The Good and the "What The HECK!?"

When someone asks you what you would like to hear first, the good news or the bad news, which do you pick?  I used to pick the bad first, just to get it out of the way. Unfortunately, I discovered that the good never made up the blow that the bad news caused. However, I did learn that getting the good news first meant the shine managed to survive some of the tarnish of the bad that followed.

I'm not saying it's logical, but there you have it. I'm weird. Moving on.

Good news first: my first day of autopilot worked. I'm happy to report I had a spot on day for food and exercise. One of the few in weeks. Actually, maybe the first in weeks. Well, there might have been one... anyway. Autopilot worked. I felt good about things, and I'm well into a second day of it. Yay for autopilot!

I also got ticked off at all my work piling up, and I decided to paint something just for fun. Well, technically it was one of my tasks, but since I was able to paint whatever the heck I wanted, it had to be fast, and could be tiny and fun, it was perfect! So, I pushed aside my bigger projects (of which I am getting a lot of pressure on from buyers) and pulled out my watercolor paints and did this:

"Rainbow" watercolor, 4X6"

Now, I thought she looked like Rainbow Brite when I got done with her, but I didn't say anything. Then someone else commented the same thing. It just cracks me up. But I love it. I don't know if I can paint people with normal hair and love it as much as I do making them blue or pink or rainbow!

Anyway, I had FUN. Actual fun painting. F.U.N! It's been a while since I had fun, and painted something fast, and liked it. I've decided to do lots more of these sorts, because they make me happy. But more? I think it made me happy because I have this huge pressure coming at me for all the stuff I'm supposed to be painting. Well, I'm going to balance it with the fun stuff.

And there ends my good news. But it was pretty good, right?

So here's the bad... I was toodling around the house yesterday, thinking I was having a great day, when the phone rang. It was from my credit card company, fraud department. Now, I've had fraud happen on my card before. It's not really a big deal, because you catch it, alert the card, they deal with it, and you're fine. No biggie, right? 

That's what I thought this was. I was overly cheerful with the guy, going through things, and he clearly had this "Lady, you're not getting this" tone and vibe. I figured, whatever. It's not worth stressing about. Then they needed me to change passwords and personal information, and I stopped and said I would call them back. I'm sorry, I'm NOT giving out information or doing any of that with someone who called ME. So, I called the number on the back of the credit card in question and talked to their fraud department. It was them, so no worries, and we moved on with changing everything, and then they said they needed to hand me over to the Fraud *something I can't remember, but like "crisis"* team. 

OooooK? 

You see, in my world, it was just same old, same old. It took a third person to get on the line and really drive the point home. This wasn't someone trying to use my card because they actually did not, this was someone calling into the company and trying to access my information. The woman explained that people wouldn't do this if they didn't have all my personal information like my social security number, and more. I could feel the blood literally draining from my face as she went on about how this is almost certainly the beginning of a case of identity theft. 

Not stealing my credit card number, but actual identity theft. She told me all these steps I needed to take, registering a fraud alert with credit agencies, filing a police report, notifying all my banks, and more. She told me that in all likelihood I should "prepare for a life long battle" as it often turns into one, and is a total nightmare.

I kinda freaked out at that point. But here is where I stand today: I put the fraud alert out and made calls. I didn't call the police yet, because I'm not certain I have anything to report. According to my reports there are no weird lines of credit being opened in my name, and no wrong charges yet. So... all I would have to report is someone calling into a system and trying to access my information with my stolen information (of which we're not even certain of what they have.)

The thing is, if someone had all my major information like that, wouldn't they be opening new lines of credit rather than trying to screw with the one I have? And how did they access the information on the system? The woman said either my card number or my social security number. Now, she said they couldn't tell which one it was (I don't understand WHY that is, shouldn't that show up?) but that these types never tend to call with the just card numbers, they don't bother unless they have something golden like the SSN.

I don't know, maybe I'm being more logical than a thieving jackass lowlife would be, it's just that it seems to me that to have my information and try to access my actual account seems more like they have the account but maybe not my actual information. Am I delusional?

Also, I just want to say that our "society" being as advanced as it is and moving towards a cashless society, should never put any victims of the system through a "life-long-battle" once a problem is identified with real identity theft. It's absolutely reprehensible, and I sincerely hope I don't have to go through it (and that those who CAN solve this problem get off their duffs and do it for the people who are blameless in these situations.)

Anyway there is the screwed up bad part of the day - and if ever there was a time to pop a bottle of wine or say hello to a nice batch of cookies, well that was it! On my first day of auto-pilot even, which is just over the top in my opinion. And I did not. I was fine. So take that you screwed up universe with a demented sense of irony!