꒰ Friday 08.04.23 ꒱

The weather has been unbearable for the past week. Blisteringly hot, over 100 degrees every day! Usually I like to take frequent walks or bike rides or lounge around on my balcony all day, but it's difficult to do in this heat. I hope it cools down soon...

This next part is kinda embarassing. I'm new to living on my own, I'm just playing it by ear, so try not to judge me for being so naive...
Today I was setting up an account for my apartment's gas utilities. I was setting up via phonecall, as reccomended by my apartment complex. I finished setting up my account when the representative told me she was going to put me on another line to "set up additional utilities"... Believing this was a necessary step in setting up my gas utilities, I stayed on the line. Basically what happened next is I was talked in circles by a sales representative at an incredibly sketchy utilities broker service. She was trying to talk me into signing up for an internet plan that I did not want by saying my gas provider was offering me a promotional discount on internet plans. I pointed out that the discounted rate she was offering me was $14 more than the normal price offered by the internet provider, but she excused it by saying the internet provider had hidden fees I was unaware of. Normally I'm pretty perceptive of scams, and I was certainly feeling sketched out but in this scenerio I didn't realize I was being tricked because I thought if my gas provider was referring me to this number it must be some sort of reliable and relevant service??? I told her I was uninterested, that I did not feel comfortable with proceeding without discussing it with my room mate, and that I couldn't sign up right away anyways because I haven't even moved into the apartment yet. I suggested she instead could forward the details of this promotional discount to my email, and I could have a look for myself. She ended up using the details I gave to the gas company to sign me up for the internet plan anyways, intentionally confusing me and misleading me when I asked for clarification as to what she was doing. She even told me NOT to call the internet provider.. At this point I was thoroughly sketched out, and luckily I hadn't given away any payment details otherwise I could've been in real trouble.
I ended up calling the internet provider and explaining the situation and they cancelled the service and assured me this was a common problem... I had a pleasant conversation with the representative, our conversation derailed a bit and he ended up telling me stories of scams he's encountered while working in customer service. He was a nice guy and I'm happy I at least got a nice exchange out of this whole experience.

Anyways I'm really freaked out that my gas service provider of all things referred me to a what is adjacent to a scam. I'm kinda new to living on my own and im figuring it out as I go, I thought I could at least trust my utilities providers to not refer me to a sketchy company that aims to con people for some extra revenue... I've learned my lesson.. I have to be less trusting because every company ever will go to insane lengths to squeeze even an extra penny out of me. T_T

I don't want to end on a bad note, so here's a nice anecdote from today. On registration day, I was unable to sign up for figure drawing classes for next semester because placeholders in my schedule prevented me from registering for classes on the days where figure drawing classes occur. All the classes were taken up before I even had a chance to register for them. The placeholders were lifted a few days ago, and tonight I checked the course catalog and found a figure drawing class with exactly one seat left. It fit perfectly into my schedule and requirements! I truly felt so lucky... just one seat left and I nabbed it just in time! Someone must've dropped their place recently, and luckily I was able to secure a seat! I'm looking forward to improving my drawings with this class! :D