Behavioural Modification

As per the requirements of my cognitive-behavioural therapy class, we have to design and implement a behavioural modification intervention for ourselves to target a problem. In keeping with my last post about my messy apartment, I chose to focus on dish washing for the rest of the semester.

I abhor doing dishes and usually put it off for days or until I run out of cutlery. This is obviously problematic. To change my behaviour, I'm using a website called www.mytomatoes.com. It's an online timer that keeps track of how long to work, when to take breaks, and saves your progress online.

As part of my write-up I had to provide baseline data so I took a picture of my sink on a typical day. Behold:



We'll see what happens over the next 5 weeks!

Why Living In Other Countries Is Bad

I realize I brought this upon myself by moving to the states, but I wasn't prepared for the nightmare that is cross-country banking. I have a bank account in Canada and a bank account in America. Every few months I transfer Canadian money to my American account so I can pay bills/rent. After successfully doing this several times, I have suddenly entered a painful, never-ending nightmare of currency exchange and there is no end in sight. Allow me to construct a timeline:

Early November 2008: I deposit a cheque for $3000 CAD into an American ATM. The ATM ate my cheque and did not deposit it. The bank teller tells me to come back next week to claim my cheque.

Next week: The cheque is missing. I am given the number of the ATM company to request a search for my cheque. A file for my search is created, I'm told to wait 2 weeks.

2 weeks later: The cheque is missing for good. I am told to cancel that cheque and deposit a new one.

December 12 2008: I deposit a new cheque for $3000, this time directly to the teller. The teller has no idea how to exchange foreign currency. I am trapped at the bank for almost an hour while multiple tellers work on the problem. I am told not to deposit cheques of foreign currency again. A hold has been placed on my cheque and it cannot be cashed for up to several weeks.

Sometime over the Christmas break 2008: I realize I no longer have enough money in my US account to pay January rent. I drive with G to the US side of the falls and deposit US cash into an ATM.

Later over the Christmas break 2008: I realize several cheques I wrote were cashed right before the new year. Once again, I no longer have enough money to pay rent. I a second, angrier trip to the falls with G to deposit US cash I received as a Christmas gift.

January 5 2009: I call my US bank to complain about my cheque. First, I was given the wrong phone number by the teller. Then I can't get through to the correct number because I don't have a social security number. Then I get through to a different number but am hung up on. TWICE. After one hour I get a hold of a real person at the bank. They inform me they don't know why the cheque hasn't been cashed and am told to wait for the manager to call me. I miss the call from the manager because I am in class. I am told Scotiabank has put a hold on my cheque.

January 6 2009: I email Scotiabank the details of this problem and await their response which is expected within 24 hours, as advertised on their webpage.

January 10 2009: Finally receive response from Scotiabank. However, when I click on their email I am greeted with an error message saying the email is temporarily unavailable.

January 11 2009: I type this blog entry while flames lap the sides of my face.

To be continued...