the wrong em-PHA-sis on the wrong syl-LA-ble

i'm not normally one to talk about finances openly, but this scared the shit out of me today, in that 'mini panic attack, i'll laugh at it later' kind of way, so please indulge me. i was at the bank, which by the way sucks-so if you ever move to northern california, i do NOT recommend westamerica bank. i've been here a month, and i still haven't received my debit card, which they assured me would only take 8-10 business days to arrive. however, since it has yet to be seen, i have to resort to going inside the bank anytime i need money to buy anything. this would not be so much of an annoyance if the tellers did not act as though i was wearing a red wings jersey to an avalanche game. i swear, they roll their eyes every time they see me, even though, all the time, in my head i'm thinking, 'if you would just get me my damn bank card, you wouldn't have to deal with me...' i also have to ask for a balance each time i make a withdrawal, because they actually charge a monthly fee to have access to view your account online.

**like i said, i DO NOT recommend this bank to anyone!!!! but it's the only bank that is within walking distance to my house, and i opened the account before i had a car, so i guess i'll just have to deal with it for now. **

but i digress

asking for my balance was what caused my little freak out today. i kindly asked the teller for my balance, to which she replied, "eleven sixty four". now i'm used to being a poor college student, and not having much money to spare, and i'll admit to the occasional miscalculation, resulting in my funds being lower than i expected, but this was VERY WONG. on the drive home i was going over in my head what could have caused such a monetary oversight. usually my money mismanagement was the result of careless use of my debit card, but since i don't have one, and have had to use cash anytime i want to buy something, that didn't make sense. then i thought that i might have double paid one of my credit card bills (they do warn you if you click the 'submit' button twice, it can result in a double submission of your payment) or perhaps a wayward check i wrote that just cleared...but nothing was coming to mind.

so i finally broke down and called the bank, explaining that i had just been in there making a withdrawal, and needed to confirm my account balance, to which i was told, "one thousand, one hundred sixty-four". ugh. westamerica-you will be the death of me.