Grad students are rolling in dough!

So as part of my "RA" duties, I handle reimbursements and workshop/meeting event planning for my advisor.  Here is an e-mail from someone who attended a meeting last semester and waited 3 months to follow up on his/her reimbursement.
 This also coincided wonderfully with Winter Break, so of course of nothing could even be done until this week.


Here's the e-mail:

Thanks for your help and I understand the break complicates things. I am very concerned as this has been sitting on my credit card accumulating interest which I will not be reembersed for (I am assuming). As a postdoc I both don't have the money to cover this or a travel account so it is very important to me financially to resolve this. I am very concerned as others have received their reembersment. I think I'm being put in a very difficult situation and I'm trying to remain polite but this is a heavy burden for me. I hope you understand and can help me with this.

Wow!  No money!  And no travel expense account!  How do you live???!!  Oh, wait, recall your grad school days and live like a grad student for a month!  Eat ramen for a month.  Don't go out.  Don't buy other crap.  Put your cable on hold for a month or two.  Or, save for travel expenses in the future!  At least that person is getting all their money back eventually, students aren't even guaranteed that.  Once, it took me 11 months to get reimbursed for travel.  It took me a year and a half to get paid for work I did on a chapter, in the end, it turned out all my university had to do was add my money to my RA stipend for that month.

You know you're in trouble when:

Someone's getting a foot up their ass.

Wish I could say this:



And lastly, this warrants a: