Last night was a little rough; I had to call the cops on my next door neighbors. They're relatively new. We don't meet up much, but most often, I run into him. He's helped me carry heavy things. He lets me pet their dogs which are kind, curious, and well behaved. They don't slam the door like the previous tenant's teen did.
Around 1:30 AM I heard a loud bang/smash sound. It was the second loudest thudding noise I've heard since moving in - the louder one was caused by an earthquake. I thought the guy upstairs knocked something over. Then a woman outside started screaming. A lot. I put pants on and walked outside to see what was happening and if I could help. Because I'm a big lady and the ruckus was alarming and I don't like to think that neighbors would ignore something like that.
As I was walking down the shared access sidewalk, I could hear her yelling, "Don't touch me you psycho!" from the bushes on the right. I could not see her, but he was standing over or near her. When he saw me, he headed my way saying soothing things like "she's just being crazy". Without a word, I did an aboutface, went inside, and locked the door.
Here's the weird part: I debated calling the police.
- He gave an appearance of calm.
- Maybe this is something they've played out before.
- They're nice to their dogs.
- Nothing like this has come up with them before.
- She was screaming, but not saying "help".
- The situation seemed to be a little diffused after having been obviously caught out.
- I didn't know for sure what had happened. I know they rent but not if they sublet from the previous tenant, whom I know they know. They could be living there sub-legally.
- He's a large guy with large muscles and he knows me and saw me. My kitchen window is not really a barrier to entry for a determined person who doesn't care about making noise anymore.
On the other hand:
- Abuse is not ever ok. (But did this qualify? I asked myself this.)
- He was really trying to downplay things, trying to look calm and rational. (It was surprisingly effective. I worried that if she had issues that it wouldn't help or would cost a lot as a result of intervention. My parents' neighbors got charged $1200 or so ever time the emergency ensemble rode to the rescue - several times a year.)
- When I thought it through, anyone who takes themselves outside and screams as loud as they can is asking for help, no matter what words they're using.
- It looked like she'd climbed through the patio screening, over the 4 foot walls to get out to the sidewalk, and was not standing up.
- They're my next door neighbors, if I call the cops, I'm judging them. Maybe she wouldn't want me to complicate her life more by getting the system involved.
I sat in my dark living room and updated the situation on facebook. By about the time I finished typing, I'd decided to call the police. Here's why:
- Women don't jump over 4 foot walls screaming in fear for no reason.
- Someone screaming with fear or panic after taking it outside is asking for intervention.
- He was going the "it's all her fault" route a little too hard while trying to softpedal things and it set my back up for all he sounded "reasonable". Later, I realized that he was also herding me away from her while hulking toward me. If she was having some sort of problem, you'd think he'd ask for my help instead - even if he didn't have me go physically to her, he could have asked me to call someone or get some supplies or something.
- It started with that very loud noise. I had no way of knowing which of them caused it. Either one could have been the danger.
- I do not want to be the person who does nothing when I can do a very little thing and stop imminent harm happening in front of me. I don't want to wake up to caution tape and asking myself why I let that pass.
- Even if she was crazy or crying wolf, the consequences of this behavior in public should result in professional intervention. I don't want them or the neighborhood thinking that one can do that sort of thing and *not* have the cops get called to investigate.
I sucked it up and called the police. I was able to give the exact unit number. I'm not sure if other neighbors also called - I'm pretty sure their upstairs neighbor would have too - and the cops were already on their way, or if I just live in Law Enforcement Central, but they were there in under 5 minutes. These are situations where I'm glad to have the police around. Because I was staying inside and away from windows and doors, I didn't know if it was cops or just neighbors. Then they all went inside, which seemed cop-like and I tried to listen harder when they exited later, and confirmed that it was indeed the actual police who had arrived before I'd finished my facebook update.
It appears that after the police came, took a tour of their place and spoke to them both. The very small snatches I heard were the police warning him to back down from his bluster because there was a lot of paperwork involved if they had to take him to jail, but they were willing if he kept it up. The emergency broadcast system was tested and worked, which is good. There didn't seem to be an overreaction, which is good.
Keeping in mind that he knows I know, and he was making upset noises at the police, I stayed awake for the next couple hours, despite desperately needing to sleep, making sure no one would try to break in in retaliation. Their front door slammed a few times like when the teen lived there and I finally got to bed around 4. Which means I missed my sleep cycle window and slept clean through my alarm and woke up an hour after I was supposed to be at work. I'd considered leaving a message for my boss about being late, but I'd been hoping I wouldn't be any later than usual and could just let it slide. I should have called. Fortunately for me it was a quiet day - all the managers were involved with something that didn't need my assistance. Here's hoping tonight is more peaceful for all involved.
After action report: Nothing from the neighbors. It was the right thing to do to call the cops and let them sort it out. It was a surprisingly difficult judgement call in the moment though. If I recall correctly, this is only the 2nd or 3rd time I've ever called the police on someone. (The last time was the crazy ex of a neighbor who would repeatedly ring the apartment buzzer for an hour at 2am if we didn't call the cops. Or she'd let him in then scream at him to leave *immediately after* letting him in. The dispatchers were like "those guys again? *sigh* Yeah, we know them.")
While we're here... So far as I know, none of my current friends or family are involved with someone abusing them. My brother got out, but it took a long time to accept that the relationship was abusive and had to end because her good side was really good. I didn't know for a long time but my mom suspected and I didn't know if I should believe her, but she was right to worry. Since one of the things abusers often do is cut people off from their other resources, I worry that someone wouldn't ask me or their other friends (or former friends) for help thinking "hey, I wasn't a very good friend to her" or "she won't believe me". Don't be thinking that. (I wasn't sure if my mom called it right. I believed my brother, once he stopped hiding it.) If you find yourself needing away from a bad situation I will do my best to help you.
Showing posts with label mojo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mojo. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Blame Canada
Or, blame it on the gin and peer pressure. I met up with traveling friends last night, and with their friends as well. After a nice Indian dinner in the Valley, we headed to a karaoke bar. Turns out there's another gay bar in LA I haven't been to. Who knew? But we had a good time, and I got coaxed into singing. One problem with that is that LA is full of frustrated performers, so the quality level of karaoke, in my experience, is rather high out here with some hilarious exceptions.
It's not super hard to coax me into singing casually, but I'm not much of a soloist. I tend to get stiff on stage and freak out, so I like to sing with other people. I've done trios and sextets and choral music, but I really don't sing solo. Karaoke is extra weird because I might know 80% of a song really really well, but of that 80% I probably have 10% of the words wrong, and the other 20% will trip me up. Improvising is also not one of my native or well developed skill sets. (Also why I'm generally quite truthful, I'm not quick enough to lie well - that and it rarely occurs to me that I could or should.) At any rate, karaoke makes me nervous because I'm enough of a singer that I want to do well and can do well, but unpracticed enough at solo work that my ability to hold a whole song is rather questionable. And since I should be able to do better...I wasn't sure I'd have fun if I didn't do reasonably well.
One thing in my favor for this place is that most of the music I'm drawn to is also big with gay British men. If the GBMs liked it, I probably did too. I only found that out maybe 6 years or so after my tastes were set, but there you have it. So I considered doing a Pet Shop Boys song last night, PSB karaoke at a gay bar being a "perfect storm" according to one of our guys. But it's been a while since I'd done anything they had on their list (Nightlife is the album in current rotation, mostly for the song "You only tell me you love me when you're drunk"). I could have done Death Cab for Cutie's "I will follow you into the dark" (quiet) or the Indigo Girls "Galileo" (won't net me a date of my preferred gender), plus they and other choices were too mellow. I couldn't coax anyone into doing the Carpenters "Top of the World" as a duet either and I didn't want to be the one to cause drunks to cry.
Showtunes would work, except it turns out I don't know many. Most of my current showtune knowledge is from Drag Queen Theater, not Broadway. I do know most of the music to Anything Goes, but it's been years (decades) since I've sung any of the songs all the way through with verse and chorus both. Plus, I really wasn't drunk enough to go over the top with "Blow Gabriel Blow".
