Loan Modifications Just Out of Reach

You can read all the numbers and all the statistics of how bad the economic crisis has become, but until it touches you personally, it's hard to completely understand how bad things have become.

My parents are both realtors, one in commercial and one in residential, so it's safe to say that they have not been immune to the recession and are in need of some debt relief. They have lived in their house for nearly 17 years, my sister has lived there her whole life, but they could lose it to foreclosure.

I did my research to help my mom figure out what she could do. My parents would not be able to refinance right now, but loan modification is another option that could work for them. In a loan modification your lender may be able to alter the length of the loan, lower the interest rate, or even cut down the principal balance. You don't have to undergo a credit check or have an appraisal done. You just have to be able to prove that you have come under financial hardship, but still have some income coming in that would allow you to be able to make your lowered payment.

Sounds like a great solution to their problems right? Well my mom has talked to her mortgage lender. They said that they are just a facilitator of the loan and because of that they can't do anything to modify the loan. So she went to the lender that holds the loan, the one whose name is actually on the title. That lender said that's all they are... a name one a title and they can't do the loan modification. That lender is the federal government.

There are private companies that do loan modifications on their own. With some of them you are basically hiring a lawyer to communicate on your behalf with your lender to try to adjust one or all three parts of your loan, interest rate, terms, or principal balance.

The government has setup a program specifically for modifying federal mortgages, so then why can't my family get their loan modified? No one wants to take responsibility or actually take any action that would help remedy any of the problems Americans are facing. This is just one example of the huge mess Americans are in, with no end in sight.

Memory #2

After a Saturday filled with boredom and family/self-induced mega stress I sought sanity in an old refuge MVP, otherwise known as Moon Valley Park. Armed with a sheet to lie on, my iPod, a book to read and a birthday card to write, I picked a familiar spot of grass near an old pine tree.

My stress wasn’t immediately subdued because minutes after setting up my arrangement, a makeshift baseball game of screaming young boys commenced a mere 20 feet away.

Fortunately my iPod rescued me, tuning out the adolescent fair vs. unfair arguments of the game, but I found myself put off again very quickly at the sight of trio of high-school-aged girls “parking it” across the way.

Who do they think they are taking up the sacred practice of The Friends of years gone by, I thought. But a second later I was flooded with the memories of some of my all-time-favorite days.

Junior year of high school my friends and I began spending our weekend days and often after-school hours doing homework, writing songs and just hanging out at the park. We deemed ourselves The Parkies and, in my mind, became pretty infamous.

Spring in Moon Valley never felt as magical as it did surrounded by my friends on that brittle dry grass when passing those hours struggling to figure out life, futures, relationships and AP U.S. History.

Here are some of my fondest:

- Westside wars with Sarkis
- The ambush by Jimmy following the stroking incident
- The drafting of “Overflow”
- Monsoon frog finding
- River rock peace sign construction

To the friends: What are yours?

He wasn't named "Most Likely to be a Comedian" for nothing

In the past couple days Jimmy has come up with some good funnies…

---While watching a car ever-so-slowly change move into a turn lane:

“How are there so many horrible drivers… I mean they’re practicing all day long?”

---7:03 a.m. at an airport in Idaho (via text message)

“Bluetooths are quite possibly the most advanced science in the art of doucheness”

For all intents and purposes...

is the correct way to say this phrase. Not "for all intensive purposes" like I have neively thought and used for over 15 years now. HA.

I wonder how many people have felt so embarassed for me that they couldn't muster up the guts to correct me. I make my living off using words correctly... how do I screw these things up so often?

I've Got to be Starting Somethin'

I can be creative and funny. Usually I'm the only one who appreciates these attributes of mine, but last Friday, I believe, I was not alone.

The NextStudent Web Marketing Department used to be an unpredictable and somewhat chaotic work environment complete with Nerf gun bullets whizzing past your face at any moment, Google beach balls barreling down on your desk and random outbursts of horribly catchy 80s tunes or Hanson songs. For a number of reasons, the mood in the office has been, let's just say, deflated as of late.

I thought it was time to inject some of that old NextStudent Web Marketing flair back into our days, so last Friday I proposed that we have Michael Jackson Fridays where the day's work of promoting student loans would be interspersed with MJ tunes at the most random and inappropriate of moments, and possibly some one-hand glove wearing.

Being the quirky and hilarious Web Marketing bunch that we are, my suggestion spawned a feisty brainstorm session, which resulted in our conclusion that every Friday would be themed Friday and it would be the responsibility of a new team member each week to pick the theme.

The day's creative responsibilities include coming up with: a song for the day, an appropriately themed prop (ie: pirate eye patch), and a word-for-the-day (non-theme-related) that will be used Pee-Wee Herman style.

Needless to say, this Friday will be an interesting one in the NextStudent Web Marketing world.

Memory #1

New Series Warning:

I am going to attempt to implement a new weekly post, starting with this one…

My iPod has been broken for about a year now and by broken I mean it isn’t recognized by my computer when I plug it in, so I can’t add or delete any songs. Thus I am left with the same songs that I’ve had on it since my sophomore year of college.

This is a disclaimer, but let me make it clear that I’m not ashamed to say that I used to listen to New Found Glory and I’m not even embarrassed to admit that I still listen when a song pops up on the pod now and there.

“Broken Sound” off their Nothing Gold Can Stay album came on this afternoon when I was at work. I can’t listen to this song without flashing back to the good ole’ BJ Yhetti days; my memory was flooded with an image of Jocie hunched over with her Slash-like hair hanging lifelessly in front of her face while the slow, sad intro to this song would stream out of her peach-colored Danelectro.

It was a running joke, and a partially true statement, that whenever Joss played this song we would say “Oh Joss must be sad” and then laugh when she got pissed that we said it again. It was as if the song was a musical representation of her emotions, just like when that fricken’ old tiny keyboard of the Johnson’s would project the moods of the “hypothetical retarded/mute Teta character” by playing “Ode to Joy.”

I know this is all very inside jokey, but I hope the friends appreciate it.

In case this little anecdote didn’t do it for you, maybe this will.

Something Smells Fishy

Less than 24 hours later, I'm already down one fish. Bully white: 1, Silver Dollar: 0