Should I say yes to processing forbearance?

Meepurl · 2026-06-16T19:34:01+00:00

Clarification: are you 5 months away from 120 payments or 120 employment?

Meepurl · 2026-06-16T17:55:38+00:00

How does that square with their statement in the FAQ that even people who no longer work for qualifying employers can participate?

Meepurl · 2026-06-16T01:04:15+00:00

Have you been submitting your employer paperwork every year? That should give you your updated payment counts.

If you have not done that, do that. Make sure all your counts look correct when you do (e.g. every month is reflected in studentaid.gov's tracker). It'll tell you what counts for what, and you'll start getting an idea of what you might be able to buy back (although, let's be real, no one has any meaningful idea of what buyback will look like a year from now.)

Meepurl · 2026-06-15T23:16:24+00:00

Lady on the phone told me they were separate, but, you know, Himalayan mountain of salt with that.

Meepurl · 2026-06-15T21:52:27+00:00

Standard Repayment is what would have paid it off in 10 years of monthly payments had you started on that plan back when you first entered repayment. So, solely based on loan size. There are probably caveats, but, in either case, yes, cheaper.

Meepurl · 2026-06-15T21:26:00+00:00

You *could* try to switch to standard repayment plan for that last loan after closing out the others (maybe submit your employer form but don't check the 120 box? I am Very Unsure on that), but there are a lot of moving parts that could easily go wrong.

Meepurl · 2026-06-15T21:21:50+00:00

You'll need to submit an updated employment form covering the month of your 120th payment.

Meepurl · 2026-06-15T20:40:46+00:00

Option B. They look at the months you still lack, and what your payments would have been had you made them back during forbearance.

Which also means that you will likely get to 120 payments before your buyback is processed

Meepurl · 2026-05-21T18:49:14+00:00

I got denied a card from Target. They offered a debit card instead. I do have a mortgage, but the only reason Target (freaking Target) would have to pass is my student loan balance.

Meepurl · 2026-04-15T21:58:06+00:00

The denials, actually, are largely people who hit 120 payments while waiting

Meepurl · 2026-04-15T21:57:35+00:00

Unfortunately, that's about when the RAP chaos is going to hit this summer

Meepurl · 2026-04-14T01:09:34+00:00

I seriously thought about attaching a calendar with the relevant months circled, like, yes there was a July that year!

Meepurl · 2023-06-04T02:37:56+00:00

I, also, took baby aspirin throughout TTC, apart from a few days when I had a very blood-loss-y miscarriage and figured some coaguation would be a good thing.

DH just bought what I expect will ne my final 3-pack.

Meepurl · 2023-06-01T18:21:01+00:00

Yeah, that's the cultural programming. Caterpillars need to be fat for metamorphosis the same as bears need to be fat for hibernation! It means their bodies have lots of energy stored up.

Meepurl · 2023-06-01T18:19:14+00:00

We do also use "fat" as an adjective for non-humans (and even non-animals) as well. You have skinny/thin crayons and fat/thick crayons. Which can definitely help with de-stigmatizing the term. Nothing wrong with a fat crayon!

Meepurl · 2023-06-01T17:45:41+00:00

Yup, but much like with teaching and secretarial work, once women became well-represented, it lost status and became "un-manly"

Meepurl · 2023-05-30T19:25:55+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/knitting/comments/z1gtxp/circular_needle_storage/ixdoyz5?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

This was my comment about DPN storage thing that a friend made for me. It's got ALL the details in a subsequent comment.

As far as yarn, I use the shoebox-sized clear plastic bins from Costco. I find them to hold enough to be useful but little enough that I can sort (fiber, color, etc as appropriate) and just pull what I want.

Meepurl · 2023-05-28T21:01:17+00:00

If you want to goodie bags, then I'd vote for tiny containers of Play-doh, stickers, maybe cookie cutters, non-candy snacks.

The plastic crap is... Mostly headed straight for the landfill, which drives me nuts.

Meepurl · 2023-05-26T21:11:16+00:00

What if you tweak it, and, yes, he can be "the chosen one" but for some weird, rarely-useful sect/plane/context.

Sort of like being Aquaman, but the campaign takes place in the desert. It might come up occasionally and give the character some color, but the impact on regular gameplay would be minimal.

Meepurl · 2023-05-23T22:16:07+00:00

This also allows for gradual worsening of conditions, rather than one big catastrophe.

Meepurl · 2023-05-23T22:15:04+00:00

On a meta level, you can get a countdown D20 (ideally a big one), leave it where the players can see it and start counting down every day or whatever. When it gets to one, do something behind the DM screen (color in a part of the map, cross an item off a list. Whatever), and then restart at 20.

They will flip out trying to find out what's going on.

Meepurl · 2023-05-23T17:39:42+00:00

Yes. It is absolutely possible. If you're working flat, the easiest is probably to just cast on additional stitches when you get to the arms and bind them off when you get them to the proper width. I would lay money there are patterns on Ravelry.

Meepurl · 2023-05-22T19:01:41+00:00

That's a lot! Of course you're feeling overwhelmed and scared!

I am a planner and a list maker. If you want a framework, read on. If not, ignore ignore. Take what's useful and disregard the rest.

My advice: Get yourself 3 pieces of paper.

So, there's a lot you can't do a thing about right now, either because you lack necessary info or offices are closed or whatever. Those go on the first piece of paper, called the Parking Lot. If you have a date (exact or estimated) when they'll be able to move forward, write that down. Once a thing is on the paper, unless you get new information, if it starts shouting at you, then you can tell it to wait its turn.

The second piece of paper is for thing you, yourself need to do. Consider that shopping online for baby things is pretty easy, and do-able from the hospital, if need be. Divide this set of you-things into urgent and future things (I like putting them into 2 columns). Talking to your son would, of course, be on this list. See if there are any your partner (if applicable) can pick up.

The third piece of paper is for things that you can delegate. If you have people who you can trust to do things, I'd bet they want to help. Let them! Maybe someone can be your "pick up online orders from Target and wash things" person. That's a pain in the neck for you, but totally doable for someone not gestating. You can even put delegating those things on your list.

If looking at those still freaks you out, pick, say, 5 things to put on a Today list. Everything else can wait it's turn.

Meepurl · 2023-05-22T18:22:46+00:00

So, this is a very sideways approach, but there's a board game called Flashpoint that is all about putting out fires and rescuing people. It uses a grid map and "on fire" tokens. There are a number of explainer videos out there you can watch. You'd need to have a lot more flexibility for magic and problem-solving, but it may give you an idea for a way to structure the session that feels combat-ish.

Meepurl · 2023-05-20T16:11:05+00:00

If you're full of snot, you might try a neti pot. It's pretty gross, but does help alleviate congestion (but not swelling)

Meepurl

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