Despite singing the chorus in a different octave every time, my friends assured me I did a good job with "Blame Canada" from the South Park movie. Of course, they're my friends and want me to feel good. Since I had drunk enough to compromise my short term memory, I'll choose to believe them. It was actually a shorter song than I'd remembered which was nice. The added bonus was that I went directly after one of the hilarious exceptions, not the Patty LaBelle mimic. My friends got up and did "Monster Mash" which can mostly be spoken, and swore it was the longest version of the song they'd ever encountered. Fortunately our group did contain at least one seasoned karaoke singer so we were able to lay claim to some talent from our table.
No hangover, but I did sleep to noon without restlessness meaning I feel awake now for about the first time this week. And my friends are winding their way back to San Diego, for which I'm a mite jealous. I'll have to conjure up another San Diego trip soon. After the cabinets and closet get assembled.
It's not super hard to coax me into singing casually, but I'm not much of a soloist. I tend to get stiff on stage and freak out, so I like to sing with other people. I've done trios and sextets and choral music, but I really don't sing solo. Karaoke is extra weird because I might know 80% of a song really really well, but of that 80% I probably have 10% of the words wrong, and the other 20% will trip me up. Improvising is also not one of my native or well developed skill sets. (Also why I'm generally quite truthful, I'm not quick enough to lie well - that and it rarely occurs to me that I could or should.) At any rate, karaoke makes me nervous because I'm enough of a singer that I want to do well and can do well, but unpracticed enough at solo work that my ability to hold a whole song is rather questionable. And since I should be able to do better...I wasn't sure I'd have fun if I didn't do reasonably well.
One thing in my favor for this place is that most of the music I'm drawn to is also big with gay British men. If the GBMs liked it, I probably did too. I only found that out maybe 6 years or so after my tastes were set, but there you have it. So I considered doing a Pet Shop Boys song last night, PSB karaoke at a gay bar being a "perfect storm" according to one of our guys. But it's been a while since I'd done anything they had on their list (Nightlife is the album in current rotation, mostly for the song "You only tell me you love me when you're drunk"). I could have done Death Cab for Cutie's "I will follow you into the dark" (quiet) or the Indigo Girls "Galileo" (won't net me a date of my preferred gender), plus they and other choices were too mellow. I couldn't coax anyone into doing the Carpenters "Top of the World" as a duet either and I didn't want to be the one to cause drunks to cry.
Showtunes would work, except it turns out I don't know many. Most of my current showtune knowledge is from Drag Queen Theater, not Broadway. I do know most of the music to Anything Goes, but it's been years (decades) since I've sung any of the songs all the way through with verse and chorus both. Plus, I really wasn't drunk enough to go over the top with "Blow Gabriel Blow".
Despite singing the chorus in a different octave every time, my friends assured me I did a good job with "Blame Canada" from the South Park movie. Of course, they're my friends and want me to feel good. Since I had drunk enough to compromise my short term memory, I'll choose to believe them. It was actually a shorter song than I'd remembered which was nice. The added bonus was that I went directly after one of the hilarious exceptions, not the Patty LaBelle mimic. My friends got up and did "Monster Mash" which can mostly be spoken, and swore it was the longest version of the song they'd ever encountered. Fortunately our group did contain at least one seasoned karaoke singer so we were able to lay claim to some talent from our table.
