Press “1”

I had a momentary lapse in judgment on Friday.  Just long enough, in fact, for me to fork over enough information for someone to steal what little money I have, over the phone.  I will set the scene for you:

I was home alone packing up our belongings for the big move.  This was day 3 of my concentrated effort to get things packed up and although I had packed many boxes, somehow when I looked around the house it didn’t look like any progress had been made.  My smarter half was at school becoming even smarter.  I had been alone for countless hours and had begun making fairly inane conversation with the dogs.

The phone rang.

“Hello?”

Computer message (and I’m paraphrasing here): this is a message from [something that rhymes with “your bank”].  Basically we think you might have an overdue payment on your credit card.  We think you sound tired.  We think you are wondering if you did miss a payment.  And now we’re going to prey on you by saying we can lower your interest rate.  A lot.  Especially if you’re tired.  In fact, this is your last chance in your ENTIRE LIFE to lower your interest rate.  EVER.  If you press one, you can talk to a real person so you won’t have to talk to your dogs anymore.  If you hang up, you will regret it for the rest of your life or at least the rest of the day.  You will always wonder what a great rate we could have given you.  Again, we work for your bank or some similarly-named company.

I can’t even believe I did it.  Perhaps it was my desperate packing situation and my blown self esteem, but I pressed one.  And it got very quickly worse.  Although I did question the guy several times as he was asking for my credit card information (so who are you again?), I willingly gave him everything he asked for.  As well as the last four digits of my SSN.  And I totally missed the tip-off (actually there were a few).

1.  He was only interested in cards that had a large available balance.

2.  He became frustrated with me when I asked questions about who he was and who the company was.

3.  He did not have access to any information about me in his “computer”.

4.  He promised to shred all my “confidential” information after our call.  (What was he doing writing it on paper anyway?)

5.  There were people partying in the background.

As soon as I hung up the phone the spell was broken and I realized what I had just done.  So I diligently called all the necessary parties to change my credit card numbers and put a watch on my credit file.  There was no damage done because I acted quickly, but boy did I feel stupid.

The packing still drags on and it still looks like minimal progress has been made, but I will have GB’s company today so perhaps it will go more quickly.  I am enjoying getting rid of stuff that we don’t need and don’t use.  It’s very rejuvenating.  Jack and Finn are not sure about the whole moving thing.  I imagine they will be even less sure about it when we start driving towards Minnesota next week but they’ll be excited to see their cousins when we get there.  Today some friends are throwing us a goodbye party.  The whole move has happened so quickly that I hardly feel ready for goodbyes.  We’ll be back after Thanksgiving for GB to finish up the semester, but really once our stuff and our dogs are moved, it’s not going to feel as much like we live here.  I’m excited though, because GB and I have five weeks left to really enjoy each other before I head back to the Islands for a few months and we explore the joys and struggles of long distance relationships.  All in the name of the long term plan, my friends….

Stuff

Okay, so I have been gone for ages.  To answer Bri’s question: My contact lens did come out.  After 4 days.  In the middle of the night.  Which I would like to say was entirely anticlimactic.  I was hoping for a more exciting moment than sleep, but was relieved nonetheless.

Things are a-brewing in our household.  One of the reasons I haven’t been blogging is because we have been going through some big changes that are just not internet-posting ready yet.  (And no, we are not having a baby at this juncture).  I promise I will keep you all posted as soon as it becomes possible for me to do so.

In other news, I am still bike commuting and loving it.  It seems that I get introduced to one element at a time.  First was the darkness, then a few days of cold-ish, then some windy days, then some rain, then some frost, and then some snow.

This week the weather was fabulous and warm and with daylight savings, I even get to do half my ride in the daylight!  On Thursday I saw a huge white-tailed buck which was really amazing.  It’s much easier to sneak up on the wildlife on a bike than in a car.

I switched over a few weeks ago from my tri bike to a dedicated commuter bike formerly known as GB’s mountain bike.  It’s a single speed although I decided not to go for fixed gearing.  It took a few tries to get the gearing right so that I could get up the big hills and not spin too much on the flats.  I have it dialed now although being on a bigger bike with single-speed gearing adds about 10 minutes each way to my ride.  Now that I ride to work I wonder how I managed to stay sane when I used to drive.  I swear I need that full hour every morning and afternoon to get the headspace I need.

GB is doing well in school and continues to be a total nerd.  I don’t know whether to be awed or disgusted.  I have never witnessed such a work ethic!  Mostly I’m just jealous because I would love to go back to school myself.

Finn got porcupined again last week.  I swear that dog learns about as fast as I do.  Anyway, I am once again grateful for doggie health insurance and grateful that he didn’t get any quills in his eyes.  I did not witness the event, but when my dog returns to me with quills in his mouth and tongue, I have to ask “what exactly were you THINKING?!?!?”.  He just wags his tail in response to that question.

I will update on the big events in our lives when things are certain (probably two more weeks at least).  In the meantime, we know we are moving because our rent has been raised, so I can regale you all with tales of packing up our stuff and finding a new place to move it to.  How exciting.