collection agencies, the businesses that are owed the money, AND found supporters from my former employer to help me fix this credit snafu! Luckily for me, and through several stressful days, I've started the ball rolling and should have my credit score return to perfect in about 30 days time... but I won't believe it til I see it.

And all in the same week I have: been a "single parent" (Andy is out of town for 2 weeks) making it to the gym by 6a, hitting the trails with the dog by 7:30a, and getting to work by 10a; hosted a women's roundtable luncheon to discuss clothing and events for my bicycle shop; "narrowed" down and solidified what clothing we will be pulling in for the Spring 2013 season (at least the first half of the season); received a ton of new merchandising accessories (including mannequins! YAY!); trained my new inventory helper; fulfilled my officer duties by attending my women's cycling club/team meeting; designed/completed/sent the weekly shop email; continued to create & remind participants of upcoming events using all forms of internet marketing & social media, and...

Won one of 25 $1000 scholarships to attend the National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C. in March. Wait, what? That's right, not only do I get to attend the summit, which is amazing in itself, but I also get $1000 credit to pay for my registration, travel, lodging, food, etc. And, of course, I've devised a game to see just how thrifty I can do this thing (Do you know how expensive Washington, D.C. is?!). So far, I've registered ($375) and booked a plane ticket ($158, standby!) and secured lodging (hostel living, .5mi from the Summit, 1 block from a bike share station, walking distance to Chinatown... all for less than $150 - SCORE!)... So looks like I'll hopefully have a bit of money to play with (food, Smithsonian, bike rental...)!

Oh, and hopefully I'll finish some laundry, vacuum, and make it to the grocery store today. The low temps and threat of icy conditions, along with a belly ache (hmm... can't imagine what could have caused that... ::stress::), kept me home from work today - so I have no excuse.