No hangover, but I did sleep to noon without restlessness meaning I feel awake now for about the first time this week. And my friends are winding their way back to San Diego, for which I'm a mite jealous. I'll have to conjure up another San Diego trip soon. After the cabinets and closet get assembled.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
I Have Confidence in Me
There's a tendency I have to suspect things are going to be more difficult than they wind up being. This tendency happens in lots of things and is getting worse as I become curmudgeonly. When I first really noticed this issue it was when I delayed running for dorm president for a year because I was unsure of myself and sure someone else would do a better job. Then someone else got elected and did an fine job, but not a better job than I could have done, and there I was, stuck for a year. But I ran and won the next year. My first meeting was a fiasco, then I had a chat with the housemaster about Roberts Rules of Order, and things went well from there on out. I messed up, everything got posted in the first online version of the school newspaper, I learned, I fixed it, and I enjoyed myself a lot, and from the feedback I got, I did a better than average job. If I hadn't had a hard problem to deal with (the "Just Say No" generation hitting college vs drinking at parties), I never would have learned my better skills. But even starting out rocky, the job was not beyond my abilities (once I developed the necessary abilities). I think of that whenever I encounter something daunting and try to assess real obstacles from false yet sometimes I still psych myself out.
But in at least one area, I consistently think I'm awesome with awesome sauce, able to do anything I desire, despite any evidence to the contrary. And while that could go awry, I keep my desires reasonable, and given how it contrasts to the fears I face for almost everything else I think about doing, it actually brings some healthy balance.
I have utter confidence in my glassblowing skills. Granted, I've been at it for years and years - but that doesn't translate into years and years of practice. I was really diligent while at school, worked hard, became an assistant instructor, worked harder, worked with some amazing primary instructors, and got exposure to more techniques than I can shake a stick at. But I also had a lot of downtime. I had 2 years where I had enough energy to instruct, but not enough energy to use my in-kind studio time. I finally committed, got regular glass time in the studio, beefed up my skills, made 10 ta-ta vases, then moved to CA and failed to find a well matched partner. So my experience is all over the place, but my memories are of my successes.
Yet whenever I look at the history of my work, many of the items I thought were the best thing ever, are only pretty good. For instance, I save my best ornament (or two) from each ornament season and each year I think I'm the best, and next year they get better. While it stands to reason that would improve, the amount of improvement can be a little shocking.
What's also shocking is that when I take time off from glassblowing, I don't come back at 100%. This might not be terribly unsurprising to anyone else, but it always catches me off guard. I finally, finally got a regular glassblowing partner so I can make something other than ornaments. I love making ornaments, but they're not the only thing I want to do. Once one has an assistant, the possibilities explode. While one can do other things by onesself, I don't really like to. Also, I like the forced teamwork of the exercise. Glass can be incredibly social. It can also be competitive. And I haven't put a flat bottom on anything in 4 years. It doesn't feel like ny time at all in my head, but my fingers remind me.
After 3 years of all ornaments all the time, but for a couple of pumpkin runs (essentially big ornaments), and my baby sea monster (which is a prototype alligator and all kinds of wrong but I love him)
...I'm having issues making your basic cylinder. When I took a class at Corning - the year I decided I needed to commit to the hobby or give it up entirely - my first day elements were lousy, but by the second day I was back on track. I made some really nice stuff that week. It has now been 4 sessions after nearly a year out of the studio (damned economy!) and that 4 years without a paddle and I've finally made a decent cup. (I'd call it a "glass" but that somehow seems non-specific.)
I know all sorts of ways to make a tall straight cup;
At any rate, I think I've tried and done poorly with more than half of these methods in the last few weeks. They all have their pros and cons. Most of the con is that I looked like a beginner, got awkward results, and that's weird for me because I know all this stuff, but my muscle memory appears to have atrophied. My heat judgment is off, and heat is everything. My memory of the basics is sound but the details that feed the mojo have to be dug out of deep storage.
But I still think I'm all that. And I'll get to where my skills match my mental pictures. I have plans and ideas, and help with the blowing and bit work. I wonder if olympic athletes feel like this about their sport? P.S. If you're waiting on a wedding present, they're finally in the works and I'm getting excited about them. Hopefully they will work and you will love them.
But in at least one area, I consistently think I'm awesome with awesome sauce, able to do anything I desire, despite any evidence to the contrary. And while that could go awry, I keep my desires reasonable, and given how it contrasts to the fears I face for almost everything else I think about doing, it actually brings some healthy balance.
I have utter confidence in my glassblowing skills. Granted, I've been at it for years and years - but that doesn't translate into years and years of practice. I was really diligent while at school, worked hard, became an assistant instructor, worked harder, worked with some amazing primary instructors, and got exposure to more techniques than I can shake a stick at. But I also had a lot of downtime. I had 2 years where I had enough energy to instruct, but not enough energy to use my in-kind studio time. I finally committed, got regular glass time in the studio, beefed up my skills, made 10 ta-ta vases, then moved to CA and failed to find a well matched partner. So my experience is all over the place, but my memories are of my successes.
Yet whenever I look at the history of my work, many of the items I thought were the best thing ever, are only pretty good. For instance, I save my best ornament (or two) from each ornament season and each year I think I'm the best, and next year they get better. While it stands to reason that would improve, the amount of improvement can be a little shocking.
What's also shocking is that when I take time off from glassblowing, I don't come back at 100%. This might not be terribly unsurprising to anyone else, but it always catches me off guard. I finally, finally got a regular glassblowing partner so I can make something other than ornaments. I love making ornaments, but they're not the only thing I want to do. Once one has an assistant, the possibilities explode. While one can do other things by onesself, I don't really like to. Also, I like the forced teamwork of the exercise. Glass can be incredibly social. It can also be competitive. And I haven't put a flat bottom on anything in 4 years. It doesn't feel like ny time at all in my head, but my fingers remind me.
After 3 years of all ornaments all the time, but for a couple of pumpkin runs (essentially big ornaments), and my baby sea monster (which is a prototype alligator and all kinds of wrong but I love him)
...I'm having issues making your basic cylinder. When I took a class at Corning - the year I decided I needed to commit to the hobby or give it up entirely - my first day elements were lousy, but by the second day I was back on track. I made some really nice stuff that week. It has now been 4 sessions after nearly a year out of the studio (damned economy!) and that 4 years without a paddle and I've finally made a decent cup. (I'd call it a "glass" but that somehow seems non-specific.)
I know all sorts of ways to make a tall straight cup;
- blow while jacking the sides straight
- blow while shaping with a newspaper
- marver the end a lot and blow the sides thin
- cap the end and marver the sides straight
- blow a wider bubble and swing it out
- use a v-shaped block lined with newspaper
- blow into a mold
- pull with diamond shears from the bottom while blowing.
At any rate, I think I've tried and done poorly with more than half of these methods in the last few weeks. They all have their pros and cons. Most of the con is that I looked like a beginner, got awkward results, and that's weird for me because I know all this stuff, but my muscle memory appears to have atrophied. My heat judgment is off, and heat is everything. My memory of the basics is sound but the details that feed the mojo have to be dug out of deep storage.
But I still think I'm all that. And I'll get to where my skills match my mental pictures. I have plans and ideas, and help with the blowing and bit work. I wonder if olympic athletes feel like this about their sport? P.S. If you're waiting on a wedding present, they're finally in the works and I'm getting excited about them. Hopefully they will work and you will love them.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Win
Trivia started off sketchy tonight. The questions were hard and we lacked confidence. We could have doubled down on a 10 point round but didn't, and several others did, and we had to catch up. My partner pulled out some major mojo on the gambling round and we guessed the famous person on the first round and most others didn't get it until the last, which helped. It was a near thing, but we pulled it out and won again!
In a recent cleanup of my bedroom area I was upset to figure out that I couldn't find a particular necklace. I finally fessed up to the friend who made it and she said not to worry - I hadn't actually bought it from her yet. Phew! But clearly an indication that I wanted that necklace. She offered a matching bracelet at a reasonable price so I got that too. It was a little large, but I found a bead shop nearby and someone there was willing to re-crimp the end of the bracelet with fewer beads, and help me thread up the beads on earring hoops and now I have a beautiful necklace with a fitting bracelet and matching earrings, all for a low nominal cost. Yay!
I took an umbrella with me to work today and left it on my guest chair with my jacket. I didn't move it off when my aggravating vendor came to chat, which limited the time he stayed to talk at me to a tolerable level where we transmitted useful information without me having to sit through interminable explanations of irrelevant trivia. And when we found out that a particular carrier didn't work in the upgraded tool, I was able to meet up with the machinist to design a replacement within a couple of hours and just toss the cost onto an existing PO. Easy!
In a recent cleanup of my bedroom area I was upset to figure out that I couldn't find a particular necklace. I finally fessed up to the friend who made it and she said not to worry - I hadn't actually bought it from her yet. Phew! But clearly an indication that I wanted that necklace. She offered a matching bracelet at a reasonable price so I got that too. It was a little large, but I found a bead shop nearby and someone there was willing to re-crimp the end of the bracelet with fewer beads, and help me thread up the beads on earring hoops and now I have a beautiful necklace with a fitting bracelet and matching earrings, all for a low nominal cost. Yay!
I took an umbrella with me to work today and left it on my guest chair with my jacket. I didn't move it off when my aggravating vendor came to chat, which limited the time he stayed to talk at me to a tolerable level where we transmitted useful information without me having to sit through interminable explanations of irrelevant trivia. And when we found out that a particular carrier didn't work in the upgraded tool, I was able to meet up with the machinist to design a replacement within a couple of hours and just toss the cost onto an existing PO. Easy!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Karmic Ping-Pong
It was another frogurty kind of day.
Good: The gift I sent to my friend's office arrived today
Cursed: Today was the last day of people at the office, they're shutting up the shop.
Good: It cheered her up on a rather bad day, so she called to say hi.
Cursed: Her nice business is no longer.
Good: I got up on time for work today (unlike yesterday when I slept through the alarm)
Cursed: My body didn't like it and I was a little useless. I'm still zingy enough I can't remember what I really wanted to blog about.
Good:I remember now!
Cursed:It's not *that* interesting. Well, it's two things. You can judge.
Cursed: My arms are all swollen from my allergy shots.
Good: I got to see an Ignobel award up close.
Good: Bank of America, who are usually out to scam me, actually thought my account activity was weird and put a fraud alert on it then called me to verify the charges as good or cursed.
Cursed: One of the charges (Paypal) sounded like "Plink" and repeating it didn't help.
Good: The other two of three charges were real so I assumed all was well and pressed 1 for "yep, I authorized that". Then I went online to check my account statement.
Cursed: The suspected account was behind a fraud barrier - including the list of charges I needed to verify. They asked for 1 piece of ID to verify me on the phone and roughly 18,000 online questions. Um, I don't remember if my car loan was 2005 or 2006, I bought the car at the new year and don't know if the paperwork was dated the previous or following year. Even more, I don't care. (The payments are set up to go to the last payment and stop and that's in roughly 3-5 months.) But someone with my credit report could easily know this, so why it's a security question is beyond me. So I declined to answer the questions as I just wanted to verify that I hadn't validated something odd.
Good: BOA has online chat assistance so they don't have to listen to me yell at them.
Cursed: The chat didn't offer the CC# in question as an option for "what account?" so I got sent to someone who couldn't help me.
Good: But she did give me a phone number that worked.
Cursed: There's a reason chat is better. I get unreasonably pissed off by frustrating things that take a lot longer than I think they should, and if I wait until I cool down, I don't get my issues resolved, so it's a struggle to not be pissy on the phone. I try, I really do try, to be civil and pleasant, but I was not having my very best day today and it was marginal.
Good: The other guys in the office thought I was hilarious; the lady wrote down my suggestion of being able to view (but not act on) the potentially fraudulent items in question without the cavity search.
Cursed: It looks like it was signing up for chemistry.com that put it over the edge. Well, that's why I LOGGED IN and created a low limit, early expire ShopSafe number to use!!! *NEXT TIME* when they try to use the expired number, then flag it.
Good: Still, in matters financial, better safe than sorry. (Mostly) They probably get a ton of complaints from those "we'll help you by auto-renewing your subscription without sending a reminder" web sites.
Good:Plus, I'd made cinnamon rolls - one set with "cooking light" dough and one with my standard "Williams Sonoma" dough. I think I'll stick with the WS, the difference is mostly 1 egg and 1/6c sugar. But the CL did offer up a decent icing recipe (2T milk, 2-4T melted butter, dash vanilla, add conf.sugar until you like texture, ~1c) that worked out well. So I took one batch of cinnamon-raisin-pecan rolls and one of ginger-cherry-apple rolls.
Cursed:They didn't disappear, but
Good:That just means more for me.
For balance: I had steamed veggies and cucumbers for dinner. And bought a birthday gift for a blogger I enjoy, just for the hell of it. He had a wish list and it seemed auspicious to be generous as my gift giving mojo has been rocking recently, and it's a little capricious.
Good: The gift I sent to my friend's office arrived today
Cursed: Today was the last day of people at the office, they're shutting up the shop.
Good: It cheered her up on a rather bad day, so she called to say hi.
Cursed: Her nice business is no longer.
Good: I got up on time for work today (unlike yesterday when I slept through the alarm)
Cursed: My body didn't like it and I was a little useless. I'm still zingy enough I can't remember what I really wanted to blog about.
Good:I remember now!
Cursed:It's not *that* interesting. Well, it's two things. You can judge.
Cursed: My arms are all swollen from my allergy shots.
Good: I got to see an Ignobel award up close.
Good: Bank of America, who are usually out to scam me, actually thought my account activity was weird and put a fraud alert on it then called me to verify the charges as good or cursed.
Cursed: One of the charges (Paypal) sounded like "Plink" and repeating it didn't help.
Good: The other two of three charges were real so I assumed all was well and pressed 1 for "yep, I authorized that". Then I went online to check my account statement.
Cursed: The suspected account was behind a fraud barrier - including the list of charges I needed to verify. They asked for 1 piece of ID to verify me on the phone and roughly 18,000 online questions. Um, I don't remember if my car loan was 2005 or 2006, I bought the car at the new year and don't know if the paperwork was dated the previous or following year. Even more, I don't care. (The payments are set up to go to the last payment and stop and that's in roughly 3-5 months.) But someone with my credit report could easily know this, so why it's a security question is beyond me. So I declined to answer the questions as I just wanted to verify that I hadn't validated something odd.
Good: BOA has online chat assistance so they don't have to listen to me yell at them.
Cursed: The chat didn't offer the CC# in question as an option for "what account?" so I got sent to someone who couldn't help me.
Good: But she did give me a phone number that worked.
Cursed: There's a reason chat is better. I get unreasonably pissed off by frustrating things that take a lot longer than I think they should, and if I wait until I cool down, I don't get my issues resolved, so it's a struggle to not be pissy on the phone. I try, I really do try, to be civil and pleasant, but I was not having my very best day today and it was marginal.
Good: The other guys in the office thought I was hilarious; the lady wrote down my suggestion of being able to view (but not act on) the potentially fraudulent items in question without the cavity search.
Cursed: It looks like it was signing up for chemistry.com that put it over the edge. Well, that's why I LOGGED IN and created a low limit, early expire ShopSafe number to use!!! *NEXT TIME* when they try to use the expired number, then flag it.
Good: Still, in matters financial, better safe than sorry. (Mostly) They probably get a ton of complaints from those "we'll help you by auto-renewing your subscription without sending a reminder" web sites.
Good:Plus, I'd made cinnamon rolls - one set with "cooking light" dough and one with my standard "Williams Sonoma" dough. I think I'll stick with the WS, the difference is mostly 1 egg and 1/6c sugar. But the CL did offer up a decent icing recipe (2T milk, 2-4T melted butter, dash vanilla, add conf.sugar until you like texture, ~1c) that worked out well. So I took one batch of cinnamon-raisin-pecan rolls and one of ginger-cherry-apple rolls.
Cursed:They didn't disappear, but
Good:That just means more for me.
For balance: I had steamed veggies and cucumbers for dinner. And bought a birthday gift for a blogger I enjoy, just for the hell of it. He had a wish list and it seemed auspicious to be generous as my gift giving mojo has been rocking recently, and it's a little capricious.
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